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~ September 2019 ~
Welcome to the monthly newsletter of the Eagle Condor Council
SPECIAL EDITION ON GRIEF
A Message from Firewalker on Grief
From Tragedy into Transformation and Taking Others with Me!
Our World on Fire
The River Runs Dry
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SEPTEMBER 2019
- 09/21 8:30AM - 6:30PM Solstice Holotropic Breathwork with Chuck and Ashley Wile, Irmo, SC CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 09/26 - 11/16 Foundations of Ritual Online Course with Dr. Daniel Foor, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 09/27-09/29 2019-2020 ECC Healing Intensive Starts! Primary teachers: Jeff Firewalker and Callan Welder; other teachers: Ellen Kittredge, Sheila Guarnagia and Lisa Wiggins Asheville NC, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
OCTOBER 2019
- 10/06 10AM-1PM Energy Management for Caregivers, Counselors, Healers, & Helpers with Lisa Wiggins and Jeff Firewalker, Heron House Earth Sanctuary, Roswell GA, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 10/06 2-4PM An Experiential Introduction to Peruvian Healing Sciences with Lisa Wiggins and Jeff Firewalker, Heron House Earth Sanctuary, Roswell GA, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 10/07 6:30-8 PM Monthly Tobacco Ceremony with Jeff Firewalker, LeCoeur, 602A Haywood Road, West Asheville, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 10/20 -11/3 Weaving the Golden Thread Pilgrimage to Peru with Lea Motlow and don Beto, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 10/25 - 10/27 All Our Relations - Making a Difference in the World through Spiritual Wisdom in Action with Suzannah Tebbe Davis, Sharon Oxendine, and Sheila Pride, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
NOVEMBER 2019
** Stay Tuned for Announcement regarding an early Nov Special Event in Vermont
- 11/04 6:30-8 PM Monthly Tobacco Ceremony with Jeff Firewalker, LeCoeur, 602A Haywood Road, West Asheville, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 11/08 - 11/15 INKA IMMERSIONS: True Nature in Hawai`i with Elizabeth Jenkins, Naalehu, Hawai'i CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 11/08 - 11/11 Deep Healing and Integration Retreat with Prajna and Master Plant Teachers, Devon England CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 11/15 - 11/17 Nusta's: Healing Forces of Nature with Ellen Kittredge and Suzannah Tebbe Davis, Flat Rock, NC CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 11/15 - 11/22 Deep Healing and Integration Retreat with Prajna and Master Plant Teachers, Hidden Paradise Spain CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
- 11/28 - 3/16 Ancestral Healing Lineage Online Course with Dr. Daniel Foor CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
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Special edition on Grief
By Jeff Firewalker
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Welcome to the September issue of the Eagle Condor Council newsletter. Many folks in our community have been discussing the emotional storms they are witnessing and sometimes experiencing at this particularly intense time of evolution. So in this issue we thought it would be good to share a few words that may be of service.
As I write this, I am in England at a planning retreat for a new conference/festival called “the Medicine Festival.” The aim of the festival is to be a convergence point between people engaged in social/environmental justice and people who carry indigenous/ancient wisdom. Because I was invited to co-facilitate one of the planning round-tables, I sought the insight of my Grandfather plant teachers, rather than solely rely on my very limited perspective. The message from the Grandfathers was very clear, “son it is not time for crafty solutions or strategies, it is time to grieve. In your solitude grieve. Bring your brothers and sisters together and grieve. After that time good and just solutions will come.” The Great Medicine River (Oren-Da) is made from the water of our tears. This is a message of solidarity to Pachamama. The truest measure that we are living in our hearts.
Grieve Deeply.
Grief is an important topic in our healing education programs. Grief is an essential expression of our humanity. Unlike despair, grief is a river. It moves. Grief has its destination and that destination is grace and joy. There is an aspect of grief work that is worth considering as we navigate the atrocities unfolding in the world around us – to not get caught in examining the motives of the perpetrator(s). When we play the role of the apologist, the therapist or decide to let them off the hook, we are bypassing our direct experience, preventing us from the essential and complete grief work. Sure, it is good to understand what is underneath the circumstantial unfolding of events, but for us to be clean and clear, we focus on our inner experience first.
“Grief un-resisted is grace” – Adyashanti
There is also the matter of ‘compassionate accountability’ which means to clearly hold the perpetrator(s) accountable as part of your prayer. To do this without anger, remorse or victimhood, says to the universe that you are truly standing up for yourself, to stand up for what is important. To grieve without examining the motivation of the perpetrator(s) allows our deepest healing intelligence to awaken. Inside each of us is a jewel – a creator given gift – and it is worth protecting. Likewise protect and make space for your grieving.
“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom.” – Rumi
So, based on the Grandfather’s advice, I am giving myself the invitation to open to whatever pain, the overwhelm and heartbreak arise. I know that these are the doorways to grief. And as I lean into the undeniable suffering that is happening all around, I affirm to myself that “I am up for this work” thereby stripping away the drama of “it’s too much to bare.” I am strong enough to find the still point in the discomfort. I vow to not resist any aspect of grief, lest I remain stuck at the threshold. This is Medicine, it is yanantin and the teachings behind the Taoist yin-yang symbol, a seed of the opposite is always found in an expression at its purest. In the deepest expression of grief there is a seed of untainted joy.
