An Invitation from Stephen Picha for a unique event at Ghost Ranch

Download Green Man Program Guide

GREEN MAN Sacred Rewilding Program is a weeklong intensive for men called to reach into their soul depths and uncover a natural wild essence typically buried by the swirlings of modernity. Through immersion in nature, sessions of drumming-chant-dance, engagement with poetry and myth, firekeeping, earth-based ritual, and men’s council, the rewilded male waiting in each of us begins to show his face and open his voice. This program allows men to directly tend to their wounds of domestication and honor their longing for a refined wildness that holds the center where nature and culture meet. Over the week, men self-imagine their singular approach to living a more enlivened, embodied, open-hearted, expressed way on the earth and receive guidance in some fundamental practices, including myth-telling & poetry-speaking, dance & chant, prayer & ritual, relations with nonhuman entities, and wilderness wanderings.

This summer’s GREEN MAN program will be held Saturday August 3-Sunday August 11, 2019 at The Ghost Ranch wilderness land base near Abiquiu, NM.

CORE ELEMENTS

I. Nature Immersion
II. Firekeeping
III. Poetry & Myth-telling
IV. Drum-Chant-Dance
V. Men’s Council
VI. Earth-based Ritual
VII. Solo Night in Wild

THE HARVEST

I. Enliven primal self; explore wild mind/wild soul
II. Awaken mytho-poetic language & sensibilities
III. Open new levels of vital embodiment
IV. Refine earthly cultural practices
V. Tend to wounds of domestication
VI. Elevate relationship with beyond-human entities
VII. Engage in a circle of profound brotherhood

GUIDES

Timothy P. McLaughlin, Lead Guide

McLaughlin is a poet, speaker, and coach. He served many years in native education and founded an indigenous youth spoken word program featured in the New York Times and on the PBS NewsHour. McLaughlin has created two collections of wild earth poetry: Rooted & Risen and the forthcoming Seeds Under the Tongue. He is perhaps best known for his powerful style of embodied poetry recitation and storytelling. Raised with Catholicism, McLaughlin has followed a traditional Lakota spiritual path since early manhood. He lives beside the Santa Fe Mountains with his wife, Madi Sato, and their three children. WalkingStar Martinez, Firekeeper Guide WalkingStar is a native flute player of the duo Music as Medicine that offers sound healing journeys. He has served many years as keeper of the sacred fire for Native American Church meetings and traditional Lakota Inipi ceremonies. He also studies and participates in South American traditional ways. WalkingStar lives in Santa Fe with his daughter and is an active member of the local spiritual community.

Here is the brief reflection that Timothy wrote about the program:

I have such a strong feeling about this rewilding work, especially the weeklong immersion in the wild. It took many years of indigenous ceremony for me to feel deeply rewired and attuned to the movements and messages of the natural world and not so imprisoned by the limiting consciousness of urban/suburban environments. I want more men, more humans, to experience that same rewiring in their own unique way. And a week spent by the sacred fire along the Chama River is a powerful beginning. We can reach and then linger in an incredible heart-bared, body-enlivened, soul-awakened state that allows us to better discern what is ours to do in this critical time. From that liberated state, when we wholeheartedly offer ourselves to the Earth, we will surely be received, and used.

INSPIRATION

TEN MEN

Timothy P. McLaughlin

If you were there when ten men sat circled

around the red sparking fire, themselves encircled

by a ring of stout redwoods all bottom-charred

from the prowling licks of many earlier fires;

if you heard them, contrary to all training, abandon

the comforts of polite speech and daringly address

the fire as the old god it is, like boys knelt together

in a secret forest spot, undressing the layers of

hardened heart armor they’d sleepily strapped on

year after year, and one-by-one coming to a kind of

clarified language almost alien in its tender tones

and breathy phrases (one man somewhere between

song and speech, reshaping his very heart matter

in the steady hold of the gang); if you were there

as the cedar warmed in their palms while they spoke,

then was thrown to the flames like long-held seeds

suddenly spewed into the hot well of earth, with

the cavalier unknowing of a man’s first time

COST

The total program cost is $1250, which includes all meals (from private chef Brigita Lacovara) as well as camping fees. Participants are required to provide all their own camping gear and arrange their transportation to and from Ghost Ranch Retreat Center.

APPLICATION

To request an application, please write to Info@PraisingEarth.org. There are twelve spots available for this program, so please apply early.

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Signup early as this event is limited to 12 spots and is expected to sell out quickly.

When: Saturday August 3-Sunday August 11, 2019
Where: The Ghost Ranch wilderness land base near Abiquiu, NM
Contact: If interested email Al Selder or call 480-818-0943.