Releasing the Past: Embracing the Future

The Emergence Kit is designed to cocoon us from December 21st through the New Year, moving from a Winter Solstice ritual into a week of reflection, combining journaling, dreamwork, and creative prompts, with time for rest and restoration. Afterwards we drop deep in retreat from Dec. 29-31st with both an in-person and online option. Then we fly into the new year with 12 months of guided community support.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Maya Angelou

Cocoon and transform together.

"Don't build a wall around your own suffering- it may devour you from the inside." Frida Kahlo
Come cocoon to transform like the metamorphosis of the butterfly from the caterpillar. Individually we experience the darkness as an alchemical disintegration that precedes integration. 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 to reconnect with ourselves and each other.

Emergence Cocoon Structure:

We begin on the 21st with a free creative and prerecorded Winter Solstice Ritual designed to initiate our cocoon together. To honor this time as both busy and perfect for dep healing transformation, we have created a structure designed to accommodate you, moving in harmony with our inner and outer nature.

Support for Rest and Restoration

7 Days of Cocoon Prompts to hold and nurture you within the whirl of the season +
3-Day Retreat for Renewal (online recording to take when/where you want or in-person) +
1 Year Butterfly Flight Plan: Moving through a year of transformation (in our online community)

Powerful & Flexible Structure

As we transition from the reflective depths of the Winter Solstice into the vibrant potential of the New Year, join us for a journey into greater life and light. This transformative experience is offered both as a virtual online event and as a more intimate, in-person 3-Day retreat with easy recorded content.

New Year & You

As we move into the new year, it is important for us to release the past, and this course is designed to do this. Using self-reflection, storytelling, shadowplay, ritual, and ceremony, we move together to remember and release the past over the course of a weekend. With nightly sessions from 6:30-8:00, Friday through Sunday, we embrace the past to move more fully into the present.

  • Free Art Ritual 

    Come Play!

  • Time is Up to You 

    As Much or as Little

  • At Home or Retreat

    Wear Slippers (either way)

  • Multi-Modal

    Learning Your Way

Download an Overview

 The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door; if you have an old, old story, that is a door. (Cocoons = Doors)
Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

Is this retreat for YOU? 

This retreat is for you if you identify with any of the following statements and answering retreat commitments:
  • You are feeling lonely, isolated or disconnected           & want partner, group & circle to support you  
  • You want to set a deep intention . . . & fulfill it              with guided visualization, meditation & reflection
  • You don't commit to & honor your dreams                   & want to reinforce your commitment to yourself
  • You want to pattern deep self-care & support                to help your realize your passion, purpose & plan 
  • You want to deepen relationships to self & other          with content to make new relationships & deepen old ones
  • You want to make a plan for the coming year                & could use some support to help you make it a reality 
  • You want a community to support you in making change . . . plus new friends & playmates!             
There are many reasons to come. Drop into your heart & see what it says.
Every year you make a resolution to change yourself. This year, make a resolution to be yourself. 
anonymous

What people are saying . . . 

This coursework is deep psycho-active or soul activating creativity. It is often described as life changing, offering the gift of getting to know your soul and yourself. It is not easy, but it is profoundly rewarding and life affirming, touching upon the core of who you are and why you are here. At its foundation this art is about your heart's purpose and soul's call. 
Its beautiful the language that you use. . . I really feel that you have made such a huge contribution to our souls, to our artistic creative selves. . . You have come in and created a furthering of neuropathways and pathways for us to look at the artist, the archetypal artist, and give us a place where we can have soul. I have great appreciation for what you have done with your dissertation. I would like to have a lot more Jungian work like this.
Fanny Brewster, MFA, PhD, analyst, artist, educator,, and author
Heather is a masterful educator on how to heal and grow through art. Her presence is open, kind, wise and playful. She is skilled at creating an amazing and safe container for individuals to explore, go deep and have meaningful transformative experiences while guided by her. Her engagement with nature as a vessel for her work is powerful. Embarking on a journey of personal growth with her guidance will be blessing in your life.
Mary Gibbons, MD, physician, policy maker, educator, and facilitator
Heather is an exceptional teacher and group facilitator, as well as a beautifully soulful artist and person. She is gifted in leading persons in learning how art evokes the soul while also guiding them into creative exploration of their own inner images. Heather's depth and breadth of knowledge on Jung's Red Book is rare and is complimented by a graceful adeptness at teaching others how to journey into the spiral of their own depths through art and creativity.
Fanny Brewster, MFA, PhD, analyst, artist, educator,, and author
Heather clearly brought scholarship and art together to achieve a transcendent function in a really beautiful way.
Jennifer Leigh Selig, PhD, educator, speaker, and award-winning co-author of Deep Creativity
You and the work you are doing are an inspiration.
Susan Rowland, PhD, educator, speaker, and co-author of Jungian Arts-Based Research
Heather is a creative genius, making artists feel safe to explore and create.
Victoria Christiansen, MFA, MSW, therapist and award-winning author of Feminine Mysticism in Art
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Upcoming events

