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Becoming Earthwise
A year journey of aligning with nature and returning home into sacred belonging with the Earth Spirits
This is an immersive experienced-base journey into Shamanism, Nature Connection, Ayurveda, and Cultural Restoration.
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It is a journey into soul, of re-wilding spirit and coming home into sacred belonging with nature, Spirit, and your unique path.
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It’s a path of wild land dreaming, an aboriginal practice of receiving the teachings, stories and songs from the land itself.
One weekend a month we invite you to leave the human world as you know it behind and enter the mythic realm of nature, spirit, and sacred community... to gather around the fire and through the traditional web weaving ways of storytelling, nature immersive adventures, soulful dialogue and practical learnings to stir the remembrances of being Earth~wise and what it is to be part of sacred belonging.
One weekend a month we journey into a forest of elder trees and ancient ferns serenaded by a cascading river. The aboriginal share a practice of “wild land dreaming.” It’s a way of walking within a landscape that the land may dream through you the stories, teachings, and songs it carries.
Over the course of the year you’ll follow the cyclic stages of the seasons. Each stage reveals how the principles of nature and spirit are at play within and without you. You get to learn them through direct personal experience as you walk the Wheel Path. In this way you also learn how to influence them, to increase and decrease the elements, to direct them accordingly so you may embody Spider medicine and hence be able to intentionally weave the web of flow, balance, healing and life experiences you want to have,.
As we journey through these cyclic stages you’ll experience the rituals and cultural practices that offer a deeper sense of belonging with Nature, Spirit, and your unique path. These also lend a sense of belonging with a like-spirited people and offer a sense of continuity of walking your path through the changing energies and mindsets of the year.
Shamanism isn’t something you can study. It’s not information. It’s a kind of awareness one awakens within and cultivates through great care. It’s a way of tuning your senses to the unfurled emanations of spirit speaking through the elemental energies.
Out here the learnings and awarenesses provided by shamanism come alive so you get to experience them first hand. You’ll feel nature come alive and begin to speak “with” you. Nature isn’t limited by speech like we are. Here you learn how to listen in the right manner so you may be dreamt by the land.
About What You’ll Learn & The Method of Learning
Shamanism is based from having an intimate relationship with nature and how Spirit is expressing through the principles of nature. Hence, you cannot study shamanism, you can only awaken the awarenesses cultivated within shamanism through personal experience. These experiences are through direct nature connection and being exposed to the raw elemental energies of the forrest.
“This isn’t knowledge you learn, it’s wisdom you become
and you become it by walking the path.”
Every aspect of your training is designed to lovingly guide you home into a deeper sense of sacred belonging. For example:
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When we enter the forest with sacred intent (giving offerings, asking permission to enter, & stating intention) we avail ourselves to a deeper experience. These kind of forages into nature open a new dialogue where the trees, ferns, and animals reveal the mythic symbols and patterns at play in your life… awakening in your heart. When you enter the forest in this way you leave the human realm behind where Spirit may openly speak. OM
What You Learn:
Experience Animism
Some of the old ones remember… Some of the young ones are now remembering too. What? That everything is alive, conscious and awake!
If you track the ancestral line of every human you’ll arrive at a time when it was common awareness everything is alive. They had a intimacy with the land because they relied upon the plants, animals, weather and seasons to provide what sustained them and so they honored these deeply.
Animism is the understanding that everything is alive and speaking with us. Each plant, insect, tree, animal, river, and even the weather patterns are their own “people” and hence have their own characteristics, social structure and cultural behaviors. Animism is a way of being awake and aware of the greater web of life and our part in it. Through this journey you’ll “experience” this and enter into an expanded paradigm of life pulsating and communicating all around us.
Totemism
From time memorial and across the entire globe people have paid attention to the signs, presence and meaning of animals. The presence of an animal could halt an entire army from attacking while a red tail hawk may symbolize the gods are supporting their endeavor and it’s an auspicious moment to pursue one’s vision. It is only until recent times we as a people have failed to pay attention to the messages and signs the animals are offering us.
It is a world-wide understanding is how animals and plants have specific teachings and messages they’re providing us. In the PNW, it’s called Totemism. It is recognizing the synchronistic encounters we have with these are not by accident but are presenting themselves because they have something to offer us. Consider it like a “living” tarot deck. That’s the generic version. We’ll go into greater depth and beyond your typical Totem animal dictionary so you may develop a sincere relationship with the totems presented to you and how to receive the deeper meaning no book could ever give you.
We’ll visit a wildlife park so you may connect, dialogue, and learn how to learn from wolf, bear, fox, moose and others. You’ll be tasked with going into nature to have your own authentic experiences.
Totemism
From time memorial and across the entire globe people have paid attention to the signs, presence and meaning of animals. The presence of an animal could halt an entire army from attacking while a red tail hawk may symbolize the gods are supporting their endeavor and it’s an auspicious moment to pursue one’s vision. It is only until recent times we as a people have failed to pay attention to the messages and signs the animals are offering us.
