Remember that soul is your psyche (like psychology) & can be seen as an inner knowing, intuition, instinct, guide . . . it's up to you.

July

7-9th

Come heal in a cocoon of depth community.
Receive a bonus kit: Shadow Initiation

Weekend Retreat: Dark Night of the Soul 

Moving from dusk to dawn over 3 days, this weekend virtual retreat has 3 live sessions from 6-7:30, Friday-Sunday. Beginning with an opening circle, we deepen into story & discovery to emerge on Monday to a new dawn & day. Combining live circles with reflective & integrative activities in our "down time," we are guided by inner prompts, journaling, sharing & dreamwork to heal & empower ourselves & each other on a Jungian path.
The soul faithfully comes to our aid through dreams, deep emotion, love, the quiet voice of guidance, synchronicities, revelations, hunches, and visions, and at times through illness nightmares, and terrors. 
Bill plotkin

Is this path for you?

No art "skills" are required or even relevant. This class is about deep transformation. It is ideal for anyone who seeks deeper life purpose, passion & healing in relationship to themselves, others, their soul & community. Our wounds are the place where the healing comes, they are the womb to new life & light . . . even though I know that may seem impossible. Now is the time to heal through radical forgiveness & love to connect to the unity that underlies reality & atONEs us all. (*This doesn't mean we condone what others did but that we will no longer suffer from it.) While this is not a superficial path for the faint of heart, it leads to the life that we desire, leaving our suffering behind.

Reframe: crisis as transformation

The dark night of the soul is a spiritual or soul crisis that offers us a path through the darkness into the light of a new day & a new relationship with our soul, selves, others & the world. As we journey, we transform into something deeper--our soul & Self (whole Self). While it may be scary (painful, unknown, intimidating . . .), the dark night of the soul is really an opportunity to heal & become whole by embracing and accepting our darkness to claim our light.

Explore the darkness TOGETHER

We begin our journey exploring the darkness, but not alone. We journey together into a shared darkness. This is a course that centers around the stars & the starlight of the soul as it illuminates our darkness as well as the darkness of our time. This heavenly illumination can feel like the diffused light of a stellar glow or the electric strike of lightning connecting heaven & earth. The dark night of the soul can be painful & even life threatening, but it is also how we come to consciousness to transform. It is a process of death & rebirth in which we are reborn like a butterfly in the form of the soul to take flight, holding the paradox of dark & light, death & rebirth as well as personal & collective. For, we are here to navigate a dark night of the Earth Soul together.

3 Day Soul Retreat

We are all called to transform at one time or another on a journey into the depths of the dark night of the soul, crossing from sunset to sunrise to experience the light of a new dawn. Come gather in a weekend of deep intimacy with 3 evenings of creativity, deep sharing & heart-felt healing as we cultivate appreciation for the beauty of the dark. This is a call to transform in community with those who navigate the depths beside you as we seek peace.
Write your awesome label here.
When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed. 
Joseph Campbell

Art helps us navigate night

This is the alchemical Great Work of Art & we are recreating ourselves, dialoguing with the unconscious & activating our imagination.
  • Art illuminates us & guides us to the dawn of a new day, state of consciousness & understanding.
  • Art guides & inspires us as a star in the night, leading us through the unconscious & superconscious.
  • Art reaches unconscious wounds & complexes to heal in ways that words (other than images) can't reach. 
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, them come the new life and all that is needed.
Joseph campbell

What to expect besides unexpected

This coursework is deep psycho-active or soul activating creativity. It is often described as life changing, offering the gift of getting to know yourself & soul as well as a deeper intimacy with those who gather together to kindle a light in the darkness. While it is not easy, processing the darkness is profoundly rewarding & life affirming, touching upon the core of who you are & why you are here. At its foundation this weekend retreat is about your heart's purpose and soul's calling in suffering, alchemizing the pain of past experience into sacrificial (sacred) growth! Tears will be those of relief, release & realization.

Introduction to the darkness

What will you get from this night journey?
Write your awesome label here.
Don't build a wall around your own suffering- it may devour you from the inside. . . (& my personal favorite) I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim. (I love her!)
Frida Kahlo

Coursework and play . . .

While Heather will lead our time togther (directed inwardly by her soul), you will have prompts and activities to help with integration in the time in between sessions, building on the previous night's dream seeding, earlier insights, symbols & more. This is OPTIONAL but meant as a resource for deeper healing. You can come back to these suggestions later or again . . .

