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Calendar of Events

 

Vision Quest

An ancient rite of passage for modern people

The time has come to confirm a transition and to remove yourself from your former life. Vision Quest is to leave every possible distraction behind and become empty. We will prepare you to go out alone, with no food and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for four days and nights.

There you will live with yourself in wild solitude and surrender to the influences of the soul of nature, discovering it to be a true mirror of your self.

The unimportant things will fall away and your emptiness invites the Vision of the work that must be done.

In your solitude, you wander through the precincts of death, where vision lies waiting. You drink from the springs of the deepest feeling and are filled with self-recognition. What is unimportant falls away. The work that must be done lies ahead.

Structure of the Vision Quest

Four days of preparation in Findhorn, staying in the Findhorn Hostel with bay view and close to the dune lands. We gather daily in the Earth lodge at the heart of the Findhorn Community.

Five days out in the wilderness of the Moray Firth. We will live in the woodlands at the beaches close to Findhorn Bay. The ocean as the most ancient landscape and the home of all living things will help to reconnect with the ancient home within you.
Four of these days will be your solo fast.
The guides in the base camp will keep watch over your safety day and night.

Two days back in Findhorn, for integration of the vision into the life to which you return.

 

 

 

 

Holger Heiten

*1966, is Gestalt Therapist, Psychotherapist, internationally working Vision Quest Guide and teacher for initiatory process companionship in the Eschwege Institute and the Campus Peregrini, that was founded by him and his wife Gesa. He has trained with Steven Foster & Meredith Little in the School of Lost Borders (USA) and Verena & Haiko Nitschke (Germany).

Christiane Brosat

*1977, Experienced BA Social Worker (Germany), Councillor and outdoor educator.
Inspired by the two-years training to become an Initiation and Process Mentor at the Eschwege Institute, she did quite her job and became self employed.
She is the co-founder of the German Association “Draußenzeit” that organizes and facilitates outdoor- and wilderness- education programmes as well as rites of passage work with youth and adults. Her heart beats for nature and creating opportunities for her participants to reconnect with it again.
She trains others in outdoor education, working with rope gardens, canoeing and first aid outdoors.
During her journeys throughout the world, she found her interest in the different religions and felt also drawn to Yoga and water shiatsu.

Please contact us for more detailed information, such as travel information etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Hinter den Höfen 10, 37276 Neuerode, Tel.: +49 (0)5651 951360, Fax.: 952144, Mobil.: +49 (0)172 6315620 info@campus-peregrini.de, www.campus-peregrini.de

 

 

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF MIRRORING AND EMPOWERMENT

Advanced Training with Meredith Little

08. - 13.09.2012, 445,- € + 240,- € for Food and Accommodation

Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller.

What comes forth in the story is the stuff of self-transformation. Even as we “myth” ourselves into experience, so we express ourselves into existence. Our stories about our natural selves, and our means of expressing them, lead us to courage, determination, commitment, hope, wisdom, and the will to survive, to transcend the difficulty, to go beyond ourselves. Those of us who work with people must know how to listen and respond to the stories our people tell, so that we can help them create a life that is deeper, richer, and of greater benefit to our community and the earth.

This is a training for guides, trainees, and people who have had some experience with the art of mirroring. We will look at how collective mythology, universal archetypes, and archetypal dynamics are expressed in story, and how this informs the art of mirroring. We will explore different forms of storytelling and mirroring such as movement, dance, song, and artistic expression, in additional to verbal.

Mornings will be taken up with meetings, afternoons with solitary excursions into the surrounding land that evoke the four shields of human-nature. In the late afternoons and evenings we will tell, listen to, and practice mirroring stories that empower. The objectives of the seminar are to experience human-nature deeply; to elicit personal “mythos” through the expression of the story; and to acquire knowledge and experience of how to listen and respond to the four personas of human nature (“mirror”).

