Introduction to Shamanism in Ireland with Eve Bruce
October 15 – 17, 2010 Samhuin
February 4 – 6, 2011 Imbolc

Weekend introductory shamanic workshops overlooking Inch Beach on the Dingle peninsula.  Find and deepen your connection to your ancestors, and to the spirits of the Earth, Sea and Sky. Enrich your life by calling upon your spirit guides. Learn to access assistance in living the life of your true dreams. For all of you beginners and seasoned shamanic journeyers alike who have a desire to walk the bones of your ancestors. Join me for a weekend filled with ceremony, drumming, journeying, and laughter.

Bring:
a drum or rattle if you have one
a strip of cloth for a clootie
comfortable clothes in layers
a journal
a blanket or wrap
a willingness to dive deeply into spiritual exploration
your sense of humor

Friday 6:30pm to Sunday noon

$425 USD (333 Euro)~
Full board

Limited numbers – 25% nonrefundable deposit to reserve space.

Register and pay.

(Does not include transportation to and from Lios Dána Dolphin Spirit Gate, Inch, Annascaul, County Kerry. Closest airport is Kerry, however public transportation available from Shannon airport.

Eve Bruce, author “Shaman, MD” and  “Shamanism ~ The Book of Journeys” has made Lios Dána at Inch Beach her home. Now running Dolphin Spirit Gate, a place for Shamanism in Ireland. Call or email to register.

The Celtic Wheel ~ Beltaine 2010

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth has awakened from it’s rest and gestation. Trees are budding, flowers blooming, calves are nursing. All is fresh and new. Creativity and sexual drive is in the air.

May Day is the time when we celebrate the coming summer. In our collective consciousness, we seem to fuse  historical practices of the Beltaine fire festivals and Maying practices. All of these rituals are concerned with the observance that the wheel turning to a time of fertile abundance and vitality, and the notion that at this time the veil is particularly thin. Faeries abound, witches play, and the Otherworld joins with Everyday world ~ the mystery of easy passage between the worlds.

We can imagine that rituals would vary depending on whether this thin veil brings about joyful play in a community, or fearful searching for protection.

On Beltaine (variously translated as “lucky” or “bright” fire) Eve, throughout Ireland, fires were traditionally lit in ceremonies to protect the livestock from harm. Driving livestock between the fires, or jumping over the fires was common practice, along with burning of oat cakes and carrying protective boughs. The practice of scapegoating, or taunting a man chosen to protect the community through his sacrifice, has also been described in historical writings.

One such fire festival which has been rekindled in County Westmeath at the Hill of Uisneach on this day, Ireland’s fire festival ~ written about in countless historical accounts is :

The Festival of The Fires.

“Over 2000 years ago a band of Egyptians were sailing up the River Shannon to attend the great Festival of the Fires which was held each year at the month of May at the Hill of Uisneach. Caesar acknowledged Uisneach and its great festival when he spoke of assemblies and trading at ‘the consecrated place considered to be centre of all Gaul…’ “

Here, with evidence of human activity spanning five millennia, this sacred ground is consecrated.

The home of the Goddess Ériu, Uisneach was seen as a gate to the mystical fifth province, Mide, which held the four more familiar provinces together.

Maying in Britain was a practice of merriment and decoration with flowers and new vegetation ~ as well as dancing around the maypole. Later, in urban areas where decorative vegetation became scarce, ribbons and flags were used to decorate the poles. The Church pressured communities to tone down the merriment, particularly the flirtatious or even openly sexual aspects of the Maying tradition.

When we look around us at this time of year, we see fertility and sexual union everywhere. The very air is filled with desire. Reminiscent of  hieros gamos, this is a time of sacred union. The time when the King, in order to revive the land and find sovereignty over the land, ritually bed with a maiden chosen to be the Goddess. This  very physical and real sacred union of the God and the Goddess renders the land fertile and pours creative juices into the community. In some versions, as the story is told, the price was the very life of the King, the community scapegoat, who was sacrificed for the good of the land.

This Beltaine, burn the fires of creativity within yourself. Honor the sexuality that you feel. Love and be loved. Find the union of the divine masculine and feminine within you, and with your partner. And rekindle your creative and passionate juices for the good of all.

