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                                                                                                 Areas of Study

In the 1st year you will explore different doorways of perception and tools that provoke a relationship with the unseen.

During the 2nd year, you will study alternative tools to explore the psyche. The original people had a way of life that was taught to them by creation. It has its own rules and its own way of relating. You will discover many of the tools that will help facilitate that dialogue and help you actualize it in your own life, as a way of life.

Year One:

Year Two:

Grandmothers: The Wisdom Keepers of the Earth

The old people of the First Nations say that there is a Grandmother that birthed us all; She was the first one. There are Grandmothers who carry the wisdom of that line. Come meet some of them, and share in the prophecy and wisdom of their peoples. Hear their stories and what they teach about their way of life. Learn about the collective vision they hold that can guide us through these changing times. Instructor: Jyoti 

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How to work the process

True communication is “communion”; the realization that humility can take us to communion through an evolutionary process of “moving up” the levels of awareness and being—until peace and love are all that exists. If we can accept humility as a part of us, then we can accept that one purpose of relationship is personal and spiritual development, rather than merely a grasping for something to make us feel happy and safe.

In this transformation, relationships offer us a new kind of salvation, and we align ourselves with a greater awareness and consciousness that wants to be born into this world. The Power of Humility shows us how to change our conflicts into peace. 

At each moment, within each conflict that arises throughout our day— throughout our life— we are given the power to choose, and that is a Divine gift. Do I choose to protect my point of view, my position, and my ego’s limited perceptions? Or, through humility, do I choose not knowing, curiosity, and compassion? Do I choose to play the victim, to persecute or to rescue? Or through humility, do I choose to motivate, nurture, and empower? Do I choose separation, or through humility, inclusion? Do I choose fear, or through humility, love? It’s our humble choice. Instructor: Jyoti and Russell D. Park, Ph.D.


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Choosing your spiritual practice

The Divine Mother has told us that each of us is an herb in Her garden. Your life work is to fully potentiate that herb. One’s spiritual practice cultivates that possibility. One’s spiritual practice gives root to one’s life. One’s spiritual practice claims each day as sacred. Do you have a practice? Do you have a time each day you stop the world to sit and listen to your Self? Instructor: Nancy Rowe, Ph.D

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Walking your prayer

If you have found your spiritual practice, how do you take it into your everyday life? How do you walk your talk? How do we learn to live in the Now each moment? And when we practice that skill each day, what happens to the quality of our lives? Instructor: Ryan Brandenburg

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Transpersonal Psychology

To move from the “I” to the “We”, a study of that which is bigger than the personal opens the door of perception. Transpersonal psychology evolves the understanding of the dynamic energies that drive our individuation. This study will explore some of those who have brought maps of understanding to this process, such as C.G. Jung, Ken Wilbur, Stanislav Grof, and Michael Washburn. Instructor: Russell D. Park, Ph.D.

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Mystical Faiths

If we are to better understand the path we walk, it is helpful to recognize the wealth of wisdom of many different teachings, operating from a principle that all paths emanate from the same source, and an understanding that respect of every individual’s perspective is the first step to Unity.

We will take the time to sit with the basic teachings of various faiths such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, and Taoism.

Many religions have a foundation in Mysticism, as well as contemporary teachers whose work it is to remind of this original form.  In this module we will draw upon their expertise regarding this ancient way of relating to the Divine. Instructor: Gloria Karpinski

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 Spiritual Emergence

When one studies the many expressions of God as described by various religions and cultures, it is common to discover reports of experiences marked by alterations in consciousness and perception, as well as emotional, cognitive and somatic functioning which are of transpersonal significance. Stan and Christiana Grof called this a spiritual emergence process, and posit the perspective that this condition is most effectively viewed as an inner psychological process—an approach which allows the experience to be viewed in an internalized way, thus providing the capacity to form an adequate working relationship with ourselves and others, while maintaining the spirit of cooperation.

The criterion for spiritual emergence excludes people suffering with hallucinations, severe paranoid states, delusions of a persecutory nature, or those who consistently use the defense mechanism of projection, exteriorization, and acting out. In this study, we will explore how to follow process rather than direct it. We will study how “set and setting” provide containers for such alchemical processes. We will also explore the implications that the theory of spiritual emergence has on the Western model of healing and spiritual growth. Instructor: David Lukoff, Ph.D.

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Death & Dying

Many people believe that it is the beliefs about death held by a collective that shapes the culture. This module will be a study of death as a doorway— a doorway of perceptual shift in relation to the consciousness of one’s reality. How do we care for this doorway? How do we prepare ourselves to walk through the doorway? What is our relationship with the body? What is our body’s experience of Spirit?  How do we learn to respect the different ways people must go due to karmic work? How do we learn to serve the process?  Our Lady says that it happens in stages. In order to move from one state of consciousness to another, to bring mystical vision into this reality—or to return to the place of vision— there are five steps:

                        1. Preparation
                        2. Purification
                        3. Initiation
                        4. Integration
                        5. Actualization

By exploring these developmental stages, we will examine traditional and nontraditional approaches in order to better understand our perceptions of, and personal relationship to, this very important topic. Instructor: Ann Rosencranz, M.A.