Meredith Little

Director of The Practice of Living and Dying, Lost Borders International, and Lost Borders Press. Meredith and her husband, Steven Foster, co-founded Rites of Passage Inc. in 1976 and The School of Lost Borders in 1981 – pioneering the methods and dynamics of modern pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness, and “field eco-therapy”. The essence of their work is captured in articles, chapters, an award-winning documentary film, and books that include: The Book of the Vision Quest, The Roaring of the Sacred River, The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature and Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness. Since Steven’s death in 2003, she continues both nationally and internationally to guide and train others in this work, while also founding, with Dr. Scott Eberle, a new arm of Lost Borders entitled “The Practice of Living and Dying”. In this partnership she hopes to crack open the taboos surrounding death, and to help restore dying to its natural place in the cycles of living.

 

 

 

Council trainings

Council is an ancient form and modern practice, which offers a way of communicating that encourages attentive listening, honest and compassionate expression. It makes room for new insights and understandings, wisdom in decision making, and healing.
We see council, as a personal practice, a group process, and a life pathway, as essential for any individual whose work or service involves a group, staff, community, etc.

In cooperation with the Ojai Foundation (www.ojaifoundation.org) and the School of Lost Borders (www.schooloflostborders.com) in California, the Eschwege Institut is hosting a training to become a carrier of "council" or a "council trainer". See "calendar of events" for several council seminars.

Bodywork, Nature & Council

A retreat seminar with Leslie Roberts & Pippa Bondy

Limited to 16 participants

This is an invitation to join us in a retreat that focuses on developing a practice of the body.

As we expand our awareness and identify the next steps along a path of healing, we will enter into a dialogue with our wild nature and the natural world.  We will be exploring expressive and healing movements and ceremonial time in nature. There will also be opportunities to receive nurturing massage and bodywork in private sessions.
Beginning with an openingCouncil and moving into the weekend, our emphasis will be on creating a daily rhythm of moving and tuning in together. We will share our stories and explore personal themes on solo nature walks. We will have opportunities for close conversations with co-travellers, group attunements, movement classes and Council. ​
This time together is designed to be simple and spacious. A time for relaxation, healing and remembering the ways in which we are part of the Earth. There will be plenty of time to enjoy the local beauty and spirit of Eschwege. This is a good opportunity for integrating changes and catching up with ourselves. A rare occasion!

Leslie has a background in structural, sculptural massage therapies, and has incorporated aspects of Astonwork, Middendorf, Feldenkrais, and Bioenergetics into her bodywork approach.
She has worked in collaboration with chiropractors, physical therapists, and various sports and dance therapists, and has developed a breath informed, alignment practice for unwinding patterns of stiffness.
She has decades of experience offering Council trainings and wilderness education, and has had many personal epiphanies in nature.
She has created a movement practice, a dance of poetry, breath and prayer called Prayerforms.

Pippa has been guiding quests and wilderness retreats for many years, and has developed a unique program based on a synthesis of Council and Alexander Technique.

Her background includes a strong influence from training in the Alexander Technique, Tai Chi and mediation. She has developed a program that opens a heightened sense of awareness and the stillness of deep listening within the body and the body of the Earth.

She is skilled in using her voice and touch to lighten the ways we are weighed down.

 

 

 

 

Council in Schools I

In Introduction to Council with Joe Provisor, the director of the Council in Schools (CIS) Programme in Los Angeles and with Gesa & Holger Heiten

A four day workshop for educators, social workers, psychologists and all those who work professionally or voluntary in schools or with schools

June 29. (3:00 pm) – July 02. (2:00 pm) 2012 in the Eschwege Institute / Germany

What is Council?

„Council“ is a nonhierarchical, nonviolent form of communication in Groups with a focus on listening.
Council is a way to develop the self esteem and self awareness of the individual, as well as the communication with one another.

Council offers Teams, companies and groups of every kind a highly effective way to design processes, work through crises and conflicts, build community and honour the results achieved.
It is one of the most effective ceremonies to develop communities and relationships.

The Ojai Foundation (www.ojaifoundation.org) in California developed „The Way of Council“ in decades of applied research and has successfully introduced Council to schools, corporations, prisons, health services and communities.

