Welcome to Scott Alexander King's 2013 Three Day PRACTITIONER COURSE; an Intensive Introduction to all things ‘ANIMAL DREAMING’
http://www.animaldreaming.com/index.php/workshops/taronga-zoo-3-day-practitioner
Theme - The Circle of Compassion; Reclaiming a Sense of the Sacred
When - Friday 26th July - Sunday 28th July, 2013
Times - 10am - 4.30 pm - Registration 9 am each day.
Where - Harbourview Terrace, Taronga Zoo Conference Centre.
Cost - $660 p/p - Price includes the 3-day Animal Dreaming Intensive, access into Taronga Zoo over the three days and other special features, including close-up-and-personals with animals. BUY YOUR TICKET NOW
Deposit - $100 non-refundable deposit will be required at time of booking to secure your place at the Intensive. PAY DEPOSIT NOW
• Payment: The remainder of your payment will need to be paid in full no later than Friday June 28, 2013.
• Monthly payment plans are not available
• NB: The cost of this Intensive has been calculated as a whole package deal, with no refund offered on any parts you choose not to partake in.
• If you fail to notify Animal Dreaming of your cancellation by phone or email 30 days prior to the event, no refund will be given. To see the our full terms and conditions regarding the Animal Dreaming cancellation and transfer policy, please click HERE
Join Scott Alexander King, best-selling author of Animal Dreaming, Earth Mother Dreaming, the Animal Dreaming Oracle Cards and the World Animal Dreaming Oracle Cards for the 2013 Animal Dreaming Practitioner Course
“When we look to the Medicine Ways of Nature, we see the Earth and all the creatures that live upon it, as messengers imbued with particular characteristics that offer insight into our own true natures. When we open ourselves to the guidance of Animal Teachers, we receive confirmation of our innate strengths and the medicine we need to heal life's sorrows. When we experience interdependence with all life, we find our own honoured place in Creation.”– Scott Alexander King
The MC - for the 2013, 3-day Intensive is the vivacious MARIA ELITA (www.mariaelita.com), the creator of the world-famous CRYSTAL ENERGY HEALING BED and author of THE MIRACLE, OBSERVATIONS and THE NAKED ENTREPRENEUR
A brief introduction to the course:
The Circle of Compassion
“Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it. If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” - Saint Francis of Assisi
What may be, at first glance, perceived as inert, ancient teachings portray as ‘a person’. It is said that all things of nature, ultimately being created from the One Source, are living, thus deserving of equal respect and honour. As a result, the traditions of many indigenous people encompass nature as a whole, with the understanding that Spirit dwells within all things. ‘Mi taku oyasin’, for example, is a well-known Native American phrase that means ‘We are all related’ – meaning EVERYTHING of nature – the stones, trees, people, mountains, animals – everything. And, in my opinion, this is a principle that we must all embrace if we, as a race, are ever to enjoy a truly interrelated existence with each other and the world around us.
Ancient cultures viewed our planet as a living, breathing entity. They revered her as our Mother and believed that from her we came and to her we shall return – a philosophy echoed by Grandfather HawkOwl (the Elder to my Elder) who once said, ‘teach the people that it is the mud of this Earth that makes up the clay of their body, and it is to this Earth that they belong.’ The ancients considered the Earth Mother as being no different from them. They viewed her as their equal. And today, we are privy to similarities that defy argument to the fact. The trees, for example, act as her lungs; the water, her blood. Like the average human adult, she is 70% water. Her average temperature is 35C, exactly the same as the typical human being. And, to complete the correlation, the curative response to fever in humans typically consists of sweating, diarrhoea and vomiting, which, when you look at the state the Earth Mother is in at the moment, is of little difference to the tsunamis, storms and heavy rains, the mudslides or the lava currently spewing from the volcanoes that form the ‘Ring of Fire’. Mother Earth has been cautioning us for ages that she is not well. She has been warning that if something is not done to support her (and soon), she will pull in all her known resources to help herself and that, if her hand is forced, things will seriously change for humankind as a whole. She has been causing mudslides, earthquakes, floods, droughts and strong winds for centuries, but in recent years there have been an increased number of occurrences, with each major event proving more devastating than the one prior.