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Prayer as a Science

Lily Tomlin says that when we talk to God, we call it prayer, and when God talks to us, we call it schizophrenia. In that description, which echoes a commonly held contemporary perspective, there is no room for dialogue. What happens to consciousness when the space is created to begin a dialogue? Prayer, consciously approached, gives focus. Focus, clarified, engenders a specific quality of life. In the last few years, research has been done that proves what Indigenous Peoples have known since the beginning of time: That consciousness is an intelligence that wants to dialogue with us and through us, in order to make of us an instrument of prayer. Prayer is the instrument of peace so desperately needed at this time in history. Instructor: Ryan Brandenburg
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Prayer As Action

The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers’ Alliance statement is the declaration of a prayer in action. The Grandmothers proclaim, “We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth, the contamination of our air, waters and soil, the atrocities of war, the global scourge of poverty, the threat of nuclear weapons and waste, the prevailing culture of materialism, the epidemics which threaten the health of the Earth’s peoples, the exploitation of indigenous medicines, and with the destruction of indigenous ways of life.

We, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today. We come together to nurture, educate and train our children. We come together to uphold the practice of our ceremonies and affirm the right to use our plant medicines free of legal restriction. We come together to protect the lands where our peoples live and upon which our cultures depend, to safeguard the collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to defend the earth Herself. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We join with all those who honor the Creator, and to all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.”

Once we begin a prayer, then we must follow it. If we follow it, a way of life reveals itself, and we begin to realize that everything is connected. We begin to move, realizing that our actions will be felt by the next seven generations. In this way, we are a walking prayer, and all life is seen as sacred. In this way, we approach life, rather than attack it. Instructor: Jyoti

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Dialogue with Creation

If we have forgotten how to dialogue with Creation, where do we start? In asking that question, we declare a wish to relate. The Old People say that relation is the seed of life. In this module, we will take a moment to examine how our culture relates to the Earth in contrast to how other cultures have historically related to the Earth. How has our relationship with the Earth changed throughout time? If we were to listen to the Earth, what would she being telling us She needs right now?

Once we begin to dialogue, how do we nurture this new relationship with Creation? The Original Peoples were given a way of life that had rituals and rites of passage that marked the seasons of the Earth. Each line from those original days relates the story of the Earth told through prophecy and declared through song. Instructor: Flordemayo

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Earth Based Ways of Prayer

When we have entered into a conscious relationship with Creation, we can begin to study Earth based ways of prayer. As our Grandmothers teach, “We join with all those who honor the Creator, and to all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.” Our approach to this way of prayer is different than what is commonly promoted, as the heart rather than the mind leads it.  It is an approach that brings to light the elements of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. One that acknowledges the world of Spirit, and that teaches us ways to discipline ourselves so that we respond to life rather than react to it. In this way, we educate ourselves from our experience, and the relationships involved in manifesting that experience.

Earth based ways of prayer teach us how to dialogue with the archetypes: the inherited patterns of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience, and present in the individual unconscious. Using the 5 steps of transformation given in previous modules, the focus of this module begins to move the lens of perception from the Western model of relating to an Earth based model of relating.  As a result:

    1. We see where we think we are victims.
    2. We realize we have choice and define the problem
    3. We accept the problem, and embrace the challenge.
    4. We meet the challenge through completing the tests.
    5. When we complete the test, then we can hear the message.
    6. When we listen to the message, we come to know our personal myth.
    7. When we know our personal myth, we begin to glimpse the Divine play at work in the world.
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Archetypal Medicine

This study will begin to describe how Consciousness forms a field. The field is organic in nature, and has evolved throughout time. As a collective, we have been in the study of what the Hopi’s call the Fourth World. It has been a study of sacrifice, of learning how to hold paradox, of learning to declare our differences and identify the “I”. The new field of study is the Fifth World of Unity. The World of Unity is cultivated through acts of service, and a way of being which honors the connectedness of life. It is said that our suffering pushes us until our vision pulls us. Archetypal Medicine teaches one how to dialogue with the vision that is pulling. It requires a maturity of character, and a devotion to one’s part in the Divine Play. Contained within the boundaries of the field of Archetypal Medicine is a continuum of learning that—when explored—can expand the channels of perception.



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Plant Medicine

The plants of Creation are Guardians of this Earth. Some are here to heal us and keep us in balance, while others are here to teach us a way of life that can sustain Life. In this study, we will examine a continuum that teaches how to integrate learned intellectual concepts with spiritual practices that maintains a way of life. We will learn how to connect with the Spirit of plants in order to facilitate the healing of the individual and the collective.

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Ritual

In this study, we will make a new relationship with ritual. From where does it originate? How is it passed on? Our habits can form our daily ritual, and those rituals can define the richness of a culture or its lack.  First Nation Peoples have been given ritual by Creation and by the Original Peoples of this Earth. Those rituals have been passed down—often orally— through the generations, so that when one sits within it, there is a line that brings all the prayers said along that line—since it first began—into the present moment.