Green Path Medicine ~ A Shamanic Practitioner’s Course

Traditional Healing Techniques of the Andes and Amazon

with Ipupiara Makunaiman, Jenny Clay Toscano and Eve Bruce

September 3 – 10, 2010

We are living in times of great change, times that have been foretold by indigenous peoples for millennia.

It has been said that this will be a time when red, yellow, black and white people will come together again, as they were in the beginning of time, each bringing their unique medicine gift to the coming New Earth of harmony and peace.

Green Path Medicine was created by Ipupiara Makunaiman, an indigenous shaman from the Brazilian Amazon, Jenny Clay Toscano, an indigenous shaman from the Peruvian Andes, and Eve Bruce, a white woman devoted to bringing back the Earth based medicines. Our vision is to use Green Medicine – in healing and in teaching indigenous healing methods so that you can walk this path and heal others. We have been teaching shamanism together for over a dozen years, and our intent is to facilitate each person’s deepening connection to spirit and to Mother Earth, helping you find that inner indigenous person devoted to walking softly on Mother Earth with honor, connecting with all our relations, and walking the Green Path to find your own unique “medicine” or gift that will help the greening of our planet.

Join us in the hills of southwest Ireland for a week of teachings, ceremony, healings and connecting with the elements. Find your root in this richly alive land. Journey to your ancestral guides, and find your medicine, your song to the Earth. Learn techniques for healing from South American tribes of the high Andes and Deep Amazon. These powerful healing techniques can be the bridge over which your spirit can walk to find your unique shamanic practice which you can take with you into the world to heal self and other.

$1800 USD (1400 Euro)~
Full board

$100 (75 Euro) discount if paid in full by July 15th.
Limited numbers – 25% nonrefundable deposit to reserve space.

Register and pay.

(Does not include transportation to and from Lios Dána Dolphin Spirit Gate, Inch, Annascaul, County Kerry. Closest airport is Kerry, however public transportation available from Shannon airport. Contact Eve at dolphinspiritgate@gmail.com for information and queries).

Bernardo Peixoto PhD, affectionately known by his spirit name, Ipupiara, is an anthropologist, environmentalist and teacher. He is also a member of Ure- e-wau- wau tribe of Brazil and cofounder of Native Cultural Alliance, an organization dedicated to the preservation and sharing of native cultures and wisdom. He has worked for many years with the tribal and “riverine” groups in South America. Bernardo and his wife, Jenny, have traveled extensively over the past 10 years offering lectures and workshops in different states.

Jenny Clay Toscano, affectionately known as Claicha, is a teacher, researcher of traditional herbal medicine and conducts fieldwork with the indigenous people of South America. She also assists in the development of environmental programs and trips to the Amazon. She currently serves as the Coordinator of Programs with the Native Cultural Alliance (NCA).

Eve Bruce is Programme Director for Lios Dána Dolphin Spirit Gate.  For the past decade she has dedicated herself to changing the paradigm of our relationship to our Mother Earth, to the Goddess, to our bodies and to each other. She facilitates trips to learn from indigenous elders in South America and Africa. Brought up in Kenya, she holds a special love for the wisdom and energies of the continent from which humanity was born. She has studied with the prophet, artist and holy man Credo Mutwa for five years. As both a plastic surgeon and a shaman, she has a unique perspective and understanding of what our culture and others call beauty, of the workings of our body sacred, and of how we do or do not embody our spirit. Eve has studied with John Perkins and the shamans described in his books Shapeshifting and The World Is As You Dream It, and was the first non-Quechua woman to be inducted into the Circle of Yachaks, or Birdpeople, of the high Andes. Her passion is helping individuals change their dreams by shifting from a focus on external to internal beauty. She teaches people transformational tools to shapeshift themselves, our culture, to have “plastic surgery without the surgery,” to end the “pursuit of happiness,” and to live in ecstasy. Author of “Shaman MD” (Destiny Books),  her new book with Robert Levy, “Shamanism – The Book of Journeys” (O-Books) is due out later this year.