My grief reminds me that I simply give a damn and that If the cycle of suffering and atrocity continues for one living thing, we all lose.
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"The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world.
St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose center was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.
We are all our lifetime rending the copious sense of this first of forms. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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From Tragedy into Transformation
and Taking Others with Me!
By Lindsay McKinnon
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Navigating a life with deep grief is very disorienting. The sudden loss of our house, and our two children, Patrick and Logan in a tragic House Fire. (Insert deep breath right here… in fact, take two or three…) The impact of the event was (immeasurably?) intense. Fortunately, I had an enormous support system, and I did not hesitate to lean into those who held me and my husband. Ever and always grateful for the support I still needed more. And I needed something different. I needed the old and the ancient. I needed ritual and ceremony to keep me connected, to keep me humble, to keep me in tune with the subtle energetic bodies and benevolent beings that surround me, to keep me moving forward WITH the grief in a way that also nourished my Soul and renewed purpose.
A series of beautifully aligned cosmic events connected me to old and new friends and lead me to the Eagle Condor Council. And OH MY was that experience JUICY. Learning and actively participating in the mysteries of the shamanic path, rituals and ceremonies, while sitting in circles devoted to creating ayni, pulling and digesting hucha, and building sweet sami was the Medicine I needed, especially while carrying a growing baby inside of me. As my belly grew, so did I. My daughter is amazing, by the way, and was born in the water at our new home, between the last two EC Intensive Weekends.
Embracing the ‘phoenix rising’ metaphors we are all familiar with, I went through an initiation process of reinvention and rebirth in every way possible.
I also re-created a new business, and named it Soul Body Connect, where I focus on public speaking, individual and group coaching, as well as facilitating transformational retreats - infusing embodiment, movement, mindset, ritual and ceremony for maximum impact.
Many of the bereavement groups and grief support groups I have participated in since our house fire felt toxic, as though the groups were more interested in focusing on the loss and suffering, instead of what is possible because of the initiations we have lived through. I would come home feeling worse than before. I struggled to find a grief group that would help me flip the tragedy into transformation, integrating it in ways that could be alchemized into Medicine for my soul, as well as others. So, I decided to create my own, and invite others into this circle.
I call the group Soul Sessions. Our online Zoom meetings happen twice a month, on the first and third Tuesdays at 7:30 pm EST. Our conversations are always rich and fulfilling, and we often have guest speakers who present fascinating content related to grief, followed by a Q&A discussion. Soul Sessions is not group therapy. we are a tribe of folks who have been impacted by grief in various ways, who acknowledge the path others have also taken {{those who have been stricken with tragedy?}}, and {{to serve those who want to?}}who take ownership and responsibility for their collective grief stories in order to grow. During our time together, we focus on the themes that are common to our experiences. I have been having so much FUN creating this group and engaging guest speakers, and I always look forward to the surprise ah-ha moments that drop into the conversation and ignite a new level of consciousness, causing deeper connection and healing.
I would love for you to check it out! Please use this link to join us! You might even recognize some of our upcoming Guest Speakers!
And, of course, I would love to stay connected to you. Here is a link to my latest Newsletter if you want more information, and my website: www.soulbodyconnect.com.
Always, and in All Ways, Lindsay
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The River Runs Dry
I went to the river, the river was dry
So I prayed!
I went to the forest, the earth was parched
So I danced!
I listened for the song of birds, their voices were silent
So I sang!
I looked into my heart, it was saddened
So I cried and cried!
The bird came to drink my tears, and sang
Tears soaked into the earth, and the forest floor came alive
Tears filled the creeks, and they began to flow
I returned to the river, the water ran cool and clean
So I prayed!
Susan 'Walks the Earth"
Summer 2015
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Monthly Tobacco Ceremony
West Asheville
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In an effort to support and broaden our community-of-practice Cindy Bergh (founder of LeCoeur 602A Haywood Road in West Asheville) and I will be hosting events on the first Monday of every month (with the exception of holiday months, where we may need to adjust the schedule a bit).
On the first Monday of each month we will hold a Tobacco Ceremony led seasoned practitioners and people apprenticing in the Tabaquero path, the specific theme (such as Ancestor Healing, Planetary Prayer, etc.) will be determined just before the ceremony. This format will also allow those in the community seeking to deepen their understanding of the tobacco healing path. To pay for the space, materials and provide a love offering to the facilitator we are asking for a $25-40 donation.
Next Tobacco Ceremony will be on Oct. 7th
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The Eagle Condor Council supports earth-honoring activities and sacred healing traditions in the Asheville area and beyond. Visit us at:
eaglecondorcouncil.org/events
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Jeff Firewalker Schmitt, PhD
Founder
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Ellen Kittredge, CHC
Co-Founder
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