Living Awakened

Almost everyone has had a moment of great awakening. Most of us rolled over and went back to sleep. We have entered a time when more and more of us are remaining awake. Awake, we find that it is a struggle to incorporate our awakened consciousness into our everyday life. In contemplating the task we may feel overwhelmed, fearful inadequate, or perhaps we just don't know how to begin. This workshop is about how to live our spiritual path everyday.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Nelson Mandela.

Gathering Of Circles participants are seekers / questers for truth and purpose. The goal of this workshop is to assist individuals in
clarifying for themselves what their path is and how to walk their
personal path with more comfort and ease. Carol brings her studies and personal experiences to this presentation in the hope that sharing can benefit us all.

For more than 25 years Carol WhiteWater Dawn has worked with
metaphysical practices, specifically paths of the Mystic, including;
Native American medicine ways, Tantric Buddhism, Yoga teachings (Jnana, Raja, Bakti, Kundalini), the Jewish Kabbalah, Sufism, WICCA, and Christianity. Carol has been initiated as a pipe carrier and has received empowerments for many Buddhist practices including taking Bodhisattve vows. Quoting from her webpage, www.dawneagle.com "As a mystic, medicine woman, & dreamwalker, Carol works with transformation of global consciousness; and for a state of enlightenment for all sentient beings." Carol WhiteWater Dawn lives on the Navajo reservation where she has been an instructor at Dine' College for ten years. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor. Carol's name reflects her path. She is a bridge over White Water to a new Dawn.

Lois Colbridge

A time to mourn, a time to "dance"...

This will be a time to remember and celebrate our dance with those who shared our earthwalk and have now graduated to the Blue Road of Spirit. It's a time to come together to weep, to sing, to laugh, to give and receive support. It's a time to be in circle to talk about your memories and your experience and to listen to those of 
others. You may also want to share a favorite poem, passage, or song, or tell us about a book or other resource that has been helpful to you on this path.

On her journey, Lois has been blessed with a great diversity of experiences. She has lived in New York City and on the edge of the Navajo and Zuni reservations in Gallup, NM; in the high desert of Las Cruces and on the shore of the Great Lakes in Erie, PA; in the mountains of West Virginia and on the plains of Spain. Along the way she has worked as a child welfare caseworker, an editorial assistant, a psychological researcher, a writer, a child abuse prevention specialist, a photographer, a psychological counselor, and an investment researcher. Lois now lives in Virginia, where she is confronting the challenge of synthesizing this diversity. She would like to thank her dear friends in El Paso who brought her to the Medicine Wheel and to circle.

“Rock-A-Bye”

 “Rock-A-Bye”, a workshop enjoyed by many members of the GOC, has been held twice before at Cloudcroft gatherings. It is a time of sharing loving nurture among our members. Everyone is encouraged to participate in this wondrous event special to our mountain-top experience. For ourselves and others, come join this time of forgiveness and healing.

‘Women’s Bundle” 

The “Women’s Bundle” from previous Gatherings will be presented to this special meeting of the women of all our Circles. Join us with a poem, a song, a personal comment or a prayer for us all as women. This will be our secret time to share the meaning of “womanhood” with our sisters. Bring a small token of your personal womanhood to place in the bundle. At the Evening Dance, we will take turns dancing with the bundle to empower it with the love and spirituality of our female ancestors and the spirits of all directions.

Indigos --"Blessed Are the Children -- and the Adults Who Deal with Them!" 

Based on: The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, by Lee Caroll & Jan Tober. If you know a child who: 

Lifted her head up and looked around -- in the birthing chamber! Already knows who he is and isn't shy about letting YOU know! Has difficulty with authority issues when explanations &/or choices are not offered.  Refuses to wait in line. Gets frustrated with ritually oriented systems that don't require creative thought (public education?). Hears, sees, smells life -- intensely! Was born non-conformist! Is painfully out of place in traditional situations. Seems to learn by looking at the whole picture rather than block-upon-block linear progression.  Does not respond to guilt, threats or even bribes! Who is not shy about letting you know what he or she needs.