Voices of the Ancestors ~ How to Release and Heal Spirits of the Departed

with Roger J Woolger, PhD

April 15 – 17, 2011

Most non-western cultures have rituals and practices to facilitate the safe passage of departing spirits to the other side after death to ensure that they literally don’t hang around the living, draining energy and invisibly influencing us.  Celtic wakes for example, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead were both designed for this purpose and to protect the psychic health of the community.

For the most part, however, our culture has few such practices for releasing the dead with the result that many of our energy problems, obsessive issues and persistent complexes often turn out to be old or ancestral spirit energies trying in vain to speak or act through us to resolve unfinished issues not of our, but their making.

In his many years of working in regression therapy and shamanic healing Roger has frequently encountered and removed unwanted and unhappy spirits.  Some spirits originally attached to us in childhood, some after a family member’s death. Others have been with us for many lifetimes.

In this workshop Roger will share his findings, then demonstrate simple and safe methods to release ancestral and past life spirits. Roger principles and approaches derive from Jungian, Buddhist and European views of spirit entities and differ in many respects from Spiritualist ways of working with obsessors. He aims to demystify misleading superstitions about “possession”, the demonic and “evil” by showing how all so-called “dark” and vengeful entities all respond to loving and compassionate treatment.

You will learn:
· Ways to recognize attachments
· Regression techniques to tune into your own ancestral memory banks
· How to scan your subtle body for signs of attachments
· How to talk to and help unhappy spirits
· How to send them lovingly to the light
· How to protect yourself, your space, and seal your own energy field

For more information and to register contact dolphinspiritgate@gmail.com

Roger J Woolger PhD, is a Jungian analyst, regression therapist and professional lecturer with degrees in psychology, religion and philosophy from Oxford and London Universities. He trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. Born a British citizen, Roger has lived and taught Jungian and transpersonal  psychology and comparative religion in North America and England. He has been a Guest Professor at Vassar College, where he gave the Mary Mellon Memorial lectures in 1988. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Vermont (1975) and Concordia University, Montreal (1979-80). He has led workshops at the New York Open Center, Esalen Institute and Omega Institute, and speaks at a broad range of conferences internationally.

Shakti Rising ~ An Inner Marriage
October 1 – 8, 2010
with Eve Bruce

These are changing times when we are all – men and women – feeling the rise of the feminine shakti, at times overturning the status quo and leaving us floundering to find our center and balance.

In this workshop we will explore the rising feminine energies, looking inward to define and refine the changes that each of us are experiencing as individuals. We will learn to understand and embrace this energetic evolution, finding our balance and productivity, culminating in a ceremonial sacred marriage of these energies within each of us through a ritualized “hieros gamos”.

In ancient times before the patriarchal systems came into play, the feminine energies were understood to be the most powerful that exist in this earthly plane. It was thought that this is due to the fact that the female being has direct connection and experience with the grand forces of nature through her body’s cycles, and of divine creation through giving birth. In this way her connection with the divine is participatory, and her power source direct. The male does not have this built in direct connection, and must find his power through a less than direct connection with the divine by way of acquisition as he goes forward in the world through the “hero’s journey”.

In the era when the masculine energies were rising the ritual of the hieros gamos or sacred marriage came to be – in order to empower the male King, the ritual hieros gamos made use of the female being’s power and direct connection with the land and with the divine natures. Through sexual union of the god/king with the goddess/priestess in sacred ceremonial marriage, the male king was empowered and the connection completed. This empowering connection through hieros gamos was considered an imperative step in literally marrying the king to the land. In it’s most ancient forms, the king was then sacrificed to ensure the fertility and prosperity of the land and its peoples, and is the notion behind our most enduring collective mythologies.

Hermetic philosophy has always held that as above, so below – As within, so without. In this age as we look without, we see our communities moving out of the patriarchy, and searching to find a way to tap into our feminine power base – to bring this out in productive ways – looking to unite the feminine with the masculine within.

Using shamanic journeying techniques we will discover our inner archetypal energies. Through ancient mythical journeys we will connect with Lilith, with  Adam, Eve, and her serpent, with Isis and Osiris, Mary Magdalen and Yeshua, Innana and Dormuzi and other variations on this ancient universal theme. As we uncover, reconnect with and rebalance these energies within ourselves we will unite them in sacred marriage, and through this practice find the balance in all dualities – light and dark, physical and nonphysical, penetration and reception, eternal and mortal. Through the sacred marriage with our higher Self, we can find harmony in our outer lives – as within, so without.

