October 30 -
November 1, 2009

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John Lockley's flyer in color

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Wisdom Keeper Weekends at Blue Deer Center
John Lockley – Sangoma
'UBUNTU' – Every part forms the whole, every person forms the community

An evening around the Fire with John Lockley
Friday, October 30, 7-9pm, cost $10
John Lockley was born and raised in South Africa. His work as an African sangoma of the Xhosa tradition has lead him to share the wisdom of his native land through workshops in Great Britain and now the United States. The evening offers a firsthand glimpse at the deep and rich Xhosa way of viewing your life, your experience and your path. You will participant in ancient song and rhythm as you are transported in a Xhosa ceremony of introduction.

Ubuntu Workshop
Saturday, October 31, 9am-6pm, cost $50
Ubuntu means humanity. The workshop will involve transmitting the ancient Xhosa teachings of ‘Ubuntu Ubunzulu’ which means the depth of humanity. Each person is seen as being inextricably connected to one another and a person’s humanity is judged by the quality of their interaction with other people.

In this workshop the sangoma calls on the ‘the Great Spirit’ and all ancestral spirits to help teach the people. The sangoma will also call on the ancestors of each participant to assist with the learning and through this each participant receives a blessing as they enter the workshop space.

The job of the sangoma is to open the way for the individual and larger community and to help people in removing obstacles and negativity and in so doing helping them to realise their destinies in this world and the next.

The Ubuntu workshops involve taking people on a journey towards the ancestral world using songs, rhythms, trance dancing, storytelling, prayer, dream work as well as a blessing ceremony using medicinal plants. The sangoma becomes a messenger or a bridge between people and/ or cultures. They channel the ancestors using the ancient tool of storytelling to explain certain spiritual/ancestral ideas, thereby showing people how to connect with their ancestors, spirit guides, nature, Great Spirit, themselves and each other.

Sangoma means ‘people of the song.’ Rhythm and song are seen as central tools in bringing people closer to the ancestral world, therefore the workshop will involve participation in both as well as herbal medicine with the intention to help facilitate peoples’ journey towards their ancestors. The Xhosa believe that dreams offer very strong guidance from the ancestors; therefore there will also be a focus on dreamtime with some time spent on dream interpretation so the participant may gain a more complete understanding of guidance that has been received.

Individual Sessions
John will be available for individual sessions on Sunday, Nov 1 ($100).

October 17-22, 2009

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Healing Camp flyer in color

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Healing Camp with Eliot Cowan

This October we are delighted to offer our 12th Healing Camp with Eliot Cowan at the Blue Deer Center. With the sound of the stream echoing throughout the property and soothing all that it passes, the ancestral blessings of the land, the plant spirits, and the indescribable peace and beauty of the surrounding area, the Blue Deer Center is a perfect venue for healing camp. Offered for the past 9 years in various locations around the United States, Eliot Cowan’s healing camps have brought traditional Huichol healing sessions to people from all walks of life.

After he had re-discovered Plant Spirit Medicine and been practicing it for several years, Eliot found himself in a waiting room reading an article about the Huichol Indians. Feeling as if an electrical charge had passed through his body, Eliot immediately knew he had to go and find out about these people. After several years building relationship with Huichol shamans he was introduced to the late Guadalupe Gonzalez, who became his teacher. At that point, Eliot embarked upon a rigorous 12-year apprenticeship learning the healing traditions of the Huichols.

As he brought this healing back to his people, Eliot found its benefits could best be supported by a "healing camp" where the stress patterns of daily life are temporarily left behind. The camp creates a special sacred space which offers the opportunity to reconnect with ourselves, with others and with the natural world.

Healing camp is five days of traditional Huichol healing sessions with Eliot Cowan. Participation is limited to 15 people. The healing work is enhanced by activities that promote peace, joy, and connection with nature.

October 9-11, 2009

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Tasnim Hermila Fernandez's flyer in color

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Sufism — the Path of Love and Knowledge
with Tasnim Hermila Fernandez

The heart may be called a crucible, the place of transformation, the seat of the soul’s awareness and a source of magnetism.  In order to awaken the heart it must be cleansed and made pliable and receptive.  The fullness of an awakened heart is displayed in acts of loving-kindness and courage, and as activated discernment and wisdom.  The Knowing Heart resides with ease in the mystery of existence as it navigates through the quandaries and challenges of everyday life with an insight into the Real Self of all creation, possessing a knowledge beyond mental or rational conditionality.

Murshida Tasnim will share Sufi teachings and practices, including Dances of Universal Peace, walking attunements and Zikr (the Sufi practice of ‘remembrance’), to help catalyze and support the personal process of polishing the mirror of the heart and assist in its awakening.  Together we will journey through expanded states of being, gathering resources to help us on all fronts - inner and outer.
 