It is a world-wide understanding is how animals and plants have specific teachings and messages they’re providing us. In the PNW, it’s called Totemism. It is recognizing the synchronistic encounters we have with these are not by accident but are presenting themselves because they have something to offer us. Consider it like a “living” tarot deck. That’s the generic version. We’ll go into greater depth and beyond your typical Totem animal dictionary so you may develop a sincere relationship with the totems presented to you and how to receive the deeper meaning no book could ever give you.
We’ll visit a wildlife park so you may connect, dialogue, and learn how to learn from wolf, bear, fox, moose and others. You’ll be tasked with going into nature to have your own authentic experiences.
Great Hoop: Honoring The Cyclic Gods of Nature
If you were to listen into the gnarly knotted hole of an old oak tree you’d hear the stories of the cyclic gods of nature who govern the seasons. You’d hear how these gods enter you to provide the tailored cycles you revolve through over and over again. Have you noticed the four stages? Have you ever felt you were on a mental-emotional or energetic roller coaster that seemed to knock you about and derail you?
A core understanding and skill of shamanism is recognizing the cyclic flow of nature within and without you. It is knowing your personal hoop cycle which revolves through four stages within a period of every month and a half or so. It’s knowing how to predict the shift and flow with them rather than get derailed by them. Each of the four cyclic stages are said to be expressions of the primary gods of nature When you know how to greet them they offer you gifts, new strengths, and understandings. You will learn how to harvest the medicine and gifts each stage offers you.
You will learn these with great intimacy as you experience your own personal hoop. You will learn how to flow with them, adopt the foods, practices and routines to harness the strengths they provide and hence stay in flow.
The pancha tattvas reveal the universal language of spirit and how spirit is expressing moment by moment within and without you. This is the core study and training of any shaman. It’s what includes you in the conversations.
What’s more, when you can clearly see them at play you become able to influence them. You’ll know how to increase and decrease the elements to have a desired effect with you, others, and life as a whole. This is where the real skills of the shaman occurs.
Pancha Tattvas (Elements)
Spirit is constantly speaking and Shamanism is the means of joining the conversation. Throughout the world, it’s been understood that Spirit speaks through the principles of nature. The language in which it’s spoken is the Pancha Tattvas aka the Five Elements.
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The five elements reveal the basic relationships of connection and the cause and effect of everything. What’s happening within your body, the seasons, your food, your thoughts and emotions, the weather… all these are based on the relationships and conversations the elements are having moment by moment.
Cultural Restoration & Mending Ancestral Lines
Most people living on American soil are those who’ve been cut off from their ancestral roots. The cultural ways, stories, ceremonies and ways of being in relationship with land and people have been forgotten.
We’ll learn to tend to the wounds of being orphaned from these and explore what it means to restore cultural ways and invent new ways that are related to today’s time, land and people. It is these cultural pillars which offer us a deeper sense of belonging with nature, place, and our life path.
Being Claimed By Land
This is an intimate process of coming into relationship with the land and how it sustains us. It’s a way of stewarding the land AND allowing the land to steward us. We’ll invite in elders of local tribes to speak on what it means to be indigenous to land and how we can be in relationship with those who came before us, to honor who are here now, how to tend to the "present" in regards to people and land and how we may prepare the way for those who come after us.
Nature Connection & Scout Skills
You’ll learn how to comfortably be in nature. You’ll learn the practices to enhance your senses, and experience a ritual call “Making Relatives” where you become relatives with the natural world. You’ll be given specific practices to weave into a routine of nature connection. You’ll also learn basic plant I.D. along with Practical and Medicinal uses.
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Other skills you may learn may be fire by friction, tracking, and primitive shelter.
Details & Flow Of Program
One weekend a month we invite you gather around the fire, to adventure into nature, to experience the cultural ways of storytelling, soulful dialogue, and learning the ways of being in sacred belonging.
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We'll meet one weekend a month. You can camp out with us or return home or to an Airbnb.
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Times
Saturday & Sunday
10:00am to 4:00pm
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Optional: Saturday evenings stay and join us around the fire for cooking on the open flames, being in soulful dialogue and experiencing community in a fun and relaxed way
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Dates
Sept 21 & 22
Oct 19 & 20
Jan 25 & 26
Feb 22 & 23
March 21 & 22
April 25 & 26
May 23 & 24
June 19, 20 & 21
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Locations:
We'll gather at the Oxbow Regional Park just outside of Portland OR. We'll also have other locations nearby and visit a wildlife preserve.
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Also included
One Virtual Campfire Session each month where we meet by conference call. This is a time to reconnect with community, how you've been applying the "rememberings" and what you've been experiencing by doing so. This is a time to reconnect, be re-inspired and refocus why you're here.
Online Course Material
In addition to the weekend immersion and virtual campfire, you'll also gain access to our online course and forum. It'll provide further videos, audio, and step-by-step instructions.
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You'll gain access to our community forum so you can share and be part of everyone's journey of returning to sacred belonging and becoming Earth-Wise. OM!
Investment:
$3,500
or $350/month x 10 months
or $291/month x 12 months
How To Join
If your curious to learn more or interested in joining us, fill out the form. Please share why this resonates and would like to get from it. We'll then schedule a FREE 10-15 minute phone interview to connect with you further, share details and answer any questions you have.
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Much Gratitude