Shamanu: Earth Wisdom™ Correspondence Course

Overview

We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. To move forward we must recognize… that we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature..and a culture of peace. – The Earth Charter

For twenty-two years Shamanu has distilled core teachings that aid the evolution of each individual to create empowered choices, lives and societies. A diverse set of exercises strengthens heart and mind and vitalizes our desire to boldly do the healing work our planet time requires.

Through an integrative system of philosophies and practices we open to our place as ecological beings interconnectedness in all ways to the web of life. Reclaiming our roots as an integral part of a larger living system, as essential to the planet as the forests and oceans, we awaken the self-healing power that lives within this interconnectedness.

Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings blends the Earth Wisdom teachings of indigenous cultures, with Deep Ecology, Eco-philosophy, Living Systems theory, Cosmology and body-centered practices that emulate the expressions of Nature. The teachings help us access the strength and determination we each possess to work with others in creating a sustainable future that cherishes and supports all beings.

We discover our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self defined by habit and society. The teachings grow the capacity of intuitive wisdom, rousing our love for life and the power to protect it. The methods make the concepts experiential and practical.

Join us in a soulful journey that re-awakens the unshakable power and joy that comes from reclaiming our birthright as Ecological Beings and with it, the Future.

Heartful, Honest, Empowering and Real

The Practice

The Correspondence Course integrates the four primary teachings of the Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings. While there is a synergistic merging of each practice, each addresses a specific aspect of oneself and ones relationship with Earth.

The first three – Primordial Movement, Earth~Rhythms and Living from Your Heart address the first step in the process of conscious transformation – Heal Thyself.

The fourth process, Earth Wisdom Teachings moves us from ‘me to we’ consciousness, offering empowering tools to support our service to life. The process is, of course, not a linear one. Service to the world and the healing of oneself flow in and out of each other in a beautiful dance of mutual enhancement.

Intellectual knowledge and philosophies offered through Shamanu coupled with a felt experience of our ecological self opens new pathways in consciousness. The Shamanu body-centered practices are powerful because of their primordial nature. Through movement, dance, sound, rituals and meditations that emulate the expressions of nature we learn to live and think like an eco-system.

Primordial Movement

Primordial Movement emulates the intrinsic movements and fluid forces of our biological beginnings. A variety of movement explorations, including wave motion, micro-movements, sounds, and breaths, enliven our organism back to its natural state of flexibility, fluidity, vitality and wholeness.

Awakening bio-intelligence through the liquid, undulating organic movements refines our ability to consciously participate with life’s self-healing processes and creative unfolding.

Primordial Movement explores the idea that we are biological living systems in the form of human bodies with the capacity to self-stabilize, regenerate and evolve. We are naturally resilient, intelligent, and interconnected in all ways with our biosphere. Rousing our inherent capacity to unite with the intrinsic movement of life turns our practice into a communion with life’s restorative energies.

Self-paced and intuitively centered, this meditation-in-motion encourage authentic, spontaneous and imaginative exploration. The deeply pleasurable practices bring positive benefit to anyone regardless of experience or physical health.

Primordial Movement is the fundamental movement practice in the Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings.

Earth~Rhythms

All ancient cultures used sacred dance as a way to celebrate and unite with creation. Embodying the Elements through our dance in the context of ritual and intention is a way of awakening their essential life force and how their creativity expresses through you. Because you are made from the Elements, connecting deeply with their story means you connect deeply with yours.

The Earth~Rhythm practice offers primal ways to move energy, cleanse, recharge, connect with other life forms, pray and worship. We tap into Earth’s evolutionary dance, exploring endless improvisation, transformative movements and acts of creativity to create harmony and balance in our personal and social lives.

Does dance evoke the soul, or does the soul of Nature use the dancer for its expression?

“Dancing is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expression. Nothing else can so effectively give outward form to an inner experience…In (the dance) the creator and the thing created, the artist and the expression, are one. Each participant is completely in the other.” – Lyall Watson, from the book EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution

Living from Your Heart – Inspiring Personal and Planetary Peace

Great sages throughout history have pointed to the heart as the gateway to our soul and our highest potential. They regarded the heart as the source of intuitive wisdom and spiritual strength.