Historically, we can find countless ancient ceremonies for times such as these, to bring the spinning spinning spinning of the feminine out of control to focused center, the line intersecting the circle. From the raising of the Djedd in ancient Egypt, to the honoring of the Ardhanarishvara in Hindu Shivaism, we once held potent ceremony to allow full expression of the feminine energies with harmonious balance and focus. The time of patriarchical disembodied spirituality has been exceedingly productive for humanity. It is encumbent upon us all to Re-Member the Goddess now rising from the dead, and in so doing to find a balance of physical creative potential and deep intuition with focus and clear purpose. To birth with intent. To weave wisdom with compassion.

Weekend intensive $450 (300 Euro)~
Friday Sept 3 evening dinner through Sunday Sept 5
lunch full board.
Week long $1500 (1000 Euro)~
Weekend full board plus half board extension through
lunch Friday Sept 10.

$100 discount if paid in full by July 15th.
Limited numbers – 25% nonrefundable deposit to reserve space.

Register and pay.

(Does not include transportation to and from LiosDana Lodge, Inch, Annascaul, County Kerry. Closest airport is Kerry, however public transportation available from Shannon airport. Contact Eve at dolphinspiritgate@gmail.com for information and queries).

Eve Bruce, MD lives in County Kerry, Ireland. For the past
decade she has dedicated herself to changing the paradigm of
our relationship to our Mother Earth, to the Goddess, to our
bodies and to each other. She facilitates trips to learn from indigenous elders in South America and Africa. Brought up in Kenya, she holds a special love for the wisdom and energies of the continent from which humanity was born. She has studied
with the prophet, artist and holy man Credo Mutwa for five years.
As both a plastic surgeon and a shaman, she has a unique perspective and understanding of what our culture and others
call beauty, of the workings of our body sacred, and of how we do or do not embody our spirit. Eve has studied with John Perkins and the shamans described in his books Shapeshifting and The World Is As You Dream It, and was the first non-Quechua woman to be inducted into the Circle of Yachaks, or Birdpeople, of the high Andes. Her passion is helping individuals change their dreams by shifting from a focus on external to internal beauty.
She teaches people transformational tools to shapeshift themselves, our culture, to have “plastic surgery without the surgery,” to end the “pursuit of happiness,” and to live in ecstasy. Author of “Shaman MD” (Destiny Books),  her new book with Robert Levy, “Shamanism – The Book of Journeys” (O-Books) is due later this year.

Drum For Joy ~ African Drumming in Ireland
with Jaqui MacMillan

September 17 – 19 Weekend Intensive
September 17 – 24 Weeklong Workshop

$100 early bird discount if weeklong paid in full by July 7.

Drum For Joy!

Come for an intensive weekend or join us for the fun filled full week.

“If you can say it, you can play it” … These are the famous
words of Jaqui’s first drum teacher, Babatunde Olatunji, and also the foundation for all of her drum classes.  The Drum For Joy in Ireland program will include classes where you will learn the language of the drum, basic  technique and how to make your drum sing.  Jaqui presents the drum songs in a way that make it fun and easy to learn.  You will learn many rhythms,  breaks, solo techniques and vocal parts throughout the program.  We will also be exploring improvisation with with drums and percussion instruments, found sounds and working with the rhythms of nature in the beautiful environment around us. We will celebrate the coming of autumn, go to local pubs to hear Irish music and create spontaneous music magic together!  No musical experience necessary/ all levels are welcome.  There are a limited number of drums by request … please bring a drum if you can.

September 17 – 19, 2010 ~ Drum For Joy! Weekend Intensive -
$450 (Euro 300) ~ Begins 7:30pm Friday Sept 17 and ends after lunch Sunday Sept 19 ~ Full room and board included.

September 17 – 24, 2010 ~ Drum For Joy! Weeklong Workshop ~
$1500 (Euro 1000) ~ Begins 7:30pm Friday Sept 17 and ends after lunch Friday Sept 24th. Room included, full weekend board (same as above,  *half board during the week (breakfast and lunch) included until lunch Friday Sept 24.

