Wild, Sacred Rememberings

animist and shamanic practices, story, and ceremony; to awaken to and remember ancestral protocols for being human and the wisdom of initiations;

offered as an oral culture-style transmission;

to move us out of our heads and modern ways of being and into contact with the Otherworld- a place of Spirit, relationship, memory, and initiatory forces.

In each gathering, regardless of the theme, we make an offering of our modern questions and struggles to the Otherworld and let it teach us, call us back, to a more vibrant and rooted connection to our own humanity and a way of practicing our belonging to the World.

We do this as an antidote to epidemics of burnout, loneliness, disconnect, and purpose anxiety; and as a way of participating in the reviving of a living cosmology where all Life thrives.

(if you would like Kate to offer a Remembering for your community, either in-person or online, please get in touch)

Ideas for themes we can gather around:

• Practicing the Art of Death and Rebirth

• Burnout and Your Inner Flame

• Lonely Hearts, Dried-Out Souls

• Kinship with the Otherworld

  ** a quick note on my use of the term “shamanism”: as a term it’s a tricky one - it’s both erasive and appropriative and either comes with a lot of preconceived notions, or, what it means or is so vague it’s almost meaningless. It’s a term indigenous to Siberian indigenous wisdom practitioners and used by western anthropologists to invoke any indigenous or ancestral wisdom tradition practitioner and medicine person, regardless of the land they live on and what those people would’ve called themselves in their own language. I acknowledge the harm within that. Now, it’s often used as a pan-tradition, new-agey catch-all for almost anything mystical and akin to “indigenous”. There’s potential for harm in that, too. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to use it or not and you’ll see me often say “animist” and “ancestral” more than, or alongside, “shamanic”. When and where I do use it, I use it to invoke the role and practices of bridging this world with the Others which run parallel to this one; standing for greater harmony and aliveness within and between individuals, communities, and between us and our beyond-human kin, including those whose souls live in the Otherworld. For me, “shamanic” also implies a marrying of the journey of being human and spirit - not to transcend, but to be more deeply human and here. Shamanic practices come from and operate on behalf of the land, as much as anything else.

  Shamanic practices do not need to supersede or supplant other religious beliefs or lineages you ascribe to or practice, however, you will feel more comfortable with my work if your beliefs allow for a sense that all life (including the natural world) is sacred kin and conscious elder, and that to be here and engage with the pains and ecstasies of being human is one of the greatest responsibilities and most precious gifts we could ever receive. At our gatherings, there might be drumming; chanting; breath work; movement; altars with flowers, bones, feathers, stones, etc. If you can’t come with at least an open and curious mind and heart for those sorts of things, this probably isn’t a good fit for you.