The Living from Your Heart processes give you time-tested tool to unleash your heart’s intelligence, and with it your life energy, vitality, passion, creativity and freedom. We learn how to embrace and direct this powerful capacity of our feeling realm to create happy and balanced lives.

Informed by the heart, we discover we live in a world of non-dual loving Presence, in which all objects are realized and perceived as one; that our very nature is loving, kind, generous, and compassionate. In heart consciousness there is only our Self, and all of Nature is realized to be part of us.

In these times of rapid change and uncertainty activating the vast intelligence of the heart is essential if we are to confidently navigate todays challenges in creative, compassionate and joyful ways. Living from your heart inspires peace in ours lives, communities and the Earth.

“A man’s moral worth is not measured by what his religious beliefs are but rather by what emotional impulses he has received from Nature during his lifetime.” ‐ Albert Einstein

Earth Wisdom Teachings

The Earth teaches us that evolution, down through the ages, occurs through the process of ‘synergy’. This is true in the creation of forests, oceans, as well as societies. So it is with the Earth Wisdom Teachings. Earth Wisdom is the merging of wisdom teachings from a variety of people, philosophies and personal experience. It blends Earth Wisdom spirituality with Deep Ecology, Eco-philosophy, the science of Living Systems, and the Work that Reconnects of Joanna Macy.

The Earth Wisdom Teachings offer an integrative system of practices that rouse consciousness to the realization that we are an integral part of a larger living system, as essential to the planet as the forests and ocean, and to tap the self-­‐healing power that lives within this interconnectedness.

The philosophy and practices grow the capacity of intuitive wisdom, teach the art of turning pain into compassion, fear into creativity, and rouse our love for life and the strength and determination we each possess to protect it. These methods make the concepts experiential and practical.

Shamanu Earth Wisdom Teaching is an invitation to re-awaken the felt-knowledge of our oneness with the Earth and adventure into the unshakable joy that comes from living in relationship with this life force.

Immersing yourself in nature’s classroom and reuniting with Earth’s wisdom brings us home into the enduring power of love.

Curriculum

1. Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings Introduction p. 1 – 11

• Dedication 
• Acknowledgement
• Purpose
• Introduction
• Overview of the Process
• About The Living Centre & Living Arts Institute
• Unity Consciousness
• Purpose & Mission of the Living Centre
• About Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera, Eco-Creativity Coach
• About Shantree Kacera D.N., Ph.D.
• About Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings™

2. Earth-Centered Philosophy p. 12 – 26

• History of Shamanu
• Shamanu Creative Expression Programs
• Benefits of Shamanu
• Processes you will learn in the course
• The Four Shamanu Teachings
• The Importance of Reconnecting

3. Learning the Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings p. 27 – 32

Weekly Schedule

• Week 1 – Introduction & Breath Processes
• Week 2– Felt Awareness & Journalling
• Weeks 3 – 14 – Primordial Movement
• Weeks 15 – 22 – Earth~Rhythm
• Weeks 23 – 30 – Living from Your Heart – for Personal & Planetary Peace
• Weeks 31 – 40 – Earth Wisdom Teachings
• Weeks 41 – 52 – Integration, Play and Creativity Time

4. Shamanu: Breath work Processes & Meditations p. 33 – 44

• About Breathwork
• Lessons on Open Attention
• Breath work processes
• On Meditation
• Creating Sacred Space
• Shamanu & Meditation
• Meditation Exercises

5. Lessons on Felt Awareness & Journaling p. 45 – 56

• Felt Awareness – Your Spiritual Guidance System
• On Attention
• Exercises
• What is Journaling?
• Benefits of Journaling

6. Lessons on Primordial Movement p. 57 – 66

• A Primordial Movement practice DVD set
• About Primordial Movement
• Wave Motion – The Primal Movement of Creation
• The Body Amazing!

