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Classes & Teachers
The lymphatic system is called Rasa in Sanskrit, meaning the river of life. Keeping this river flowing allows our tissues to receive nourishment, which is the secret to being and looking healthy. Our lymph fluids allow hormones to get from one endocrine gland to another and play an important role in our reproductive health. The lymphatic system is also called the Immune system, which we all know is important for fighting foreign invaders and staying healthy. There will be demonstrations on how to map the lymphatic system in your body with an emphasis on breast health. There will be time for Q &A about our breasts and immunity, massage assessments for experiential learning & what tools can support change and prevent diseases. Students will leave having a clear understanding of the lymph system and how to keep it and their breasts healthy.
*Breast Checks will be continued throughout the entire weekend.
There is strength in a river that is flowing
all levels
Fertility Awareness Based Methods for tracking bio-markers of fertility and gauging hormonal health have too long been misunderstood and associated with ineffective, simplistic and/or religious models of family planning. This lecture is designed to educate both healthcare practitioners and individuals about the current climate of fertility awareness, a self-care practice that benefits both practitioners and clients immensely. Come with both your skepticism and curiosity...and learn how this charting practice can profoundly change a woman’s understanding of her body, her health care choices and her relationship to her fertility and sexuality. As healthcare practitioners you will learn to use this valuable tool for collaborating with women to meet their fertility, health and family planning needs, more easily diagnose endocrine pathologies and be witness to a profound empowerment in your clients.
Women are fed up with losing their health and fertility, their bodies and their happiness, to pharmaceutical contraceptives. They are ready to include contraception as a part of their natural lifestyle. This informative class will explain how the pill and other hormonal contraceptives are affecting our health, how to gracefully transition to other forms of contraception and get your body and cycles back into optimal health and function.
This class will begin with an interactive ‘play’ designed to celebrate and educate about the female sexual anatomy and cycle physiology. You’ll be given a chance to explore the overlay of emotional and psychological cycle dynamics and learn to align yourself more deeply with your natural design. We will then map out the greater terrain of the endocrine system and discuss how specific self-care, nature connection and deep listening practices can create profound effects on your cycle health. The class includes tips for practical and action oriented lifestyle and dietary changes to support a healthy endocrine system.
all levels
Audrya Chancellor &
Sara Bassindale
Connect with your Heart's Intention while experiencing a Sound Journey with Medicine drums, Didgeridoos, Flutes, Earth chimes, and Crystal bowls. Open to your inner guidance and fully relax into the healing vibrations of Sound. Stillness is required.
all levels
Join Copperwoman in singing songs that nourish feelings of closeness and unity, and assist in raising vibration, creating a fertile ground for prayer and healing. Bask in the Divine Silence that fills the space between songs. Copperwoman "catches" songs that emerge out of the energy and common experiences of our growing beings. They inspire us with wisdom and insights and rise from a place of core connection. Songwords will be provided—the songs are easy to learn and nurture our feelings of being earth family. Music IS the Medicine!
all levels
Experience matchless fire starting and become a member of the Fire Devas. Join us if you would like to be a Sacred Fire Tender this session. Establish an intimate relationship with this powerful elemental. Holding the central fire is an act of service, a source of healing and a teacher of awareness.
Using the coals from our Sacred Fire we will create medicine, eating, or cauldron spoons. Learn the time honored skill of coal burning. A small carving knife will be necessary to complete your spoon. Class size is limited and starts on time. Due to the nature of the class it is only open to adults.
We will continue. See Sacred Fire Spoon Making, part 1 for full description. Must have attended part 1.
An 18 year old vision inspired here, comes to fruition with this class. Learn how to balance your life with the phases of the moon. When do you plant, when do you sow? Learning the different teachings of the 16 moons helps us understand our lives as a cycle, as Circle, as Wemoon.
all levels
all levels
adults only
In the first part of the class we will explore the Intentional Altars at the Symposium and then speak on what it is to build Intentional Altars. We will do herbal cleansing, guided meditations, offerings, sound therapy, herbal elixirs, and have many more magical experiences. In the Second part of the Intensive you will build an altar and then we will explore everyone’s Altared Sacred Places. Heidi looks forward to connecting with you all! May your days continue to open in Beauty, your hearts opening to love.
all levels
If you have self-chatter that holds you back...like I can’t play an instrument because I didn’t learn when I was young, or I can’t draw because my sister is an artist, or I can’t dance because I don’t dance correctly, then this class is for you. We will go through a series of exercises in theatre improvisation, singing, dancing, writing and drawing.
all levels
Moxibustion and Cupping are some of the oldest methods of traditional Chinese medicine. Moxibustion is an ancient fire therapy that stimulates specific acupuncture points of the body and is safe for pregnancy as well as treating the very depleted. Cupping is the art of suctioning areas of the body that lie along specific channels and organs. Cupping pulls out stagnant toxins, lifts inflammation and surfaces deep cold from the interior.
