Ancient Ways
Shamanic Apprenticeship 2022
This series of workshops is an investment in your own connection with the spirits around you: Ancient Ways brings to you a clear opportunity to improve your life and that of all who share it with you, the human and the other-than-human. A place to unlearn the rhetoric of separation.
The joint aims are clarity and facility: Clarity, in this case, means that this work is designed to help each participant find their authentic and clear connection with the wise and compassionate beings behind the veil and a direct connection with those spirits who are here with us - the denizens of the land. Facility means that part of the focus of the on-going work is to facilitate the embodiment of what begins as 'workshop experiences' into your ordinary reality.
With thoroughness and integrity we will explore shamanism in both ordinary and non-ordinary reality, learning and experiencing with all aspects of our being. Much of the work will take place outside (quite possibly in all weathers - this is Dartmoor!) some will be directed voyages of discovery among the spirits, through healing practices, rituals, celebrations, songs and dances. I will offer you a reading list of books which you are encouraged but by no means obliged to read, ask you to undertake a small amount of 'homework' between the meetings and be available to you to answer questions as you deepen into your practice. We will step outside of time and gather to us the wisdom of lifetimes.
The SHAMANIC JOURNEYING workshop is a prerequisite for this training.
Please note that these are the dates for 2021. There are no dates for 2023 as I am still recovering following Covid and burn-out. I am definitely slowly on the mend and very much hoping that this course will run again in 2024.
I very much hope to be able to put dates here soon. The 2021 dates remain in order to give you an idea of the shape of the course during the year.
Module 1
The Sacred Landscape
Group 1 - Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd April
Group 2 - Tuesday 12th & Wednesday 13th April
Group 3 - Tuesday 22nd & Wednesday 23rd March
Everything is alive and everything is connected. During this weekend we will explore both the landscape around us as 'the visible face of spirit' connecting to the spirits of nature for personal and planetary healing and the landscape of non-ordinary reality as it relates to the calling together of a holy temenos, a temple, within which to undertake holy or healing work. We will explore the landscape of ourselves as we relate to the interwoven web of all life, undertaking illuminating and liberating practices to enliven our connection to all that is.
Connecting with our helping Spirits and with the Elementals we will work with the raw, beautiful land of Dartmoor; learning practices that will deepen your relationship with the living, breathing land wherever you find yourself.
The weekend includes a Power Dance - the opportunity to dance our Spirit Allies into this reality, and a Fire Ceremony.
Module 2
Soul Medicine
Group 1 - Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th June
Group 2 - Tuesday 14th & Wednesday 15th June
Group 3 - Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th May
During this weekend we will look at 'illness' and healing from a shamanic perspective. We will undertake the potent archaic healing technique of power animal retrieval and endeavour to enter into Earth Consciousness by deeply connecting and honouring the strands of awareness and love that weave us into All That Is. We will begin to explore soul retrieval and the extraction of energetic intrusions, also looking at the integration work that is required to make the extraordinary changes that can be wrought using these techniques 'stick'.
Each participant will have the opportunity to be mentored through the process of becoming 'The Healer' - receiving one to one feedback on submissions of case studies in these ancient healing arts.
The weekend includes a Temple Healing Ceremony.
Module 3
Sovereignty and Service
Group 1 - Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th August
Group 2 - Tuesday 16th & Wednesday 17th ?August
Group 3 - Tuesday 19th & Wednesday 20th July
Here we will interweave oracular and divinatory ceremonies and practices with a continuation of our exploration of our relationship with our Helping Spirits, Nature Spirits, Elementals and The Spirits of The Land. Part of the work is in finding our sovereignty within the landscape of ourselves and bringing this into balance and right relationship with our notions of service. The most effective use of power comes about through equal partnership between us (our free will) and The Spirits.
We will work with a wide range of Oracular and Oneric devices including a Black Mirror, Runes, Oracle and Tarot cards, Ogham Sticks and the creation of your own Oracle Set .
This weekend includes an Oracular Temple Ceremony
Module 4
The Ancestors
Group 1 - Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd October
Group 2 - Tuesday 11th & Wednesday 12th October
Group 3 - Tuesday 20th & Wednesday 21st September
Our meeting will focus on Ancestral Healing - unravelling the tangles in our family lines that we can experience as 'curses' and celebrating the 'blessings'. We will work with the well and wise Ancient Ancestors to bring about healing and honouring for both the Remembered and the Forgotten Recently Dead and ameliorate their affect on the living. We will work specifically with the notion of the 'Witch Wound' within our current psyche (it's there for both men and women) and will also examine Psychopomp - the role of the Shaman in guiding the Spirits of The Dead from the Middle World to the transcendent realms.
We will also look at ways in which to nourish, protect and empower ourselves as practitioners in service to the human and more than human community.
The weekend includes an Ancestral Healing Ceremony
More Information
Our days together will begin at 10.15am. On the first day there is an evening ceremony and we'll end at 9pm, the second day is 10.15am until 5pm. Both days I ask you to please bring your own lunch but I will provide a supper of a vegan soup, organic sourdough bread (gf is entirely possible, just let me know) and cheeses for those who eat them. I also provide a range of teas, coffee and homemade flapjacks and usually another kind of cakey thing.
This training is available to three groups of 6 participants at a time. Each group will become a kind of 'clan' - travellers together through the work, meeting new allies, perhaps finding new ways of thinking, doing, being and seeing while exploring the Otherworld. As well as the four weekends at Lustleigh (on Dartmoor) I will email extensions to the work we've done, reading lists, and hope to encourage discussions about any aspects of the training that need enlarging upon. I'm also happy to respond to private e-mails as well as these group emails and you will receive support both from myself and from each other.
The workshops will build upon each other and be interspersed with tasks and reading for you to do at home. At the end of the training there will be the opportunity for you to undertake a number of case studies in the role of shamanic healer and to receive feedback on these. When these have been completed I can issue you with a 'certificate' (while the Spirits laugh and laugh in the background) which will allow you to get insurance as a shamanic healer. A ridiculous notion in many ways, but one that allows us to practice in the modern world.
Accommodation is not included but there are many lovely hotels, B&Bs, AirB&Bs, campsites and a hostel locally.
The fee for the apprenticeship is £1200. A deposit of £100 will secure you a place on the training (This is extra to the fee for the year). Payment is then either in full or in four payments payments of £300, one being due before each of the modules, or another variation that you and I agree upon between us.
We hear Earth calling. These are our cries, this is our cause. Drum, rattle, voice, dance, will, breath and imagination will be our tools. The Spirits our guides, teachers, beloved friends and allies. The land our container and our home. We cannot fail to be anything other than inspired, re-vivified, enlightened and empowered by these.
