THE CALL​

Deep down in your bones, is there a desire in you to enter a partnership with a Sacred Drum of Power that will serve The Greater Good in these times, offer vision, hope, healing, leadership ? Is there something about rhythm, skin and wood and breath and wild, voice, vision, and prayer that is resonating with you? Could a tended relationship between yourself and a Sacred Drum draw you into a deeper belonging to the Circle of LIfe?  Help you discover your vision and place in gifting the Greater Good? Ripen your ecovisionary leadership? 

 

In a sacred circle held by Soul and Nature, you will make a traditional skin and wood frame drum, sourced by our animal and tree kin here on the Pacific Coast. This is a 4 Day Nature Immersion where we will camp on the land together, make group meals together and create a well tended psycho spiritual nest to make a Sacred Drum. We will leave our cell phones, vocational and social identities, business as usual, and fast paced consumer life behind. We will slow down, listen, wonder wander, and give our attention in a ceremonial way to making our Living Drum.

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THE WAY

Under the auspices of an unfolding new moon and ancient Oak Elders, Palika and an assistant will guide the birth of your living, breathing, Elk and Cedar drum. Immersed for 4 days in the dynamic of the inner and outer wildlands; we will inquire into the ancient relationship between drums and humans. We will invite these kinds of questions to permeate our hearts and our prayers: What speaks to my heart and soul about initiating a relationship with a Sacred Drum? Why this why now? How could praying, grieving, praising, celebrating, visioning, and listening with a Sacred Drum help me belong more authentically to the Circle of Life and discover more of who and what I am? How might it deepen my authentic participation and contribution in these times? 

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For 4 days and 3 nights we will engage in these conversations that matter with Wild and Mystery. Under the stars, sunsets, in circle and by the fire; you can expect solo time on the land, journal writing, drum journeying, deep imagery, dream work, council, witnessing and mirroring; as well as prayer, longing, movement, and our attention to call in the heart of our Sacred Drum and begin a lifelong relationship with it. As a group we'll court curiosity about our unique partnership with a particular Living Drum and how to feed the web of life with that relationship. The first step is the making of your own from the gifting of our Elk and Cedar kin. In this way, we will like our ancestors before us, participate in the rhythm and symphony of Life and perhaps tend to the well being of All. You will also learn about relationship with Elk, how these Elk skins were harvested and the conscious way of connection to, and using gifts from our animal and tree kin.

 

THE DEEP PURPOSE

This offering is NOT about "a making something workshop", or something to check off a bucket list. Rather we are offering a facilitated container for a deep dive to those of you responding to an unavoidable, and resounding psycho spiritual call to enter into an active and sacred relationship with a Drum of Power. You want to seed that relationship by making the drum yourself with the touch of your hand and beating of your heart and kiss of your own breath. This offering will be held in a ceremonial and prayer full container.

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All Wild Mythos Drums offerings are founded on the biggest questions that have cracked my heart wide open in these times - What does it mean to become fully human? What is my individual and our collective place in the miraculous and Great Web of LIfe? How do I live a meaningful eco and soul centric adult life that gifts the Greater Good of the village and harmonizes with the Dream of Earth itself during uncertain, tumultuous times?

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THE LANDSCAPE - Note the current location for this offering is undetermined at this time, though the Los Padres NF is a favorite.

The Los Padres National Forest of the gorgeous California interior Salinas River Valley, and the foothills of the Santa Lucia Coastal Range. On the backside of Big Sur, this expansive rolling Valley Oak Grasslands is dotted with stupendous clusters of Oak Elders and has been tended and inhabited currently and for 10,000 years past by the Salinan First Nations people. There is evidence of their history everywhere, mortars, grinding stones, residue from their fires, pathways and primitive cutting tools. We are guests in this land.

