EVENTS - RETREATS

Listen to the Earth ~ Hear Great Spirit      Rewilding yourself with the land & your Spirit Guides              
5 day Shamanic Visioning Retreat led by Flo Gaia, RN, M.Ed.      
             
Speak with Mother Earth & Father Sky, pour out your heart & mind till silence becomes your friend. Awaken all your senses & your deep soul to the quiet wisdom within that speaks your name. Shamanic “journeys” take you to your deep imagination to discover your 7 animal spirit guides.  Simple spiritual practices opens us to unconditional warm acceptance in our core.. 
Come join us!
Retreat will include following activities: Praying to 4 directions, Releasing burdensome energy, Sage blessing, Claiming your space, Breathwork, Walking the land to find your vision spot, 3 Shamanic journeys, Tai Chi, Overnight Fasting Solo on the land * (SEE more info below), Medicine Wheel Teachings, Reclaiming your power, Group Prayer Arrow, lots of Dancing/Drumming Optional Extra Day, 7/6: DIY integration day, Relax @ lodge, visit town, Hot Springs, walks, dinner in town, sleep.
$70 Extra charge, Depart 7/7.

Place: WILDE Spirit Retreat Center, Durango, CO
Dates: Wed. July 1 - 6, 2020  Arrive Wed.; Depart Mon. (or Tues?) morning
Cost: $986 includes all meals, lodging, tuition
Contact: email: frgaia@icloud.com  or 978/270-2230

Registration: http://www.123formbuilder.com/form-5309006/form
​Please copy & paste this link to fill out the the application form & click “Register”. You will be notified of acceptance.
Payment terms: 50% deposit due 5/4/20. Balance due 6/7/20
LIMITED  TO 5 PARTICIPANTS.  

Flo Gaia, RN, M.Ed. is a mind-body health nurse, has studied & practiced wholistic healing modalities for 30 yrs, worked as a psychiatric nurse for 17 yrs.  Her focus is to care for and pay attention to body, mind, heart and spirit offering opportunities to awaken and enliven the whole person. They are interrelated the same way Mother Earth is a living interconnected whole. She trained in Native American spirituality with Brooke Medicine Eagle; E. Steve Gallegos Ph.D. in Deep Imagery (shamanic journeys), Judith Kravitz in Transformational Breathwork. Website: www.mindbodyhealthnurse.com
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~ Solo Time on the Land ~
This retreat is set up for those who have never done this before. Traditionally in native cultures a vision quest is done for 4 days 4 nights with no food or water and preceded by a sweat lodge. This is a much more gentle version so you can benefit the most from the spiritual experience. It’s NOT about suffering, worrying, being macho. We will walk some of the 35 acres of my land first so you can find your personal solo spot where you sit/pray within a short walk of the lodge, from Friday sunset to Sunday's sunrise.  There may be flies. Take insect repellent in case there's mosquitoes, but the climate is quite dry. For your bathroom needs you leave your spot, attend to yourself and return - plenty of bushes, trees around.  Basics you take: sleeping bag, mat, water, medications, TP, rattle, small prayer items. If you have health issues re fasting, you may take some juice or fruit. Try fasting @ home on a stay home day. You will carry everything to your spot in 1 trip. My land is on the back end of a subdivision with national forest on the other side. Folks take walks back there with their dogs so it’s not isolated nor too busy.

WHY do we do this? 🤔😊 …… We two-leggeds have become so disconnected from the living earth, our place in the greater circle of life in our modern frenetic way of life. For millennia native people and seekers of spiritual truth have undertaken vision quests to find wisdom and direction, to experience profoundly who we are. Moses went to the mountain, Jesus to the desert, Buddha to the forest for spiritual guidance to navigate the unique challenges of their time. We go beyond the human created world to have an authentic primal encounter with creation. Solo visioning time is designed to arouse transformations and awaken dormant states of consciousness and creativity.  We return to intimate contact with the Original Energy of Creation. The core of this solo experience includes 3 key elements:
1. Fasting creates a shift in consciousness. Our focus becomes more broad-based, our attention more dream-like, less riveted on rational thought. The internal chatter slows; other thoughts & ways of  perceiving bubble up from below the surface. As the mind quiets that “still small voice”, our deeper longings can emerge and be heard.
2. Solitude Removed from social conversation, cultural roles, routines, and expectations we can discover our authentic power, purpose and voice. Becoming creator of your own story, requires listening deeply to your Self leaving behind all former authorities — parents, teachers, priests, peers --  along with the unconscious stories about the world and ourselves we’ve lived with & bought.
3. Nature - visioning time happens as one sits within the larger ecosystem, removed from our usual self-centeredness, becoming part of the larger whole, a strand in the web of life. Returning to intimate contact with the living Earth awakens forgotten senses and atrophied ways of perceiving. Native people look at the natural world as our 1st spiritual teacher. What do the trees & wind, the  fading light of sunset, contact with rocks & earth, the circling hawk, the ant passing by have to teach us? Begin to ask and they will answer. Our wild, authentic, and natural selves are discovered only through reconnection with Mother Earth herself.

​ The days before your solo time are spent tilling the soil of consciousness, releasing self-limiting perceptions in ceremony, sharing, shamanic journeys, drumming, dancing. During your solo on the land you rest, rattle, pray with corn meal, make tobacco ties & a prayer arrow, sit in silence, call for guidance, listening for that “still small voice” within. This time is yours to be in intimate contact with nature, with yourself and the Spirit-in-all-life. At sunrise on Sunday you return to the lodge & begin the journey back into the human circle with reflection and celebration. The work of incorporation is to walk in our human life with an expanded consciousness about who we are and what we are here to be and do.😇

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TATANKA  LODGE ~ WILDE Spirit Retreat ~ My Home
 Lodging for the Retreat: shared bedrooms, shared bathroom, all linens provided. Optional: camping near the lodge, BYO tent & equipment.  Meals prepared/served by our cook: fresh vegetables, fruit, dairy with options for chicken, fish or beef in some meals.  LIMITED TO 5 PARTICIPANTS                 
​OPTIONAL EXTRA DAY 7/6: DIY Integration Day, relax @ lodge, visit downtown Durango or Hot Springs, walks, dinner in town/leftovers, sleep…  $70 extra charge, DEPART 7/7.  ​