Friday
Overnight Prompts

6-7:30 pm PST together
with guidance for "down" time

Overnight dreamwork & journal play: Create your circle of intention & invite your soul and unconscious to come into your dreams to guide you. Record & explore your dreams by journaling the following morning (in your new journal). Ask for guidance & center yourself to drop into your heart. Walk or sit in nature, echoing your call for guidance. See what comes & continue writing in your journal. 

Dream Prompt: What would you like to show me? What should I receive/know?

Saturday
Day/Night Prompts

 6-7:30 pm PST together
with guidance for "down" time

Down Time: start by creating your power circle & journal, noting your dreams from the night & any conscious/unconscious response. Ask for further clarification & insight. Drop into your heart center for further guidance while you record your images or experiences. Deepen your connection with a walk or time in nature with a moving meditation (walk, dance or move naturally). Embody it in art.

Dream Prompt: What would you like to show me? What should I receive/know?

Sunday
Day/Night Prompts

6:30-8:00 pm our time together
with guidance for "down" time

Create a circle of what supports & sustains you. This can be entirely imaginal or include physical objects & ritual. Sit in the power & truth of your understanding of the movement from dusk to dawn. What have you learned? Create an evening & morning ritual that will continue to deepen your connection to the dark night of the soul, integrating it into your life with an ongoing affirmation practice.

Dream Prompt: What would you like to show me? What should I receive/know?

 Dark Night of the Soul

The darkness that births the light 

Who is (or really wants to be) an expert in the dark night of the soul? The obvious answer is the soul, but another answer is all of us who walk the healing path. Shaman means healer and also "one who sees in the dark," so we walk a healing path together to heal both individually & collectively. On this journey Heather will create a container to help hold our transformation. Having undergone a series of life changes & challenges, including cancer in the time of covid, she is learning to be comfortable navigating by starlight. These experiences have reaffirmed her belief in the transformative nature of the dark night of the soul, inspiring her to offer this course as support for others who journey to find themselves & their way at this time. This is a place & a time to help each other as we lose & find ourselves under the stars, waiting in a power circle to greet the dawn and the beauty of the sunrise. 

Soul Birth

A dance of dark and light

The dark night of the soul offers a safe space to cocoon as we awaken to the brilliance of the light and life growing within us. The darkness of the soul's journey is really another way of saying metamorphosis, reflecting an inner initiation in which we gather the gifts of soul to become integrated & whole. It is a time of opportunity that we are going through collectively and individually. From a pandemic to political tension, ecological disaster to economic strife, it is not surprising that on a personal level we have epidemic levels of suicide, depression, anxiety & abuse. Yet, just as the symbol for conflict means opportunity in different languages, we have a powerful chance to transform and awaken to a new higher potential. Though the circumstances of our night journey may vary, we can all use a container of support to hold us as we come to soul-consciousness together. 

Begin to appreciate the dark with . . .

3 practices that begin to guide you through your own darkness.

Night Journal

This can be an existing dream journal or our new one, but dedicate space by starting anew with your dreams, symbols & synchronicities to see what emerges. Doodle, draw or write your insights.

Life Inventory

Reflect on your life & ask inwardly for guidance to remember the moments that constellate your dark night of the soul. You can also check your zodiacal sign & Saturn return. Chart the darkness.

Discuss with others

Gather your own partner or reach out to be assigned one early. "Get together" virtually or in person to gain additional perspective. Mirror each other to help see through the distortion of our wounds.
 The dark night of the soul is a journey into light, a journey from your darkness into the strength and hidden resources of your soul. [individually & together]
Caroline Myss

Bringing starlight into your life

With guided meditation & PRACTICAL TOOLS

Develop soul-centering skills

Eco-mindfulness applied to heaven & earth

Cultivate wonder, awe & mystery

They are evidence-based to make you happier . . . 

Art of meaning making

Gain insight & inspiration from soul craft (art).

Transform together

Come and cocoon over the weekend to transform like the metamorphosis of the butterfly from the caterpillar, as we experience the darkness in alchemical disintegration & reintegration. In the velvet dark of the cocoon, we liquify into the unconscious waters of imaginal cells to be reborn in a new form. But in the pitch black of the darkness, we can feel lost and alone. This course is designed to help hold us as we transition together through a weekend of depth work. 

