Container as Portal
Simple Practices for Ecological Belonging
This mini-course of short videos has been created for energetically sensitive people who are in need of more structure and support around their spiritual, ecological, or artistic practices but often feel like they’re stuck in a void space where there’s a lot of freeze and it’s hard to shift out of habitual momentums.
As an introductory free offering, Container as Portal is a great place to start for anyone who is interested in learning more about experiential practices for calling in an energetic container through attunement with body, land, and ancestors.
what's in the mini-course...
Short experiential guided practices into foundational themes of energetic containers with body, land, and ancestors, which will take about 45 minutes to complete:
EMBODIED PERMISSION
Sensing for embodied permission to feel the web of ecological support and drop into states of nourishment and creativity
ANIMAL BODY
Simple somatic practices for connection to animal body through movement, sound, and touch
LAND AND ANCESTORS
Introducing the texture of "Contact," a primary aspect of ecological belonging, attuning to the relational fields of land and radiant ancestors
JUST RIGHT AMOUNT
The texture of "Choice" and just right amount, receiving nourishment
THE WEB OF HOLDING
Bringing the energetics of a personal "stuck" place into relationship with the web of holding created by the support of earth and nature beings, radiant ancestors, and other attuned human mammals,..
why this kind of practice is different...
As a chronically ill neurodiverse person with very little spoons for formal practice (and a life-long resistance to externally prescribed structures), I’ve learned to create energetic containers through tiny micro moments of intimacy with body, land, and ancestors that allow my nervous system to drop to a deeper layer of presence and nourishment. In my somatic practice with myself and others, I’ve been playing with ways to integrate these experiences of energetic container-ing into moments of daily life when things feel overwhelming, or when the nervous system needs support in dropping into a deeper experience of rest or creativity. My practice is oriented towards being with what is present in the system without needing to change anything, connecting to wider webs of nourishment and support that open up other possibilities for expression and relationality.
how this practice lands for people...
It was the most profoundly supportive space I have experienced in forever. Time slowed down during our group in a way that felt deeply calming and restorative. There is so much that I struggle to access on my own and the regular, loving reminder from you that that makes total sense and is an ok place to be right now felt so supportive and helpful to my often pressure-full system. The potent magic of the group container helped me reconnect to the wider web in ways that have been holding me on my own, even in moments when I am having trouble connecting, because my body remembers more of what's possible now, and more of what's real and available.
—Parker Rice,
Ecosystem Spoons Participant
Shante’ is attempting to give language to somatic experience that has mostly not been available to colonized humans but that we very much all need access to.
—Lise Weil
Goddard College Faculty Advisor
Sharing space with Shante' Zenith lets you safely explore all the cracks and crevices within, making space for new insights and intra-relationships you never could have imagined were possible. Our mutual support session had me feeling held in a way that I have not felt with very many practitioners. She knows exactly how to guide your body towards nourishment with her playfulness and gentle curiosity.”
—Scout Rainer Wiley,
Pracitioner-Peer
Powerful group container, experientially nourishing. I have a deeper felt sense of being held by the larger field. Helpful on multiple levels.
— Patti Gmeiner,
Ecosystem Spoons Participant
Speaking to the 'colonized body' - a body that has been radically disconnected from cultural practices and ancestral lineages in custodial relationship to place - Shante's work provides resonance, understanding, and sacred somatic engagements that allow our colonized nervous systems to sink back into a soil that Shante' refers to as primordial nourishment.
—Sarah Van Hoy
Goddard College Faculty Advisor
introducing your guide...
I am an Earth Poet Edge Weaver attuning to primordial nourishment through the nervous system, creative expression, and relationship to wider ecosystemic bodies of support. My practice weaves together learnings from somatics, animism, constellations, poetics, field perception, clowning, grief ritual, and systems intelligence. My people are Celtic, Norse, Ashkenazi, and Slavic. I live in Mni Sota Makoce on the ancestral homelands of the Dakota people, where I learn from the Mississippi River, Turtles, Maitake Mushroom, and many other nature beings.
— Shante' Zenith
