An intensive course in Armenteras, near Manresa (Barcelona)
Friday 29th March – Monday 1st April 2013
350€ course, accommodation and food
The Earth speaks, the natural world communicates, and our body, when it has all its senses open, has a huge vocabulary to draw on to participate in this dialogue.
Often our perception is limited – through habits, beliefs or other conditioning factors – and we can no longer see the extraordinary that resides within the apparent ordinariness of every place. We have forgotten the participatory nature of our relationship with the world; a relationship of dialogue and co-creation. As we strengthen our innate and intuitive capacity to see and hear, we heal our disconnection from Nature and natural processes. Then we can begin to recognise and communicate with the subtle layers that make up the inherent intelligence of the Earth.
During this intensive weekend, working in the heart of the forests of the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees, we will be exploring three basic questions:
- How do we prepare ourselves to converse with nature?
- How do we open our perceptions and enlarge our vocabulary so we can converse more fluently with the Earth?
- And finally, what do we do with what we hear/receive?
Drawing on their experience in Deep Ecology, geomancy, permaculture and shamanic practices, Karmit and Joanna will facilitate a journey that builds an intimate and soul- nourishing connection to Nature. We will learn to listen and respond to the landscape of Armenteras; explore and hone our skills of perception, working with the body as the primary tool for perception; and deepen our connection to the living landscape by direct experience of a variety of inner and outer energetic encounters.
This course is for everyone: through a direct and conscious connection with Nature, activists will find ways of grounding and feeding their commitment, artists will find new sources of creative inspiration, healers a new direction for healing work, geomancers and those working with shamanism will hone their skills of perception, and all of us will replenish our energies through time spent in contact with nature, getting closer to the elementals, paying attention to the whispers of nature spirits, immersing ourselves in perceiving the wild energies of the land, and we will return home changed.
Here are some of the things we will get up to:
- Working with sense perceptions to open to the subtle aspects of Nature. Blending sensorial information, seeking agility as we explore our senses and improving our capacity to receive information from our surroundings, and so opening to extrasensory perception.
- Energetic literacy – expanding the vocabulary we use to describe energy, through direct encounter of different energetic states and activations.
- Explore different ways of knowing – quantitative, qualitative, intuitive, phenomenological, imaginative, dream, etc… Learning to validate the experience we have in Nature, that is often difficult to describe but lives strongly within our inner, personal experience. Affirming, trusting what we experience.
- Respond to nature, through Earth healing and creative expression.
- The Work that Reconnects – based on the work of Joanna Macy: starting and ending in gratitude, we will explore the pain we feel when we see the damage done to the natural world, and how that can be transformed through new ways of seeing, and turned into committed action to bring about the Great Turning.
- Sacred work at home – through an intervention in the gardens of Armenteras we will experiment with techniques that create harmony and increase the health and abundance of your garden.
- We will also take a look at the cognitive underpinning of this work – the science and spirituality of our place in the living world: food for the brain to help silence reason, allowing us space for a playful exploration of all our possibilities.
What will the day look like?
The days will be active and varied, with a great deal of time spent outside in the open air, immersed in the wild landscape of Armenteras (weather permitting).
Before breakfast there will be the option of beginning your day with Intensi sessions, led by Antoni Cantalejo: these energetic exercises are a great preparation for the type of perceptual work based on the body that we will be developing during the rest of the day. We will explore the woods, valleys, fields and spring of Armenteras, meeting the wild energies of this landscape, developing our capacity to dialogue with nature, the elemental and the spirits of place, the genius loci. The nights are for storytelling, singing, developing our creative responses to the Earth and preparing for dream work. In with the mix there will be meditations, visualisations, body work, ceremony, ritual, food, laughter and rest… an intensive and integrated long weekend that will send you home with your energy renewed, increased resources and the absolute certainty that we humans are Gaia expressing herself.
What do Joanna and Karmit bring to the adventure?
Joanna Crowson
Joanna Crowson has followed the path of knowledge for more than 20 years, working with teachers of the Toltec tradition, as well as shamans and teachers of other traditions. For the last few years she has focused on what she calls ‘spiritual activism’: the search for genuine transformation on personal, societal and planetary levels, awakening the commitment of the warrior through a renewed connection to the Earth. She has an MSc in sustainability and a Permaculture Design Certificate, and is co-author of the Key to the Universe, a book that presents 13 Energies together with an oracle, offering a practical tool for personal and spiritual growth. For the last 15 years she has led workshops and guided inipis, ceremonies and journeys, developing her own simple and graceful style. She is a lover of knowledge, of the Great Mystery and of the art of flowing. In her workshops she works with Intent, invoking the energy, and opening the door so that Spirit, always present, can take the reins of the magical process and guide the journey.
www.casagaia.co.uk
Karmit EvenZur
Karmit EvenZur is a geomancer, working in the field for many years and bringing her experience of Earth healing and shamanic practice to weave a co-creative relationship to the Earth. She helps people who want to deepen their connection to the Earth to define a new relationship to Place, resuming a new stewardship towards Place and recognising it’s Sacredness. She leads seminars in holistic connection to the land, where people can explore and engage in a new way with Nature and the interconnectedness of all life.
