Community Events for 2020 +2021
Samhain Ritual
Celebrating the Celtic New Year + Honoring Ancestors
Create your Samhain Ritual with Support
Saturday, October 31st, 9am - 10:30am, PST (Orienting + Intention Setting + Meditation)
Sunday, November 1, 4:30pm - 7pm, PST (Returning + Meditation + Sharing Insights + Sunset)
Samhain is the Celtic New Year. A time to literally create your own broom (or buy one on etsy) and sweep away the dust of the past 13 moons. It’s also an invitation to enter deep time and honor our ancestors through ritual, ceremony and celebration. Particularly if you have lost a loved one or a particular aspect of yourself this year (who hasn't), it can be a time to mark a cycle of closure. With the support of those that have gone before, it is time to take stock, make repairs, relish in the space of letting go and begin to call in the qualities of your becoming.
This retreat is designed to support you entering into sacred space the weekend of Samhain, October 31st - November 1st. We will meet for 1.5 hours Saturday morning on video to orient to the holiday, set intentions and practice earth based meditation together. You will be encouraged to create your own rituals, practices and celebrations throughout the weekend based on your own lineages, interests and intuition. Moreover, it could be any one or combination of making get out the vote calls, solo time, co-creating ritual with friends, ritual with your family or simply holding Samhain in your consciousness as an intention to integrate earth based ritual in your life. If you are called to participate, join us! We will return Sunday evening on video to welcome each other back, practice, share insights and watch the sunset together from our different locations. Marking together the beginning of a new year.
To register email and you will be sent retreat information and a zoom link.
The retreat is offered completely on gift and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Suggested offering between $33 - $103. Please do not let finances be a barrier to receiving this offering.
Offerings can be made through Venmo @erinselover or paypal.me/ErinSelover
Wisdom of the Moon: Dharma & Celtic Mythology
with Erin Selover & Jessie Morey
On-line with
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Sunday November 8, 2020
10am - 4:30pm
“Fill yourself with the Dharma.
When you are as full as the full moon - burst open”
~ From the First Free Women: Poems of early Buddhist nuns by Weingast
How do we practice in a way that is aligned with the rhythms of nature? How can dharma practice serve to unearth buried aspects of ourselves essential to an integrated awakening process empowering feminine & intuitive ways of knowing?
At the heart of the Dharma is a profound understanding of the nature of change. In these times of unprecedented uncertainty with the global pandemic, social uprisings and climate catastrophes, the Dharma offers us insight and practices to meet change with dignity.
In this retreat, we will explore this foundational teaching of impermanence through the lenses of two ancient wisdom traditions: Buddhism and Celtic Mythology. We will learn how the symbol of the moon is an ever-present reminder of this cyclical, changing nature. And like the moon, we will (re)discover how to reclaim our seat in our more than human global community as illuminating embodiment's of change, shining our light to the world.
We will offer poems from first Buddhist nuns, The Therigatha and the old Celtic Myth, The Buried Moon as translated by Sharon Blackie in, "If Women Rose Rooted” as a frame for this exploration. Together, we will delve into the intimacy of silent meditation practice with the support of community. We will encourage practice outdoors, inquiry, and close the day with song, dance, and celebration.
Erin Selover & Jessie Morey are long-time friends and both descendants of Ireland in the slow re-claiming process of recovering the stories and culture of their bones. They welcome all people of all ancestries to this day of weaving wisdom traditions.
All genders are welcome.
Register through Spirit Rock here.
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Changes & Transitions in Your 40s & 50's
Finding Clarity and Well-being in Times of Change
with Philip Moffitt & Erin Selover
Friday, January 29 - Sunday, January 31
On-line with Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Registration available soon
The one constant in our lives is change. How well you navigate change has a direct impact on the degree of well-being, purpose, and satisfaction you experience on a day-to-day basis. If you are considering a big change, or are in one now, or are still feeling the effects of a past change, this workshop will give you the personal understanding and tools to set a well-considered course for the next phase of your life.
Over the past 30 years, leaders and other individuals, organizations, and groups have come to Phillip Moffitt for his wisdom, experience, and insight. Erin was in the first cohort Phillip trained and certified to offer Change & Transition Strategy work.