7. Lessons on Earth~Rhythms p. 67 – 83

• A Earth~Rhythms practice DVD
• About Earth~Rhythms
• The Dance of the Elements
• Ritual Dance
• The Elements & You
• Channeling the Elemental forces

8. Lessons on Living from Your Heart – Inspiring Personal & Planetary Peace p. 84 – 148

• About Living from Your Heart
• The Beautiful Mind
• Benefits of a Peaceful Mind
• Cosmic Mind, Planetary Mind & Collective Consciousness
• The Unlimited Power of your Mind
• The Law of Attraction
• The Beautiful Emotional Body
• On Love
• Why Peace with Your Emotions is Important
• Overcoming Your Emotional History exercises
• Anatomy of Trauma: Pathways of the Shadow – Pathways to the Divine
• Exercises for Living from Your Heart
• Other Supports for Developing a Healthy & Peaceful Emotional Body
• Body Reflexology & Self-Massage
• Simple Belly Massage & Attunement Techniques
• Relationship: Intimacy & Communication
• Emotional Freedom: The Live-Food Way

9. Lessons on Earth Wisdom Teachings p. 148 – 226

• From ‘Me to We’
• About Earth Wisdom Teachings
• Earth as Mother – Earth as Self
• The Great Turning – From Empire to Earth Community
• Peak Oil & Climate Change
• Journey of the Universe – Journey of the Human Self
• Living Systems Theory & Deep Ecology
• Gaia theory
• The Nature of our Power
• Synergy and Grace
• The Ecological Self
• Beyond Anthropocentrism
• Shamanu Body Centered Practices
• The Spiral Process
• Gratitude Exercises
• Honoring our Pain for the Earth
• meditation
• The Shift – Seeing with New Eyes
• Going Forth
• Review of the Earth Wisdom Teachings
• Shambhala Warrior Story

10. Further Contemplations p. 226 – 270

• Frequency
• Ecological Recovery & the Feminine Principle – Vandana Shiva
• On Permaculture
• Jayden
• Interview with Brian Swimme 
• Forest Gardening – A Permaculture Approach – Shantree Kacera
• To Wake Up One Day Different – John Seed
• Earth Prayer from a Grandmother
• Message from Chief Seattle
• Resources

FAQ

This unique empowerment course offers time-tested information and experiential practices, a 260 page study e-manual, books, CD’s and DVD’s ready to download.  

You will be able to apply this wisdom and practices to daily life immediately.

How this Course is structured:

The course offers a step by step process to support you in integrating and grounding the transformational practices of each of the above teachings into your life. The e-manual includes weekly assignments, -questions and lessons to be submitted upon completion.

Included with the e-manual:

• Primordial Movement DVD (to be downloaded)
• An Earth~Rhythms DVD (to be downloaded)
• Two CD’s with meditations, breath exercises, visualizations and more
• Four study books

Your Participation

The course spans over a period of 12 months. Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson. It is important that you complete the written and experiential homework for each lesson before moving onto the next. A minimum of one hour per day is ideal, however, the more time you can devote, the more you will get out of it.

Assignments

Assignments are to be sent upon completion of each lesson. Comments from Lorenna will be returned to you.

Completion Time

You may complete these lessons on your own time schedule. In order to utilize them to their fullest, we recommend you set up a scheduled time to do each lesson. Experiential exercises require consistency to be most effective. A minimum of 1 hour 5 days a week is best. The average time to complete the course is 12 months.

Questions

One of the special aspects of this course is the personal attention available to your questions and assignments. We invite your questions, comments, favourite experiences and suggestions.

Certificate

Each student who successfully completes the lessons and all assignments will receive a beautiful Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings™ Certificate. The Certificate awarded states that you are acknowledged for the successful completion of an in-depth study of the Shamanu practice. The reputation of this course is outstanding and is leading edge in education for the future.

Textbooks, DVDs, and Equipment for the Course

• The Universe is a Green Dragon – Brian Swimme
• World as Lover, World as Self – Joanna Macy
• The HeartMath Solution – Doc Childre
•  Spiritual Ecology – The Cry of the Earth, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
• The 10 Powers of the Universe DVD with Brian Swimme
• Primordial Movement DVD  
• Earth~Rhythms: Dance of the Elements DVD  
• Two CD’s with meditations, breath exercises, visualizations and other exercises

For information about the Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings Educator Diploma Course click here

Registration

Investment – $1200.

Price includes course manual, all books, dvds, cds. Does not include taxes where applicable and shipping.

Shipping in North America – $50.

International shipping – $100.