FireKeepers at the Crossroads

Dates TBA
In-person on Whidbey Island, WA

with Sheila Bélanger and Anne Hayden

FireKeepers at the Crossroads
is designed to guide and support humans who are committed to being
“keepers of the sacred flame” for our world.
To be an effective fire-keeper, you must first apprentice to stewarding
your own inner fire at your personal crossroads,
so that you know in your bones how to keep the sacred flame for the collective.
We’ll explore ways to both steward your individual fire as well as tend those of the particular collective that you are called to serve.

With the ongoing global crisis of this pandemic, overlaid on top of the climate crisis, systemic racial and class injustice, political upheaval, and immense suffering caused by worldwide inequities, we are at a crossroads of never–before-seen–magnitude.  As humans, we find ourselves wrestling with a collective coldness of the heart, where our individual fears, trauma and pain cause us to close off our hearts to ourselves, others and the larger world.

At this crossroads, do we hunker down,
isolate and choose our own survival over that of others?
Do we come to a screeching halt and wait, frozen, for an opportunity to move again?
Or do we courageously lean in and contribute to this inner and outer crisis?

We recognize that we are all in this together and must discover ways to tend our individual fires as well as contribute in some way to address this global crisis.

We need to learn to be fire-keepers at the crossroads, in whatever form is congruent for each person. In the places where our world is cold, it’s time to build the sacred fires of interconnection, not only for our human species, but for all the other–than–humans who share this planet with us and indeed support our very life on it.

Like our other offerings, this camping program is highly experiential and is informed by Process Work  and Soulcraft™ practices, as well as modern depth psychology. It invites participants to immerse themselves in ancient and enduring earth-based ways of knowing, the poetic traditions, and initiatory rites. You’ll explore these core practices:

• • • Communication and direct relationship with Nature and Mystery
    • Ceremonial council and the building of community
    • Movement and somatic exercises
    • Diverse ways of knowing
    • Deep imagery journeys
    • Rhythm, silence, songs, poetry, and artistic expression

PROGRAM DETAILS

FEES: For this camping program, we offer a 3-tier fee structure. We acknowledge the challenges of economic inequity in our culture and purposely set a wide fee structure. We invite participants who have the financial means to pay on the upper end of the 3 tiers, in support of others who need to pay on the lower end. Reparation rates available for BIPOC.  Please contact us.

REGISTRATION: To register, please fill out this form and send a non-refundable deposit of $200.

• Send a check, payable to Anne Hayden, mail to:
  NW Soul Quest  •  PO Box 181  •  Clinton, WA 98236
• Pay via PayPal using our email address as the payee: nwsoulquest@gmail.com. Please add 3% fee for Pay Pal transactions.
• Pay via Zelle by using our email address as the payee:  nwsoulquest@gmail.com  (Direct bank transfer, no fees.)

LOCATION: This program takes place at a group campsite on Whidbey Island.  You will need a tent and sleeping bag and minimal camping equipment. Let us know if you need help gathering equipment.

FOOD:  Locally sourced, fresh meals provided.  We can accommodate vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free diets. You may need to supplement for other specific food needs.  Please specify any dietary restrictions or needs when you register.

SCHEDULE: Program begins on Thursday at 10:00 am.  Check-in available starting at 9:00 am. Program ends at 12:00 noon on Sunday. For an extra fee ($30), you can arrive Wednesday evening to camp.  Due to the erratic nature of the ferries to our island, please allow for extra travel time.  We recommend that you do not make commitments on Sunday after the program.

CURRENT COVID PROTOCOL: We ask that participants be vaccinated and be willing to follow whatever guidelines we put in place to respond to the needs of the particular people at this time and place.  All meetings, meals and experiential exercises will be held outside,  Participants will be camping in their own tents.

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Contact us for more information or to register:

(360) 320-5343    •    nwsoulquest@gmail.com

 

We honor the people and Nations––past, present and future––of the Coast Salish Tribes,
including the Snohomish, the Lower Skagit, and the Swinomish Peoples,
upon whose traditional lands and shores this work takes place.