Moving Meditation Practice: Ecstatic Dance, Shamanism, Ritual & Essential Touch May 31, 2009 to June 5, 2009

Big Sur, California, USA

Ellen Watson

“It is written in the book of the Sioux that they have gone into the earth; nothing will bring them back until the people dance and pray.”

Ellen writes, “As I learned that virtually every task in life, whether done while asleep or awake, can be engaged in as meditation, my 7th chakra opened, consciousness flowed inward & outward. That the awareness and presence I bring to any endeavor has the power to transform it from mindless, automatic activity to fully engaged, enlivened, curious, moment-to-moment-communion. Whether on the dance floor, in the yoga room, laying hands on another, nursing a newborn, or swinging a golf club, we can transform the mundane into the extraordinary. That breathing in and breathing out can be an automatic/autonomic reflex, or when practiced with presence and awareness becomes a moving meditation practice.”

In this retreat, we will develop our practice of Ecstatic Dance, used since the dawn of time, as a path to re-establish connection between body, mind, heart & spirit, to enter meditation, or non-ordinary states of consciousness. Ecstatic Dance is dance enlivened by your breath, powered by your heartbeat, and set into motion with the catalyst of music from around the world.

We’ll spend a day in social silence, dancing, writing, using Sufi Self Remembering exercises to prepare ourselves for entering the Native American Sweat Lodge, where we sing our prayers, sweat our toxins, give thanks to our ancestors, and vision the future for ourselves, our children, and their children.

Our schedule will allow participants to spend time enjoying the grounds and baths of Esalen, both individually and as a group. We’ll include a session at the baths introducing Essential Touch. We’ll gather herbs, flowers and roots, brew & steep them overnight, then engage in the ritual of cleansing our skin with sea salt scrub, before soaking in the herb infused Esalen mineral baths. This ritual cleansing has both physical & metaphysical benefits, exfoliating & buffing our skin & setting our spirits free.

This highly experiential retreat will give participants the opportunity to enter a variety of moving meditation practices, sending you home refreshed, revitalized, and with a new vision for your future

Please memorize a short (one minute maximum) poem or verse from Rumi, Hafiz, Mary Oliver, or another poet that has deep meaning to you. Bring photographs of your ancestors, siblings, and children, to be placed on our altar.

For course info contact ellen@movingventures.org

For course registration & payment
info@Esalen.org