Ancestors, Death & Descent
Descent: Into the body. Into the lower psyche. Into stillness. Into darkness. Into the holding of the Earth. Into the Underworld where gifts are found.
Ancestral Stories
At this time of the year traditionally the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. In many cultures, including Polish, it is a time to connect with and honour the dead.
In our society we have forgotten to celebrate the ancestors, who passed down to us the fruit of their lives. To consciously receive and acknowledge their legacy can nourish and support us.
This workshop will include:
-
Inquiring into gifts and challenges passed down the ancestral lines and how we carry them forward
-
Uncovering, sharing and performing ancestral stories
-
Honouring and initiating a more conscious relationship with the ancestors
-
Community ritual
-
Work with presence, embodiment, improvisation, enquiry and storytelling
"Stories of Descent"
Descent
Into the body
Into the lower psyche
Into stillness
Into darkness
Into the holding of the Earth
Into the Underworld where gifts are found and recovered.
Autumn and winter invite us on the journey of descent; into the dark and deeper into ourselves. The Dark that we may shy away from offers gifts of rest and transformation.
Inspired by nature's Life-Death-Life cycle we will inquire into what is disintegrating in our identities at present and how to engage with that process. We will look at our conditioning around loss and draw on mythological themes such as Inanna.
“Going down” and embracing what is found there is part a woman’s journey home. She is called to re-inhabit her body waist down and to plunge into the lower regions of her psyche where a raw power awaits, in the form of stories and emotions.
To safely embody these “taboo” parts of ourselves can bring us more energy and well-being, a sense of wholeness.
Creation and Death
In this course we will look at archetypal and mythological expressions of the forces of Creation and Death and reflect on how they are playing out in our lives.
What skins are we shedding and what creative spells are we casting? What is our relationship to surrender and to regenerative magic? What deities rule these realms?
A feast of exploration and a potential for transformation.
We will explore inner and outer themes through theatre and improvisation, trusting the body and following the magic of the moment.
Death as Ally
An embodied exploration of how we can relate with forces of death in a way that supports our relationship with life, enhancing our presence and appreciation.
Expect experiential inquiry, movement, creative expression and deep reflection, held with awareness and care.