Workshops
Spiritual Mentorship Groups: Access, integrate and embody your highest wisdom – in community!
When: Free Introductory evening, 9/17/09. 7:00 pm. New groups forming regularly; contact me for details.
Where: HeartMind House, 6853 Simson St., Oakland CA 94605
What: This is a “support group” at a whole new level -- for people who are ready to establish deep spiritual friendships both with others, and with themselves. We will commit to co-creating an atmosphere that offers deep listening, unwavering compassion -- and potentially life-altering challenge to the status quo.
This ongoing group will explore and practice ways to 1) Access our deepest wisdom, and 2) More completely integrate and embody that wisdom in all aspects of our lives. In this process, we’ll draw respectfully from many spiritual traditions. Group members will be welcomed and encouraged to share knowledge and practices from their own paths. Depending on members’ interests and preparedness, topics and practices may include:
- Guided visualization and shamanic journey practices to connect with non-physical teachers
- Using the power of prayer and intention to dissolve blocks and fully say Yes to life
- Talking-stick circles and drumming circles
- Self-inquiry and compassion practices, including Metta (Buddhist lovingkindness practice) and Focusing
- Nature as teacher: listening to and learning from the trees, flowers, insects and animals around us
- The writer as shaman: using words to heal and retrieve our souls
- Energy healing and clearing methods
- Breathwork
- The artist as shaman: coaxing our souls to emerge through collage, painting and other art play
- Past-life, pre-birth and childhood regressions and healings
- Channeling: writing from a place deeper than the personal self
- Reading, discussing and deeply working with spiritual writings, including the Pathwork and the work of teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Leslie Temple Thurston.
I ask for a donation of $300 for each series of eight meetings, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Shamanic Journeying Workshops: Experience the wisdom, power and healing of this portal to higher consciousness!
Shamanic journeying is amazingly simple to learn and do, yet it’s a practice with the potential to bring great healing, depth, wisdom and clarity to your life.
When: Twice per month – 1st and 3rd Sundays, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: HeartMind House, 6853 Simson St., Oakland CA 94605
What: The meeting on the first Sunday of each month (6:00-8:30) is especially for people new to shamanic journeying, or who would like to brush up their journeying skills in a step-by-step fashion... and the third Sunday of each month (6:00-8:30) is for more experienced journeyers, who want group support in going more deeply into the practice. (Of course, experienced journeyers are also welcome to come to the first Sundays – but in the third Sundays, depending on members’ interest, we’ll be able to cover more advanced practices like various kinds of soul retrievals, guiding of souls, work in the middle world, and more.)
I ask for a $20 donation per meeting; barter or lower donation amount possible too. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
If you’re at a transition point in your life, needing to make a next step forward and not sure how…
or if you're looking to heal old wounds (or problematic patterns, habits, compulsions, addictions) that you've worked on before, but that just haven't gone away... or, if you have ever felt like there is "part of you missing," or like you've never gotten over some traumatic event that happened in your life, including a difficult breakup...
or, if you suffer from depression, anxiety attacks, low energy...
or, if you are intuitive/sensitive/psychic or have had metaphysical experiences, but haven't known how to organize your perceptions and use them in ways that serve both yourself and others...
or, if you feel "energetically sensitive" or too easily intruded-upon by others' thoughts or feelings...
or, if you want to feel more whole, more powerful, more connected to the Divine, however you understand that...
...then I highly recommend that you check out journeying!
The basic technique of shamanic journeying has been used by shamans - indigenous medicine people and healers - in almost every part of the world, for many thousands of years. The method I teach, core shamanism, was synthesized by anthropologist Michael Harner, who studied shamanic practices in a number of cultures and observed that although there were many differences, all of them had certain CORE aspects in common. Out of that, Harner developed "core shamanism," a synthesis of ancient wisdom which is our birthright as human beings. (In other words, no matter what our ancestry may be, this practice is something that belongs to all of us – it’s not cultural appropriation.)
The basic techniques are simple and easy to learn – but once you know how to journey, it can take you almost anywhere in the inner world, and in the non-physical realm. It’s a highly accessible practice; you can do it almost anywhere (the practice is typically done to the sound of a rhythmic drum beat, which helps to induce a slightly altered state; however, many people find they can also journey in silence, or with a drumming CD, or by shaking a rattle -- or even shaking a makeshift rattle, like a tic-tac box or aspirin bottle!) And, once you're familiar with the "language" of journeys -- which often unfold somewhat like dreams -- you will find that, with the help of your guides, you can get to profound levels of clarity and healing, often in just a few minutes.
Who or what are these "guides"? There are many ways to understand them. Traditionally, shamans have thought of them as "helping spirits" who are able to take any form in the universe (animal, plant, human, angelic, body of water, stone, etc.) in order to best communicate their messages to us. People I've worked with have thought of them in a wide variety of ways -- as power animals, totems, aspects of the Higher Self, archetypes or aspects of the collective unconscious, angels, aspects of God (or the in-dwelling God, or the God-self) -- or even as part of their imaginations. However you think of it, I've observed that these beings or energies are consistently loving, wise, compassionate, highly creative -- and often very, very funny! (A "trickster" style of humor is often present in shamanic journeys.)
Since learning to journey seven years ago, I've taught hundreds of people, and have also worked deeply with this practice both on my own, and in my healing work with others. I absolutely know that it is real, powerful, and trustworthy. I’ve watched people make huge strides in healing from trauma, and accessing previously lost or disowned parts of themselves (power, creativity, playfulness, joy, sensuality, psychic ability, hope, and much more…) I love teaching people to journey -- and journeying in a group offers the added bonus of our getting to learn from and support one another, too.