Hands on techniques will be demonstrated using moxa and cupping, while specific treatments for fertility, pregnancy preparation, breech presentation, postpartum recovery, menstrual cramps, irregular periods, back pain, arthritis, bronchial congestion, headache and digestive disorders will be discussed and demonstrated.
Experience auricular acupuncture in a safe setting. NADA was originally developed as a 5 point needle protocol for aiding in extreme stress, trauma, PTSD, addiction, co-dependency, arrythmias (heart imbalance), and recovery. Each participant can receive needles and feel the effects. A nervine tea will also be provided and an explanation of the herbs discussed.
all levels
beginning
Bring your playful drumming spirit to this all level drum class. We will review basic drum technique and learn rhythms and songs from West Africa. Bring your hand or stick drums and percussion instruments such as shakers and bells. There will be a few extra drums to share. Let's drum up some magic.
Drum while you dance, dance while you drum. This class combines the beauty of West African dance with the exciting energy of stick drumming. We will learn Kuku a women's fishing dance from Guinea. Dundun drums will be provided.
all levels
all levels
beginning
Participants will be guided in the creation of a "Spirit Doll" personal power totem, incorporating natural elements such as wood, moss, bark, and ethically-harvested organic herbs. We will also use fabric, lace, yarn, beads, and various pieces of mystical and sacred ephemera to adorn our dolls. Specific herbs will be offered for their emotional/spiritual support, incorporated into the body of the dolls. A group meditation exercise will explore power intentions for these totems, so that each woman can identify a personally meaningful framework for her unique creation. A closing group ritual will invoke and embody the power of our totems, anchoring the Spirit Doll's energy into our lives. This will be a fun and creative workshop, appropriate for all levels.
all levels
With the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, we now have knowledge of some previously unknown influences on our health issues. By reading "tweaks" on our genes, which 85% of us have, we can see potential for (and possible reasons for existing) health issues. While a complex subject, we will make it understandable and practical, so that we can take away tools that may deeply influence our future health!
When we have persistent GI distress, we may begin attempting to find the cause with a lab test for yeast overgrowth, pathogenic bacteria, or parasites. But what if nothing is found? Then we may need to delve into the more obscure reasons for tummy troubles, including gluten, histamine, lectins, oxalates, and more. We can be our own detectives to get to the underlying issues!
Let's do all we can to keep our brains healthy as we age! Much new practical information has emerged that can be implemented!
In this class we will work on finding more confidence drumming in drum circles. We will practice listening and how to find space in the rhythm to play our part. I hope that everyone will leave feeling like they can comfortably join a drum circle and have fun! All skill levels welcome. Please bring any drums/shakers/ and other noisemakers you might have. Also, if you can, get your drum checked out and tightened if needed before you come, tight heads sound way better!!
all levels
This class will begin with a discussion about Curanderismo – the Healing Arts of Mexico and Guatemala. We will discuss what it is, cultural protocol in ceremonies, how we each are our own healers, and the basic tools we need to practice on ourselves. Then we will each make our own agua florida (Flower Water) and Limpia Bundles (Bundles of Herbs). Class limited to 20.
This is a traditional Mayan Divination Ceremony to call the Spirits. This is an ancient form of prayer from Guatemala that uses the fire to communicate with the Ancestors. The Fire Ceremony gives life and energy to all those who take part. Our lives are sustained by sustaining Mother Earth. We will start by building ‘cakes’ of delicious earthy ingredients, such as Copal, Herbs, Tobacco, Candles, Chocolate, Fruit, as offerings of food and life to Mother Earth. We then evoke the Spirits into the Ceremony, light the altar, and burn the ingredients, each with a different prayer, energy and intention. The combination is a rich banquet of energies offered to Ahua. During this time we also make specific prayers for anything we want to call into our lives. Xochi was given permission to lead this Ceremony and Fire from three Quiche Maya Grandmothers in Guatemala and told to bring it back to her people and share it in the north.
all levels
all levels
Visiting the local plants in their chosen habitats & learn how they provide for the earth & us.
all levels
If you’re frustrated in your relationships and not sure how to feel close, come learn how the teachings of yoga can deepen your connections to both yourself and others. We'll learn three simple and life-changing practices of embodied communication to increase intimacy and connection in any relationship. And we’ll explore which herbal allies will help us along the way!
