Giants of Modern Trouble: A Ritual about Greif and Exile

Are you a misfit? That's a welcoming opportunity. Join us for a weekend of storytelling and ritual, an opportunity to address modern day issues—the “giants” that loom over us all—through the technologies of indigenous wisdom and ancient myth. Together we’ll explore the reasons why one might feel exiled from society, and what it means to bring the wisdom of “mis-fitting” home to our community. DATE/TIME Friday, July 26 - 7:00pm to 10:00pm Saturday, July 27 - 9:30am to 9:30pm (Please note that Friday night attendance is a prerequisite to Saturday) See also Sunday Event on Saltspring Island: https://www.facebook.com/events/454875195344483/ To REGISTER follow Ticket Link: https://www.forgottenwaters.guide/events/giants-of-modern-trouble-bc MORE INFO Intense, life-changing experience is an opportunity for community to welcome back a changed person. In the absence of such an initiatory process, the soul feels ongoing grief, bewilderment and isolation. The modern world itself is one of these life changing experiences, with the spectres of displacement and environmental collapse looming over our every move. Surprisingly, mythology has a great deal to say about travelling onward in the presence of gigantic energies and making allies to thrive under pressure. The very ideas of social justice action and personal healing are intertwined in the initiatory journey that modern life has become, even while initiation as a practice has dwindled away. An initiation is meant to be suffered in the service of bringing back something valuable to community. But in a time of crisis, and breakdown in community, initiation can turn into mere confusion, despair, exile. The experiences of exile are meant to awaken unique viewpoints and medicine that should come back into the tribe to be metabolized as healing, updates to traditions, and leadership. Extreme examples are veterans who return from war, refugees fleeing violence, and victims of childhood trauma. Especially struck, but less noticed, are those on the front lines of social or environmental justice work. Even grief in the course of normal life—death, failure, illness, loss—can leave a person feeling exiled. In the African concept of Ubuntu—"I am because we are"— these experiences are sacred, and are worth sharing. You really can "come as you are." We will explore these issues through ritual, story, poetry, and music, reconfirming the wisdom of radical welcoming. Topics Explored: • Understanding modern initiatory experiences • An indigenous worldview of community • Fate and Destiny battling in our lives • Logos versus Eros • Ritual to Welcome the Weird FACILITATION Randy Jones, author of "Medicine Without an Expiry Date: Indigenous Remedy for Modern Trouble." General Info: https://www.forgottenwaters.guide/ QUESTIONS? Evan MacLeod at 1 403 597 7524 David Yates at 1 604 318 3175 Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2053341398126896/