Immerse yourself in the sacred art of Dream Tending while on retreat! Dream Tending is an enlivened practice of accessing the wisdom of our dreams. It’s a blend of Western and Indigenous ways of engaging with dreams, originated by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute. The retreat is open to experienced Dream Tenders and participants who have not yet been introduced to Dream Tending, yet are courageous enough to jump in and practice the art with brief explanations and demonstrations by the retreat facilitator, Dr. Dianne Frost.
Presenter: Dr. Dianne Frost, Ph.D.
Dianne Frost Ph.D. is a Depth Psychologist who specializes in Dream Tending. She was mentored in Dream Tending by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat while completing her doctorate at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her 2013 dissertation, “Engaging With the Imaginal :Dreamwork of Women in Recovery,” explores the potent effect of the technique. She delights in exploring imagination and consciousness, and her heart’s desire is to support love and wisdom in our world. Currently, Dr. Frost is an apprentice of The Guild for Spiritual Guidance.
Saturday, October 28, 2023 10:00 AM – Sunday, October 29, 2023 4:00 PM
Wisdom House Retreat & Conference Center 229 East Litchfield Road Litchfield, CT, 06759
April 2024 – The American artist Georgia O’Keeffe often reminded her visitors that “it takes time to see… like a relationship takes time.” We will journey to Iona with the intention of taking the time to see; to see in layers and to see in different ways. We will pay attention to those images that invite healing and curiosity.
You are invited to journey to the isle of Iona to immerse yourself in the art of seeing; seeing that is deeper than retina and lens. Our journey will be supported by the landscape and hospitality of Iona, and guided by the shared wisdom of the group, the Celtic pilgrims Brigid and Columba, and early 20th century pilgrims Georgia O’Keeffe and John Muir, who reminds us that “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe” and “wherever we go in the mountains we find more than we seek.”
Pilgrimage Itinerary
April 26, 2024
Gather at Glasgow airport and journey by private coach to Oban. Overnight at the Columba Hotel in Oban.
April 27, 2024
Journey by ferry and bus to the Island of Iona. Settle into our accommodations at Bishop’s House, Iona.
April 28, 2024 through May 3, 2024
Engaging the pilgrimage theme of Mindful Seeing. Together and in solitude we will pause to ponder the integration and interrelationship of those images that catch our mind’s eye and are held out to us in landscape, dreams, story, and poetry. We will hear the stories of Celtic Spirituality and the lives of people drawn to Iona. We will hike mindfully across the beautiful isle, open to seeing all that calls to us and responds to our presence. We will hold in our hands some of the world’s most ancient rock and beautiful Iona marble and serpentine. We will journey by small boat to the island of Staffa with its volcanic basalt columns and cave that inspired Mendelssohn. We will pay attention to the images created by the songs we sing and music we hear. We will join the Abbey Community in traditional worship and experience worshipping with non-traditional images, language and silence. There will be ample free time for wandering in solitude and for sharing with community.
May 4, 2024
Journey from Iona by bus across Mull and by ferry to Oban Overnight at the Columba Hotel in Oban
May 5, 2024
Return to Glasgow airport by private coach arriving by noon
Pilgrimage Leaders
The Rev. Cari Keith is an experienced pilgrimage leader and passionate pilgrimage participant. She is an ordained Pastor and Spiritual Director, currently serving as chair of the board of the Guild for Spiritual Guidance. Cari engages faith practice through an integrated lens of depth psychology, interfaith spirituality, ecology and community. Her educational background includes New Brunswick Seminary, the Guild for Spiritual Guidance, Hartford Seminary, and numerous conferences and classes.
John Keith is an environmental expert who has traveled and hiked the world, working on environmental problems and studying global ecological issues. He is an accomplished guitar and vocal musician in the American folk and spiritual music tradition. He currently is actively engaged with several environmental NGOs working on environmental challenges in poor countries as well as local environmental issues.
Pilgrimage Cost
Shared Room: $2500 Private Room: $3000
Includes all ground transportation in Scotland, taxes, gratuities, 7-nights on Iona, 2-nights in Oban, and 3 meals per day with the exclusion of 4 lunches.
Not covered in the pilgrimage cost:
Airfare to and from Scotland, lodging before or after the trip, personal travel insurance (strongly encouraged), meals and snacks not noted above, all alcohol, bottled water for walks, and personal items (batteries, gifts, sundries, etc.) Additional gratuity for the Bishop’s House staff is most welcome.
Pilgrimage: An exterior journey, engaged with the intent of growing more aware, more conscious, more fully present to the divine mystery, the numinous, the presence of God and others in our lives. Pilgrimage offers time, space, place, and opportunity to practice seeing. It invites the pause that opens the heart to paying attention in ways that lead to broader and deeper seeing of all life and living. Being fully present pulls us out of ourselves in ways that enable us to see and experience connections that previously appeared to be separations. Rachel Carson writes: “Your mind is in its most supple, creative state when it is off leash…we need to create more off leash space….We have just filled every waking moment with stimulation and input, and you need time to digest, to [reflect], to think and create new thoughts…we need time to integrate those ideas into our larger narrative and – it is just such a great thing to create that space to think, [to reflect, to ponder].”