We will dive deeply into the universal stream of Love, Harmony, and Beauty.  All who seek to deepen their spiritual practice are especially welcome.

October 3-4, 2009

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Eda Zavala Lopez's flyer in color

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Wisdom Keeper Weekends at Blue Deer Center
Eda Zavala Lopez – Healer from the Peruvian Amazon

Hearing the voices of the Amazon Jungle
Ritual around the Fire
Saturday, October 3, 7-9:30pm, cost $10
We will make an altar with flowers, fruits, water and Palo Santo, Singing Sacred Songs from the Amazon (Icaros) in Gratitude with Mother Earth and Sacred Spirits from the North. The Icaros call all the Spirits of the forest to cure us. Birds, Wind, Plant Medicine, Trees and River share the wisdom of Nature with us. There will be blessings for each one of the participants and we will end by saying Thanks to the Sacred Fire and the Woods of Blue Deer Center.

Magical time with the Spirits of the Amazon Jungle
Workshop
Sunday, October 4, 10am-1:30pm, cost $50
We will begin by Calling to the Spirit of Plant Medicine singing an Icaro to connect to each other. Eda will speak about Indigenous knowledge, a real Wisdom of the Elders: an oral transmission of the Indigenous Healers about Plant Medicine and their properties to cure physical and emotional illnesses. The morning will include a short video about Plant Medicine and the Amazonian Indigenous People in Peru. Eda will also share about preserving the forest and traditions and the importance of learning to hear the message of the plant spirits. We will end the workshop sending prayers in gratitude with Mother Nature.

Private Healing Sessions
Workshop
Saturday, October 3, starting at 1pm, $70 per 45-minute session
Eda uses her ancient knowledge doing ceremonies and personal healing sessions to view how the subtle body system is affected by chronic sadness, anxieties and depression. For her it becomes necessary to learn again to coexist in Harmony with Nature, to respect and become aware that we depend on Her. In this fine balance resides her wisdom and an encounter of ancestral knowledge and hope, is shared.

September 25-27, 2009

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Malidoma Somé's flyer in color

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A Time to Grieve – A Time to grow, with Malidoma Somé

Various changes in our world are a confirmation and a testimony that global transformation cannot happen without everyone in the world being willing and able to shed a plethora of unwanted calcifications.  How do we address all the things that stop us from change, including the scars of loss and the cleansing of the graffiti that litters the wall of our psyches?

“In indigenous Africa, one cannot conceive of a community that does not grieve.  Until grief is restored in the West as the starting place where the modern man and woman might find peace, the culture will continue to abuse and ignore the (healing) power of water, and, in turn, will be fascinated by (the destructive forces of) fire.

“Let us join together to grieve. Grief is a cleansing tool and an effective method of release we need in these times of loss. Let us gather to boldly express through grief the loss of connection with ancestors and with loved ones; the loss of love, health and wealth, identity and belonging, home and care.

“Joining together in support of each other sends a force against adversity to be reckoned with, a force that realigns us with our purpose, gifts and the deep story of our lives. It is a force capable of restoring the sense of fullness we have always felt we deserve.  Thru ritual we can return community to us.”  
– Malidoma Patrice Somé

August 13-16, 2009

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Lei'ohu Ryder's flyer in color

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Lei’ohu Ryder

“Fire of Aloha”
Come to the BDC to experience an evening together around the ‘fire of aloha’.  Lei’ohu Ryder and Maydeen ‘Iao offer an opportunity to be in community with song, dance and healing.

Thursday, August 13, 6:00-8:00pm
Suggested donation:  $20
Register in advance on-line, or at the door. 
Maximum 80 participants.

‘Olohe Malu – Ancestral Teachings of Aloha
E komo mai! Welcome! You are invited to experience the journey of aloha from the voice of the Pacific that is calling us together in the oneness of the ancestral portal.

E komo mai, come into the realm of oneness as we explore our many expressions of life as humanity on this planet of love. E komo mai, come in to the garden of life that speaks the language of oneness from the doorway of the ancestors.

‘Olohe means to listen. It is also a messenger of spirit that comes through guardians of sacred knowledge and wisdom, keepers of wisdom that are offered specific teachings from the land, sea, sky and universes beyond. Malu means calm, peaceful, splendid in unity with all. Malu is also a fragrance of gentleness that caresses the senses with softness and sensitivity.

