WWS One – Archive
WILD WISDOM ONE
Below is the archived text introducing the themes of our previous Year One course. For more details see the journal.
‘The Restoration of Love’
A holistic learning community journeying together through a year, with a Welcome Day and five weekend retreats exploring western spirituality.
From September each gathering explored both a holistic method of learning that engages head and heart, body and spirit and also material that restores the love of the Divine Feminine to our often masculine conceptions and experiences of God.
Together we travelled through her/history and Mystery to create our own thealogy and theology, our own understanding and experience of the Divine.
Course Themes
In Year One we touched into the ancient cultures and myths underpinning the Hebrew Bible & Christian Old Testament, alongside looking at parallel traditions from our native pre-history/herstory and Druidic/Celtic traditions.
Following on from a Welcome Day in early September, each bi-monthly weekend from mid October then offered an exploration of the roots of Western Spirituality from a feminist perspective, including practical exploration of engaged spiritual practice. The year ended with a community celebration in July.
Throughout the year, the stories and his/herstorical themes of the weekends were introduced through mythic motifs drawn from the story of ‘The Handless Maiden‘ (told initially during the Welcome Day) which were then revisited and expanded over the year as a path of spiritual initiation for women and men.
Each Saturday and Sunday had its own themes as shown below:
• Saturday One – Held by the Mothers
Step into local pre-history through the story of ‘Grandmother Salmon’. Meet like minded souls and share personal stories and hopes for spiritual practice and community and your own experience of sacred ground and the sacred circle of the seasons.
• Sunday One – Under the Apple Tree
An imaginative exploration of the Earth’s story and of local pre-his/herstory. We will touch into spiritual practices for grounding, being embodied and seasonal celebration.
• Saturday Two – A Cauldron of Bright and Dark Knowledge
A return home to the pagan celtic traditions, including an exploration of the fourfold elemental and shapeshifting initiation into bright and dark knowledge, through the story of ‘Ceridwen & Taliesin’.
• Sunday Two – Deep in the Dark Wood
We draw inspiration from Celtic his/herstory and art to explore how can we can transform our relation to depth, difficulty and vulnerability – welcoming both ‘bright and dark knowledge’ as equally valuable and part of being whole. Practices taught will include embodied presence, ‘welcoming’ and deep listening.
• Saturday Three – Celebrating the Sacred Marriage
An enquiry into the sacred marriage of feminine and masculine through Ancient Mesopotamian his/herstory and myth.We will meet the Goddesses and Gods Ningal & Nanna, Inanna & Dumuzi and touch into motifs of descent and return.
• Sunday Three – Meeting in the Midnight Orchard
Touching into his/herstory of the ‘Fertile Crescent’ we explore how to create relationships with self and other and holistic spiritual communities that truly value both the diversity and the equality of all beings and of different ways of knowing? Practices taught will include Jewish Pardes and Christian Lectio Divina, with an emphasis on reading the ‘Big Book’ of nature and wilderness.
• Saturday Four – The Wild Bird of the Soul
An introduction to Ancient Egyptian his/herstory and early motifs of the Divine Mother and Son in the Ancient Egyptian Myth of Isis, Osiris and Horus.
• Sunday Four – A Bird Nest Crown
A touch of Ancient Egyptioan his/herstory and an invitation to explore the nature of your own sense of vocation and calling. Practices taught will continue to focus on embodied spirituality, contemplative sharing circles and ceremony, including collaborative communion.
• Saturday Five – The Tree of Life and Sacred Garden
An open feminist perspective on early Hebrew mysticism and the foundations of Kabbalah, including Hebrew Goddesses such as Asherah and Anath and biblical women. Also touching into later motifs of the Tree of Life, sacred groves, gardens and different forms of sanctuary.
• Sunday Five – A Wildwood Wedding
Further exploration of Hebrew his/herstory and some conclusions to our exploration of holistic spiritual practice and mutual ministry based in compassionate holding and welcoming of body/earth, self and other, being and Source.