Come join us on Pilgrimage! Registration form below
For more information or questions please contact Cari Keith:
Are you seeking a spiritual community that practices listening deeply to oneself, one another, the Earth, and the Divine?
Are you ready to look at yourself honestly, to spend time in contemplation, and to reflect on your experiences through writing and spiritual companioning in order to experience a shift in personal outlook?
Do you desire to learn about the vocations that led our elders, like Teilhard de Chardin, Carl Jung, and the mystics to deeper engagement with, and recognition of, the interconnectedness of all life?
Do you want to become more aware of the ways in which you have been called and empowered to bring contemplative/spiritual change to our world through sacred response?
FALL GRADUATE CIRCLE RETREAT EVOLUTIONARY RITUALS FOR OUR SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE
Living in the midst of this time of mass planetary change, a new sacred story from Science invites us to live out of and in cooperation with the still unfolding story of inter-dependent wholeness. Evolutionary Rituals are novel vessels of this new story and its potential to aid our emergence, both as individuals, and as a species living, as Thomas Berry wrote, in mutuality with Earth. For the retreat weekend, Carol Kilby designed a program to support the continuing journey of the Graduate Circle program. Drawing on her upcoming new book offering more than 30 Evolutionary Daily Practices, Special Occasion Ceremonies, and Rites of Passage, Carol will companion us through an exploration of how Evolutionary Spirituality reinvents relevant personal and cultural rituals for this time of peril and promise, mass and rapid change.
Presenter bio: Carol Kilby – Ritualist, writer, speaker, teacher, storyteller, initiator, and evolutionary elder, Kilby loves big picture ideas and little moments of awe. Being human, she believes, is all about evolving and emerging, imagining and co-creating.
September 22, 2023 at 4:00 pm to September 23, 2023 at 7:00 pm EST- Online
Registration is closed.
ll Graduate Guild Retreat, September 23-25, 2022 ″The Art of Seeing” at Wisdom House in Litchfield, CT
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with ‘new eyes.’ ” -Marcel Proust
Imagine a world where you could see with “new eyes.” The Art of Seeing with Carmen Lund is an art-making class with a spiritual objective. In this approach you are led to take a fresh look at familiar things. Using a process of discovery and paying attention is a game changer. Nothing will ever appear the same as before. Nothing will be mundane.
The natural will become miraculous and the everyday will be unique.You will develop a fresh sense of awe, wonder and gratitude for the natural world and God’s movement in the everyday..
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso.
Over the weekend, you will be led in a series of exercises to express, elaborate and manifest everyday mundane reality and transform it into something special.
Carmen Lund is a graduate with the Guild for Spiritual Guidance (AP XX) and a visual artist whose paintings have been exhibited and collected in the US, Asia, South America and Europe. She also teaches painting and is a transformational life coach. The common thread in each of the areas is her creative approach to problem-solving both on and off the canvas.
RECONNECTING TO THE SPIRIT THROUGH THE SENSES
Presented by Leslie Valentine
Our senses are the first gifts from our creator; endowments with endless opportunities to connect, reconnect and be at one with our source. But how often do we ignore them, take them for granted and fail to see their pathways to inner wisdom and connectivity? Join us this weekend to reestablish and rekindle our sense pathways and our relationships with our spirit and each other!
Open to all Guild Graduates April 22-24, 2022 Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT
Gather at 3:30 on Friday April 22 and leave at 1:00 on Sunday EST
Cost: The registration page will charge you a $100 deposit. The balance of your ticket will be due at the time of the event. For questions, please contact Sue Robinson: graduate.guild@gmail.com $350 Full Weekend [Private Room & meals] A $300 Full Weekend [Shared Room & meals] B $250 Partial Weekend [One Night Shared Room & meals] C $225.00 Commuter D
About the Presenter
Leslie Valentine is a graduate with the Guild for Spiritual Guidance (AP XX), where she concentrated her second year practicum in small group ministry. An Education for Ministry (EfM) graduate, she has been a certified mentor for over ten years and is currently mentoring a 36-week seminar group in Huntington, New York. In the Episcopal Church, she is a lay Eucharist minister and has served on Cursillo teams. Leslie is also a classical singer, performing frequently in the tri-state area, and an avid traveler, having visited all seven continents!
Fall 2021
Presented by Dr. Fanny Brewster
Our American collective now finds itself more frequently peering with conscious awareness into the shadow of American racial relations and racism than ever before in history. The Civil War brought us into the shadowed constellation of our American racial complex. We are more than one hundred years beyond that moment of anguish and liberation for our country. Yet, the psychological woundedness of raciality continues today. Our 21st century journey necessitates making transparent the suffering of the African Holocaust, while shining a light of consciousness onto the darkness of what we have been unable or unwilling to see through the centuries. Now, we will join together in community to share moments of recollection of the suffering of our racialized American psyche, while creating a vision for how we might begin to heal.