If you were to ask any doctor, they would tell you that the term ‘fever’ refers to the immune system’s response to expel pathogens and toxins from the body. And, in a frightening way, global warming could be seen as Mother Earth’s response to expel the pollution, toxins and pathogens currently scourging her system. Put simply, a pathogen is a ‘life form’ that causes infection and plague. It upsets me to ask the question, but - has humanity become nothing more than a pathogen? I don’t like to believe it, but our planet is sick, and she is getting sicker ... and, I am sorry to say, it is happening largely because of us. How could we do this to her? Even worse, how could we be allowing it to continue? As a people, therefore, we need to find a cure; a real, tangible, cure. It's like we've disconnected from the Earth Mother on an emotional level. We've literally turned our backs on her. There’s no other explanation. Her, the one who clothes us, feeds us, provides for us in every way. Mother Earth supplies us with everything we need. She cradles us when we are despaired, feeds us when we are hungry and shelters us when we are vulnerable. She loves unconditionally as Mothers will. She scolds, too, when we disrespect her by lashing us mercilessly with storms and drought. She instructs us well in all of life's lessons - of giving and of taking, of love and war; of birth, death and rebirth. She teaches symbolically - her lessons clearly marking our rites of passage with the changing of the seasons, the transition of day into night and night into day, the waxing and waning of the moon and the ebb and flow of Grandmother Ocean's tides. She gifts us with healing herbs, medicine stones and vibrational wisdom hidden deep within her heart, made available to us as needed. She employs the animals to act as our teachers, healers and guides; each metaphorically gifted with a unique and sacred ‘message’ potent enough to guide us, spiritually, along even the rockiest of roads.
The animals present themselves when we need them most. They share their knowledge unconditionally - even if we do not consciously heed their wisdom at the time. The animals, when celebrated as 'creature-teachers', can assist us in the manifesting of positive change. They can help us to bring about healing for ourselves and others; they can return a traveller safely home, or ensure a safe passage for someone about to embark on a journey. They can ease the pain a Mother feels as she watches her children leave home, just as they can ensure health, peace and happiness when a new baby enters the world. There is an animal imbued with the symbolic wisdom to help us with every aspect of our physical lives.
Essentially, this understanding embodies the ancient spiritual path known as ‘animism’; a path very similar to that of shamanism, but more generic and open to personal interpretation. Animism espouses the belief that all objects and living things are imbued with a soul which, in turn, is permeated with wisdom, insight and choice. Put simply, animism advocates that everything is alive, conscious and with a soul, and should be treated with the respect it deserves. It also says that the world is a community of living ‘persons’, only some of which are human and it portrays all things as equal: the humans, rocks, plants, animals, birds, ancestral spirits, etc. Animism offers a 'belief in spirits', be they mystical, paranormal, unseen or illusory beings. Animism, as a spiritual path, celebrates beings for their own sake, whether they have or are souls or because they are ‘persons’, or not. Shamanism, on the other hand, is the oldest known practiced faith; the foundation of many of the world’s most respected religions. It refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices that claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering by forming a special relationship with ‘spirits’ and those of the Spiritual Realms. Shamans (those who practise shamanism) are believed to control the weather, exercise divinatory arts, interpret dreams, astral travel and drift between the upper and lower worlds. Shamanism, as a tradition, has existed since prehistoric times. Shamans are said to form a bridge between the natural and spiritual worlds and to travel between worlds in a trance state, where they call upon the spirits to help with healing and hunting. Shamanism champions the belief that the tangible world is infused with invisible forces or spirits that influence the lives of the living. Unlike animism, shamanism requires specialized training, initiation, knowledge and ability. Shamans, it could be said, are the ‘experts’ employed by animists when necessary, especially when beneficial change on behalf of the wider community is required.
The ancients viewed Mother Earth as the ‘Great Provider’. Their culture and philosophies were based on a deep respect for her. In our ‘modern’ world, connecting again with her is imperative – for her survival … and ours. We, as living organisms, rely on a larger, living host which is of course, the Earth Mother herself, and while this may be the case, we need to make effort to stop being pathogens NOW, or even commensals, and become what we were always meant to be – symbionts. We, as a race, need to shift from the negative phase of ‘free radical’: an electrically charged active molecule that, in the wrong place, causes damage, but when in the right place, assists body function - and move into the positive by broadening our ‘circle of compassion’. We need to shift our mind-set and move into the ‘right place’, or positive, united state of being. We need to think globally, while acting locally. We need to rid the pathogens that plague and infect our personal bodies; we need to heal ourselves and tend to our own back yards and become fully conscious beings before we point a reproachful finger at anyone else. And when we have taken responsibility for our own healing, we can then heal our kids … and only when we have healed our selves, can we hope to heal the planet.
We must embrace ‘the Law of One’, which states that ‘when everything is in true frequency, then all is in peace and harmony’. We need to break away from what it means to be ‘robots’, ruled by the collective unconscious and social conditioning, and return, as a people, to what it means to be free-thinking, fully conscious beings who operate in a interrelated network or ‘animist’ community that is populated by all ‘persons’ – many of which are human and some of which are not. By respecting the Earth Mother, the animals and all her inhabitants as equals, we will ultimately learn to respect ourselves. And by making the effort, we might just save this jewel of a planet and all her wondrous creations - including you and me and humanity as a whole.
What can I expect to learn by participating in the ANIMAL DREAMING 3-day Intensive?
