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Workshop - Connecting With Our Ancient Heritage

A Four-part Workshop Series – with Michael Joyner

 

Part 1) Nature and the Soul June 13, 2020 8:00-6:00

Part 2) Ancient Images July 11, 2020 8:00-6:00

Part 3) An Animate World August 8, 2020 8:00-6:00

Part 4) Transformational Journeys September 12, 2020 8:00-6:00


*All workshops will incorporate topics covered from the previous ones. So to get the absolute most out of this series, they are recommended to be taken in order. However, they are also designed to be taken individually if needed.

 

“All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes.” –C.G. Jung



Every culture has its myths and stories which imply that undertaking a journey of

descent is essential in gaining anything of true value. Yet in contemporary Western

cultures, we live as if the descent is no longer a necessary part in gaining what is

important to us. This is reflected in many aspects of how humans are now choosing to

live out their lives. To keep our ancestral heritage alive, we need to re-member our

relationship with the natural world and the ancient connection that has emerged from

it.


This workshop series examines several cross-cultural techniques using nature as a

framework for exploring a re-connection with disappearing perceptions in the modern

world. Participants will work with and experience techniques that our ancestors used to

enhance personal empowerment, approach problems, and encourage connection during

times of life that offer opportunities for our growth. Particular emphasis is on relating to

our surrounding environment archetypally, soulfully, ethically, and physically.


Throughout the workshops, encouragement toward self-empowerment through

symbolic-level connection with archetypal concepts will be a focus.


These workshops are intended for people seeking immersion in the intertwined

mysteries of nature, self, and soul. Change-agents, artists, educators, therapists, seekers,

and any other interested people are welcome. The format will include experiential,

discussion, group, and individual opportunities for exploration of the concepts in an

outdoor location. The settings may include gathering around the fire, Lake Superior

beach, forest, or field. Skills may include fire-building, using tools to carve wood,

painting, collecting natural items, as well as working with rocks, soil, and water.

Participants will be working with experiential artistic skills utilizing natural materials to

create personalized items as part of their experiences.

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Biography: Michael has a genuine interest in helping others discover their role in the

story of life. He is passionate about engaging people through head, heart, and hands

transformative learning experiences through the context of Place and connectedness to

nature. Michael is a Pachakuti Medicine Mesa Carrier and for over 30 years has worked

as a facilitator of meaningful experiential learning opportunities for people of all ages.

He is a Transformation/Soul-guide and works with people on a guide/coaching level

to incorporate archetypal personal empowerment into the lives of his clients.

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Part 1) Nature and the Soul June 13, 2020 8:00-6:00

Our authentic purposeful gifts which call out to be embodied can be found through the

exploration and discovery of what Bill Plotkin calls our mythopoetic identity. Anchored

in pan-cultural seven directions wisdom, contemporary depth psychology, as well as

cross-cultural teachings about the relationship between ourselves and the natural

world, this workshop offers a blueprint showing how richly we can grow and mature

when soul and nature are embraced as our wisest and most trustworthy guides.


The archetypal aspects of medicine wheel wisdom have much to show us about our

relationship with nature, our own cultural connections, and the way in which our

ancestors strove to be effective in their pursuits. The foundational aspect of

communicating with the more-than-human world to help guide us will weave through

investigations of what it means to live an authentic and purposeful life.

Time will be devoted to exploring aspects of our human development through the lens

of psycho-spiritual transformations along with multiple facets of cultural backgrounds,

archetypal representations, and the investigation of the significance of soul-initiations

as developmental necessities. Participants will also explore aspects of both the human

and more-than-human worlds through creating and enjoying meaningfully-inspired

nature-based artwork which will tap into patterns found in nature and the archetypal

expressions inherent in the nature/soul connection.


Tuition: $95

Material fee: $10

Please email us to book. (reservations@lostcreekadventures.org)

 

Part 2) Ancient Images July 11, 2020 8:00-6:00

In our imagination, our deep imagination, the archetypal images we have come to know

as ancient motifs still have a place of belonging. Our ancestors moved between the

knowable world and the unknowable world to stand in the presence of the infinite; to

discover our unique ways of participating with the Mystery that flows through all

things; and to connect with the secrets of our own souls.


Through exploration of the archetypal images of both our individual psyche, and that of

collective humankind’s, we are granted entry to the magic that lies behind the veil of

our ordinary ways of perceiving and experiencing. Imagination is a translator, fluent in

the languages of the more-than-human world, as well as the languages of our own

depths — the expressive modes of nature and soul being essentially the same.

