Invitation to Participate in Wisdoms Goldenrod's
"Alchemy of Healing" Weekend
The first of Wisdoms Goldenrod's two 2006 Summer Studies programs will take place over the course of the July 4 weekend. We would like to invite you to participate in any of our evening programs, which will take place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, July 1-3, beginning at 7:30 and ending by 9:30. You are also welcome to join us for meditation at 5:30 and/or dinner at 6:30.
You are also invited to participate in the entire program of morning, afternoon and evening activities, which will incorporate a variety of traditions and topics relevant to healing (including astrology, music, dream-work, Tibetan Buddhism, and hatha yoga, meditation, and prayer). If you are interested, please contact program facilitators Alan Berkowitz or Lourdes Brache-Tabar ( Lourdes can be reached at 617 623-0370 or lourdesbrache@comcast.net and Alan at 607 387-3789 or alan@fltg.net). This year our format will require that any participants in the morning sessions come each morning for the entire session and also attend our inaugural session Friday night.
All of the following evening activities are open and you are welcome to come to any of them.
Alchemical Transformations in Healing and Growth. (Saturday, July 1) Alchemy is concerned with the transformation processes necessary to bring about psychological and spiritual growth and healing. Together we will look at alchemical images that portray various stages of transformation and relate them to the healing process, drawing on the work of alchemists and the writings of Paul Brunton and other philosophers. (Presenter: Alan Berkowitz)
A Scientific and Spiritual View of the Body. (Sunday, July 2) We will use a variety of exercises and techniques to break out of our idea of the body as physical, material and limited. This will include meditations on "no boundary" (to break down our idea of locality); on "great body" (to escape our sense of the body as material); and an approach through "levels" to experience the body from point of view of cells, atoms, emptiness and vast energy. The body is viewed as an ongoing embodiment and as the entire system of nature. (Avery Solomon)
Music Thanatology and Contemplative Music: Music for Living and Dying. (Monday, July 3) We will see the documentary Chalice of Repose: A contemplative musician's approach to death and dying , which uses vivid, real life footage to document the efforts of the Chalice of Repose Project. It shows how contemplative musician-clinicians offer an "anointing of sound" that can help dramatically alleviate the pain of the dying. Chalice of Repose brings into focus an historical spiritual practice through the lives and work of Therese Schreoder-Sheker and her colleagues – and the patients they serve through their music. Following the film, Jayne will talk and answer questions about her study with Therese Schreoder-Sheker and the Chalice of Repose program. (Jayne DeMakos)