We’re excited to announce that Starhawk shall be returning as VBC presenter this year! But VBC isn’t the only thing she’s up to this summer, find out about some of the amazing workshops and opportunities to learn from one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality.
Earth as Teacher, Earth as Healer
Mud, Magic and Manifestation: 2nd Annual Women’s Natural Building Workshop
Village Building Convergence!
Deep Earth Healing
Earth Activist Training, with a special emphasis on Social Permaculture
Earth Activist Training
May 3-June 14
“Earth as Teacher, Earth as Healer”
Six week online course
Whether we are looking to heal and transform our personal hurts or the huge wounds our society inflicts on the earth and other human beings, the earth herself is our greatest teacher and healer. The ancient Goddess traditions had no sacred texts or dogmas: instead, their mystics learned to read the book of nature. Understanding how the earth’s cycles work, how change occurs in nature, and how mother earth designs co-evolving, interdependent systems can help us be better designers of the changes we want to see in our own life and the world. This online course weaves together readings, rituals, meditations and directed excercises, stories and journaling to help us connect more deeply with the great transformative powers of nature. We’ll explore each of the elements: air, fire, water and earth, in both mystical and practical ways, bringing ourselves more deeply into contact with their enlivening energies, and taking the practical steps that can bring our lifestyles back into balance with the earth. We’ll learn how to save energy, harvest water, bring soil alive, and create fertility in our gardens and our projects. Our connection to earth is our deepest source of hope, renewal, and strength. Now, when climate change and ecological stress assault the earth’s life support systems, this course will help us find hope, renewed strength, and practical tools for healing. Readings based on Starhawk’s book The Earth Path: Grounding Our Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. Course hosted by Growing Edge Institute. Enroll online at www.growingedgeinstitute.com <http://www.growingedgeinstitute.com/> (late registrations accepted during first week of class). Cost $150. Some partial scholarships may be available, please contact administration at GEI.
Friday – Sunday, May 28-30
“Mud, Magic and Manifestation: 2nd Annual Women’s Natural Building Workshop”
Cazadero, California weekend workshop
With Starhawk and Sage Mata
Get down, get dirty and get covered in mud in the beautiful Cazadero Hills, for a magical weekend learning the ancient building skills of the ancestors. We’ll work with cob—sculpted clay, sand and straw, as well as light-straw clay and natural plasters to learn practical skills we can use in building low-cost, low-carbon, beautiful structures. We’ll learn truly down-to-earth skills and share ritual celebration, empowering ourselves to create shelter and spaces, within and without. And we’ll support one another, as women, to be strong, creative, and empowered, to manifest our visions and make our dreams real. Cost: Sliding scale $275-$450, includes food and lodging. Some work trade available. To register, contact Sage sage@livingmandala.com 510 965 2156
Tuesday, June 1
Village Building Convergence!
Portland, Oregon
Starhawk will speak as part of the Village Building Convergence, and lead a spiral dance! For event details, check back at www.starhawk.org <http://www.starhawk.org> or visit: www.cityrepair.org <http://www.cityrepair.org/> .
Wednesday – Saturday, June 2-5
“Deep Earth Healing”
Chimayo, New Mexico
Four-day workshop With Starhawk and Joel Glanzberg of Regenesis ( www.regenersisgroup.com <http://www.regenersisgroup.com> )
In this four-day workshop combining earth-based spirituality, ritual, wilderness awareness, tracking and permaculture, we deepen our spiritual connection to the earth and sharpen our practical skills as earth healers. Located in the Tewa community of Chimayo, we’ll ask for permission and guidance from the elders to help us deepen our spiritual connection to the land. We’ll use the tools of nature awareness, ritual, meditation, and consciousness-shifting to help us learn to read a landscape, ally with its plants, animals and landforms, and hear its messages. And we’ll use the tools of permaculture, regenerative design and bioremediation in hands-on projects to heal and transform a site. Projects will help prepare for an encampment this summer to protest the expansion of nuclear weapons capabilities at Los Alamos. The camp will demonstrate permaculture design and contribute resources to the local Tewa community. Together, we’ll find hope and inspiration to bring these skills into the actions that are needed in this time of global environmental crisis. We’ll share rituals and ceremonies to honor and share our deep links to the earth, to empower one another and infuse our work with the earth’s own deep resilience. Cost: sliding scale $350-$550. Includes food and camping accommodations. Scholarships and work trade available for activists and local youth. To register contact: Grietje Laga TracksTrails@NewMexico.com, 505-795-7272
July 3-17
Earth Activist Training, with a special emphasis on Social Permaculture
near Bellingham, Washington
two-week course
Two weeks that can change your life and change the world! Co-taught by Starhawk and friends, with guest teacher Bill Aal of Tools for Change A permaculture design certificate course with a grounding in earth-based spirituality, and a focus on organizing, activism, and social permaculture as well as urban and rural land-based systems. Learn how to heal soil and cleanse water, how to design human systems that mimic natural systems, using a minimum of energy and resources and creating real abundance and social justice. Explore the strategies and organizing tools we need to make our visions real, and the daily practice, magic and rituals that can sustain our spirits. Participatory, hands-on teaching with lots of ritual, games, projects, songs, and laughs along with an intensive curriculum in ecological design. Through this two-week residential intensive’s special focus on social permaculture, participants will learn ways to collaborate and build just and enduring alliances across social divides, how to structure groups with healthy dynamics and how to facilitate learning and decision making, as well as skills to build personal, interpersonal and community resilience to sustain themselves through hard times. Cost: $1400-$1800 sliding scale until April 1, after $1500-$1900. Work trade and scholarships available, apply early! For more information and to register: www.EarthActivistTraining.org <http://www.EarthActivistTraining.org/> phone 800-381-7940 (USA), or email:earthactivisttraining@gmail.com
July 25 – August 8
Earth Activist Training
Vermont
two-week course Co-taught by Starhawk and Charles Williams
Two weeks that can change your life and change the world! A permaculture design certificate course with a grounding in earth-based spirituality, and a focus on organizing, activism, and social permaculture as well as urban and rural land-based systems. Learn how to heal soil and cleanse water, how to design human systems that mimic natural systems, using a minimum of energy and resources and creating real abundance and social justice. Explore the strategies and organizing tools we need to make our visions real, and the daily practice, magic and rituals that can sustain our spirits. Participatory, hands-on teaching with lots of ritual, games, projects, songs, and laughs along with an intensive curriculum in ecological design. Cost: $1400-$1800 sliding scale until April 15, after $1500-$1900. Work trade and scholarships available, apply early! Childcare can be arranged for children over 3 at additional cost. For more information and to register: www.EarthActivistTraining.org <http://www.EarthActivistTraining.org/> phone 800-381-7940 (USA), or email:earthactivisttraining@gmail.com