Carl Jung states that “the psyche contains all the images that have ever given rise to

myths”. And yet, the mainstream culture of our time and its dominant institutions

revere the rational, explainable, and quantifiable; not the mythical. Meaningful personal

empowerment, in contrast, should allow connection to arise from the wild depths of

nature and psyche through images that can take the form of symbol, metaphor, dream,

archetype, poetry, song, music, and/or movement.


During this workshop, we will open ourselves to our own innate imaginal capacities,

find ourselves in intimate contact and conversation with the wild world, and allow

ourselves to be irrevocably changed. Participants will work with hands-on artistic

craftwork utilizing natural materials to create personalized items as a reminder of their

self-empowerment experiences.


Tuition: $95

Material fee: $10

Please email us to book. (reservations@lostcreekadventures.org)

 


Part 3) An Animate World August 8, 2020 8:00-6:00

When we address the world around us as if all are alive, intelligent, and suffused with

life, we ourselves shimmer with profound richness, depth, and connection. When we

engage in conversations with sacred Others – whom we might know as rock, lake, tree,

fire, or even as a figure from a dream, a feeling, or pattern – we dip into the

mythopoetic story that flows beneath the surface of everyday consciousness.


Turning to the more-than-human world for wisdom and guidance is a practice that is

deeply embedded in the human psyche. We are intricately connected with the natural

world and to experiences that bring us to know what Joanna Macy calls “deep time” —

a felt-sense of our embeddedness in the cosmic and earthly unfolding of life.


Shamanic journeying, also called trance meditation, is an ancient and powerful practice

which offers meaningful pathways to experiencing deep time and gaining insight by

seeing into the reciprocal relationship we have with the surrounding world. It is an

important way that our ancestors connected with the earth, yet has relevance to our

generations as well. Insights gained through non-ordinary states of consciousness help

us become aware of both the physical and subtle realities of our soul’s intuitive

relationship with the archetypal world – and can reveal to us the patterns which

interweave our lives and connect us with the natural world on multiple levels.


Participants are introduced to universal cross-cultural shamanic techniques, which have

been used for millennia, to enhance personal empowerment, problem solving, and

healing. Particular emphasis is on experiencing new ways to pay attention to intuition,

incorporate ancient skills into our lives, and empower ourselves through symbolic-level

connection with archetypal concepts. Each participant will be offered the opportunity to

create and work with foundational aspects of a cross-cultural shamanic Mesa which will

tap into patterns found in nature and the archetypal world for insightful and

empowering revelations.


Tuition: $95

Material fee: $10

Please email us to book. (reservations@lostcreekadventures.org)

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Part 4) Transformational Journeys September 12, 2020 8:00-6:00

Almost every culture throughout history has traditions involving personal

empowerment through meaningful initiations or rites of passage by which individuals

seek guidance in important life decisions or confirm new phases of connection in life.

The pilgrimage, the vision fast, and the underworld journey are typical examples of

such traditions which include techniques that can be keys to understanding one’s

personal place of power and belonging. Yet, over the ages, we have experienced a

decline in many of the meaningful initiation practices that informed cultures with a

sense of personal vision, community responsibility and deeply rooted connection to the

earth.


With most psycho-spiritual transformations, the passage is the fruit of a process or

journey. Major life passages usually require an initiatory process that touches the soul

archetypally on multiple levels. In order to fully transition through the initiatory

process, we call upon assistance from the cultural surroundings we’re steeped in as well

as our foundational beliefs. However, the decline of importance in our contemporary

Western culture of experiencing meaningful psycho-spiritual transformations,

particularly from adolescence into adulthood, is leaving us bereft of an authentic

relationship with our own souls and that of nature.


Turning to the more-than-human world for wisdom and guidance is a practice that is

deeply embedded in the human psyche and is what this workshop will focus on. The

concepts of nature-based soul-encounters and soul-initiations as required aspects of

transformation will be explored along with ways in which insights can be gained

through the nature/soul connection that is part of our ancestral heritage.


Time will be allocated for creating and enjoying meaningfully-inspired nature-based

artwork which will tap into patterns found in nature and the archetypal expressions

inherent in the nature/soul connection.


This workshop will integrate concepts, techniques, and material from the other three

offered workshops toward the capstone idea that a soulful relationship with the more-than-

human world is part of our ancient heritage and imperative for us to continue to

strive for. However, this workshop can be taken as a stand-alone offering as well.


Tuition: $95

Material fee: $10

Please email us to book. (reservations@lostcreekadventures.org)

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Or register for all 4 courses at a reduced rate: $350

Material fee: $30

Please email us to book. (reservations@lostcreekadventures.org)

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