THE PRACTICE OF LIVING AND DYING
Becoming good Ancestors: The Initiatory Journey of the Ego Death
SLOVAKIA
In the work of rites of passage, in the lineage of Meredith Little and The School of Lost Borders, we are following a compass called “The 4 shields of Human Nature”, were the 4 directions have specifics qualities and are related to stages of life and to different level of maturity. In this nature based way to see the cycle of life, the only real death is the ego death, happening in the West, also called the dark shield of initiation.
Of all the shields of human nature, the dark -or Fall shield of the West- can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening. It calls on us to continually risk everything, to let go of what has come before, to step over the edge, to go where life is lived inwardly in the mansions of feeling, dream, and memory. The dark shield is the threshold of initiation, where what is unimportant falls away, where we change or we become victims of our ways.
This is the place of the death of ego, where we are able to let go of our past identities and sense of self to renew, surrender, grief and embrace to move forward.
The time we spend in the dark shield determines our behavior, our character, our destiny, and is largely responsible for our ability to love and those we choose to love. This is the realm of true empathy and of depth. The place where shallow understandings turn into wisdom and light emotions into deep feelings.
Throughout life we are being initiated by our natural life cycles, as well as those times of crisis, grief, loss and trauma.
These times set us on the “path of surrender” once again, toward further growth and maturation … unless we become caught in the Underworld. The tools of our west shield are essential for successfully navigating these dark times and make sure we tend towards initiation without getting stuck in the dark night of the soul.
During this seminar we will experientially move around the 4 directions of our west shield, exploring those aspects of our nature necessary to move successfully through these life changes, bringing balance and health back into our own lives, as well as our families and the communities we live in. Learning to practice our own ego dying to re learn how to become good ancestors
Program Overview: This will be a six-day seminar, beginning mid-day of the first day and ending mid-day of the 6th day. We will sit in council each morning; every afternoon you will go alone without food or shelter into the surrounding land to experience this aspect of our nature as body, psyche, mind, and spirit; and in the late afternoons and evenings, we will listen to and learn from the stories brought back. There will be an invitation to go out in the woods on a solo for a night, from late afternoon to after the sunrise.
You will be asked to write a Letter of Intent and fill in our Health and Insurance form.
©carine roth / Meredith Little
Your guide for this exploration of “The Wheel of Wholeness”
carine roth (she/they) is a Swiss ecotherapist and Vision Fast leader, also trained as a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide, with experience in these fields from all over the world. As a journalist, a picture editor and professional photographer for Swiss daily newspapers, carine has the capacity to navigate seamlessly between the world of industrial knowledge, and worlds of indigenous wisdom. They are founder of “ceux d’ici” and co-founder of the Swiss-based organisation “Rite de Passage”, promoting healthy modern rites of passage in Nature for youth and adults. ”Rite de Passage” offers experiences that are central in past and present indigenous cultures: a time by oneself fasting in the wilderness to connect with one’s true purpose, to enter into relationship with the land and the ancestors, to deeply listen, and to feel held by a community of elders and peers – before the fast in the preparation and afterwards during the integration phase.
Trained with The School of Lost Borders, carine has been following the lineage of the school for years and has had the privilege to sit in circles and share many ceremonies with Meredith Little. She is willing to carry on with the work Meredith and Scott Eberle started in 2003, *The practice of Living and Dying, and is offering programs in Europe and South Africa, in English and French.
carine currently shares her time between the creation of innovative programs in the field of rites of passage, eco-therapy and the human-nature bond, and 1:1 sessions and counseling activities with courageous individuals in search of meanings and ways of fully manifesting their presence in the world. This practice has been enriched by years of experience in order to offer spaces for empowerment and transformation in a healthy, inclusive setting.
In service to all living beings and the intelligence of life that animates us and always guides us towards balance.
With joy, creativity, humor, strength and authenticity.
« DARK NATURE: THE MATRIX OF INITIATORY GROWTH - Meredith Little, 2009, The School of Lost Borders Newsletter.
“Now and then I will ask guides what some of the biggest teachings have been that they’ve received from doing rites of passage work. One guide replied, “the freedom that we have to die.” Not “ability” or “possibility” ... but “the freedom to”. I like that.
The land around us (and within us) teaches with each passing season, and with each flood, drought, fire and storm, that out of change, crisis and a dying to what was, there appears a new story of form and adaptation. And that how we respond and integrate change into the fabric of our ongoing story, colors the character of what comes next. Much of this work is done in our dark shield.
With our marvelous gift of self-consciousness we have the “freedom” to do the hard work of recognizing stories that we tell ourselves that hold us back, limit our imagination, hinder our ability to be moved by the bigger story around us. In this cauldron of self-reflection is forged the tenor and “freedom” of our shape-shifting mythos as it yearns toward wholeness and healing through a life that is constantly initiating us into the ever wider and deeper mysteries of our humanness.
My mother who has just turned 86 often says that so much of living is about saying good-bye. Yes, to her husband who died several years ago, and to friends, but also in a very big way to who she has been ... sharp memory, strong body, independent. She says it’s a good plan God had, that toward the end of our life we must finally learn humility.
Of all the shields of human nature, the dark or fall shield can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening. It calls on us continually to risk everything, to let go of what has come before, to step over the edge, to go where life is lived inwardly in the mansions of feeling, dream, and memory. The dark shield is the threshold of initiation, where what is unimportant or no longer true falls away, where we change or we become victims of our ways.
If “suffering is holding on to our story” as Roshi Joan Halifax has said, then perhaps one aspect of freedom is trusting, and loving, our inherent nature that knows how to die in order to live fully and in alignment with a constantly changing world. »