We have always lived in the landscape.
Our ancestors were deeply affected by certain parts of their landscape and through time they enhanced these places with built structures. Some of the best known are the megalithic monuments of Southern Britain, like Stonehenge and Avebury. Both the landscape and the structures themselves continue to affect us to this day. No one is wholly unmoved by such places.
This workshop, Cameron's first retreat in Glastonbury, focuses on connecting with the past while experiencing specific sites in the present. One way to think of this experiential understanding of place is as a stream. Our ancestors' time is further upstream than our own, so we can't step in exactly the same river they did. What we can do is try to feel the same current by voluntarily entering the water. Ultimately, the river's source is not in time but in Spirit. In Celtic myth it flows from the Well of Inspiration in the Otherworld.
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This workshop is strictly limited to 24 participants. Anyone may apply. Prior shamanic experience is helpful but not essential. Please note that your application must be postmarked on or before 1 May 2002 in order to be considered.
Cost: 1590 US dollars before December 1st 2001, 1690 US dollars before February 1st 2002, 1790 US dollars after February 1st, payable by personal check or money order drawn on a US bank and made out to Geo Cameron. This amount includes food, lodging, and all admissions and travel during the workshop. It does not include international air fare or other transport to Glastonbury.
Lodging is generally in double rooms, with a few single rooms and triples. Single rooms will be given on a first come, first served basis, upon request. Couples or people who'd like a specific
roommate should request this when they apply, since there are limited double beds.
Upon acceptance, you'll be sent all relevant details for the workshop and forms for you to indicate special diet needs, etc. The full amount must be paid upon application and no refunds can be given, so it's strongly recommended that you get trip insurance in case illness or accident prevent your attendance.
Application: If you have studied with Geo at one of her Mull retreats, no application is necessary. Simply send a personal check or money order for the full amount and a letter asking to be enrolled in the workshop. If you have not attended a Mull retreat, please include a two to three page letter describing yourself as a person along with the payment. Please include something about your spiritual path, your ethical code, and why you'd like to attend the workshop.
Send applications to: (please note new post code)
Geo Cameron
Suite 120
12 South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH1 1DD
SCOTLAND
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To reach this Well, we'll use shamanic techniques of drumming, chant and the spirit journey found throughout human tribal cultures. Some of these techniques are Celtic, and although the
megalithic monuments we'll be visiting are, of course, pre-Celtic, the understanding of the world built into them will be much closer to that of the Celts than a modern Westerner's. Because cultures don't spring into being fully formed, but develop organically as a continuum, the roots of Celtic tradition must lie in what came before. Celtic literature and folklore attests that these sites continued to hold a special place in the awareness of those who lived on the land long after their builders were dust. Glastonbury, where we'll be based, has many examples of the interaction between earlier and later cosmologies that we'll examine during the week. At the Chalice Well we'll explore the unitive symbolism of the Vesica Piscis and experience the healing powers of the waters. At the White Spring, we have the opportunity to spiritually journey through an Otherworld entrance of legend. The Abbey, with its links to both King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea, gives us a place to meditate on different strands of later
mystical thought.
Too often, people import previously held beliefs in their attempts to experience sacred places, rather than allowing the sites to speak for themselves. People also often retreat into a created,
idealised past, when the only way we can experience the sites is fully present in the now. Sacred sites have many levels of meaning and purpose that change and evolve through time. We can't reconstruct all of them at once, and it would be meaningless if we could. What we can do is approach them with openness and integrity and allow their underlying themes to speak to us today.
We'll seek to learn from the concepts expressed in these sites, such as death and rebirth, the union of masculine and feminine, the communion between heaven and earth, the relationship of microcosm to macrocosm and the continuing cycles of life. The stones, raised through faith, have an eternal meaning because at base level they refer to a relationship with the cosmos, over and above any one culture's reading of it. Exploring the themes manifest in the sites gives us a matrix for structuring our own lives. The enduring nature of the stones themselves calls to mind the
quality we must cultivate to use that matrix. In Old Irish iress, faith, literally means "on-standing" or enduring, a clear and potent metaphor.
Prehistoric archaeologist David A. Trevarthen, MA (Hons), PIFA, FSA Scot, will be co-faculty for this retreat. His current research examines the megalith builders' own experience of the sites,
based in an understanding of human perception and his personal observations over extended stays at the sites. He will guide us on an exploration of some sites in the region, including Wayland's Smithy, Avebury and Stonehenge. As we journey throughout the sites, we'll focus on cultivating an awareness of them on all levels, from observation of light, shadow, colour, acoustic behaviour and form, to how the sites work within the larger landscape. At Stonehenge our group will
have a private hour for ritual and meditation by arrangement with English Heritage.
Glastonbury and the surrounding areas offer us incredible scope for physical and spiritual exploration. The area is profoundly connected to the Arthurian mythos as well as early Celtic
Christianity, Druidry and many streams of modern New Age thought. While we can't fully engage with all of this in the time available, the week's work can give us touchstones for the future based on the keystones of the past.
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