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April/May 2012 Volume 74
Welcome to this bi-monthly edition of our newsletter! You will find these columns contained in our April/May issue:
Metaphors for Life
Inspirations
Special Events
Review
BE SURE TO NOTE: Our April 7th Sixth Annual Benefit Concert and Wine-Tasting or see special events below.
I hope you enjoy this issue of Kenosis Inspirations...
Carla Woody, Founder
Kenosis
Metaphors for Life
Many traditions understand the power of teaching through stories. Our minds find a special repository for them. We unconsciously draw from this metaphorical resource bank when we need it most — to guide and nourish us. Here you will find such tales, quotes and prose. As they have come to me, I pass them on to you just as our ancestors have done since the world was young.
There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
— Carl Gustav Jung
Inspirations
Life is nothing if but levels of learning, whether or not we freely enter the Perpetual School. We actually have no choice in the matter. In this column, I offer you philosophy, musings and information that you may take with you as they fit into your own lyceum.
| Spiritual Travel: Destination or Process?
| | By Carla Woody
Some years ago I had an inquiry from someone who was interested in a program I was sponsoring; specifically he was enticed by a destination on the itinerary. He'd done a search and I was the only one offering the opportunity. "But," he said. "I'm not so sure about this 'spiritual travel' stuff."
How to explain something so intangible? In one respect, it contains elements of tangibility: sites and interactions. Invisible to the naked eye, perhaps unanticipated by the mind, are myriad ways to be drawn into the deeper journey that define these potentially uncharted waters — without conscious realization in the moment that you've taken the plunge. Hence, enter aspects that: may have no words or audible sound, cannot be held in your hands, your eye can't get a bead on, can seem ordinary but aren't. Yet it produces something akin to a lightning strike that splits the rough outer covering and creates an opening, a probable pathway — and a tangible result. There appears a fork in the road inviting decision. It's not the territory for a faint-hearted tourist but the traveler of a different sort.
Offering I
Mixed media by Carla Woody
I personally welcome those unending layers and outcomes, only bits and pieces of the larger picture solidifying long after closure of the initiation. I've had the great fortune, maybe even destiny, to create such organic spaces, through many years' relationship-building and travel with special intent: being alert to those people and places who offer themselves as powerful conduits. These elements being necessary to push the energy — our energy — to catapult us beyond places that have grown familiar.
My brand of spiritual travel is physically comprised of sacred sites, ceremonies and those who keep the rituals and stories. The travelers who show up to participate equally act as catalysts. An entrainment occurs and each one gains what they need to further the collective and their own journey. And we find out what it's like to be at play in a field of mirrors: coming face-to-face with aspects that call out for healing and simultaneously create beauty. I personally celebrate it all.
The question arises: do you have to travel to experience such initiation? You do. We are creatures of habit who tend to cling to a mindset that is familiar, even if not particularly healthy. You must be willing to move outside the container: to be fearless, to be open, to explore. You must embody courage to create a wider life. That's travel.
The fast track requires putting the daily life on pause and dropping yourself into an unfamiliar environment to rediscover what you forgot. When people gather with this common intent, magic happens. They give themselves permission to explore parts of themselves they're not so in touch with. Add exposure to Native peoples who inherit a sense of the sacred as an integral aspect of life — and a landscape of possibility appears.
When that happens it leaves an indelible impression and shifts who you are in the world. I frequently face a challenge finding words to express the profound value of the intangible elements running through the lifework I've chosen. I currently live in a culture that values the immediate result while ignoring the process that's all-important in creating something of deep meaning that endures. My sense is that if we're able to finally find comfort floating in the abyss, it will produce all that's ever needed--beyond what we could imagine. But it takes travel. I'll leave you with this quote from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller:
And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life; and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to the meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.
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Author's note: Those years ago I must have found the right words. I'm happy to report that the man concerned about the "spiritual travel" stuff has since traveled with me twice. And even more importantly, in the process, we've become friends.
For information on our upcoming "Entering the Maya Mysteries" programs, go here.
© 2012 Carla Woody. All rights reserved.
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Special Events
For more information call Kenosis at (928) 778-1058 or e-mail info@kenosis.net to request a flyer. If you are interested in sponsoring a book signing or a workshop with Carla Woody, please contact us.
| April 7 |
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Sixth Annual Benefit Concert and Wine-Tasting featuring Frank Thompson and AZ Rhythm Connection and Sunny Heartley. Silent auction of fair trade items from Bali, Peru, Mexico and services. Held 5:30-8:30 PM at the Smoki Museum in Prescott, AZ. (Not a Smoki Museum event.) To purchase advance discounted tickets, go online or purchase at Adventure Travel, 130 Grove St., Prescott. If you're unable to attend but want to support through a direct donation, please go here. Sponsored by Kenosis Spirit Keepers, the nonprofit extension of Kenosis. All proceeds support programs preserving Native spiritual traditions directly benefiting the Hopi, Maya and Quechua communities with whom we work.
