Training for the Muse. The alchemical fire of the sacred feminine, a living tradition
Ringing the Bell / A 24-hour Retreat in NYC
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
We will gather each year in NYC. This is a 24-hour retreat. A time for instruction in the art of meditation. A time for conversation in the deep currents of our longing. To Ring a Bell: For Prayer. For Shelter. For Magic & Mystery. For the Muse. For Lineage. For Love and the Gift of Life.
Consciousness is seeded through the ages in the hearts of mystics and through traditions of art, medicine and science. This ancient tradition of Love has tended this seeding for thousands of years. Through the Songs of Creation and the teachings of this tradition, we work in the personal unconscious as well as in the collective myths and complexes that have captured us. We work at a critical point in time where consciousness pivots in the deep currents of the divine feminine. Light given, first to purify, then free, and then nourish the Muse, the Creative Imagination. We are given the seeds of new stories.
Central to our work is the dissembling of deep structures of violence in the psyche of individuals and our civilization. To undo the curses of racism, misogyny and prejudice that arise from a world view of white male supremacy, which is currently at the helm of global ecocide.
Meditation. Prayer. Art. How to respond to the crisis of meaning in our time? We call these together at the core of each person. As an artist can give herself entirely to the blank page, as a physician can give himself entirely to the precision required to reach the cure and as the ancient scribe vanishes into the mystery of Love, we live a passion and devotion to what lies behind life, what calls from the hidden depths.
One pearl to the next, around and around, prayer in our heart and hand that we are purified, our passions cleansed of self-interest and fear and our hearts laid upon Your soil.
Be with those who mix with God
as honey blends with milk, and say,
"Anything that comes and goes,
rises and sets, is not what I love."
else you'll be like a caravan fire left
to flare itself out alone beside the road. Rumi
WHEN/WHERE
WHEN: The Summer Solstice ~ June 21-22, 2024 Friday 7:30-10pm & Saturday 10am-8pm
WHERE: 308 West 30th St. Apt. 1C NYC
CONTACT: Our Office EMAIL or PHONE
REGISTRATION/TUITION
TUITION: Sliding scale based on means: US$100-$250 /CDN$110-275.
To pay on a schedule please Email Us
TO REGISTER Click Here
Always there is this primary place of belonging in the land and in our souls. It used to be a part of the way we lived, how we walked and breathed. Crossing oceans and continents, we carried it with us, a lodestone for our existence. For thousands and thousands of years, it was an essential part of us, never forgotten, because how could you forget the feel of the rain on your skin, or the sound of water flowing over stones? How could you forget the stories and songs passed down through the generations? It is only very recently in our human history—only a few hundred years amidst thousands—that we forgot, that we lost this thread, that our mind ceased to be a part of both the land and the unseen worlds. That we forgot that everything we can see and touch is sacred, and in our forgetting no longer inhabited a world in which everything was alive with spirit, the wind and the rain, the plants and animals. Have we wandered so far from the source that we cannot return? Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee “Where the Horses Sing” Emergence Magazine 5/23/21
We may speak about the need for a new story, one that is not based upon exploitation and greed but recognizes the interdependent oneness of the living world. But real stories arise from the inner worlds, only then do they carry the numinous power that can change a civilization. Myths are not rational, but belong to a deeper dimension of our psyche. We can see the emotive power of the false stories that surround us—whether the recent myth of endless economic growth that is the foundation of our consumer world, or the more recent distortions of social media that grip our collective consciousness. We are living these pathological stories without fully recognizing how much we respond to their emotive and psychic power.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee “Where the Horses Sing” Emergence Magazine 5/23/21