March 28 - April 1, 2012
Sweet Darkness with Animas Valley Institute ,
in Snow Canyon, Utah

SWEET DARKNESS is one of our most challenging programs, a truly intense intensive, a 5-day experiential immersion into nature-based Shadow work. The Shadow, of course, is the hidden, dark side of our psyches, with both its "positive" and "negative" aspects. During this intensive, we explore those sticky, difficult, and immensely rewarding dynamics that come up so often in life, like those overpowering emotional charges triggered by other people and by our encounters in the natural world.

We will ask, for example: What do you do when all of a sudden someone is laying the biggest PROJECTION you've ever seen right on your lap (treating you as if you’re the way they are without realizing that’s the way they are)? And what do you do if you believe them, for heaven's sake? And what do you do when you catch yourself projecting on others? Maybe while you are guiding, teaching, counseling ... or trying to love? Juicy, huh? We're going to work with these things in part by jumping into the cauldron with our own projections on each other. (Don't worry; no one will be required to jump into the hot seat).

Furthermore, we’re going to do some SHADOW WORK. You bet. How can you live a conscious existence these days without knowing we are all regularly conjuring up all kinds of monsters from the deep? We go off in search of soul or "the good life", say, or even the desire to contribute to the Great Turning as visionary agents of change, and before we know it, we have inadvertently opened the long black bag we drag behind us, and all these demons are climbing out. We know, however, that so much of our wholeness is hidden in that bag, the resources there unavailable for our soul work until we assimilate elements of the Shadow. And all our projections, of course, involve the Shadow. So we'll work with strategies for spotting, unmasking, and assimilating those dark shapes.

And then there are our Loyal Soldiers, Escapists-Addicts, and Wounded Children, our SUBPERSONALITIES that have been keeping us "safe" since early childhood by making us small. Our Loyal Soldiers, for example, are the ones who have been shoveling big chunks of our wholeness into that black bag so that we appeared acceptable to the powers that be. In order to access the Shadow and resource our soul work, we are going to have to break some old promises and change the nature of our alliance with our subpersonalities.

Furthermore, we might have to revisit our SACRED WOUNDS — our core vulnerabilities — that have kept us stuck in the Old Story, but that also provide the priceless opportunity, when we are ready, to remythologize our lives.

In short, we’re going to have to enter the initiatory realm of Sweet Darkness. A great deal of liberation and deepening can occur during this intensive as we attend with kindness to those aspects of self we usually hide.

An application is required for this advanced intensive. For an application, please contact the Animas office.
Location/Lodging Info: Camping Fee covers the cost of group permit fees. Lunches, snacks, and tea are the responsibility of each participant. Breakfasts & dinners will be divided amongst the group and each participant will be responsible for a group meal. Please contact the Animas office for more information. (Venue info >>)
Arrival Info: TBA
Backpacking: No
Camping: Yes
Please refer to the Animas Valley website for a full description to this seminar and others. www.animas.org or call 800-451-6327

Costs
Guides: Jade Sherer and Bill Plotkin
Tuition: $695, Retreat Center: $75

Location: The canyons of SE Utah are a spectacular and magical setting of several AVI programs. Snow Canyon State Park is just minutes from St. George, but is wonderfully wild and holds many secrets.

Lodging and Meals: Camping Fee covers the cost of group permit fees. Lunches, snacks, and tea are the responsibility of each participant. Breakfasts & dinners will be divided amongst the group and each participant will be responsible for a group meal. Please contact the Animas office for more information on fees & meals.

Or Contact Jade for more information about this expedition.

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