Who is Joe Provisor?

Joe Provisor, M.A, LMFT, is a Council Trainer, a Marriage and Family Therapist, and was a public school teacher for twenty-four years. He has practiced Council in the classroom since 1986, uses the process in his therapeutic practice, and has been a Trainer for The Ojai Foundation since 1994, providing trainings for educators, therapists and business people nationally and internationally. He currently serves as Director of the Ojai Foundation's Council in Schools (CIS) Program and is the Director of Council Practitioners Center (CPC) established in 2006 in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and School Support (OCISS). He introduced Council to more than 40 schools.

 

 

Who are Gesa & Holger Heiten?

 

 

Even though this will be an Introduction Seminar, this training will give the participants the facilitation tools to begin to use council with students, with each other, with parents, and the community.

The real learning, as Joe says, comes from being in the circle, and in particular being in the circle with others who would be so bold as to offer circles within a mostly linear institution.

A Film about Joe’s work is online

If you do like to get a more lively impression about the work in schools from Joe Provisor, have a look at this link: www.cis.ojaifoundation.org and watch a 8’ film about the school program.

 

 

 

Council in Schools II

The follow up workshop with Joe Provisor, for participants of Council in Schools I in 2011

After one year of having made own experiences with Council in team meetings, parent meetings or in the classroom itself, it is time to evaluate and professionally deepen these experiences.
Through sharing both, the problems, the fruitful mistakes, as well as first successes, all will have the opportunity, to learn from each other and from the rich experiences of Joe Provisor.
This workshop is an integral part of the trainings path for Council in Schools.

 

 

The Beloved

"There is some kiss we want with our whole lives."
Rumi

Releasing the lover of yourself is more vital today than ever.

Personally and globally we stand at a turning-point, facing unprecedented ecologic, economic, and social challenges.

How will you respond? Will you play it safe or risk embracing an even more radiant, wild, beautiful part of your self?

THE PATH OF THE LOVER is an approach to joyful transformation and soulful action that emboldens you, allures you, and points you in the direction that's already calling from deep within you.

During this weekend retreat we'll use imagery, life map-making, dialogue with partners and your own inner voices, storytelling, and other practices to:
- Discover how fascination and desire have been your allies all your life
- Recognize the persistent, persuasive voice of the inner lover in you that calls you forth and how to mediate between it and the protective, often self-defeating voice that holds you back
- Take the first steps toward living as the lover of yourself in small ways and large
- Fall in love with your self and your own unique path in life!

This workshop is a fantastic shared journey towards a new relationship with your world.

