Monthly

Community Fires, Men's Fires
and Women's Fires at the BDC
With Dan Sprinkles and Annie Eagan

Flickering firelight, the smell of smoke, the sound of laughter, songs and stories...People have been sitting around the fire for hundreds of thousands of years. The fire provides protection, warmth and a place for us to connect with one another and share our common human experience. At the heart of the Blue Deer Center is the fire - the fire of our hearts, the fire of transformation, and the fire burning at the core of all ancestral traditions.

Community sacred fires are offered monthly on the grounds of the Blue Deer Center. Dan Sprinkles and Annie Eagan, our resident shamans, are both initiated Fire Keepers of the Sacred Fire Community. They host community fires, usually on the 3rd Friday of the month, and all are welcome. Potluck suppers often precede the fire when we share good food and good company with new friends and old. Dan and Annie also host men's and women's fires frequently.

By Appointment

The Blue Deer Center is pleased to offer the healing help of two resident healers (shamans).

Dan Sprinkles and Annie Eagan have both completed 6-year apprenticeships and are initiated Markames, or shamans, in the ancient, ancestral tradition of the Huichols of the Mexican Sierras. Additionally, they were initiated eight years ago in the Nahua shamanic tradition as Weather Workers. Through these two lineages they are able to offer deep shamanic healing for those in need. Dan has also been a life coach for many years and offers a unique program designed to enter a more appropriate relationship with the mind. It is called, "The Enemies of Learning." For the last eleven years, Annie has been providing healing help to humans and animals with Plant Spirit Medicine. Through their Weather Working lineage and training, they are both able to offer healing sweat lodges called Temazcals, in the ancestral Nahua tradition.

May 29 - 31, 2009

click here to download
the complete conference schedule

5th Annual Plant Spirit Medicine Conference
Coming out of the Cold Into the Bloom of Life

Our Medicine is strong. It is a call from the heart, a knowing of our strength and purpose. While we live in a culture drowning in fear, our medicine does not succumb. It is timeless and deep. What is needed to move our people beyond the fear that is destroying us? In the face of fear, the singing of the plants reminds us of who we are at our very core and of the nature of our sacred being. We are the bloom of life.

Come let the plants warm your heart. Learn how their medicine can heal a people trapped in cold and fear. Come strengthen your medicine and help your people bloom. The 2009 Plant Spirit Medicine conference invites you to join us as we explore the challenges facing our people in these difficult times.. Strengthen and deepen your connection with the medicine so that it may offer a way through the fear and challenges of our time.

If you would like more information about the conference you can contact us at psmconf2009@gmail.com. Or you can call Paris Preston, Conference Co-Chair, at (206) 909-6087.

A Certificate of Participation will be available.

We look forward to blooming with you.

June 4 - 8, 2009

click here to download the Ukalai flyer in color

or in black & white.

Ukalai - Lifeways Women’s Retreat

Ukalai: (Uh-kay-la-ee) is a word in the Huichol indigenous language that means ‘a woman who has reached a level of maturity and has taken on the responsibilities of spirit, community, and family.’ It indicates that she has found her role and place within herself, the community and in the world and therefore is a support for herself and others.

In the indigenous world and the life of our ancestors, the feminine was initiated, taught, and guided to interact with each other, the masculine, the community and with the spirits. Knowing who they were, women found a home within themselves and created harmonious relationships with others.

In our culture these roles, references, guides and knowledge have been lost or greatly diminished. They have been replaced by the incessant drive and indoctrination of social, economic, and materialistic demands of modernity, which places consumerism, change for change’s sake, and mind over the power of heart at the center of daily life. Lost is the community of learning and healing, and the wisdom of a council of elders. As a result, women’s lives have altered radically – in addition to our roles as partners, mothers, community members and keepers of home and hearth, women now also perform successfully in the workplace, immensely increasing our responsibilities and putting us at risk of prolonged stress. We find ourselves alienated from the place of harmony and balance that is our birthright.

Taking the time for ourselves to reconnect to the essential being of the feminine, to discover the navigation of our heart, and to clear, refresh and renew our direction in life is the purpose of the Ukalai retreat. Ukalai represents a pilgrimage to our soul and feminine connection in order to bring about a restoration. Participation in the Ukalai retreat provides support on an ongoing basis to one’s vision, direction and relationship to others and the world.

June 19-21, 2009

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Cynthia Walker's flyer in color

or in black & white.

Wisdom Keeper Weekends at Blue Deer Center
Cynthia Walker

Introduction to the Mayan Calendar – Preparing Ourselves for 2012.
We will learn where we are in the cycles of time according to the Mayan Calendar according to the Long Count calendar and the other calendars, most especially the Tzolkin, or Sacred Calendar. The Tzolkin has 20 days and 13 numbers that rotate, like gears of a clock, to form 260 days, or 9 months, the gestation period of a human being.

Friday, June 19, 2009
7:00-9:00pm
Cost: $10

The Mayan Calendar
Saturday’s program will be the study of the 20 Day Signs, their order and significance, and the energies they represent from the Earth, the Cosmos, and the Universe. Then all will be more familiar with the names and energies when we have the Fire Ceremony on Saturday evening. This will also help those who choose to have a horoscope and/or divination on Sunday.

Saturday, June 20, 2009
9:00am-5:00pm
7:00-9:00pm
Cost: $50 (does not include meals). Please bring a sack lunch. There will be a 2-hour break between the workshop and the Fire Ceremony for participants to have dinner in Margaretville.

Divinations:
DIVINATIONS - DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?
Life Path, Love, Money, Work, Relationships
Ask the Guardians of the Days of the Sacred Mayan Calendar

Mayan Horoscopes:
The Mayan Calendar Day Signs carry all the energies of The Earth, The Heavens the Cosmos and the Universe
What energies are you manifesting?
What energy is carrying you?
Cynthia is a student of the Sacred Calendar. She was initiated as a Priestess in the Mayan Tradition By Don Alejandro Cirilo Oxlaj in 1998

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Individual divination or Mayan horoscope readings will be available on Sunday, for those who wish to schedule them.

June 26-29, 2009

click here to download
Bob & Lee Nitsch's flyer in color

or in black & white.

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.

July 4th, 2009

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Fireball flyer in color.

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!

July 9-13, 2009,
arrive July 8th

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 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.

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