|
Gathering
Of
Circles |
Featured Speaker for 2003
 Charles Conatser |
Dancing Our Ways Home
In Both Worlds It is with great joy and celebration that I have agreed to be your "guest speaker." I have heard from afar the wonderful things that happen at the Gathering of Circles each year but have never been able to join you until 2003. Though I know several of you and a few quite well, I feel that I am preparing for a big family reunion at which I will know almost none of my relatives, much less know their interests. Moreover, first thing, you will all focus your attention on me for a couple of hours as I am expected to give you some "wise words." So fear asks "Am I enough?" Fear asks each of us this question at every turn, especially in times of change or threats to/in any of our worlds or when trying something new. |
This fear question can narrow my/your/our vision making me/you/us forget who we are and which way is home. This will be our challenge together. I will share some of my visions, teachings, and methods, which I have received from many sources. Together we will practice some ways to help me/you/we remember who I/you/we really are (in our fullness), so I/you/we can re-member (put back together) ourselves sufficiently to experience that "we are enough!"
The form of our experience will emerge when we come together with all of us as midwives. So come as your largest self, with your most loving helpers, ready to awaken and be awakened; to release and be released; to heal and to be healed; to love and be loved; to joyfully celebrate and be joyfully celebrated; in short, to accept and carry out King Arthur's charge to his knights as they went in search of the holy grail: "BE GLORIOUS!"
Some of my ideas about the title words are:Worlds -- physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, sexual, social
Both -- stressing attention to the inclusion of each
Both Worlds -- ordinary and non-ordinary, separateness and unity
In -- purposefully inside, participant, position, power, experiential
Home -- one, belong, relax, rest, safe, comfort, heal, natural power, love, joy
Home In Both-- singular inside participant experiencing plural each
Ways -- plural, paths, openings, passages, opportunities, capabilities
Our -- owner of, possessor of, agent of
Our Ways -- we each have our own!!! sharing them is our gift!!!
Dancing -- intentional, alive, artful, active, light, practice, choreography
Dancing Our Ways -- intentional practice of lightness on them
Dancing Our Ways Home -- We all yearn to be!!!
Dancing Our Ways Home In Both Worlds -- Together we can be!!!
We are all amateurs!!! But the root meaning of amateur is "lover"!!! So let us claim it, dispell the fears of it, and joyfully celebrate being lovers on our paths.
WildHorse Charley Conatser is an artist of the
spirit as founder/ director of The Healing Center in Lubbock TX. He is a
master drum maker, ceramist, sculptor, artist, a Ph.D. in Math/Physics
from University of Illinois, a
past President of Mountain Desert District of Unitarian Universalist
Association, a Reiki Master in the Usui spiritual lineage, a Certified
Clinical Hypnotherapist (American Council of Hypnotist Examiners #CHT
895-448), trained by the Alchemy Institute in Alchemical Hypnotherapy,
combining alchemy, shamanism, & hypnotherapy. He has extensive
training through The Foundation for Shamanic Studies with its
founder/director Michael Harner PhD (THE WAY OF THE SHAMAN 1980 &
1990) and Sandra Ingerman MS (SOUL RETRIEVAL 1991, WELCOME HOME 1994, A
FALL TO GRACE 1997, and MEDICINE FOR THE EARTH 2001), as well as a number
of other shamans including Clarissa Pinkola Estes PhD (WOMEN WHO RUN WITH
THE WOLVES), and has over eighteen
years training & experience as a shamanic practitioner & teacher
of complementary methods of healing, including extraction, power &
soul retrieval, psychopomp, chakra animals, sacred space, imagery,
ceremonies for transition occasions, wilderness gatherings, Mind Body
River Adventures, & THE BOX PROCESS. Feel free to contact him
directly at 806-763-3786 or cwconatser@aol.com
or 1915 33rd St, Lubbock TX 79411-1821.
"You've
got to sing like you don't need the money,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Dance like nobody's watching,
You've got to do it from the heart, if it's going to work."
{Author unknown}
May we each have strength to stand in the unknown long enough to receive our own truths and to share those divergent truths with one another in peace and love!!!
May we know that there is nothing between/separating us!!!