Newsletters
From the October 2009 Newsletter
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October 2009
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| Dear Friends of the Cuyamungue Institute,
This has been a full and busy summer. It seems as though it was only a few weeks ago when I last wrote to you. It was great to see so many of you who had not been to the Institute for a number of years, and to meet others visiting the land for the first time. We have liked the idea of scheduling our workshops in two sessions, so you will see that next summer's workshop schedule at the Institute will include activities in May and June, then again in September and October. While the summer arts season is active in Santa Fe in July and August, the cooler weather in the spring and fall make for more pleasant workshops. Have a look at next year's workshops and make your 2010 travel plans early.
Congratulations to our Administrative Director, Frances Wilson, who just completed her Master's degree in Grief and Loss Counseling at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, with a 4.0 grade average. That is
quite an accomplishment while also answering your emails and phone calls, registering workshop participants, and maintaining the Institute property so that it remains a sanctuary for all of us.
We also send congratulations to board member Jackie Haworth who was married September 19 to her high school lab partner from physiology class at DeVilbliss High School in Toledo, Ohio. It's a wonderful story that you'll have to get her to tell you some time.
The board of directors welcomes new board members Merry Norris, from Worthington, Ohio, and Keya Horn, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They will be introducing themselves to you in later editions of the newsletter, so stayed tuned.
Our focus for fundraising is to generate income to hire a Director 20 hours a week and to begin a building fund for one more structure that will house two bathrooms, the Felicitas Goodman library, and an activity space with a futon that can double as indoor
sleeping space as needed for larger workshops or during cold or rainy weather. Sleeping under the stars loses its appeal when it rains. We are always open to suggestions and help with fundraising ideas, as well as contributions toward our projects.
We also want to begin seeking grants for programs and have initiated a grant process for funds to develop and test training materials to teach hospice workers (and perhaps pastoral counselors) how to use the postures to help people learn how to die. Again, suggestions and volunteers to help with the project are welcome.
Today Merry Norris and I were preparing her studio for the Goddess Postures Masked Trance Dance that begins tomorrow here in Ohio. We have had a great response and are looking forward to this new application of postures from the Goddess cultures.
Best wishes for a beautiful autumn,
Best wishes,
Belinda Gore, Ph.D., President
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Current 2010 WORKSHOP SEASON
April 17 & 18, 2010
"Awakening the Ecstatic Experience"
Columbus, OH with Belinda Gore and Stephanie Stephens
April, 2010 (Date TBA)
"Finding Our Feminine Roots" in Clearwater Beach, Florida
with Rae LeCompte and Jackie Haworth, certified Instructors
June 21
"Sky Journeys" with Dr. John Pilch, professor of Theology at Georgetown University. Santa Fe, NM, 7:30 - 8:30 pm. Location TBA
June 23
"Sky Journeys" with Dr. John Pilch and "The Enneagram Roots in Indigenous Culture" with Dr. Belinda Gore. At the Center for Contemplation in Action, Albuquerque, NM, 7:30 - 9:00 pm.
June 25 - 27
Introductory workshop at The Cuyamungue Institute with Rae Lecompte, Jackie Haworth, and Stephanie Stephens.
September 7 - 14
German retreat with Ki Salmen at The Cuyamungue Institute
September 15 - 17
Soul Retrieval with Ki Salmen at The Cuyamungue Institute
September 17 - 19
Egyptian Initiate Teachings, Level I, with Sacred Postures, with Meredith McCord and Jill Schumacher, at The Cuyamungue Institute.
September 21-26
Egyptian Masked Trance Dance at The Cuyamungue Institute, with Meredith McCord and Jill Schumacher.
October 6-10
"Masked Trance Dance: Postures from the Goddess Traditions"
at The Cuyamungue Institute, with Belinda Gore and Merry Norris.
October 12 - 16
Teacher Training for Certification at the Cuyamungue Institute, with Belinda Gore.
October TBA
"Finding Our Feminine Roots" in Columbus, Ohio, with Jackie Haworth and Rae LeCompte
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| A Note on the 20th Anniversary Celebration
What a wonderful retreat and introduction to Cuyamungue that was for me. I found the spirit of the land, the buildings of Cuyamungue and this interesting group of folks assembled for the weekend all working together for that deep conversation with the spirits that we truly can't live without. Blessings to you and everyone who helped bring it all together.
I particularly enjoyed the expansive spirit of democracy: everyone incarnate or not is welcome no matter how strange, listened to and assumed to have something essential to contribute to this grand conversation, the uni-versa. Under that guiding spirit, Cuyamungue will find its' way and thrive.
John Millen, Participant |
Below is Part One an article submitted by Nick Brink. Part Two be featured in the winter edition. Thank you, Nick, for this contribution.
