Laura Plato of Courageous Be and I will be offering our first Wisdom Keepers Gathering this spring, March 20-21. For general information on this project, please click here. Below you will find more information in the format of FAQs. We welcome any other questions you may have below. You may also visit our Wisdom Keepers web site or facebook event page.

What exactly is this – a training, community, gathering or an event?

Our Wisdom Keepers journey is all that. In our work, we’ve learned that ceremony is one of the most transformational forces in our healing, personal growth and spiritual journeys. When we created our ebook, Singing the SoulSong of Ceremony, we heard that so many are hungry for the experience of ceremony in their lives, especially within the context of community. We know that meaningful ceremony is the key, and that a thoughtful preparation and creation process for ceremony offers much more value and impact that walking into a packaged event most of the time.

For this reason, we intend to share a journey of creation, celebration, community and ceremony, where all wisdom is honored and embraced as we discover in deeper ways what we believe (and no longer believe), who we Be and who we are becoming. Each of us carries a seed within, ever-evolving, ever-expanding. Our shared Wisdom Keepers Gathering – in all aspects of the journey – offers us a spaciousness to learn, nurture, and grow our expanding seeds of consciousness and our capacities as community leaders.

As such, we will share safe and sacred space through a secret facebook group. We will gather for an in-person event of our co-creation, and then once more return to our secret facebook group for on-going support and collaboration. We will also enjoy at least one training-style webinar to help us to prepare for our ceremonial gathering.

Who is invited?

As all wisdom is worthy, we welcome all races, cultures, gender/sexual/relationship orientations, adults and mature teens. Now and into the future, we intend to expand our outreach to diverse communities to be more proactively inviting of all wisdom traditions.

How much scholarship funding is available and how are recipients chosen?

We have the equivalent of two full scholarships valued at $333 each. If some participants can find value in partial scholarships, then we will extend the full value over more than two people until the funds are allocated. Scholarships will be offered based on the timeliness of application submission, but also on the value of the response to the questions posed on the application. In the future, we intend to extend more scholarships into the community.

Also note that this Wisdom Keepers project may include many more variables in the future, and it’s likely that the price will go up as the content and experience expand. This is a fabulous opportunity to become involved in a gathering that will evolve into much more in the future.

How will the facebook “secret” group be used as a virtual community?

“Secret” facebook groups can only be found and seen by members in the group. Posts are guarded with the most privacy possible within the context of facebook, as our friends and friends-of-friends will not have the capacity to see our posts.

We intend to hold this space as both safe and sacred, where all wisdom is honored as worthy, in an environment of support and acknowledgement. We trust in respectful communications we comment on one another’s posts. We all agree to hold confidentiality.

In community, we intend to guide you through the ceremony preparation process based on information in our Singing the SoulSong of Ceremony ebook. We also invite all of us to share quotes, memes, poems, pictures, art, and more that we find meaningful in our own discovery process. We also invite us all to share more personal aspects of our journeys, such as heart-shares and inspirations. Our facilitators will be joining right in with the discovery process and personal sharing too, modeling transparency, vulnerability, authenticity, and discovery.  However, we are all welcome to participate at the level that’s comfortable to us.

What will the webinar(s) include?

We know we have busy lives and it’s challenging to create space for everyone to participate in events together at convenient times. The webinar(s) offer an opportunity to create and deliver training content that supports us all in doing our personal work in preparation for our live event on March 20, and to have that content be available at our own convenience. Since we are proactively creating, delivering and facilitating this gathering based on the needs and desires of those who show up, we cannot tell you exactly what will be included until we hear from you. We will use the facebook community to deepen the learning together following the webinar(s). We will check in during the week of March 1 to assess needed content for the first webinar and schedule others as needed.

What will the Wisdom Keepers Gathering Ceremony include?

There are so many valuable components that may emerge in the space, depending on what we all desire to co-create. We may include any or all of the following, plus whatever else may emerge as we expand our imaginations:

• Safe and sacred space, introductions, intentions to create a container for sharing
• Alter and/or other forms of art & creation
• Poems, prayers, songs, chants, quotes, dancing and other movement
• Visualization, shamanic journey and other rituals
• Shedding ceremony (what we’re releasing to make way for more…)
• Calling-in ceremony (what we’re embracing…)
• Fire ceremony inviting deeper transformation
• Gift exchange
• Break-out sessions for intimacy building
• Spaciousness for community engagement, journaling, walking, meditating
• Shared meals

There’s mention of an optional Friday night gathering for the Support and Leadership Team. What is this and who is included?  

Friday night’s Support and Leadership Team gathering offers an opportunity to gather for those who desire to take a more active role in leading Saturday’s ceremony. Participation is completely optional. Again, we will co-create this gathering as part of the expanded journey, but overall we intend for this pre-ceremony to be an expression of gratitude for all those participating and for the shared journey. We will begin to hold the space, to gather and build the energies in the physical location that will hold and nurture us all through Saturday’s ceremony. Friday night’s components may include any or all of the following, plus whatever else (structured or unstructured) we desire to add:

• Shared meal
• Check-ins (what to leave out of the space, clearing, smudging)
• Setting the space for Saturday’s sacred ceremony
• Fire Ceremony and/or other rituals as desired
• Connecting with supportive, creative, conscious community
• Sleep-over (dorm style accommodations or tent/RV camping in lovely rural setting)

So I’ve gone through ceremony. I want more. Now what?

We will continue to hold space through our facebook virtual community for on-going interaction from the community for as long as that feels useful for the members. We welcome you to continue to support and collaborate with one another, to share ideas with each other and with us for continued support and more. We are happy to provide support for hosting Wisdom Keepers Gatherings in your communities as well. We also intend to expand Wisdom Keepers Gatherings by continuing to create products and courses to support new and existing Wisdom Keepers. We envision a web of support, across the globe, of Wisdom Keepers celebrating and supporting one another, for the healing of all our relations. We will gladly keep you informed through the email communication for those signed up through http://wisdomkeeperswest.weebly.com/.