 

The Arroyo Seco River, San Antonio Creek, Nascimiento Creek are part of the Salinas River Watershed and converge in the area we will camp. There is concentrated effort to protect and reestablish strong Steelhead populations in these waters. The park is home to abundant wildlife. Large mammals are mule deer, black bear, mountain lion, coyote, wild pig, and reintroduced and protected pronghorn antelope and tule elk! Turkey, quail, dove, ground squirrel, voles, mice, snakes, lizard, magpies, flickers, woodpeckers, songbirds, and hawks, owls and vultures roam the skies, waterways, and land. Many endangered species are protected here. The Los Padres are one of the most botanically diverse landscapes in California. Though there hasn't been much rain, this is the ideal time for wildflowers and we'll likely get to hang out with some along with many native medicinal plants.

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There are many precious habitats and ecological niches here, including where humans are allowed, so we will have a very strict protocol with regards to our footprint on the land, in order to show our love, respect and committment to Earth. Because there was significant fire here in recent years, the land we will be in a particular state of emergence that we will respect and honor. Current weather patterns are chaotic due to global impacts of the human industrial growth patterns and we could experience extreme heat, drought, or rain in the spring. We do our best to schedule for temperate weather conditions.

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DETAILS THAT MATTER

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COVID/VIRAL PROTOCOLS: COVID still lives amongst us, though we are not in emergency response mode. 

• We will follow current CDC and local guidelines and practice respect for one another's choices. 

• All participants are asked to be considerate and conservatively cautious as possible to avoid exposure to COVID or any illness, 2 weeks before our program begins and during their travel journey.

• If you are sick with cold, flu or any other illness we ask that you not come anyway.

• If you experience any symptoms of any kinds of illness during our time together, we'll take normal, reasonable precautions against spreading.

• We'll practice handwashing and hand sanitizer use with enthusiasm!

• Our commitment is that we are each responsible for our own health as well care about our impact on others. Following these guidelines cannot guarantee that someone could not have Covid or another illness in our midst and therefore we will consider that it could be. You could be exposed in your travel and it would not show up symptomatically in anyone until the end of our program. There is no 100% guarantee against any new viral or bacterial being inhabiting your body.

• THANK YOU.

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MEDICAL:

All participants will fill out a medical questionnaire with medical insurance carrier and emergency contact as part of registration. You are not fully registered until we have your medical file. Thank you.

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One or both guides will be Wilderness First Responder certified. All participants are responsible for their own safety, there are always risks in camping and wandering in nature. The mysterious wild creature of poison oak, rattlesnakes and ticks are indigineous to California.

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MEALS:

For all camping programs; breakfasts, lunches, snacks, tea and special needs foods are the responsibility of each participant. Only dinners are group meals prepared by participant teams. Each meal team will be responsible for planning, purchasing and preparing their group meal, this keeps food costs low and quality very high. We will total all the receipts for each of the dinners and divide the total cost between participants. Camp kitchen is provided by the guides and is exclusively for dinner prep. YOU WILL NEED YOUR OWN CAMP STOVE IF YOU WANT IT FOR YOUR BREAKFAST AND LUNCH.​

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TRAVEL:

Our current location is just short of 3 hours south of San Jose Airport, 2 1/2 hours south from Santa Cruz, 2 hours south of Monterey and 3 1/2 hours north of Santa Barbara, and just short of 5 hours north of LA. Best airport to fly into for this program would be San Jose, CA.

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Participants are also responsible for their own transportation to and from the program location. We'll provide a travel share spreadsheet to the group after registration. Our site is in Monterey County, CA. Do not make travel plans until the program is confirmed.

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COST

$500 Early Bird 

$525 Reciprocity Offering

$150 Materials Fee

*there is a small paypal service fee included

 

THIS APPLICATION IS REQUIRED, PLEASE COMPLETE AND RETURN BY EMAIL. THANKYOU! You are fully registered after we have received your program donation, material fee and application.

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Wild Mythos Policies Here

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Elk & Cedar is phase one of a powerful 3 part program - Courting Visionary Purpose Partnership With A Drum of Power

More Info Here.

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