‘Olohe Malu means to listen to the quivering of the ancestors. If you look at a coconut leaf gently moving, this is the quivering of the ancestors. They are ever present but not always heard.‘Olohe Malu means to listen to the quivering of the ancestors with the senses of the heart.

‘Olohe Malu offers to participants a way of connecting to the portal of innocence, light and remembrance in the ancestral ways of embracing the spirit of oneness in diversity.

Through the traditions of the Pacific and the teachings of Kukuipuka Heiau, a sacred temple of healing - chant, protocols, prayers, music and dance are woven in a lei of aloha that celebrates our oneness as diversity, and wholeness as humanity and divinity. Talk story, music, movement, meditation, play and hands-on experiences will bring us in to the breath of the ancestors and the wisdom that is offered to each one.

Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16
Begins with dinner, Friday evening and ends after lunch on Sunday
Cost of the weekend: $495. Includes program, meals and shared accommodations:

Private Sessions with Lei’ohu:
Divinations, blessings, private healing sessions are unique to each one. When they enter the aloha of Kukuipuka (the doorway to the light) Heiau (temple), they are embraced by its authentic wisdom and healing messages from the ancestors and beyond.

Individuals can contact Lei’ohu personally by email (kukuipuka@aol.com) or by cell phone (808.276.9677) or in the spur of the moment (NOW) for a session. Cost: $150/hour.  Sessions will be scheduled during our stay at the BDC.

July 9-13, 2009,
arrive July 8th

click here to download the
Healing Camp flyer in color

or in black & white

Healing Camp with Eliot Cowan

This July we are delighted to offer our 11th Healing Camp with Eliot Cowan at the Blue Deer Center. With the sound of the stream echoing throughout the property and soothing all that it passes, the ancestral blessings of the land, the plant spirits, and the indescribable peace and beauty of the surrounding area, the Blue Deer Center is a perfect venue for healing camp. Offered for the past 9 years in various locations around the United States, Eliot Cowan’s healing camps have brought traditional Huichol healing sessions to people from all walks of life.

After he had re-discovered Plant Spirit Medicine and been practicing it for several years, Eliot found himself in a waiting room reading an article about the Huichol Indians. Feeling as if an electrical charge had passed through his body, Eliot immediately knew he had to go and find out about these people. After several years building relationship with Huichol shamans he was introduced to the late Guadalupe Gonzalez, who became his teacher. At that point, Eliot embarked upon a rigorous 12-year apprenticeship learning the healing traditions of the Huichols.

As he brought this healing back to his people, Eliot found its benefits could best be supported by a "healing camp" where the stress patterns of daily life are temporarily left behind. The camp creates a special sacred space which offers the opportunity to reconnect with ourselves, with others and with the natural world.

Healing camp is five days of traditional Huichol healing sessions with Eliot Cowan. Participation is limited to 15 people. The healing work is enhanced by activities that promote peace, joy, and connection with nature.

July 4th, 2009

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Fireball flyer in color

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Fireball 2009 – Interdependence Day!

Choose to celebrate Independence Day in a new way with a joyous group of people who are bringing back the ancestral ways so that we can be truly interdependent.

Expect great food, music, a silent auction and raffle items, an evening around the fire with Eliot Cowan and a few new surprises.

Make plans to attend this year’s Fireball at the Blue Deer Center July 4, 2009.

Stay Tuned!

June 26-29, 2009

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Bob & Lee Nitsch's flyer in color

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Wisdom Keeper Weekends at Blue Deer Center
Bob & Lee Nitsch

Drumming Evening
Come and learn the Ancient ways of Rhythm and Harmony as practiced by our Native Ancestors. Let the Drum’s song speak to your heart, embracing the voice of Motherearth and opening the door to a greater connection with spirit. Bring along a drum, rattle or any percussion instrument and enjoy yourself.

Friday June 26th, 2009
7:00 - 10:00 pm
Cost: $10.

Legends of The Seneca
Wolfclan Teaching Lodge/The Seneca Indian Historical Society
It has long been the tradition of the Wolfclan Teaching Lodge/Seneca Indian Historical Society to reach out to the many Peoples of Noh-yeh-ohn-jeh, Motherearth, and Share the Earth Wisdom, Prophecy and Philosophy of the Seneca. It is a Dream of Peace long in the unfolding of time coming forward in our consciousness and shared from our hearts…

Journey with us through the Ancient Oral Tradition of Seneca Story-telling. Help create a portal of sacred space where Inspiration can grow and Love can be remembered.

Saturday June 27th, 2009
10:00am—4:00 pm
Workshop fee $50
Please bring a brown bag lunch, as meals are not included.

Private Appointments
Bob & Lee will be offering private consultations, by appointment, on Sunday, June 28th.

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