During this weekend workshop, Phillip and Erin will share their knowledge, time-tested mindfulness practices, and principles about the nature of change in human lives. They will focus on the specific challenges and opportunities that arise in your 40s and 50s. Change naturally brings up concerns, fears, and questions that can lead to confusion, lack of motivation, or poor decisions. In this workshop, you will learn skills and strategies to effectively respond to the challenges of change such as:
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Discover which areas of your life need attention through a series of time-tested self-assessments
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Gain insights about your strengths and challenges in dealing with change and begin to strategize about next steps
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Recognize habits of mind that undermine you and learn practices to disengage from their influence
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Identify your values and intentions so you have a basis for making wise decisions
Registration through Spirit Rock coming soon.
Love, Courage and Resilience:
Cultivating Kindness, Compassion and Joy
in times of collective uncertainty and uprising
with Erin Selover & John Martin
Brahmavihara (Divine Abodes) Retreats,
Wednesday, October 7th (8:15 a.m.)—Sunday, October 11th (10:30 a.m.)
Please register here
As we continue to live into this moment of both the global pandemic and social uprising what practices can support our capacity to walk with an open, loving and peaceful heart while also creatively and courageously responding to these times?
In classical texts the Buddha taught Metta, lovingkindness, to monastics afraid of tree spirits who were harassing them during their winter retreat. As we reflect on this moment, one interpretation could be that we are on a collective retreat and being called to let go of individual, interpersonal and structural patterns based in fear to live more imaginative, beautiful and just lives. What Charlies Eisenstien termed, “The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”
On this retreat, we will practice cultivating the beautiful heart qualities of Metta (goodwill/loving kindness), compassion, supportive joy and equanimity to awaken inner-resilience and a spacious balanced heart. This further awakens a tenderness that allows us to increasingly discern suffering from non-suffering and gain courage to speak and act with wisdom.
Moreover, through continued practice of the Brahmaviharas over the course of the retreat we will point to the gradual awakening process that paradoxically realizes a peace and contentment that transcends the outer conditions of the world. We are meant to live in the world with an open and loving heart, able to hold all of the joys and sorrows of life in balance.
In this online retreat, we will have the opportunity to bring these qualities forth into our daily lives. The schedule for this online retreat will include a morning meditation instruction and short talk (8:15–9:15 a.m.) an afternoon guided sit and talk (4:30—5:45 p.m.). There will also be small group practice meetings and scheduled online sits through the day to support the practice. Some may choose to sit many hours, others may only attend the periods for instructions, small group practice meetings and talks.
Practice Schedule
8:15 - 9:15 Guided practice
11:00 - 11:45 Optional sit
2:00 - 2:45 Optional sit
4:30 - 5:45 Guided practice & Dharma Talk
7:30 - 8:15 Optional sit
Practice Discussion Group Times
1:00 - 1:45
2:00 - 2:45
Retreat Registration
Please register for the retreat here (www.selfretreat.org/retreatregistration/).
At the time of registration we are requesting a retreat administration fee of $25, with no one turned away for lack of funds.
Dana (donations) for the teachers can be offered during – or at the end of – the retreat.
If you have any questions you can email the Retreat Manager, Kerry Nelson, at kerry(at)selfretreat.org.
Dana
This retreat is offered freely, at no cost to anyone who participates. The support for the teachers will be provided by donations participants offer at the end of our retreat. Generosity is what allows the teachers to continue to share the Buddha’s teachings, and will allow the teachings to be carried forward into the future.
Erin Selover is on the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock, a Somatic-Based Psychotherapist and Spiritual Strategist and Rites of Passage Guide. She has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 15 years. To learn more about Erin go to erinselover.com
John Martin is the Co-Chair for the Spirit Rock Guiding Teachers Committee, and on the Teachers Council. His teachings emphasize the aliveness of practice in everyday life, and the importance of cultivating the brahmaviharas in daily life. He leads a weekly sangha and an advanced practitioner study group and co-leads an LGBTQI sangha.