Contained within these traditions is an understanding that specific actions create specific results. Ritual, in this sense, defines the sacred container, and the protocol that maintains that container. Protocol does not establish a rigid rule, but rather provides a guidepost that points the direction in which to proceed. It is much like a telephone number: a specific phone number reaches a specific endpoint. In order to connect with the line of prayer the ritual calls forth, then one must follow the protocol that defines the requirements of that specific container— in order to call forth the “intelligence” which is present in that container.

Additionally, in order to maintain what is learned while in that container, one must put in to daily practice what the container teaches. As an individual’s relationship to ritual shifts, so does their way of interacting socially. For this reason, we will study a medicine village vs. a hierarchical system, exploring such integral questions as what maintains the integrity of each, as well as the inherent ethical implications of both worlds.

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Prophecy

John White, author of the book, Channeled Communications: One of History’s Links to the Future, writes, “…the human race has often been uplifted by words of wisdom originating, it seems, from a level of existence beyond the human which is inhabited by more highly evolved beings who are compassionately concerned for us and whose existence is, the communicators say, inextricably entwined with our own.”

The original peoples have been guided by prophecy since the beginning of time. Flordemayo, the Mayan Grandmother of the Council of 13, says, “In this time of movement, where celestial doors have opened, we must do what we have been asked to do. We are standing in the movement and the vibration of a sacred prophecy. The prophecy tells us that consciousness is preparing the spirit of the Feminine, the spirit of the Grandmothers. It is in the prophecy that we shall walk into the light united from the four directions.” It is through this prophecy, coming from many different cultures of the four directions, that gives direction in this tumultuous time. It is a voice of the ancestors guiding our way.

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Spirituality & Practical Feet

In this study, we will take what we have learned and apply it to our everyday life. In this way, we become instruments for positive change in the paradigm shift that is happening today. We have made relations with our Spirit, establishing trust in that which calls us.  We have learned to follow rather than grab for what we want. We have learned to follow the organic process of our Soul. As we stand up inside ourselves, we begin to define a culture. In order to bring our spirituality into practical feet, we will study the gifting economy vs. the consumer economy. The gifting economy is driven by the knowledge that all will be provided if we but listen and follow our guidance. It is rooted in the old cultures and cultivated by love and acceptance.  The consumer economy is driven by fear of not enough. It is rooted in competition, and cultivated by how much we can consume rather than sustain. We move from consumerism to gifting through the economics of learning to share.

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Communities

To live in a community centered in Spirit, one must be willing to work the process. You have to step out of “I” thinking. You emerge from someone who sacrifices to make things happen to someone who is in service to the Divine. It is that act of service that allows things to naturally evolve in community. When we sit in circle in community, we realize that everyone is an aspect of ourselves. When you apply the concepts you will have learned through these studies, you will have a tool that cultivates respect and acceptance. When you learn to walk with your prayer, you will have a focus that will nurture growth and clarity of purpose.

Communities require the development of a sacred witness that can maintain its integrity and facilitate day-to-day experiences of individuals with one another in a way that is kind. The first step a community must take is to accept where they are. Then, without judgment, there must be a commitment to higher consciousness and those things that attract higher learning. There must be an examination of choices, and an ever-present awareness that every choice made affects the next seven generations. Integral to healthy community is the necessity to honor the sacred hoop of life in the established social structure, so that individuals representing every station of life have a voice. These are a few of the concepts we hope will stimulate your study in your own community.

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Sustainability

How can we look at our imbalances as opportunities for practice instead of merely as problems? How can we utilize our excess, or surplus, energy to address our weakness or deficient energy? In this module, you will have the opportunity to see how to bring collaboration and right relationship to these seeming polarities, in order to evoke balance and sustainability in a system. How can you apply what you are learning to your personal, emotional, and spiritual life?

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What is your personal code of ethics

Integrity in a system is determined by how well centered it is. Does it know itself? Is the container sealed? Is it leaky? Is it losing energy?  If so, how? These are all questions that one might ask while beginning to set up a spiritual practice. This process is much like what one would do if they were to investigate their body’s integrity. If one’s body is not able to maintain its integrity, then it usually falls out of balance, loosing its energy, and functioning in a way that is neither efficient nor healthy. This course will help you discover how to bring your spiritual practice into integrity, by defining your own personal code of ethics.

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Unity as a Practice

In this module you will utilize your sacred witness, and review your life, and how it is working. Do you know all its parts? Do you know which ones are coming out of an unconscious state? Do you know what triggers you and throws you into an unconscious state?  Are you embracing your shadow? Are you embracing your power? Unity is a practice of integration. It is a practice of acceptance, and it is a practice that requires you to know yourself.

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Practical applications of ministry

In ministering to people, you will be asked to officiate at ceremonies that mark important life passages; birth, death, marriage, baptisms, baby naming. This module will explore the different ways that you can co-create beautiful and meaningful ceremonies with those that you have been called up to assist. Several different approaches will be studied and explored. Assistance will be given to help you find the style that will activate the archetypal energies that will empower your ceremonies.

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