This 12-week online series is the second spiral of Gestures Toward A Living Culture*(see bottom of page), a gathering place to deepen ourselves into foundational material to re-enchant our lives, inspire our imagination, enliven our intimacy with the wild world, nurture a sense of meaning and wonder, honor our longings and remind us of the mythical and poetic nature of being human.

  COURSE CURRICULUM

Week 1: Collective Wound & Repair of the World

Week 2: Ancestral Inheritance

Week 3: Dreams, Imagination & Creativity

Week 4: Beauty & Enchantment

Week 5: Ritual, Community & the Sacred

Week 6: Well of Grief

Week 7: Obstacles & Separation– Shame & Trauma

Week 8: Outcasts & Predator

Week 9: Wild Kin & Animate World

Week 10: Intimacy, Love & the Soul Friend

Week 11: Terrain of Initiation

Week 12: Prayer as Embodiment

Intention

This series of talks and participatory engagement offers an in depth exploration of perspectives and practices that enrich the life of the soul. Meant to support us in our wisdom, compassion, natural authenticity as well as our sense of belonging to and responsibility for this extraordinary living world.

This course is an experiential training to help us live and ripen into true adults who know who we are, what we serve, and to whom and what we belong.

A central aspect is reckoning with our complicity in capitalism and colonialism and wrestling with what it means to be human at this time.

Facilitated by a white American, cis- gendered, middle class, able bodied woman, inherently limited in approach and scope and actively engaged in the work of dismantling supremacy culture and divesting from systems of domination and oppression, this course is open to all.

As a way to deepen our exploration throughout this second spiral, we will engage the material through the lens of Embodiment, Enchantment and Ritual.

Form & Flow

Within the 2.5 hour Zoom container:

~ begin with attunement & embodiment practice

~approximately 40 minutes of interactive teaching on the week's topic

~10 minute guided writing practice with prompts

~participate in 30 minutes of small group work on the theme (explicit instructions and guidelines will be given)

~return to the full group for a 20-minute question and answer to go over inspirations, questions, troubles as a larger community.

~ recordings of the teaching & q/a portions of each call will be available

“We practice the communal art of villaging as an antidote to the dis-ease, speed, fragmentation and individualism of the modern world. ”
— Alexis Slutzky

DETAILS

  • Start Date & Time — Monday, September 18 @ 4:00 PM PT

  • Dates –  12 weeks on Mondays

    9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 11/27, 12/4

  • Time – 4:00 - 6:30 PM PT

  • Fee — $750 (Some payment plans & scholarships available. Please fill out Financial Assistance application.)

  • Location – Online zoom, recordings will be made available for those who’ve signed up and are unable to attend live 

  • REGISTRATION ends September 10, 2023

*The title for this course came through a lively conversation with a mentor at the beginning of the year. I loved the way the phrase gestures towards a living culture rolled off my tongue and the humility and kindness embedded in the word "gestures," in contrast to much of modernity's mastery verbage. I had heard of the book Hospicing Modernity and other works by the author Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, and in retrospect must have known about the well established international arts/research collective Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures. However, it did not fully land in me until I began preparations for the Second Spiral. I am remiss it has taken me this long to become aware, acknowledge the appropriation and move towards making it right. First, by no longer using the name Gestures Towards a Living Culture to refer to the community course, and also recognizing and uplifting the deeply powerful and important work of Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures, in particular a class in which I am currently enrolled, Facing Human Wrongs with Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti. I imagine our online course name will change entirely, if it has a name, but for simplicity and to serve as a bridge, we can say Gestures...