Open to all Guild Graduates September 17-19, 2021, via Zoom The retreat will begin at 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday, September 17, and run until Sunday, September 19 at noon EST. Cost: $100
About the Presenter
Fanny Brewster, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst and professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the author of three books: The Racial Complex: Jungian Perspectives on Culture and Race; African Americans and Jungian Psychology: Leaving the Shadows; and Archetypal Grief: Slavery’s Legacy of Intergenerational Child Loss.
Spring 2021
The Radical Path of the Sacred Feminine
Presented by Bernice Marie-Daly
The Radical Path of the Sacred Feminine an emerging story of the evolution of consciousness manifested through and within the archetype of the Sacred Feminine. She has been with us from the beginning as a primordial image of Sacred Presence expressed through myriad cultures throughout the ages; we can imagine Her emergence today as “Mother Earth,” boldly challenging our way of life in the face of an existential threat to our very existence. Sourced though meditation, deep listening, personal experiences and dream imagery; awakened to the realities of unrelenting social upheaval and global devastation, we gather to envision “Mother Earth” guiding us toward a humanity capable of an evolved Love transforming us into “the new human” of the Ecozoic Age.
Open to all Guild Graduates April 23-25, 2021 via Zoom The retreat will begin at 4:00 EST on Friday, April 23, and run until Sunday, April 25 at noon EST. Cost $100 Registration closes April 21, 2021 *Artwork by Becky Nielsen, XIX
About the Presenter
Bernice Marie-Daly, AP III, has facilitated numerous retreats, workshops, and programs on spirituality and the Divine Feminine. Most especially during this critical time of spiritual crises, her intention is to facilitate processes that open our hearts and minds to the ways the Sacred Feminine is transforming and guiding our passage into the Ecozoic Era.
Bernice lives in Connecticut, enjoys swimming, mahjongg, and leisurely walks by LI Sound. She has four grandchildren, two in Hawaii and two in Vermont.
Fall 2020
The Secret at The Heart of The World: Teilhard de Chardin on the Evolution of Love
A Guild Graduate Retreat with Louis Savary via Zoom
Join us for the Guild’s fall Graduate retreat this September with Louis Savary. He will take us on a journey that will help us to better understand Teilhard’s life and to clearly see and understand some of his most complex ideas and discoveries. We will begin by learning about what propelled Teilhard to go off on a search to find “the secret at the heart of reality” and what he found as a result. We will also learn about the laws of evolution that Teilhard formulated, such as Union Differentiates, and how we can use these laws to take evolution to a higher level of consciousness. In addition, we will find out how Teilhard’s ideas about what it meant to be a human being differed from the thinking of Aristotle and Descartes and why.
We look forward to seeing each of you in the Guild family this fall on Zoom! Whether you are a novice or an expert on the study of Teilhard, you are sure to gain deeper insight and appreciation for his transformative work.
Cost $100 for both days
Registration Opens August 1, 2020 Contact Sue Robinson, Graduate Retreat Coordinator with any questions:
Join us for the Guild’s fall Graduate retreat this September with Louis Savary. He will take us on a journey that will help us to better understand Teilhard’s life and to clearly see and understand some of his most complex ideas and discoveries. We will begin by learning about what propelled Teilhard to go off on a search to find “the secret at the heart of reality” and what he found as a result. We will also learn about the laws of evolution that Teilhard formulated, such as Union Differentiates, and how we can use these laws to take evolution to a higher level of consciousness. In addition, we will find out how Teilhard’s ideas about what it meant to be a human being differed from the thinking of Aristotle and Descartes and why.
We look forward to seeing each of you in the Guild family this fall on Zoom! Whether you are a novice or an expert on the study of Teilhard, you are sure to gain deeper insight and appreciation for his transformative work.
About The Presenter
Louis M. Savary, received a degree in spiritual theology from Catholic University of America. He has lectured, led workshops, taught classes and written books about Teilhard’s spirituality. His goal has been making Teilhard’s ideas practical and useful, especially for those who find his ideas difficult to understand and apply in their own lives.
The Guild for Spiritual Guidance Expands its Collaborative Relationship with Wisdom House
The Guild is honored to respond to Wisdom House’s need for trained spiritual guides who would be willing to be available to the WH community, especially during this time of considerable stress due to the pandemic. After a time of discernment, Wisdom House and The Guild created a pilot program, to begin in May, with four Guild Graduates who will offer their services to the WH community as needed. After an initial 6-8 months, the program will be evaluated with the hope of expanding our services. Members of the pilot program have had significant professional training in addition to their Apprenticeship Program and will be participating in peer supervision. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve and ask for your on-going prayerful support.
