Cultivate the Conditions for Your Elder to Thrive
August 21–25, 2024
In-person on South Whidbey Island, WA
Three-tier fee: $425 • $595 • $795
(includes camping fees and all meals)
with Sheila Bélanger and Anne Hayden
The human-centered world has been immersed in a profound, collective initiation.
What now, we ask?
We need the Elders!
The Covid-19 pandemic brought our ordinary lives to a slow and persistent pause, calling
us to see beyond our individual lives and to feel the truth of the inter-connectedness between all humans and with other-than-humans. Whether the pandemic brought loss, nourishment, or unimaginable challenge depended largely upon one’s social position. It brought the potential for us to grow our awareness and compassion for the “other,” and to recognize the need for a vast and total cultural transformation.
The pandemic exposed the underbelly of humanity, making visible systemic racism, poverty, white supremacy and domination, gender inequity, the global climate crisis, political polarization, mass spread of misinformation, “culture wars,” and so much more.
Going back to the “old normal” is not possible for those who have lived in the deep layers of this initiation, and long for a collective movement where all Beings may thrive. A radical shift in the deep structure of our human participation is the vital link that can bring about such a cultural transformation.
For this, we need elders who can contribute
their life wisdom and sacred presence
to the necessary radical shifts.
Just as we carry within us an Inner Child who needs to be nurtured and sometimes healed, so we also carry an Inner Elder whose presence is always there to guide us with a soul blueprint.
Cultivating the conditions for the Inner Elder
to thrive contributes directly to the urgent needs
of the world at this pivotal time,
more than anything else imaginable.
Cultivation of our own Inner Elder is beyond anything that can be learned through ordinary channels. Books, articles, podcasts and webinars can only take us so far. Our invitation for this gathering is to:
-
Submit ourselves to the alchemy of consciousness shifting practices- Follow the cairns laid down by our souls on the path to Elderhood
- Hone practices to develop our capacity for equity, inclusion, and deep democracy
- Track and tend layers of intergenerational trauma, using embodied practices
- Encourage curiously pertinent dream experiences to work on us
- Align with the strengths and gifts of the Ancestors
- Discover and commit to one’s authentic expression as an Elder
This program, patterned on the wisdom of nature, offers guidance, practices, tools, and support from a larger field than your individual self or the wisdom of the human guides.
Reciprocal relationship with the other-than-human world
deeply supports the cultivation of Elderhood.
And you don’t even have to be of a “certain age” to join us on this remarkable journey.
All stages of life are involved in creating the conditions for our Elder to thrive.
Like our other offerings, this program is highly experiential and is informed by
Process Work , Soulcraft™ practices, and Authentic Movement, as well as depth psychology and contemporary anti-oppression practices. It invites participants to immerse themselves in ancient and enduring earth-based ways of knowing, the poetic traditions, and initiatory rites.
PROGRAM DETAILS
FEES: For this camping program, we offer a 3-tier fee structure: $425 • $595 • $795. 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 $250.
- 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 private home/retreat space on South Whidbey Island, with camping spaces available in the cedar forest nearby. You will need a tent and sleeping bag and minimal camping equipment. Contact us if you are not able to camp.
FOOD: Locally sourced, fresh, mostly vegetarian 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 Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Check-in available starting at 4:00 pm. A light dinner provided at 5:30. Program ends at 1 pm on Sunday. 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 AND HEALTH PROTOCOLS: We ask that participants be willing to follow the guidelines we determine when the program takes place. Our venue offers the possibility to hold all meetings outside if necessary. Participants will camp in their own tents. Please come healthy. Let us know if you need camping gear or other arrangements.
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Contact us for more information or to register:
(360) 320-5343 • nwsoulquest@gmail.com