Trebbe Johnson

Life's a heroic journey, I've always felt-full of monsters to fight, obstacles to negotiate, surprising allies to support you, and divine lovers who beckon you into some mystery you're both drawn to and scared of.
I don't know anyone whose life hasn't been an incredible journey of ups and downs, triumphs and trials, sorrow in the midst of great joy and, even more amazing, joy in the midst of the deepest chasms of sorrow. Approaching the mystery of another human being from this point of view immediately gives me a sense of all they've strived for, hoped for, lost and triumphed over-and all before I know a single fact about them. Knowing the facts that fill in this mythic frame, I am continually awed and amazed by the feat of being human.
My deepest sorrow is the degradation of the natural world and the seeming indifference of so many people to what is happening all around them. Yet because I see people as mythic and heroic, I can't help believing that if we can just reconnect with our love of nature, we will be compelled to sustain our planet not just because we have to, but because we passionately want to.
Over the years, I've struggled through my own dark times with alcohol, crippling self-doubt, and serious problems with food and money. I've been through the illnesses and deaths of lovers, family members, and friends. Personal darkness-my own or that of others-grieves me but does not throw me off balance, and I know that, no matter what one is going through, astonishing acts of beauty, compassion, and even joy wait to be given and received.
Living in an old stone cottage on the Berkshire Downs in England when I was in my twenties, I discovered that if you sit still in one place, any place, in nature, something amazing will soon happen. The wind blows the light across the field. The reflection of a hawk wafts across a woodland pond. A single red berry spins wildly at the end of a stalk. In 1988, when I heard that there was such a thing as a vision quest, where a person remained for several days in one wilderness place, and that you didn't have to be a native person to receive insight from the earth, I knew I'd found a path I had to follow.
My formal training to be a vision quest guide from 1992-94 was with Animas Valley Institute, the School of Lost Borders, and SOLO Wilderness Medicine. I also embarked on a self-defined educational path to learn several skills I felt I needed to be a really good vision quest guide. I took a public speaking class and a women's self defense course, studied dowsing with two master dowsers in Maine, learned drumming from Babatunde Olatunji, was part of a Jungian dream group, and became a certified guide of the Personal Totem Pole process of guided imagery.
For thirty-five years I've been self-employed, primarily as a writer, since 1993 as a guide of vision quests, workshops and other mythic journeys. I've had a few other jobs as well: life-drawing model, street-sweeper in my English village, award-winning multimedia producer in New York, translator of German, abridger of audiobooks. I've tried to do what I love, and if that hasn't been possible, I've tried to love what I do. I've camped alone in the Arctic, studied classical Indian dance, written journalism about the Navajo and Hopi people, and slept in beautiful wilderness areas from my own back yard to the Sahara Desert. I have amazing friends all over the world. I live with my husband, Andy Gardner, a potter and rustic furniture maker, in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, where we have a big organic garden, lots of books, and mutual wonder at the mystery of this other person we live with.

 

 

Moving Union

a 5Rhythms® workshop with Deborah Jay-Lewin (Findhorn)

These few days will give us the opportunity to use the vehicle of movement, specifically the practice of Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms® to explore our way of being ~ with ourselves, in our dynamics with others and within the circle of whoever joins us for the dance. We shall enjoy the blessed relief of minimising words and empowering our bodies with their inherent wisdom to communicate. To bring us home to ourselves and from there engage with others and the wider energetic field. The dance unifies us; body, heart, mind and spirit ~ it’s pretty much an absolute!

5Rhythms is a movement practice that is a welcome haven for many souls. Dance does not need to be your medium, just an openness to explore, a willingness to be vulnerable, to have fun and enjoy some fabulous music.

 

Deborah Jay-Lewin

has spent more than 20 years combining her passion for 5 Rhythms with her deep love of the spiritual principles she has learnt whilst living in the Findhorn Community in Scotland. She teaches regularly in Scotland, Europe and South-East Asia. Her workshops are known for being full of vitality, open heartedness and a unique approach that awakens transformation. Deborah is engaged in ongoing study with Gabrielle Roth and is certified to teach both Waves® and Heartbeat® levels. www.vitalmoves.co.uk.

 

 

Retreat

The Holle House

Is a Retreat House and situated in the heart of Germany, not far from the town of Eschwege, about 50 km east of Kassel and 50 Km south of Göttingen, in the village of Meinhard / Neuerode. It is open to practitioners of all contemplative traditions, for strict retreats or for meditative holidays. The house is beautiful, clean, modern and has a self contained garden. It is especially equipped for Werma Sadhana Practice.

Location

The Holle House is situated at the edge of an old oak and beech tree forest, and from the property you have a breathtaking view over rolling woodland hills towards the “Hoher Meissner”, a mountain that with its 780 meters dominates the landscape. Since ancient times this mountain was believed to be the home of the Earth Goddess “Frau Holle”, which is why we gave the house its name.

The vast woodland, which begins right at the retreat house, continues with a beautiful mix of rocks, meadows and heather. It belongs to the “green strip”, the 14000 Km long former border between East and West Europe and the area around the retreat house belongs now to one of the biggest protected nature reserves in Germany. Rare animals like the lynx, the European wild cat, the uhu owl and the black stork are still living on this land.

For more Information, pictures and reservation, please visit: www.campus-peregrini.de