Are you ready to bust out of some old relationship habits that no longer serve you? In this session, we’ll look at how we get in our own way, creating distance when we really want closeness. Then we’ll explore transformational communication tools that include the whole body. We have a wealth of intelligence and learning capacity within our bodies and when we can learn to access it, we can more quickly shift out of old patterns and into much greater ease and connection with ourselves and others. We’ll explore how to befriend all our feelings, how to eliminate arguments, how to navigate through fear, and which herbal allies can best support us along the way.
beginning/all levels
intermediate/advanced
We will demystify this common weed and reveal it’s rich healing properties. We will meet Cleavers with all of our senses, share what was revealed to us and then discuss its elemental and medicinal properties. We will be making infused oils and pesto. We will taste and experience its goodness and medicine magic on and with our bodies.
Come with fascination, as we journey into our inner landscape, locate any obstacles and transform them into supportive guides. In this healing process, inspired by the ancient Tibetan practice of Chod, we will have an embodied dialog with an encumbered aspect of ourselves discovering what is needed to transform this energy and receive clear wisdom from an ally. In these times of great change this practice will offer us a tool to support ourselves and others in our lives.
This class is an overview of the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and modern health care practitioners that have followed the findings of this pioneering Dentist considered the Charles Darwin of Nutrition. In the 1930’s researching the cause of tooth decay, Dr Price traveled the world documenting people still living in traditional ways, their health, their diets, what happened after they were introduced to a diet based on processed foods and its affect on the health of the next generation. We will discuss these dietary findings and explore how they apply to maintaining our health today. In our time together we will cover the relationship between a diet of nutrient rich foods and digestive, prenatal, and psychological health, dental care, and cancer.
all levels
all levels
all levels
A synthesis of dance movements deriving form Africa, The Caribbean, the Americas, and the Pacific. We will learn how to move to different sounds and movements from various cultures in a non-traditional dance class. Tap into your natural inner rhythm and move your body with enhanced coordination and flexibility. Bring a towel and water bottle; wrap skirts (lappa) with leggings or biker shorts underneath and a t-shirt or tank top are typically worn. Comfortable work out clothes are okay. Bare feet/supportive foot wear is fine.
all levels
ˈferəl,ˈfirəl/
adjective: in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication, wild, untamed, untamable, undomesticated
We will gather in an exploration of how to break the chains of domestication, human supremacy, and the conditioning that the dominant culture has imprisoned us within. How does this cultural taming affect how we show up in the world, as Earth protectors and allies? What co-liberation is awaiting us when we step into our wild and free state? We will let the land of Black Oak Ranch swallow us whole and dissolve into their teachings.
What instinct does a mother bear follow when the safety of her forest den and precious cubs are threatened? What does our human intuition whisper in our ears when we witness our beloved lands being auctioned off to the highest bidder to suffer undeserving poisoning and exploitation? What will it take for our culture to respect the intrinsic sovereignty of the land, so biodiversity can evolve autonomously in a changing climate? This dialogue is offering space for the community to raise the questions that sit in their hearts around conservation, and to explore a tangible way forward before we lose the last remaining breadcrumbs of wild land.
As wild kin who heeds to the primordial call of the Earth Mother, we come to this gathering with hearts intertwined in the service of continued Life. We will venture into the last primeval forests and be schooled by the intelligence and mystery of ancient mycelial communities. We will discuss how fungi have been evolving as Earth stewards for millions of years: connecting and feeding their ecological communities; remediating oil spills and metal contamination; cleansing and filtering toxic runoff; boosting growth of native and agricultural flora; building soil at incredible speeds; strengthening the immunity of bees and other pollinators; generating biofuels; and extracting radioactive particles from soil following nuclear disasters. We will also tune in to the inner dialogue of the forest, deeply listening to and observing how she nurtures thriving interdependent living communities. Let us share our gratitude for the oxygen, water, physical and dietary nourishment, medicine, carbon sequestration, and so much more that the forest offers so generously.
