S t a r h a w k

Earth As Teacher - Earth As Healer
Course Outline & Syllabus

6 week course
April 21 - June 1

 


 

In Al Gore’s movie about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, he remarks that some people move directly from denial to despair without every stopping in between to do anything useful.

            If so, I suspect it’s because many people don’t know what to do—or don’t see how the things they can do can make a difference.  But coming into balance with nature is one of the great spiritual challenges of our time, as well as a practical, political and economic challenge.  Facing that challenge can require sacrifice, but it also brings enormous rewards.  The region between denial and despair is fertile ground for the growth of souls.

About fifteen years ago, when I was already well-known as a teacher and writer and voice for earth-based spirituality, I became aware of a deep disconnect.  Our rituals celebrated nature—but too often, did so indoors.  We invoked the elements with poetry or song, but we weren’t out in them.  We developed powerful techniques for journeying in our inner landscapes,  but not for observing and tending the actual outer landscape around us.

I began to shift my own magical and ritual practice, and sought out teachers who could help fill that gap.  This course weaves together much of what I found on my journey—from wilderness awareness to permaculture, a system of ecological design that I now practice and teach—with the other valuable aspects of magical and spiritual practice.

We’ll begin with an introduction to the worldview of earth magic, learn forms of awareness and develop a daily spiritual practice that can connect us to the earth.  We’ll explore a Gaian view of creation and evolution, and what it means to see the world as a dance of interconnectedness and cooperation.  We’ll devote a week to each of the elements:  air, fire, water and earth, exploring them from both spiritual and practical levels. Finally, we’ll explore the healing power of spirit, the fifth element, the patterns of connection and transformation around us.  You’ll learn how to draw a labyrinth and use it as a meditation tool. 

Students will be expected each week to spend time outdoors, observing, to keep a journal and to practice suggested exercises.  We’ll support each other in making changes in our own environment, from reducing our energy use to restoring the biological life of the soil in our gardens.  I will provide resources, instructions, and practical advice.  In our online forum, we’ll share experiences, consider discussion questions, and cheer each other on as we bring our lives and homes into deeper balance.

 

SYLLABUS

Week One - Introduction/Creation

An introduction to some of the basic ideas and concepts.  We’ll read and hear  the Gaian Creation story, and reflect on what it represents to us, and we’ll begin our personal practice of awareness and observation.

Week Two - Air

Air is the element of mind, insight, and inspiration.  We’ll observe air and wind, listen to the birds and learn something of their language, find an insect ally and meditate on breath and gratitude.   As well, we will explore the reality of climate change and global warming, and consider practical ways we can reduce our ecological footprints.

Week Three - Fire

Fire is energy.  We’ll learn to observe, shift and cleanse subtle energies.  On the practical front, we’ll conduct an energy audit of our homes and take steps to reduce our energy use.  We’ll also observe how energy flows in groups, and learn tools to help us create strong, supportive group energy.

Week Four - Water

Water is the element of emotion and flow.  It’s also a vital life resource that is becoming increasingly scarce, privatized and polluted.  This week, we’ll observe water and flows, learn about water cycles, do a water trance, and learn how to catch, conserve, and clean water in our homes and communities.

Week Five - Earth

Earth sustains life.  This week we’ll learn about our magical and practical allies in living soil, the fungi and microorganisms.  We’ll make both spiritual and physical compost, and plant seeds of change.  I’ll discuss the work of bioremediation—healing toxic soil with natural methods—that I’ve done in New Orleans and elsewhere, and we’ll do a trance into the living earth.

Week Six - Spirit and Pattern

Nature works through patterns.  This week, we’ll observe patterns in the natural world, and consider how they function.  We’ll also reflect on patterns in our own lives, and how to change them.  We’ll learn to draw and walk the labyrinth, a tool we can carry with us for meditation and transformation.  And we’ll affirm our commitments to being healers, of ourselves, our communities, and the earth.

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