Sacred Groves

We closed the old year and brought in the new year with a few heart-opening and well attended events….

Our annual Winter Solstice Celebration was the best ever–beautiful songs from Lorraine Bayes and the Sacred Fire Choir, the home-grown shadow puppet show “Raven Steals back the light!” written by friend & artist Craig Spencer, enacted with Therese, Tere and Connie of the Groves. We sang, we danced, we laughed, we ate, we sat in darkness and made prayers.

On New Years day we held our annual sweatlodge, a full lodge with strong prayers. The next day, we ushered the new year in with drumming and dancing–WOO HOO! As you can see from this photo–we were having FUN!

The calendar for 2010 is getting fleshed out, I think I’ve got most of it up to date now and most of the hot-link glitches on various pages fixed finally. We look forward to a great year here!

Mostly we truly hope that the work we do here at the Groves to weave together community in healing and heart-opening ways helps bring about a more peaceful world for all of us two-leggeds around the planet. May the earth get greener this year, the trees grow taller, people’s hearts flourish.

The big news around here is the arrival of Therese’s grandson, Tavi Orion on November 25th in Seattle. His full official name is Octavian Orion Fetz Stallings, son of Ariel Stallings (Therese’s daughter) and Andreas Fetz, her wonderful husband.)

This wonderful sweet boy coming in in this dark corner of the year is a testimony to new life in the darkness. He’s healthy, mellow, easily soothed, sweet, beautiful, precious. What else can a grandma say?

SOLSTICE & NEW YEARS….
December is a quiet month in the Groves but we are offering our usual monthly events (Earth Mothers circle, Wailing Lodge, Sunday meditation) and a few special events too: Winter Solstice Celebration (Dec 20th), a Si.Si.Wiss ceremony and Red Cedar Circle (Dec 27th), a New Year’s Day sweatlodge and a New Years Drum-Dance, Jan 2nd.

One of our sweet yurtlettes is awaiting a new resident (or two), available for short-stays if you are looking for a getaway place during this dark corner of the year.

Happy Holidays everyone! Whether you celebrate Solstice, Christmas, Hannukah or nothing at all, may these dark days of December bring you inner peace.

Autumn is the time of the west, time of twilight, deepening darkness, release, ebbing, waning, time of elder-hood. We started the autumn season with several wonderful events. On September 19th we hosted our annual ‘descent into darkness’ ritual where we walked through the woods with candles, singing “We descend…..down to the darkness, our mother so dear.” On October 3rd we co-hosted the ENTER AUTUMN Festival with Woman’s Way Red Lodge, when we honored and told stories about important elders in our lives. On October 10th, we hosted our autumn sweatlodge, this season’s opportunity to release the old and open to the new.

As usual, these events were attended by a wonderful mix of open hearted men and women. Now we’ve got ourselves in alignment with the new season and hope to flow with it in a good way.

There are two big week-end retreats coming up this fall: Compassionate Listening training (Oct 24-25) and Grief Ritual Retreat (Nov 21-22); the monthly Earth Mothers Circle will continue through the fall too. But otherwise, things are quieting down as we gestate the seeds of what is to come in 2010.

Though we don’t have many events, guests continue to be welcome to come stay in the Guest Room at the Round House (our new Bed and Breakfast room) or the Moonlodge for private retreats and quiet time in the Groves. Happy Autumn Everyone!

We’ve had so much joy, play-fulness, good company and good food here in the Groves this summer that as fall begins to come in We just feel GOOD, full with the harvest of all we shared here.  Below is a photo from the Drum-Sing-Dance week-end Simone LaDrumma and I co-facilitated.

Summer is upon us now …..

We started summer in style with several joyous events that celebrated the culmination of spring’s frenetic growth! All in all, about 50 men, women & kids showed up to celebrate Summer Solstice and 4th of July week-end drumming and foolishness with us. You can read more about these events and see photos on our flickr photo pages.

Things are settling now into the ‘lazy days of summer.’ Our new Medicine Wheel garden (begun at Spring Equinox) is looking beautiful and groomed again thanks to the efforts of Groves’mates Larissa Notter, Sarah Jackson and Sage Vann. If you were here at Spring Equinox, check out the photos to see how it has evolved! Better yet: DO come visit sometime this summer! In addition to our regularly monthly offerings, we’ve got many special events this summer to draw you here. As usual, please RSVP!

CELEBRATE the ONSET OF SUMMER WITH US SUNDAY JUNE 14th

3-5pm: SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION! Songs, drums and circle dances to celebrate, honor and usher in the new season. POTLUCK DINNER FOLLOWING!

What to bring: Food for the Potluck, Poetry, songs, summer joy!

Suggested Donation: $10-20 per event. Brunch is $15.

Read more about the activities that day–click here.

SACRED FOOL FESTIVAL–JULY 4-5

BIG Announcement from Van Calvez, the Sacred Fool himself, MC of this foolish event: “This year, the Sacred Fool Festival proudly presents… tadaaa!
The Cirque du Silly

Hear Yee, Hear Yee and Hee Hee
Come One, Come All
to the Big Big Big Big Really Big
Cirque Du Silly

Under Our Big Tent of the Sky, in our Big 3-Wing Circus (that sucker flies funny!)

Here’s your chance to
See the Circus!
Be the Circus!
Flea the Circus!
In other words, cultivate your inner carnival!

Read more about the Sacred Fool Festival–click here!

