Gathering Bones
A 12 week exploration of the realms of the wild and deep soul through myth, ritual, reflection, and community.
“Let us remember ourselves back to the wild soul. Let us sing her flesh back onto our bones. Shed any false coats we have been given. Don the true coat of powerful instinct and knowing. Infiltrate psychic lands that once belonged to us. Unfurl the bandages, ready the medicine. Let us return now, wild women howling, laughing, singing up The One who loves us so.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
So many of us are longing for more wildness ~ that is, to know what we are made of and to live from that place without shame. And yet, so much colludes to keep us small, obedient, and domesticated. So much can keep us far from home. So much can keep us from our wildness, from our natural ways of being. We want to remember ourselves back to the wild soul.
In this 12-week course, we gather once a week and dive into the realms of the Wild Woman – a deep soul energy that moves us, lives through us, abides all around us. She brings with her the most instinctual, most wild aspects of the feminine soul that have long been forgotten, lost, and neglected. She is the river beneath the river, the one who knows, the bone collector…
“Within us is the old one who collects bones. Within us there are the soul-bones of this wild Self. Within us is the potential to be fleshed out again as the creature we once were. Within us are the bones to change ourselves and our world. Within us is the breath and our truths and our longings – together they are the song, the creation hymn we have been yearning to sing.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
In her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes weaves world myth and story into a beautiful portrait of the Wild Woman. For centuries she has roamed our psyche – fierce and loving.
We have called her by many names – although mostly we have not called her at all. But we are imprinted with her and from the depths of our psyches, the Wild Woman archetype calls to us. We will use the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, as our lantern to light our way on this path.
This course is a ceremony of gathering bones – that is, all the visions we have buried, all the words that have been silenced and petrified like stones in our mouths, all of the wild gestures that have been violently domesticated, all of the parts of us that have been cornered into being good while giving up our knowing and sovereignty.
We gather these bones and we sing to them. We sing with our attention, with our devotion, with our openness to see and to understand. As we sing, the bones are fleshed out – the lost is found, the forgotten is remembered.
“To sing means to use the soul-voice. It means to say on the breath the truth of one’s power and one’s need, to breathe soul over the thing that is ailing or in need of restoration. This is done by descending into the deepest mood of great love and feeling, till one’s desire for relationship with the wildish Self overflows, then to speak one’s soul from that frame of mind.
That is singing over the bones.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I look forward to digging deep, getting muddy, and singing my heart out with you.
If you are interested, send me an inquiry and I will get back to you!
Hallie O.
"To say that my time in Gathering Bones changed me, would be a massive understatement. It shifted my consciousness, expanded my inner knowing, and tuned me into myself in unshakeable ways. I now feel a deeper connection to soul, to my discernment; that place within the deepest corners of me that cannot nor should ever be ignored. The way that Vanya weaves sacred space, leads ritual, and guides this heavy, but imperative work, is truly remarkable. It is emotionally stirring and worth every moment. I am looking forward to running back to this pack of wolves someday for another workshop."
Hallie O.
This course might be for you if:
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Are thirsty for more meaning in your life
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Desire to slow down and listen deeply to your own life
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Want a safe community to explore these realms with
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Long for a truer way of being in your life but don’t know how
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Want to cultivate self-trust in your own knowing
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Are ready to shed the “shoulds” in your life and live into more wildness
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Want more myths, stories, symbols, and imagination in your life
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Want to learn about dream work
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Long for a more creative life
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Are ready to step into more of your power and sovereignty
What to expect during our weekly gatherings:
Each week we will be reading one or two chapters from the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves. In each gathering, I will re-tell the story for that week and we will then have some discussion/teaching on the story and the themes of that week.
During our weekly gatherings, we explore myths, stories, themes, and images within a kind and loving community. We also engage in practices that will help us deepen into this work, like writing, ritual, dream work, somatic awareness, and imaginal work (if you don't know what that means, don't worry, we go over all of that together!).
We start each gathering with a grounding meditation, paying attention to our breath and spending a little time arriving and creating space together, and we always end the gatherings with a grounding meditation again.
The gatherings are a mixture of this kind of making container for our work together, storytelling and teaching, open discussion and exploring the themes together, and engaging in some practices that helps us deepen into what is coming up for each of us.
When:
Next in person Gathering Bones starting in
Sept, 2023!
Where:
Seattle Area
Cost:
$250 per month (Three months)
*First payment due at time of registration
*Limited to 8 participants
Are you interested?
Send me a message and I will be in touch with you soon!
I understand that the information provided here will be used to send occasional updates and letters from Vanya and that I can opt out any time.