The Nature of Ecstatic Shamanic Experiences: Part One
Fritjof Capra in his 1975 book the Tao of Physics offers nine concept of how classical scientific methodology breaks down in modern physics and describes parallels of these nine concepts in Eastern Mysticism. I believe that these concepts can be effectively used in describing the processes of the unconscious mind and similarly in describing the nature of ecstatic shamanic experiences.
Jean Gebser in
his 1953 book The Ever-Present Origin puts this change from classical to modern physics in context with broader Western thought. In examining the change in consciousness over the millennia, he suggests that we are currently in the process of change with the closing of the era of rational three-dimensional consciousness, which includes the breakdown of scientific methodology and classical physics, and the opening of the new emerging era of four-dimensional consciousness that he describes as time-free and transparent. The time-free nature of this new consciousness is Capra's third concept and most evident in the ecstatic shamanic experience when in rational thought A comes before B, in the ecstatic experience B can come before A and past, present and future can become one. This evolution of consciousness explains the growing interest in such "new age" thought as altered states of consciousness, and psi phenomena, and the revival in
appreciating the power of magic, ancient mythology and the experience of shamanic journeying. His four eras of consciousness begin with the magical era and progress through the mythic era to the rational era that began around 500 B.C. and peaked with Leonardo daVinci's three-dimensional art. As we now move into the time-free transparent era we see a return to our Ever-Present Origin of magic and myth but with deeper understanding and appreciation.
It is my hope over the next few months to review Capra's nine concepts and apply them to the ecstatic experiences of Felicitas Goodman's shamanic posture work. In this paper I will examine his first concept, that of unity of all things, the understanding that the universe and everything within it is united and much is lost, if not meaningless, when we attempt to break it down into its component parts. What we are learning from the work of Goodman and now
Belinda Gore is invaluable to our understanding of the power of the shamanic experience. They have considered several component parts of this experience including the use of rhythmic stimulation with rattling or drumming, the shaman's posture with consideration for the effect of the posture on the shamanic experience and the importance of ritual in inducing these experiences, yet the real power of the ecstatic experience is the unity of all these components and many other factors that influence the ecstatic experience. Because of the interaction of these many influences the nature or effect of a specific posture is often unclear and confusing, yet in examining and comparing the repeated experiences of many people tendencies begin to emerge that suggest that some postures facilitate healing, some are for spirit journeying, and others for divination, metamorphosis or initiation, the core of Goodman and Gore's
work.
Some of these influences on the ecstatic experience include (1) a person's expectation, (2) the history of an individual's personal experience with a particular posture and other postures, (3) the various concerns and problems an individual brings to the session and often with hope for resolution, and (4) the influences of others in the group experience. I will offer examples of these influences from my own work with these postures, but these are just a few of the influences that seem most directly related to the ecstatic experience. There are many others influences such as family and community influences, the individual's personality, attitude and beliefs, and in considering the concept of the unity of the universe, the collective unconscious of past cultural experiences and even the position of the stars in the universe.
Briefly, with regard to family, community and
cultural influences, Lewis Mehl-Madrona in his book Narrative Medicine: The Use of History and Story in the Healing Process beautifully describes the need to include these sources in the healing process. He is a Native American psychiatrist who now lives in Saskatchewan who incorporates the story telling medicine ways of his people in his therapy. With regard to the influence of the stars in the universe, most obvious is the pull of gravity on the postures, a pull that becomes very noticeable because of the pain we often experience. Capra explains that the universal unity of gravitational pull is in the motion of the stars, the motion of the planets in our solar system around the sun, and the spin and orbit of our earth, but it is also found in the energy fields that hold together the particles, subatomic particles and waves of energy in motion within the atom. In extending this concept, Rupert Sheldrake proposes that these
fields or fields similar to these that hold atoms together, influence the atoms, molecules, cells and organs of our body, as well as beyond our bodies, fields that connect with and influence the bodies and minds of others.
A university catalog makes the lack of unity very clear with regard to the human being and how it is subdivided into so many departments, sociology, anthropology, psychology, physiology, etc., and broken down further within the department, e.g within a psychology department one finds perception, learning theory, personality, motivation, cognition, on and on, with the loss of the uniqueness of the individual, the individual in the family and in culture. Narrative psychology and Mehl-Madrona's narrative medicine attempt to bring alive the unique individuality of the person. This loss of uniqueness/unity is exactly the reason why the social psychologist Theodore Sarbin became disenchanted with social
psychology and was one of the early movers to narrative psychology. Producing our own individual narratives through our ecstatic posture work places us at the center of the narrative psychology movement, which will be the topic of a future paper.
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| Message to our readers:
We are interested in learning where groups are meeting througout the world. Please submit via email to admin@cuyamungueinstitute.com the name of your group and any contact information you feel comfortable sharing. We also encourage you to send in items of interest to publish in our newsletter and please provide contact information which we will only share with your permission.
Thank you!
The Editor reserves the right to edit any submission due to space considerations. | |
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