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| December 9-23 |
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Special Winter Solstice Program: Entering the Maya Mysteries with Carla Woody, Carol Karasik and Chip Morris. Spiritual travel to the southern Mexico and Guatemala highlands visiting ancient sacred Maya sites and participating in ceremonies of the Living Maya. Through clearing rituals and ceremonial circles we engage with authentic Spirit Keepers who serve their people: Tzotzil Maya religious leader and healer Don Xun Calixto, Doña Floridalma Pérez González and Felipe Mejía Sepet, traditional Maya Daykeepers; and witness the sunrise solar alignments in Palenque on December 21. Group size limited. A Spirit Keepers Journey co-sponsored by Kenosis and Kenosis Spirit Keepers. Registration include automatic donation (tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers) to support preservation of Native traditions in this program. For more information, contact Kenosis at 928-778-1058 or info@kenosis.net. Note: Private groups may be arranged. If you have a group of 8-10, contact us for more information. This is an adventure of the spirit!
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| January 13-23 |
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Entering the Maya Mysteries with Carla Woody, Carol Karasik and Chip Morris. Spiritual travel to the Chiapas, Mexico visiting ancient sacred Maya sites and participating in nearly extinct traditions. Through clearing rituals and ceremonial circles we engage with authentic Spirit Keepers living among their people: Doña Panchita, curandera of Palenque; Don Antonio Martinez, the last elder of the Lacandón Maya maintaining his traditions; Tzotzil Maya religious leader and healer Don Xun Calixto; and Doña Floridalma Pérez González, traditional Maya Daykeeper. This is an immersion experience in Maya cosmology, ceremony, medicine and arts. Group size limited. Group size limited. A Spirit Keepers Journey co-sponsored by Kenosis and Kenosis Spirit Keepers bringing Hopi emissaries to reconnect with their Maya relations. Partial young adult sponsorship may be available. Registration include automatic donation (tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers) to support Hopi sponsorships. For more information, contact Kenosis at 928-778-1058 or info@kenosis.net. Note: Private groups may be arranged. If you have a group of 8-10, contact us for more information. This is an adventure of the spirit!
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| Ongoing |
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Spiritual Travel to France: La Source of Provence is available with Carla Woody. By special arrangement for small groups of five to six persons.
May be booked up to one year in advance subject to availability. Integrates sacred sites of Mary Magdalen, art and old Provençal culture. Contact Kenosis at 928-778-1058 or info@kenosis.net.
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| Ongoing |
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Private Consultation is available with Carla Woody in-person and via telephone or Skype. Addressing life direction, relationship, spiritual emergence and whole health. Integrating NLP, subtle energy work and sacred world traditions to make a lasting positive difference.
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Review
More often than not, the publications or music you will find reviewed here will not be new or "bestsellers." Websites or organizations may not be well known. But all are spotlighted by virtue of their impact and value.
2012:The Mayan Word
Film by Melissa Gunasena
This film covers so much ground it will be a challenge to mention all in a brief review. It starts out with all the hype regarding the end of the Maya calendar — and pointedly notes that the Maya people themselves are not the ones postulating the various theories. In fact, the end of the Long Count calendar has become a vast commercial enterprise, not at all benefiting the Maya people themselves.
The film does a very good job of delineating historical persecution and genocide from the 16th century all the way to today. It shows how the Maya people have been turned out of their own sacred sites, typically no longer able to perform spiritual rituals in the temples — in favor of tourism; and a government that runs them off their land and allows mining that destroys their waterways. Included is an overview of the Zapatista movement and their goals to reclaim their lands, culture and autonomy. Maya elders warn that the Mother Earth is not for sale and musicians make this plea: "I light the flower. Receive my words."
What the film also does quite beautifully is illustrate the profound strength and deep roots of the Maya people, who resist annihilation and continue to flourish culturally and spiritually. It touches on the complexity of a people where language, rites, food and clothing, virtually everything in their everyday lives, connects back to a cosmovision that so strengthens identity that they solidly know their place in the universe — and undertake the care required to keep the world alive.
In the time the film allots it does an excellent job of covering essential elements yet can barely scrape the surface of an intricate culture. View it as a primer and then look for more.
I am putting it in the recommended list for anyone participating in our Entering the Maya Mysteries program. Note that while much of the film is centered in Guatemala, Don Antonio Martinez of the Lacandón Maya speaks briefly and is shown leading the balché ceremony in Najá. And the Fire Ceremony figures prominently. For those participating in our Winter Solstice journey, which includes Guatemala, the 2010 gathering of spiritual guides in Iximche is featured. We are gathering there with Maya Daykeepers for that sacred ceremony and communion.
The film is an hour long and may be viewed free online.
— Carla Woody
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