In life we are often pushed through a doorway, passage, transition, or change... are you ready for the next one?
The wheel has turned...summer has passed and we move quickly into the ever-darkening nights of Autumn.
At the end of October those that follow the tradition of the Celts may celebrate Samhain (Sow-in). This is the time of the year when the veil is thinnest between this world and the next. Traditionally, this is the time of Mystery, of Divination, and of communion with Baba Yaga or the Bone Mother, The Shadow and the Crone. These Goddexxes represent the magick between light and dark.
Historically, Samhain explored the human relationship with death.
​​Samhain’s history indicates it as a time when communication between the dead and living was paramount; historically it was a festival that explored the human relationship with death. More to the point, it was a time when humans acknowledged that dying is part of living.
And so it is a fitting time for us to explore thresholds of change that include death and dying.
These moments in life offer us many lessons and insights for trusting our intuitive selves. And yet, how hard this can be in a world that has trouble even speaking about these transformations.
These transformations, these thresholds are not reserved for dying as we traditionally know it.
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Death happens to us every day...
...when we say goodbye to a dream, the grief and sadness of moving, losing or changing jobs, loss of friendship, challenges with conception and the loss of the dream of a child...
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The list of things we die to constantly, throughout our lives, goes on.
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Often we don't heal from the resulting grief or loss. Rather, we become reconciled to it. We adjust and integrate the hurt into our continued living--like the lotus that grows from the mud, the grief and loss can become beautiful gifts in our lives.
This virtual retreat offers us the opportunity to practice being part of the dying well movement by facing our fears around death, dying, and the grief in our lives.
The topics covered in this virtual retreat will include:
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Exploring the Nature of Transition in our life
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Exploring the Doula Heart
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5 Tasks for the Living (Based on principles from Facing Death and Finding Hope, by Christine Longaker )
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Finding our Anam Cara
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Preparing for our End of Life so others don’t have to
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Grief vs Sadness
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Disenfranchised Grief
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Tasks or Initiations with grief work
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What Conscious Dying Really Means
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and so much more...
Transcending digital space with Zoom...
A retreat is an opportunity to travel somewhere different. Sometimes that is a place we go to physically and sometimes that is a place we journey to spiritually. This retreat will happen in your own space but we will create a container that can help you travel to new places within yourself related to important thresholds in your life.
Our retreat will weave together workshops, ceremony, and curiosity as well as thoughtfulness and love for yourself. We will be between-the-worlds in a beautiful container created by the community that gathers together for this fall weekend exploring transition, loss, grief, death, and dying as a gateway to enriching our life's journey.
This experience will help you...
Accelerate
...and expand your ability to explore emotions that may be a block for you in your life related to transition, death, dying, and grief.
Set
...strong intentions that can help you remove blocks that may keep you from receiving all the gifts that challenging moments might offer to you.
Help
...you shatter any limits preventing you from recognizing it is okay to be grieving, sad, angry etc. It is also okay to feel grief and sadness for the loss of whatever you are feeling.
Become
...an ambassador of the dying well movement by having less fears about your own death as well as death and dying in general.
Grasp
...that death is a part of life and that preparing for it is a task that helps enrich our lives now.
Open
...up to practices in your life that will help you have a more conscious death.
Understand
...that we die to things in our life all the time. Death and dying is not reserved for just the end of our lives. It happens every day in all ways.
Have
...a greater sense of peace. The more we explore and embrace these, the greater our peace with transition becomes.
This virtual retreat circle is for you if you...
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Wished you had more tools to cope with grief, anger, loss, and sadness and the many emotions that come from life’s transitions
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Have felt disenfranchised (like your grief did not matter) and need to be seen and heard
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Are curious about death and dying, are on the journey yourself, or holding space for another who is in transition
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Have questions about why it is so hard to express emotions like grief, anger, sadness etc.
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Have felt the need to re-group and assess what gives your life meaning
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Have relationships that need to be healed and you are stuck
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Sometimes put yourself second, focusing on helping others first even when you are in pain
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Want to become more comfortable with talking about your dance with death
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Feel exhausted and need a “break from it all” and just want to be well held in community
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Want to experience community witness as you deal with your transitions
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Desire to invest time to sit with your loss(es) and explore
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Want to expand your ability to receive more love from yourself and others
​Join us as we experience a circle of the heart holding you in community.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Activities and Benefits
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Presentation by estate planning, probate, and trust administration Lawyer Elizabeth Christy of Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold, LLP
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Vibrational Sound Healing with Keith Caplin
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Partner sharing and opportunities for reflection
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Somatic Movement activity
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Being in sacred ceremony
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Exposure to new topics and ideas you may not have thought of in an alternative classroom/retreat setting
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Access to a Private Facebook group for continuing conversations and support
My experience with Madrone was educational, experiential, and exceptional. The insights that I’m taking away are that I am courageous, and open to insight and change. Thank you for providing a safe and welcoming space to journey within!
C.