Women’s Rite Retreat–June 6-7, 2009, held in the magical sacred space of the Moonlodge.

Tere and I are excited to be hosting another Women’s Rite Retreat, for the first time in 3 years. We had been offering this rich and deeply healing retreat for women annually, but with the housebuilding project the past two years, we just couldn’t handle it. Now its 2009 and ITS HAPPENING AGAIN on June 6-7.

This is such an amazing week-end retreat, deeply healing for any woman who wants to be em-BODY’ed more fully in her woman’s body, feeling proud, strong, and honored for her beauty, power and wimmin-wisdom. You can read more about it by clicking here. You’ll see a few photos from these rituals in years past there too.

Memorial Day week-end we’ll be around a lot, doing an informal “Open House” sort of thing on Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon (after the Sunday morning meditation and brunch) and Monday afternoon (before the Gong Journeys event). We’ve been fielding lots of calls about guest lodging over the week-end and the cabin we have for rent to new resident(s). Give us a call if you want to come by…..

Once a year around Mothers Day (and other times by special request) Therese offers her unique Sacred Groves style Spa. Set in the magical setting of the Moonlodge, the spa includes warm stones, healing music, hand and foot massage, facial scrub and a soak in the deep outdoor hot-tub, under open skies. After soaking, you are mummy-wrapped for your after-birth swaddling wrap, sending you into a deep restful state.

In 2009, this is being offered on Tuesday evening, May 12th by appointment.

Take advantage of this special mothers day offering geared especially for the hard-working women who are currently tending children, giving their hearts, minds, and bodies in service to their families in a hundred ways!

This nurturing spa is Therese’s gift to mothers and no donation is expected. No well-deserved mama will be turned away for lack of funds! For those who would like to make a contribution to the Groves, the suggested donation is $25-50.

Last week-end we had three events here in the Groves: our monthly Wailing Lodge, an introduction to the Earth Mothers Circle, and the first Sunday morning meditation and brunch. As a result of the wonderful people that showed up to be part of these, I feel awash in a sense of success and validation for the work we offer here in the Groves.

The Wailing Lodge had record attendance, swollen by the participation from a group of people came from the Woodinville area who are studying grief as part of a year-long program. Attending our Wailing Lodge was a ‘field trip’ of sorts. There were several others there as well, 18 of us all together; the time together was powerful and healing, as usual.

The Introduction to the Earth Mothers Circle was heart-warming. The 2009 group is shaping up with a combination of women continuing from last year and newcomers too. As usual, sitting in circle singing, sharing, listening to stories about the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers & the 13 Original Clan Mothers inspires to deeper connection with the earth and with each other.

The first Sunday morning meditation, followed by a discussion of “A New Earth” was attended by many Groves-mates (those of us who live here) and a handful of others despite the early hour (8am). The guided visualizations and body-awareness practices proved to be very helpful for settling the mind. Our discussion afterwards about ‘the voice in the head’ was thought-provoking and heart-sharing. Then we shared a delicious brunch together. Thank you Tere as usual for another wonderful meal, full of love and goodness!

This upcoming week-end is the Women of Wisdom conference in Seattle where I’ll be singing (prior to Starhawk’s Thursday evening presentation), then spending a full day with Starhawk and another full day with Ubaka Hill! Meanwhile, back in the Groves, there will be a sweatlodge facilitated by Kendra. Life is FULL as spring begins to stir. Blessed be!

Spring is stirring–we can feel it, we can feel it! Already the days are a bit longer and the daybreak comes a little earlier.

January was a wonderful month here in the Groves–many new faces and many familiar faces coming back to join us again. We began the year with a sweatlodge for men and women and ended the month with a women’s sweatlodge–both drew about 13 people, went deep, created a healing container for releasing the past and stepping into this new year with vigor! That combined with the inauguration of our new president–we’re feeling the collective optimist despite the current challenges. We know that to express gratitude for the many gifts of our lives on Earth brings in more to be grateful for and we’re living in “The Whirling Rainbow Dream” here in the Groves.

The 2009 Earth Mothers Circle is constellating, drawing many new women and some continuing from past years. I’m hosting another Introduction to the group on Saturday Feb 7th, noon-2:30pm. The 2009 Women’s Mysteries School is slowly taking shape in my mind’s eye and on this website as I weave gloriously beautiful threads together from women’s work here and across the globe.

Next Sunday, February 8th–8a.m.–I’ll be hosting a Sunday morning meditation that will include seated meditation, slow walking and stretching, all with guided visualization that helps cultivate subtle body-awareness and greater presence. I’ve been a big fan of Eckhardt Tolle’s since reading “Power of Now” many years ago and finally dove into “A New Earth.” After the success of the book on Oprah, I am deeply heartened to know that so many Americans and others around the world are inspired by his work. He has made Buddhist teachings so much more accessible I do believe. I will be sharing the meditation practices that have helped me settle my busy chatter-brain, a combination of quiet sitting, walking, movement, maybe even a little song and dance! For those who want to stay, we’ll be talking about “A New Earth” afterwards while brunch is being cooked up and we’ll continue chatting through breakfast. Please join us!

The Groves is a place that is promoting ways to help us crazy human beings move into a higher level of consciousness–that’s what the world needs right now! The combination of this sacred land and the variety of wonderful ways to deepen with spirit make this place unique, but it is one of many places where “A New Earth” is being co-created. Do come be a part of it!