 Then this interactive workshop is for you. We will explore together how current brain research ties into the "new kids" and their education styles. There are no courses in understanding these amazing new children -- not yet anyway. Join us for dialog and exploration.

Women's Blood Mysteries: Maiden, Mother, Matriarch, Wise Woman/Crone

Based on: Goddesses in Older Women, by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen & The Women's Wheel of Life: Thirteen Archetypes of Woman at Her Fullest Power, by Elizabeth Davis & Carol Leonard, midwives.

By exploring tribal traditions we have become inspired to create rites of passage. Join me in looking at women's blood mysteries, to contemplate wisdom that comes from our deepest "succulent wild woman" selves, our ancient memories. No more black balloons and over-the-hill jokes! No more mourning for losing our place in traditional society as "madonnas". This will be a time to Re-Member -- discard Old World modesty and celebrate, Re-Birth! Maidens: Come to greet your future! Madonnas: Come for rest & relaxation -- a look back and a look forward! Matriarchs: Bring your works-in-progress, your triumphs & tragedies! Elders/Grandmothers: Come, tell us your stories! EveryWoman: Bring your wishes & dreams of the future. Bring your blessings for what has been, what is, what will be! See you in the mountains!
Victoria! 

Master of Ceremonies

Cliff presides at the GOC Planning Meeting that is held each year and receives input from the people who attend the meeting and others who have concerns to be considered at the meeting. He tries to combine the information into a cohesive plan for the event and solicit volunteers to be a facilitator for the many tasks required to have a successful event. He also maintains the web site, the mailing list, designs and produces the brochures and mail outs each year. Cliff also prepares his "World Famous Pancakes" on Saturday morning for you to enjoy!

"Shamanic Journey" – Cliff Buchanan

Cliff will lead a "Shamanic Journey" to the "lower world" to find your "power animal". Your power animal is a "helper" to help you understand yourself through understanding the various traits and characteristics of your power animal. Cliff will use the powerful sound of the drum as a vehicle for your travels. Discussion will follow. Cliff is a computer consultant in Odessa, Texas and has led many Shamanic Journeys, sweat lodges, and gatherings.

Singing Up The Sun

"Pre-sunrise singing and drumming from start 'till sun-up on Saturday morning. We will use a variety of morning and sun songs. Everyone come ready to share your songs also. Come join us for singing up the sun and for all the songs you ever heard for that purpose. It will be a meaningful and fun way to start the day."
Pamela Scheler & Sherry Young

Kristie Hunger

Alternative Healing Therapies, 
Tools of a Massage Therapist

Tina Colson is a practicing massage therapist and Reiki Master living and  working in Temple, Texas. She has been practicing Reiki, Aromatherapy, and  utilizing the healing powers of stones since 1992. She has led group massages  at the Gathering almost every year.

Kristie Hunger is also a practicing massage therapist and Reiki Master,  living and working in Lubbock, Texas. She has been learning about and working  with stones and oils since 1989. She has been practicing Reiki since 1996.

Kelly Knox

Barbara & Stacy Norman

This Year

Barbara & Stacy Norman (El Paso) are doing the kids activities. They are going to do a nature hike on Friday, then that night a camp fire and make smores. 

Like a Thousand Suns: The Bhagavad Gita

An introduction to India's best-known scripture. This workshop is for anyone trying to live a spiritual life in the midst of worldly activity and conflict. We will review the major components of Hinduism and compare to other revelations about how to reach oneness with Spirit. Meditation methods of Hindu teachers Paramahansa Yogananda and Eknath Easwaran will be discussed, followed by group meditation.

Carolyn comes from over forty years of feeling inescapably compelled to learn about God. She took the Baptist religion she was raised in very seriously (and still values some aspects), until she read the book Many Mansions by Gina Cerminara about Edgar Cayce. Thrown into a horizon-broadening paradigm shift, she has studied the world's major, and not so major, spiritual belief systems for over fifteen years. She has a master's degree in clinical psychology and teaches in the universities around her hometown of Abilene, Texas. Carolyn is proudest of her recent breakthrough to establishing a daily meditation practice which actually bears fruit rather than "just floundering around in the exercise of it and wondering what I'm doing." 