*The reason for half board during the week is so that we are available to go to the local pubs to have dinner and listen to music… We will also have the opportunity to make some community dinners together in the large Lios Dana kitchen. All part of the fun and adventure!

(Price does not include airfare and transportation to and from Lios Dana Dolphin Spirit Gate in Ireland (Inch, Annascaul, County Kerry).  The closest airport is Kerry, however public transportation available from Shannon airport. Let us know if you need us to arrange transportation for you. Contact Eve at dolphinspiritgate@gmail.com for information.)

REGISTER EARLY ~ SPACE IS LIMITED!

To register for the Weekend Intensive, a nonrefundable deposit of $150 should be sent to Jaqui.

To register for the Weeklong Program, a nonrefundable deposit of $500 should be sent to Jaqui.

Send deposit (made payable to Jaqui MacMillan) along with your name and contact information to:

Jaqui MacMillan, 3438 Littlestown Pike, Westminster, Md, 21158.

For more information about the program or deposit contact Jaqui at: 410-346-6884 or DrumForJoyJaqui@gmail.com.

The balance is paid directly to Lios Dana Dolphin Spirit Gate ~ Register and pay ~ $100 early bird discount if weeklong paid in full by July 7, 2010.

For information email Eve at dolphinspiritgate@gmail.com .

“I can see love and light coming from Jaqui, I could see it from the first time I met her (in the ’80’s).  She is a beautiful spirit and a very talented drummer.  As her first teacher, I am very proud of her accomplishments.  She has much love to give and gives it to many through her teaching and her drumming …this is in her nature.” -Babtunde Olatunji, (March 4, 2001)

“Jaqui MacMillan is a rare kind of musician who can both play and teach exceptionally well. Her vast training with several drumming masters is evident the moment she makes a sound on the drum. Each time I see her work, I am always struck with her ability to connect to the participants with warmth and joy. Jaqui is someone who truly loves people and wants to see them progress.” – Jim Donovan, Rusted Root, Jim Donovan Music, (September 2009)

Jaqui MacMillan found her passion for African drumming in the early 1980’s.  Over a span of thirteen years, she studied with many Masters, including Babatunde Olatunji, Mamady Keita, Sam Turner, Carlos Moore and Mahiri Fadjimba Keita at the Tam Tam Mandingue School in Washington, D.C.  Having performed and recorded with some of the top names in
the business, she began sharing her joy of drumming with others by teaching classes and facilitating community drum circles. Jaqui has taught privately and given workshops throughout the USA for over seventeen years through her program, Drum For Joy!™.  The Washington Area Music Association, (WAMA), awarded Jaqui the “World Music Instrumentalist Award” every year from 1995 through 2002 and she was featured in the Women Drummers 2000 issue of DRUM! Magazine.  In 1999
and 2001, she attended the Drum Circle Facilitators Playshop and the Facilitators Mentor Training in Hawaii with Arthur Hull.  Jaqui has facilitated drum circles for hundreds of conferences, corporate team building events, elementary and high schools, hospitals, programs for “at risk” children, juvenile detention centers and programs
for homeless and battered women.  She is a founding board member of the Drum Circle Facilitators Guild (DCFG), an organization dedicated to professionalism in the field of drum circle facilitation.  As an endorsee of Mountain Rythym Percussion, Jaqui represented the company as a guest facilitator at Summer NAMM in Nashville, TN, at the Percussive Arts Society
International Conference, (PASIC), in Ohio and as a workshop leader at the Seattle World Rhythm Festival. She is currently creating a drum program for children, which includes her own line of drums and percussion instruments and she is the director of The Drum For Joy!™ Orchestra.

Lios Dana (pronounced LIS DAWNA) Dolphin Spirit Gate is a place for transcendant living, learning and being. Located in the hills of southwest Ireland on the Dingle peninsula overlooking Inch Beach, this stunningly beautiful land has been the destination for spiritual seekers for over a quarter of a century. On a hill overlooking Inch strand, the dunes, Dingle Bay and the Atlantic Ocean ~ here you will find tranquil gardens surrounding a beautiful cream colored home with floor to ceiling ocean views. A perfect place to relax, rejuvenate, and renew.