Yet, in this anthropocenic time, we cannot continue taking the forest’s gifts without reciprocating. This is a time for fury, passion, dedication, and responsibility. Horrific logging, extraction, development, and toxification imposed upon the planet by our kind has already destroyed 98% of old-growth forests; and, still the insatiable death urge of this civilization grasps for a stranglehold of the rare slivers left standing. In resistance to this unrelenting destruction, we gather, we fight, and we love. For our love for the Forest is all the more fierce in the face of their collapse.
all levels
all levels
all levels
Crones
Crones, come share lunch with other Wise Crones. We will discuss loving life after menopause, finding joy, appreciation, and health in our Crone years. We will also discuss our part in the Maiden’s Rites of Passage Ceremony and our own Crone’s Honoring Ritual.
This is time to reflect and share our experiences of Cronehood and our love for our Wise Crone ways and bodies. Past menopause and into memorypause, we will tell our stories. A time to make a ritual Crone Broom will follow.
Crones, come share another lunch with other Wise Crones. We will continue our plans for the Maiden’s Rites of Passage and our own Crone’s Honoring Ritual.
Join us for a quiet honoring of the loss of an unborn child through miscarriage or abortion.
Young Women
Welcome maidens, to the Circle of Women! Join us in celebrating the beauty and strength of this phase of your life, the time of your bloods. We will explore ideas and feelings, hear stories, make things to care for ourselves and prepare for the Maiden’s Rites of Passage Ceremony to be held Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. Any young woman who would like to go through the Maiden Ceremony must attend this class.
During the years of emerging adulthood, reproductive hormones flood our bodies making life sometimes feel like you are riding a rollercoaster. Come learn simple and effective herbal remedies to best support a healthy menstrual cycle, emotional balancing, improved sleep, stress management, optimal digestion, acne, injury and pain. Knowledge is power and this is the time to discover and connect to your favorite herbal allies. We will interact with live plants and delve into specific plants and topicals to have in your medicine chest to best empower you to cope with the ups and downs of daily life.
young women 12-21
Mid Kids
In this fun playshop we will be getting to know each other through cooperative and theater games, and a symposium wide scavenger hunt. This class is designed to help the mid kids crew get to know each other and deepen friendships early in the symposium. Lets become a tribe of friends together. Please come whether this is your first symposium or you have been coming all your life. Be prepared to be silly, make new friends and learn more about the symposium land, yourself and each other.
all levels
Corn Husk dolls have been part of peoples' homes and hearths for centuries. Come make your own corn husk doll, which you can place on your altar or nature table or even play with. While we craft, we'll talk about the legends and stories that go with these dolls. Basic construction is with simple knots, younger children may attend with adult helper.
all levels
Young Children
Early Morning Classes
Other Classes
Intensives
In the first part of the class we will explore the Intentional Altars at the Symposium and then speak on what it is to build Intentional Altars. We will do herbal cleansing, guided meditations, offerings, sound therapy, herbal elixirs, and have many more magical experiences. In the Second part of the Intensive you will build an altar and then we will explore everyone’s Altared Sacred Places. Heidi looks forward to connecting with you all! May your days continue to open in Beauty, your hearts opening to love.
The lymphatic system is called Rasa in Sanskrit, meaning the river of life. Keeping this river flowing allows our tissues to receive nourishment, which is the secret to being and looking healthy. Our lymph fluids allow hormones to get from one endocrine gland to another and play an important role in our reproductive health. The lymphatic system is also called the Immune system, which we all know is important for fighting foreign invaders and staying healthy. There will be demonstrations on how to map the lymphatic system in your body with an emphasis on breast health. There will be time for Q &A about our breasts and immunity, massage assessments for experiential learning & what tools can support change and prevent diseases. Students will leave having a clear understanding of the lymph system and how to keep it and their breasts healthy.
*Breast Checks will be continued throughout the entire weekend.
There is strength in a river that is flowing
Participants will be guided in the creation of a "Spirit Doll" personal power totem, incorporating natural elements such as wood, moss, bark, and ethically-harvested organic herbs. We will also use fabric, lace, yarn, beads, and various pieces of mystical and sacred ephemera to adorn our dolls. Specific herbs will be offered for their emotional/spiritual support, incorporated into the body of the dolls. A group meditation exercise will explore power intentions for these totems, so that each woman can identify a personally meaningful framework for her unique creation. A closing group ritual will invoke and embody the power of our totems, anchoring the Spirit Doll's energy into our lives. This will be a fun and creative workshop, appropriate for all levels.