Madrone cultivated the container expertly... She navigated us all through dark waters with grace and humour. I felt fully focused, connected, safe, and well held. I'm impressed with the vulnerable depth that I found in myself and feel honoured to have been witnessed in that state.
NOVA RAYE
I would recommend working with Madrone and Taproot Journeys.
I truly felt that I left the experience having learned about my own spiritual truth from within and can start bringing that forward, much like the taproot Madrone named her practice for.
ANGELO JOSEPH
Retreat Schedule
(ALL TIMES ARE PST)
DAY ONE
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6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Opening Ceremony and Orientation
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DAY THREE​
8:45 am - 9:00 am Zoom Parlor Room is open for virtual Coffee & Tea
9:00 am - 11:00 am Community Retreat Magick
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Lunch Break
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Closing Ceremony & Reflection
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DAY TWO​
8:45 am - 9:00 am Zoom Parlor Room is open for virtual Coffee & Tea
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Community Retreat Magick
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch break
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Community Retreat Magick
3:00 pm - 3:15 pm Break
3:15 pm - 5:00 pm Community Magick
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Dinner Break
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Evening Ceremony & Vibrational Sound Healing
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NOTE​
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Please remember that you will be in “altered space” doing deep work during our time together so try not to plan activities/events for the evenings after our sessions so you can more fully integrate your experiences.
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You should also know that our time together will not be filled with only intensity! This is not my style and these topics offer much insight into how to have more joy in our lives.
Talking about Death, Dying, and Grief help us hone our discernment and know what we want to manifest in our lives now by exploring what the end of our earth-walk might look like. We are sensitives that can hold humor and sadness all at the same time. :-)
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Facilitator
MEET MADRONE
A lover of mystery and a believer in magick, I am a community weaver who has led sacred circles and ceremonies for over eighteen years as an animistic wild witchy womyn! My true work is to hold joy in all I do (even the not so great stuff). I believe that to get to that joy we have to wade through the grief, pain, sadness and more.
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Cultivating a strong taproot—woven together through community and ceremony—has held me for much healing work in my life. I want to share this passion, and I am guided to hold your hand as you walk through various thresholds in your life. I have found that the training we need to learn to trust our intuition, our heart, and body wisdom, can be found in circle, ceremony, ritual, educational workshops, breathwork, and other modalities that work to center our interconnection(s).
I have an End of Life (EOL) Doula and an Animal Companion EOL Doula certificate from the University of Vermont. I am also certified as a Funeral Celebrant and have 100 hours of training as a Death Midwife with Sacred Crossings: the Institute for Conscious Dying and Alternative Funeral Home.
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I am a certified Shamanic Breathwork facilitator and Shamanic Minister with Venus Rising Association for Transformation as well as a certified Breathwork Metamorphosis facilitator. I have a Firewalk Instructor and Spiritual Leadership Training Certificate from Sundoor School of Transpersonal Education, and am certified as a Warrior Goddess Level 1 facilitator with Heatherash Amara.
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I hold a Ph.D. in Communication Studies with specialty in race/gender/sexuality studies, team leadership, new social movements, interpersonal, and inter-natural communication. This gives me a unique and informed perspective as I lead and facilitate communities helping them open up to themselves in turn strengthening their taproot. In 2018 I founded Taproot Journeys to further facilitate and share the many spiritual and transformative workings that have brought me so much growth in my life.
Guest Facilitators
KEITH CAPLIN
Keith (he/him) believes that living a spiritually connected life is something that is achievable by everyone. Keith provides practical experiences using Breathwork, Shamanic practices, Sound Healing and Coaching to explore your inner landscape and implement change in your life. Daily practices do not need to be complex in order to be powerful. Keith has been growing through his own personal practice for over 30 years.
ELIZABETH J. CHRISTY
Elizabeth (she/her) earned her law degree, cum laude, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, serving as an intern for the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law and for Community Legal Services of Arizona. She also participated in the Homeless Legal Assistance Program and the Law Society for Human Rights. Her practice focuses on estate planning, probate, trust administration, and civil litigation.
Qualifications & Certifications
CERTIFICATIONS
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End of Life Doula (EOL) University of Vermont (UVM)
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Companion Animal EOL Doula UVM
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The Art of Death Midwifery from Sacred Crossings
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Funeral Celebrant From Sacred Crossings
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Shamanic Breathwork facilitator Venus Rising Association for Transformation
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Breathwork Metamorphosis Facilitator with Pam Savory
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Shamanic Minister Venus Rising Association for Transformation
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Sundoor School of Transpersonal Education Firewalk Instructor and Spiritual Leadership Training
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Warrior Goddess Level One Facilitator Training with HeatherAsh Amara
EDUCATION
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Ph.D. Communication Studies University of Utah
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MA Communication Studies University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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BA Communication Studies Northern Arizona University
TRAININGS
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Understanding and Facilitating Grief & Loss with Bill Berry of the Living From the Heart Work
