(A Land Magic & Art Experience)
Portals
Listening to the Living World
Workshop · Day-long · Retreat
“Our body is a masterpiece of the cosmos. Our body carries within it the stars, the moon, the universe, and the presence of all our ancestors.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
(01) An Introduction
A doorway many can enter.
Portals explores how we cultivate deeper relationships with the living world through attention, intuition, embodiment, and relational practice.
Across cultures, people have developed ways of listening — to land, dreams, ancestors, weather, animals, and one another. This workshop asks how those capacities might be cultivated today as practices of creativity, community, and social transformation.
Rather than escaping the modern world, we explore how ancient practices of listening can deepen our participation within it.
(02) One of the Five Dimensions
Land Magic & Art.
Land Magic & Art is the framework that gives rise to Portals , Body as Cosmos, and the voice practice of Galactic Language Activation— exploring the body as land, the body as cosmos, and the voice as an instrument of listening.
How do we cultivate relationships with ourselves, the elements, the land, and the living systems of which we are a part?
(03) The Practice
Ways of listening.
Diverse practices found across cultures for cultivating perception and relationship. Participants explore —
- 01meditation
- 02sensory awareness
- 03ecological listening
- 04contemplative walking
- 05dreams
- 06symbolic imagination
- 07relational ritual
- 08creative mapping
- 09observation
- 10divination across cultures
- 11sound
- 12silence
- 13body awareness
- 14nature-based reflection
(04) The Four Portals
Doorways into perception.
People often discover different ways of relating to experience. These are invitations for self-exploration rather than fixed identities.
- 01
The Listener
clear hearing
- 02
The Seer
clear seeing
- 03
The Feeler
clear feeling
- 04
The Knower
clear knowing
(05) From Information to Relationship
“Nothing exists outside of relationship.”
Both many Indigenous traditions and many contemporary scientific perspectives emphasize the importance of interconnected systems, while recognizing they arise from different ways of knowing.
Rather than seeking certainty, Portals cultivates practices of attention, humility, curiosity, and relationship.
(06) Body as Land · Body as Cosmos
How we relate inwardly influences how we relate outwardly.
Participants practice cultivating relationships with —
- their bodies
- community
- land
- creativity
- imagination
- the more-than-human world
- future generations
(07) Relational Rituals
Participation, not performance.
Rather than asking —
How do we change the world?
We also ask —
What qualities of attention, relationship, and presence allow new possibilities to emerge?
(08) Ways to Enter
Three thresholds.
- 01
Three-hour workshop
An opening. A first threshold.
- 02
Day-long immersion
A slower descent into the practices.
- 03
Retreat experience
Sustained listening in relationship with place.
The Invitation
“We’re rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, attempting to save a sinking ship, when the real magic is in the water, beneath the iceberg.”
— AshEL SeaSunZ
Perhaps the deeper work is learning to listen beneath the surface.
