Shamanic Myth Writing Seminar
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General Information
Over the course of this seven-part seminar, you research your feminine lineage and create your personal feminine shamanic myth using feminist shamanic methods. In addition to researching your feminine ancestry, you learn to use basic feminist shamanic techniques to enter into the magical realms of mythic memory, from which your personal myth gradually emerges.
Each workshop group is limited to a maximum of seven women. Workshop cycles begin in February, March and April of each year. The seminar begins with research into your matrilineal history, followed by the first weekend retreat, during which you discuss the results of your research and learn the basic shamanic skills you’ll need to carry out your ongoing writing assignments. monthly workshops, and concludes with an early October myth-sharing retreat for all cycles at The Standing Bear, as the brilliance of the fall foliage season is peaking on the Maine coast. There are three sessions in each retreat: Friday, 4-9pm; Saturday, 10am – 8pm; and Sunday, 10 am – 3 pm. Private sessions with Scarlet can be scheduled prior to and following the retreats, if desired.
Distance Study Option
This seminar is also available in a distance format, which begins with a weekend retreat either at the Center or at your location to learn the basic feminist shamanic skills you’ll need in order to complete the seminar content. After that you receive a monthly teaching packet with complete instructions for carrying out each month’s assignments, and two hours per month of individual one-on-one phone consultations with Scarlet.
If you have a group of women who want to do the seminar together and would like me to conduct the retreats at your location, please contact me for details regarding organizing that option.
Distance students must either attend the beginning and closing retreat weekends at the Center, or bring me to their location to conduct them. If you want me to conduct monthly workshops at your location, we can discuss option for doing so.
Tuition
Tuition for the entire seminar is $2400 and is payable in advance. It includes your application fee, two weekend retreats and all workshops. In addition, you receive two hours of private consultations with Scarlet during each part of the seminar. These consultations can be in person or by phone if you’re working from a distance.
If you’re working from a distance, there will be the additional costs of either traveling to the Center or bringing me to your location for the retreats and/or to conduct monthly workshops, if that’s your preference. These costs will necessarily vary from group to group depending upon your location and other considerations. Other costs include catering for weekend retreats (the day-long workshops are usually potluck, but if desired can also be catered), and travel and lodging expenses where applicable.
OVERVIEW OF SEMINAR CONTENT
Part One: Pre-seminar Research
Prior to beginning the seminar you receive a detailed teaching packet containing guidance for interviewing your female relatives to learn what they remember or have heard about your female ancestors and for researching your matrilineal family history. Next you look at your own life story, and begin the process of organizing and writing down the ancestral and personal stories you have uncovered that are most meaningful to you.
The Initial Weekend Retreat (Parts Two & Three Combined):
Part Two: Identifying & Grieving for What Has Been Lost
In this part of the workshop, you take a deep look at the ways in which patriarchy has silenced the voices of women, in particular, those of the women in your family. Then you begin the process of healing what has been lost by learning to create your personal shamanic grieving song, and using it for aligning yourself with the voices of the women who have gone before you.
Part Three: Learning the Basic Shamanic Skills You’ll Need
In preparation for doing the work that is to come, you are given basic feminist shamanic teachings, and have ample time to practice the feminist shamanic journey method and other techniques we’ll be using in future workshops.
Part Four: Learning to Make Myth
Now you discover the archetypal energies informing your stories, for those energies carry the mythic reality — or shamanic truth – of those stories. Once you have discovered the threads of that reality, you begin weaving them into the fabric of your personal myth.
Part Five: Identifying Ancestral and Personal Feminine Wounding
Each of the five directions within the Feminist Shamanic Medicine Wheel Mandala reflect and teach us about particular aspects of life experience. Those most pertinent to our purposes are: In the East, finding your true feminine spirituality; In the South, recovering the magical trust with which you were born; In the West, breaking free of life’s many illusions; In the North, learning to deal successfully with authority figures; And in the Center, learning to keep your psycho-spiritual balance as you walk your life’s path. Using a special feminist shamanic journey method, you discover where you stand in these areas of your life, and incorporate your journey experiences into your personal myth.
Part Six: Awakening Feminine Shamanic Archetypes & Journeying into Your Feminine Ancestral Memory
You encounter and learn to seek healing from feminist shamanic archetypes in each of the five directions. These powerful archetypal energies assist you in recovering from ancestral and personal wounds to the feminine spirit. The stories of your experiences with them will become part of your personal myth. You also learn a special feminist shamanic journey method for exploring your feminine ancestral past, and interact directly with the mythic realities it contains, which you then integrate into your personal myth.
Part Seven: The Final Retreat
Sharing Our Individual Shamanic Myths
As you have gone through the process of completing each workshop, you will have been writing down your experiences, discoveries, anxieties, your shamanic journeys and any dreams and visions you may have had during the course of your work. Now you pause and work on fine-tuning your writing into a coherent story of who you are as a woman. During the final retreat, we shut out the outside world for a long weekend during which we share with one another the personal myths we have created in a supportive feminine atmosphere. The retreat ends with a special drumming, singing and chanting circle to acknowledge and support one another as the women we have discovered ourselves to be.