All you have to do is be yourself.

While the dark night of the soul is hard, this weekend retreat is our way of healing, offering a compassionate balm by sharing, mirroring, honoring & loving ourselves & each other through the cultivating of compassion. calling us into the darkness of our past and life, it offers a chance to overcome the obstacles before us and within us. Releasing fear and past patterns, we are able to move forward in our life, releasing the past to embrace the present.

Darkness is a time to return & rewild

I remember an Australian aboriginal woman stating that she was surprised by the Western colonizers most in 2 ways: that we no longer knew our purpose or dances naked under the stars. Both of these losses are at the heart of our darkness. While there are other circumstances (from divorce to death, disease & depression), these 2 lost ways of being in the world are at the core of our current state of disorientation. We have lost our way, our connection to the earth, ourselves, others & soul (because to connect to soul connects to all). So, we will befriend the darkness, the velvet beauty of the heavens as a way to connect with & remember our calling . . . which is intimately & inextricably linked to who we are. It is our true name, nature & gift to the world.

We all have inner wounds & darkness

When we experience wounding, we disassociate & leave our body as a coping mechanism. Compounded by the cultural bias of the mind or masculine animus, we are called to drop into the heart of the anima or soul to return to our body where our wounds are held somatically.

Heart is the center of the soul (& eye)

So, we drop into our heart to connect with the embodied wisdom of the soul in art. Not only is alchemy called the Great Work of Art, but a series of art called a body of art, because art is a pure form of alchemical transformation in which we embody soul in creative communion & communication in active imagination.

Heal your heart with paint power.

As you focus on the art, you enter a state of reverie & the liminal space of soul healing . . . like a doctor's office held outside of space & time. You don't have to know what you are doing. Infact, it might be better not to. Just let it be & the images come. Let them be their own color, express in their own line, texture & way.

Shadow work and play

The Dark Night of the Soul and the Soul of Creativity work and play with the perfect imperfection of our authentic (messy) self and Self. This is a different kind of art than the superficially perfected image behind glass. We will integrate story, creative journaling, active imagination, dreamwork, and shadow play. The mantra of this journey is there is only one way and it’s your way (really your soul's way). So sit back and relax. Your soul knows the way. This is really a path of creative play.

Dive into the dark

This is a weekend deep dive into the dark night of the soul in which the structure is one of facilitator led support. With three evening sessions from Friday to Sunday, this workshop takes us through the transformational stages from dusk until dawn, caterpillar to butterfly, moving from separation to transformation and integration to support your safe passage through a time of darkness. In between the night sessions will be opportunities for deepening reflection and integration, walking in nature, journaling, collaging . . . Together over the course of the weekend we will pass through the dark night of the soul.

Darkness in the depths

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” C G Jung 

Ok, while this is a bummer. It also means that our pain is our gold or at least our gold key that gains us entrance into the realm of transcendent healing.

Birthed from darkness to light

This weekend retreat is scheduled in the evening to align to the darkness, harnessing the power of dreams and the mysterious unknown. While this course digs deep into the archetypal substrata that provides rich nutrients for our growth, it (like all Soul of Creativity offerings) is rooted in the psychology we share: soul. So, on its deepest level, this is about establishing and strengthening your relationship to soul to help guide you through the darkness. It is a time to reimagine and envision yourself and your life. Like a vision quest, you are claiming your power, purpose, and identity in the world. Who are you called to be in your greatness?

Birthed from darkness to light

This weekend retreat is scheduled in the evening to align to the darkness, harnessing the power of dreams and the mysterious unknown. While this course digs deep into the archetypal substratum that provides rich nutrients for our growth, it (like all Soul of Creativity offerings) is rooted in the psychology we share soul. So, on its deepest level, this is about establishing & strengthening your relationship to soul to help guide you through the darkness. It is a time to reimagine and envision yourself and your life. Like a vision quest, you are claiming your power, purpose & identity in the world. 

Continuing support

While we are not in control of how the darkness comes, we can control how we work with and transform through the movement. We can transform and deepen in love, light, peace and courage, fostering an appreciation for the darkness, but we cannot make the darkness stop. STAY in community & communion. When we are on our knees in the darkness is the perfect time to transform & rise up in the light. STICK with it. Keep your partner practice going & keep working & playing with your shadow material to illuminate the darkness inside & out. We are all points of light constellating to guide others.