Initiation into a Living Earth
In this time of ecological unraveling, how do we weave ourselves back in?
An Eight-Week Essay Journey created by Shante' Sojourn Zenith
Offered in partnership with the Inner Resilience Network
February 25th - March 15th, 2019
WEEK ONE: February 25th
Poetic Expressions of Belonging
A wordless longing for emotional expression invites a journey into the poetic imagination. Deeper forms of relationship with ecological beings ignite an ancestral memory of belonging to the experience of a Living Earth.
WEEK TWO: March 4th
Tending Communal Grief
The disconnection from a sense of belonging is a wound as deep as colonization. By reconnecting to ritual practices for tending communal grief, we can begin to weave ourselves into a sense of self wider then the boundaries of our skin.
WEEK THREE: March 11th
Initiation of Compassionate Witnessing
The first of five initiations to reconnect to a Living Earth, Compassionate Witnessing explores our relationship to the "village," drawing on practices of trauma healing, emotional release, and embodied presence.
WEEK FOUR: March 18th
Initiation of Ecological Imagination
The second initiation offers a reconnection to a child's imagination and relationship with nature, linking our personal creativity to the ecosystem of animistic relationships we are a embedded within.
WEEK FIVE: March 25th
Initiation of Soul Medicine
The third initiation explores the role of adolescent rites of passage and the "dark night of the soul" in reconnecting us to a sense of soverignty and creative agency unmediated by human teachers.
WEEK SIX: April 1st
Initiation of Ancestral Healing
The fourth initiation draws us into practices of ancestral reconnection and decolonization, inviting us to explore the deep time context through which we came into being.
WEEK SEVEN: April 8th
Initiation of Nurturing Beauty
The final initiation explores our culture's relationship with mortality in the face of ecological devastation and social collapse, inviting us to explore practices of "nurturing beauty" as our core responsibility as humans.
WEEK EIGHT: April 15th
Not-Knowing-Together
An as yet unwritten essay to be created based on the experience of offering this course. Invitations into ongoing exploration and collaboration.
You can choose any level of interaction:
READING THE WEEKLY ESSAYS
(20 mins a week)
You will receive an essay in your email inbox each Monday for eight weeks. This email will include reflection questions and a link to the password protected "Essay Journey Portal" where you will find an audio version of the week's essay and links to the discussion forum and zoom calls.
REFLECTING ON THE ESSAY JOURNEY FORUM
(45 mins a week)
Share your responses to the reflection questions and anything else that resonates with you about each week's essay in the google group discussion forum for journey participants.
PARTICIPATING IN COMMUNITY VIDEO CALLS
(90 mins bi-weekly)
I will host four 90 minute community video calls over zoom during the eight weeks of the essay journey. I will send out doodle polls to interested participants so we can collaboratively schedule these conversations. Recordings of the community calls will be posted on the "Essay Journey Portal" for participants who couldn't attend live.
Options for Participation
If you subscribe to the journey after it has begun, you will receive a link to the archive of previous essays, discussion posts, and video calls.
"Essay Journey": a collaborative learning experiment inviting us to re-imagine the ecology of our belonging.
Eight weekly essays offered in both written and audio formats.
Braiding themes of poetic expression, grief-tending, creating regenerative culture, and reconnecting to the ecological imagination.
Optional reflection questions, discussion forum, and community video calls.
Regenerative Economics
Tending our cultural wound of scarcity, I am commited to practicing regenerative economics—inviting people to contribute an amount that "feels right"—honoring that the context of their lives may mean they aren't able to reciprocate financially. Any amount, including $0, is welcome.
I am trusting that, in the spirit of the gift, I will receive the financial nourishment I need to support my living and the creative projects I am working on.
RECOMMENDED CONTRIBUTIONS
for an Essay Journey consisting of:
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Eight essays (7-10 pages each week for 2 months)
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Weekly reflection questions and discussion forum
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Four 90 minute video conversations
$30-$90
one-time contribution
through paypal:
OR
$5-$15
monthly contribution
through patreon: