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The Dreamtime

Exploring the Left Side: A Journey into Wonder and the Wild

Vermont
September 26–October 1, 2010
$650

In the Toltec worldview of Carlos Castaneda, human beings are fields of energy in interaction with a magical universe. Teachings for the right side – ordinary awareness – focus on handling the known in a non-ordinary way. Corresponding practices for the left side, called dreaming, involve stepping outside the self we know into a more fluid and mysterious reality. This week involves instruction and immersion in this ancient paradigm, including exercises for moving beyond the boundaries of personal reality into a broader and more fluid perception of self and world, and practices to invoke the spirit in nature and presence of the great powers.

Registration

The workshop will take place both indoors and out, and the cost of $650 includes food and lodging.

To register, please send a deposit of $300 via PayPal or mail.

Upon receipt of your deposit you will be sent directions as to where we will meet and a list of what to bring.

For more information contact:

Sparrow Hart
802-387-6624
sparrow@together.net

Online Payment

Mail-In

Program Registration Form

We sit in the present, at the axis where past and future meet. We have a decision to make: will our lives and identity be determined by where we have come from or where we are going?

The myth of modern psychology -- its focus and truth -- is that our lives are determined by our past: our personal history, wounds and childhood experience. The myth of the ancient world -- its focus and truth -- is that our lives are, or can be determined from another place: our future or destiny, if we follow the voice of the spirit, the calling of our soul.

In the ancient maps of consciousness non-rational states were sought and cultivated, states of expanded energies, ecstatic union, and higher awareness, and a cornucopia of practices were developed to achieve these feelings and perceptions. We will reclaim and remember this natural heritage of being human, and through simple but profound practice -- working in caves, speaking to the fire, encountering nature, chant, dance, and the doorway to trance -- experience a Self larger than ourselves, and integrate the healing it can bring to our lives and people.

This is a week for men and women who want to open to deeper levels of their being, to find a vision beyond their personal stories. We will inhabit a beautiful house/retreat center, take in the stunning fall foliage of New England, and engage in practices and exercises to align ourselves with energies both immediate and eternal, embracing the unknown as we lose ourselves and finding our true nature in nature.

Our program includes rituals of release, but its focus is on our greater selves. Making peace with the past and personal history is a prerequisite for broader states of awareness, but insufficient: removing the blocks to climbing the mountain does not tell you how to get there. Our purpose will be to perceive the Spirit-in-all-things as a living presence in our lives and to dance with the ephemeral tracks of dream until we find solid footing on our path with heart.

Nature is the visible face of the spirit. It is to nature that the soul goes for rest, renewal, and vision. Through the ages Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, and the prophets all sought vision in the wilderness. It is there they came closest to the Source of their existence. Leaving behind the social self they sought holy ground where Earth, Spirit, Nature, and God are one.