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again. [Every day, week, year & life is a new threshold.]
Buddha
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Reflect

Reflect, witness & let go
Grieving Ritual for release
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Remember

Put together the pieces in journaling & storytelling
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Release

Let go in ritual & ceremony to free yourself for new life
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Receive

Open to the infinite within in curiosity, hope & wonder
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Purpose

Reflect, witness & let go
Grieving Ritual for release
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Passion

Put together the pieces in journaling & storytelling
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Power

Believe & anchor in your butterfly power to unfurl.
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Plan

Map your new vision & butterfly flight plan.
Any new beginning is forged from the shards of the past, not from the abandonment of the past.
craig D Lounsbrough 

 Heather 

a. k. a. Caterpillar/Butterfly Friend

Hello, I'm Heather Taylor-Zimmerman, a passionate artist and educator who is deeply committed to exploring the transformative power of art and creativity. My journey and teachings are rooted in the conviction that creativity can catalyze profound personal and collective change. With a doctoral degree in art as an archetypal process of individuation from Pacifica Graduate Institute, I have dedicated my life to understanding and facilitating the transformative journey that art can inspire.
I see creativity as a language of the soul, a means through which we can engage in deep, meaningful self-exploration and healing.  My approach is not about creating art for art's sake but about using the creative process as a path to self-discovery and personal evolution. I believe that art should not be confined to frames but should be an active, living force that touches and transforms us.

You are always your Primary Teacher

Caterpillar Mother

As a 'caterpillar mother,' I see myself as nurturing the potential within each individual, guiding them through the cocooning process of personal growth and leading them towards the emergence of their true selves, much like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. This journey is about more than just artistic creation; it's about embarking on a soulful path of self-discovery and embracing the transformative power of the creative spirit.

Through my work, I invite you to join me in this creative revolution, to explore your soul's nature and potential, and to discover the transformative power of art in your own life. This is a journey that goes beyond traditional art education, delving into the depths of the psyche and the soul, and embracing the profound wisdom that can be found in creative expression. 

 Mary

Wisdom & Knowledge to Guide US

Dr. Mary Gibbons is a heart wisdom extraordinaire and a power partner and friend for decades. With her background as an MD pioneering women’s issue and her extensive training and experience as a facilitator, teacher, and life coach in Feminine Power, Mary offers a wealth of knowledge and empathy to guide you on a path of authentic living and loving. A modern-day wise woman, Mary taught at the UW, invited to be the 2nd female dean. (I can brag about Mary. Hopefully.) Head of the Sexual Assault Center at Harbor View Medical Hospital, Mary pioneered women’s health issues on a national and international level. She went on to be a mother of 3 as well as taking care of her parents and in-laws in old age to complete the cycle of care through the generations of life and intergenerational healing.

Robin

Deep Embodied Healing

Robin Maynard-Dobbs is a visionary artist, counselor, hypnotherapist, and health and wellness coach. For the past 30 years, she has guided hundreds of women who struggle with their relationship to food and to their body size. In her practice of Becoming Lighter, her radical feminine approach takes on the deeper issue facing women: the problem is not weight, the problem is a disconnection from Life force that animates the body. She recognizes how we as women in this culture are disconnected from the innate intelligence that resides in the body. This disconnection leads to self-reflection, guilt and shame. Her work helps women release the burden of these heavy emotions and develop a loving partnership with their bodies. Becoming Lighter opens the possibility that we can experience food with joy and a light heart and become lighter on all levels.  

The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Abraham Lincoln