Esalen Workshop
(Dec. 19-24, 2010)

Ceremonies and Ritual for Personal Exploration and Community Building
Week of December 19-24, 2010

Every traditional culture uses ceremony and ritual to mark life’s milestone moments and its relationship to nature and the cycle of the seasons or ultimate values. Whether it’s an individual celebrating a birth, a coming-of-age, a graduation, a wedding, becoming an elder, or some other stage of the life cycle, or a community celebrating the harvest, an inauguration, or a principle such as gratitude, love, work or the divine, such “marker moments” help connect us to our roots, and clarify our intentions and possibilities. They also have the power to create and strengthen communities, no matter the size.

This workshop will use seminar-style discussion, guided imagery, and experiential group work to explore rituals and ceremonies. Participants will be shown the fundamental structure of ritual and its roots in sacred worship and the early theater, as well as how to use music, poetry, and storytelling to create personal and community ceremonies that are inspiring, transformative, and entertaining. Every day will begin or end with a ceremony created by two or more members of the group, and our five days together will culminate in a special ceremony we create for the Esalen community.

http://webapp.esalen.org/esalen/workshops/8824