Dear Friends
September and a time for many new beginnings in the cycle of life. May you all have good beginnings this month.
I would like to share with you all a bit about what participants experience in a Creative Soul Journey Retreat.
We are the heroes/heroines of our own personal mythology. In our body, we carry the archetypal energy of the different mythical motifs and stages of our journey toward wholeness and meaning. We can identify and explore those archetypes that support and inform the mythic dimension of our current stage in life, relationships, aspirations, and challenges.
I have explored the role of stories and myths in enabling us to explore our inner selves and make changes and transformations.
The themes are introduced and we share together how it touches us, thereby the group creates the alchemical vessel for the transformation.
I have developed a body soul method, which encompasses the images of the myths, with access to deep unconscious body memories, images and wishes. Then we bring them to consciousness through movement and artistic expressions. And share with the group to be witnessed and honoured.
VitalDanza®/Vital Development®
I have trained in this method pioneered and founded by Patricia Martello and Marcelo Di Matteo. Movement exercises are developed to specific music tracks, which enable you to feel the bodily response to particular moods, archetypes and qualities. It unlocks body tensions, it enlivens energy through upbeat tracks. It encourages us to breathe more fully, opening our lungs and heart expression. We can explore movements and aspects of ourself that are hidden, forgotten or repressed. We can be creative and draw on an archetype to expand our identity. We can dance to the four elements, various characters and our wishes. It works on the individual, social and spiritual levels and is usually practised in a group.
Expressive art
What resonates to us in the story we hear and the theme we are exploring can be expressed in art form, to convey our response and deeply held soul voice. We put down in visual form anything that captures our imagination. We may have a physical response, which the stroke of the crayon or brush helps convey. The energy can move from within our body to the page in order to be reflected back to our conscious mind. It does not need any experience or talent for art as it is a personal response and can be symbolic. It is always amazing how every participant can produce an image that says so much.
Ritual
Together as a group we honour ourselves and each other through writing, moving together, perhaps singing or a craft, doing an activity together or affirming each other. It brings the other elements together and takes it to a higher level in connection.
Testimonials
Thank you for the wonderful workshop. As always, I came away feeling totally uplifted. (JB)
The Theme of my Autumn Retreat
Listening to Our Hearts Song,
where through the stories in Women Who Run With The Wolves, we can access that often faint sound or song which reverberates in us. With the support of movement, expressive art and ritual we can bring is to consciousness to honour it and thereby ourself.
Do you feel too tired to listen to what you really wish for in life?
Is your energy scattered as you busily rush through your day?
Do you wish for time out to take stock and remember what lives in you and to hear your soul’s voice? Do you yearn for deeper connection and meaning to your life?
Mid life can bring burn out or hambre del alma (soul hunger) which is how Clarissa Pinkola Estes describes it. She says, ‘when a woman is too long gone from home, she is less and less able to propel herself forward in life.’… there is only one recourse, finally the woman knows she has to … must return home.’
To enliven our body and soul, to nurture our senses and relax and feel deeply held in safety and love, to listen in to the whispers that beckon you on from wisdom stories …. all these will be experiences on my autumn retreat.
Women Who Run With The Wolves:
Listening to Your Hearts Song
October 21st-22nd at Peredur Centre for the Arts in West Sussex
I am offering this nurturing retreat for women on the inspiring work of Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes, using processes I gained from training with her in person.
- Listen to your Heart and Connect to your Soul’s Yearning.
- We will explore themes from her much loved book, focussing on stories of Vasilisa, The Skeleton Woman and Sealskin Soulskin to explore the Life/Death/Life cycle.
- Reconnect to your deeper self.
- Transform stuck energy with vitaldanza® movement.
- Discover your creative expression through art and ritual.
- Deep exploration with sharing in safe group Nurturing environment in nature to relax and refresh with nourishing food.
CHOOSE DISCOUNT CODE OPTION £295 (£350/£395 usual price, inc 1 night accommodation)
Book Now via my websiteBook Retreat Now for Special Price
Joyous Goddess Within
10am-1pm on zoom
On September 23rd and November 18th I will offer another online session of this popular workshop.
Explore who you are as a woman with the help of Greek Goddess Archetypes. Athena, Artemis, Demeter, Hera, Persephone and Aphrodite. They can help you to expand who you are, make new choices, enjoy your body, be less resentful, find new hobbies and enjoy better relationships.
Winter Solstice Workshop
From Darkness to Light
21 December, 19:00 – 21:00
Forest Row, 3, The Square, Lewes Rd, Forest Row RH18 5ES, UK
Winter Solstice Journey from Dark to Light
Feel your inner warmth and light as you dance to simple social VitalDanza exercises
Be festive in community together
Enjoy the ritual of walking the spiral to light your candle and shine your light in the world,
Experience the festive mood in candlelight
Enjoy festive refreshments.
In winter, nature has ‘gone to ground’ there is a spell of enchantment, a sleeping, a waiting and a listening in nature.
Humans wrap up and need to hug for warmth. We move inwards as the days darken, seeking warmth in our inner fire, the fire that we kindled from the summer sun, through the autumn with the meteor iron strength, to sustain us during winter.
We listen to the nature’s (mother earth) and her heartbeat.
The sun’s rhythmic journey comes to a moment of transition and a turning point at the solstice. We mark the turning by being ready for a new direction in our life.
With advent we make ready for a celebration, a birth within us.
We raise our hearts upwards to celebrate the birth of the new sun and light that will increase and the cosmic Son.
We each take our candle and each one journeying on life’s path to the centre, light it from the source.
We are now re-sourced to shine our light in our life and in the world.
We also open to love and forgive other, ‘love thy neighbour’ which can send love to all humanity.
We acknowledge the group and celebrate this life together.
Go to my website for more information coming soon.
www.creativesouljourneys.co.uk
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