• How ANIMAL DREAMING came to be: Scott’s own story and the awakening of Animal Dreaming
• The Dreamtime and the Creator Spirits that helped shape our beautiful world at the beginning of time (Some say they emerged from the Earth as animals in form showing human-like behaviour)
• The concept of ‘Dreaming; as a powerful form of power, knowledge, wisdom and ‘remembering’
• Totemic lore and the notion of animals as guides, teachers and healers
• Totems as ‘Daemons’, Spirit Guides, Angels (a notion that even Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung supported)
• The Totemic law of some of the world’s traditional people and how they affect marriage arrangements (Aboriginal), food and hunting (African) and so on
• The ‘Inner Totem Pole’ – AKA the Chakra system
• The Legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman and how this ancient legend is being physically re-enacted with the emergence of The Sacred White Animals of Prophecy (among others, the sacred White Buffalo, White Whales, White Giraffes, White Wombats and Scott’s personal favourite, White Lions)
Depending on time and the energy of the group as a whole, we may also spend time investigating and discussing topics such as:
• How the Vibrational Essence or Energetic Blueprint of an Animal can be harnessed and offered as a physical medicine via drops, sprays and incenses
• How to smudge with particular (naturally shed) feathers for particular purposes
• How to emotionally and spiritually call upon the animals for help
• How to look to the animals for signs and know to read them
• How to accurately interpret unusual or spontaneous animal encounters
The role Animals play as Archetypes
• How the animals relate to the primary archetypes that govern our life: father / bear, mother / cow, children / piglets, etc
• Consider your home as an environment, and determine who the members of your family are as far as their animal archetypes (eg: the African savannah – predators, prey, carrion eaters, etc)
• Consider your family as a pack, a mob or a clan of a particular animal species (eg: the meerkat – who is the wet-nurse, sentinel, food gatherer, etc)
KIDS! Indigo Children and Cheeky Monkeys:
• We will look at the five archetypal monkeys discussed in Scott’s book, ‘KIDS! Indigo Children and Cheeky Monkeys’
• How we can look to these archetypes to powerfully support our kids by bringing out their strengths, acknowledging their weaknesses, exploring their dietary ideas, cleansing their home environment and teaming together to become an effective, self-sufficient family
How the energy of animals has been integrated into the traditional teachings of the Medicine Wheel by exploring:
• The Wheel of Life and how the animals influence our daily interactions with the world around us
• The elemental correspondences (season, stage of growth, direction, lesson) of the Wheel and how it influences our journey from child to silver-haired elder
Animals in Witchcraft:
• What is a Familiar?
• What are Daemons?
• What is the significance of the Witch’s Cat?
• Why do the Magickal Animals (Selkies, Centaurs, Dragons, etc) affect us so much, where did they come from and where did they go?
• What are Faerie Animals?
• Why it is that certain animals and birds, like Cats, Bats, Toads, Black Birds, etc., hold a magickal quality for us. Where did this mystique come from?
Animals in Shamanism:
• How Animals can be considered ‘Messengers of the Gods’
• Why the Ancient Peoples resorted to shape shifting into certain animals and why it was so important to ‘become’ the animals they desired to hunt
• How the ‘Were Wolf’ (among others) came to ‘be’
• Why the Hunt was a sacred act and how it related to not just death, but also birth and rebirth
• How the Ancient People’s invoked the animals through dance and movement, sound and song
• How animals (among others, Pigs, Bats, Turtles and even Snails!) mirror the sacred process of birth, death and rebirth by simply ‘being’
Inter-species communication AKA: Animal Communication – a language older than words (a fundamental ‘how to’ Animal Dreaming-style):
• How to work with the animals to ‘set boundaries’. How I asked snakes to stay away, for example, and how you too can set boundaries with the animals in your environment
• How we can connect with the Animal Kingdom to get messages of healing, abundance, purpose and so on
• How to connect with our own pets and animal-companions and interact on a heart-level
How to honour our animal totems, familiars, daemons and through the creation of:
• Altars, temples and shrines
• Charms, talismans and amulets
• Art work, photos, statues and sculptures
• Medicine tools such as medicine pouches, shields, dream catchers and drums
How to access the healing power of the animals through:
• Meditation
• Visualisation
• The setting of intentions
How to take Meditative Journeys to:
• Heal with (among others) the Snake, Cat, Spider
Learn how to read the Animal Dreaming Oracle, the World Animal Dreaming Oracle and the Creature Teacher Cards:
• For the self
• For others
• For healing
• For guidance
• For daily affirmation
Be introduced to the Animal Dreaming Vibrational Essences
• What they are, how they can be used and how they came to be
• Determining the difference between a ‘radiant’ and ‘shadow’ indication
Animal Conservation:
• What is happening to the world’s rarest animals, how and why
• How we are unwittingly impacting the natural world every single day of our life
• What we can do to help the world’s most endangered animals
• Who we can turn to support the world’s most endangered animals
• What are some (simple) things we can do at home
It’s also a powerful experience that offers its participants practical, hands-on experiences such as:
• Learning how to read the Animal Dreaming Oracle Cards for one another
• How to see the Aura
• How to feel ‘Animal Spirits’ with others in the audience
• How to see ‘Animal Spirits’ like Scott himself can do ...
• How to interpret the Animals as symbols
