Regular Community Events

Springtime is a time of new beginnings, the delicate ferocity of new life, a time for hope and renewal. We invite you to join us this April as we weave the teachings of permaculture with what it truly means to be human.

Permaculture offers a positive way for humans to exist on Earth. Its principles can help us realize and manifest our potential as a resilient, regenerative force. It’s hopeful and speaks directly to the grief and hopelessness many of us feel with the current state of the world and allows us to begin to live in reciprocity with all beings.

Much of permaculture focuses on our physical relationship to the land. At its root, though, it offers a path for falling more deeply in love with Mother Earth and through that love, realize that She loves us back and is calling us home.

During this weekend, we invite you to dive deep and, through direct revelation, experience what we can do to restore balance at this critical time on the planet. We will reclaim and remember our true selves through Earth-honoring ceremony, nature connection and prayer. We will journey both inward and outward, communing with each other and the beings around us. We will then come to understand, deep in our bones, that Earth is alive, that we are all connected, and if we slow down enough, the stones, the trees, the waters, the winds can tell us what we need to hear and learn.

It’s up to us to change the human story of separation and return to our true place of belonging. Do you hear the call? If not us, who? If not now, when?

Join us!

When: April 5-7, 2019 (begins with dinner Friday through after lunch Sunday)

Where: Claymont Society, a 340-acre spiritual retreat center, nestled in the Shenandoah Valley of WV, just 1 hour from Washington DC’s Dulles airport.

How Much: This will be a small, intimate gathering of 12-15 people. $165 for workshop fee includes 6 delicious vegan meals. Great Barn lodging $50 (2 nights), camping $20 (2 nights) = Total from $185-$215. Hold your space with $50 deposit or pay in full here: https://spiritualpermaculture.brownpapertickets.com/

Food: Delicious vegan food will be prepared by the amazing chef, Vanessa Elaine Collins, with the majority of the ingredients sourced from the Claymont Property, Young Harvests, and other local vendors. Yum!!!

Who: Bill Pfeiffer aka «Sky Otter» is the founder of Sacred Earth Network (SEN) which continues to implement leading edge visions for over 25 years. In that time, Bill has made Russia a second home having traveled there 44 times assisting the environmental and indigenous movements through SEN. This has given him a rare cross-cultural perspective. He has also led hundreds of spiritual ecology workshops, including men’s and breath work. He has 25 years of experience in Re-evaluation Counseling and Vipassana meditation, and has undergone extensive training with Siberian shamans. Bill has partnered with and designed experiential workshops with Joanna Macy, John Perkins, Llyn Roberts, Cathy Pedevillano, and John Seed. He has also spent much time in the US Southwest learning about Native medicine ways and the crucial importance of the petroglyphs and pictographs. His book, Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture has been met with high acclaim.

Kit McGinnis is an embodied storyteller who loves to dance and commune with all beings. She has lived in intentional community for nearly 20 years and has been immersed in spiritual life, through meditation, movement, inquiry and nature connection for just as long. She has been happily married for 18 years and has two teenagers. She is a founding member of the Permaculture Center at Claymont and is currently apprenticing in ALisa Starkweather’s Priestess Path Program, A Woman’s Mystery School. She leads monthly full moon labyrinth walks and has a deep understanding of what it means to witness and be witnessed through two decades of practice in her Authentic Movement women’s circle. She knows Bill Pfeiffer through her participation is his Vision Quest and 10-day Wild Earth Intensive, and through his ongoing friendship and mentorship.

Some of the weekend’s activities:
Ceremony and Ritual for setting intention and honoring the elements and ancestors
Nature connection through Awe Walks and Saunters
Oak Wisdom
Shamanic Journeying
Fire circles
Storytelling
Dancing and deep body listening
Poetry
Joy
Song

Movements of the Soul

Movements of the Soul follows on from the previous DuVersity event at Claymont, The Language of Gesture – with a major new element engaging us in the making of sacred images through movement. This requires us to realize we are bodily because it is through this that there can be real acts of worship. Word, breath and movement can combine and fuse to lose their partiality as, according to Gurdjieff, thinking, feeling and sensing can coalesce into a new body of individuality.

In a DuVersity event, we strive to merge diverse elements and avoid ideological bias and conditioning, in an open-ended participative performance. The way of understanding utilizes knowledge and experience but is not confined to them. We may come to see how gesture can give concrete form to our will, bridging worlds.

Seminar presenters will include  Anthony Blake,  Molly Forde, Bhati Diaz and Jesai Jayhmes

Dates:  May 9-12, 2019.  The seminar will begin with dinner on Thursday evening and end with lunch on Sunday.

Location:     The Claymont Society for Continuous Education, Charles Town, WV  25414

Cost – The cost of the event including lodging is $450 if paid by March 15, 2019 and $495 after March 15, 2019.

For more information and to register:

Please contact Matt Zenkowich – zenkm1428@gmail.com

Registration and Payment Instructions               Event Flyer

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