Drum Circles

We are many but we are one, Brothers & Sisters, wherever you're from. We all dance to a different drum, We are many but we are one. The personal expression of rhythm is a healing experience for the body, mind and spirit. Group rhythmical expression is a community healing experience! Come create a magic place where you are lost in the rhythms and you are being played by your own drum as well as the drum circle you're in. Join in and help create this celebration of Gathering. There will be some extra drums and noise makers available. However, PLEASE, bring drums, rattles, a can of rocks, cow bells, two sticks to hit, two pieces of pipe to hit, wood blocks, shakers, tambourines, etc.!! 

Pete has been a teacher of Blind and Visually Impaired High School students for over twenty years in the Valley of the Sun in AZ. Pete had one of his first drum experiences about ten years ago when he attended a Drum Making Workshop at a Men's Gathering. Making a traditional drum was some of the hardest work he'd ever done. Since that time he has attended and or lead Shamanic Drum Cirles, Thunderdrum Groups and Community Drum Circles. Pete's wish to share drumming with others lead him to recently attend a drum circle facilitators workshop lead by drummer and circle facilitator Arthur Hull. 

Creating Creative Ritual

I will present the Rede, Magickal ethics, Magickal tools, Sabbats, goals and responsibilities, etc.,  initiation and dedication, and finally before ritual have each person choose a magickal name. In ritual we contact the Divine through the enactment of myths which express eternal truths about human beings and the universe we inhabit. The ritual we will create together will be for healing and assistance with life challenges. We will be celebrating Lammas as it is the appropriate time to ask the Gods for assistance with the distribution of our lives bountiful harvest. 

Connie Williams is a performance poet and English teacher at Howard College campus in Lamesa, Texas and the Southwest Institute for the Deaf in Big Spring, Texas. . Her articles on dreamtime, cyber ritual, and rites of passage may be seen in such publications as The Accord and The Modern Primitive.

Sondra Sage

Spiritual Growth Through Voluntary Simplicity

Participatory discussion group: We will consider how practicing voluntary simplicity will enhance our spiritual development. We already agree to honor the earth and all our relations. So how can we translate this precept into everyday life? If we seek to preserve and share resources with all our relations in theory, how can we walk our talk? Voluntary simplicity is not about depriving yourself or rejecting modern technology. Rather, it is a dual realization: 1. That we make sensible lifestyle choices, and 2. These choices create consequences, like ripples in a pond. Come share your ideas and support for those who are seeking to live a life filled more with meaning than with stuff.

Sondra Sage has spent the past ten years creating a more simple meaningful life. She presented a workshop on voluntary simplicity for the New Mexico Regional Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has started a simplicity study circle in Carlsbad, New Mexico. In Carlsbad, she works in environmental research and recently spent six weeks in China on an international aerosol particle research project. The trip provided inspiration to begin riding a bicycle to work and gave new answers to the question, "What is enough?".

T-Shirt Coordinator

This person implements the T-shirt design with the T-shirt  manufacturer in order to produce the T-shirts before the Gathering. They also solicit orders for various colors and sizes in order to prepare the order for the manufacturer. They also pay the manufacturer and collect monies for the T-shirts. The T-shirts have allowed us to keep the GOC fee a "love offering" only so this is an extremely important function. This year, we will have enough to pay the manufacturer up front.

Registration Desk

JJ will be running the registration desk this year along with KeithLee Camp. They will be responsible for (1) making sure that all information we have on everyone is accurate, and (2) providing an accurate count of all that attend the gathering, and (3) establishing a central point for the dissemination of information. So... if you want to know something... just ask them!

Give-a-way Coordinator

Brett Messer and Pamela Scheler will share the responsibilities of clarifying not only the practical method of how it is done but the reasons behind this very important ceremony. The use and protocol of the talking stick will also be explained.

Dave Arnesen 

Men's Sweat Lodge

Lou Dale

Women's Sweat Lodge

Dan Leonard

Port-a-potties