The Wisdom of Death: An Online Course on Transforming New Beginnings From Nature's Endings
This online course offering on The Wisdom of Death: Transforming New Beginnings From Nature’s Endings is taught from an indigenous earth-based knowledge perspective from Oaxaca, Mexico. It’s part of Comuna’s monthly Ceremonia Sessions programming offered within the Comuna Exchange community platform.
ABOUT THE COURSE OFFERING
Do you feel that these past couple of years have ushered incredible changes, but are still at times finding yourself using 2019 as a reference point to your life path? Have you asked yourself;
“Where do I belong within all of this complex and dynamic change, and how do I move forward?”
”How do I let go of what was, be with what is, and step into what is possible, while honouring the whole experience?”
Whether your motivations are from a personal, relational, or community level, this course is an opportunity to learn from earth-based knowledge rooted in the indigenous perspective of Zapotec wisdom from Oaxaca, Mexico. We’ll explore these questions and more within an intimate, closed, and safe container. Truly, this offering is less a course and more a 2-day online retreat to reintegrate. This course has been curated to facilitate deep and intimate reconnection to mind, body, spirit, and individual essence through an exploration of one of the most important and transformative roles within Nature’s life cycles that our modern cultures have largely disconnected from; Death. And with it the themes of grief, decomposition, and composting.
The Earth is a complex, interconnected and dynamic ecosystem made up of many living systems. Each part recognizes and honours its place of belonging and important role in maintaining the integrated wellbeing of the whole. In turn, the micro and macro systems are kept healthy, thriving, and evolving in cyclical nature. It appears that we humans are the one species, that as an integral part of this ecosystem, has largely become disconnected from the Nature of life we are a part of, in mind, body, and spirit. And to maintain that connection requires tools that are rooted in the very intelligence of Nature’s cycles and systems.
The collective intention is to re-introduce our individual selves to the interconnected living systems of the Earth that we’re innately a part of. We do so in order to achieve clarity around how and where we may be limiting ourselves, and on how to move through endings boldly, both within and without. As a result, we are able to step into new beginnings with a deep trust in the process and honouring the grief that permeates our individual and collective experiences in this present time. Just as in the natural world we are a part of, we also experience many individual deaths, whether consciously or unconsciously, within this one life. We’ll become intimate with the transformative capacity and necessity of death, the wisdom it holds, and its renewing and creative force for achieving and maintaining a thriving life of wellbeing.
This course creates a compassionate space for acknowledging where we may be disconnected and possibly resisting reconnection. Facilitating empowerment through a range of modalities and active participation to take individual responsibility not only for ourselves, but for our place in, contribution to, and power in healing and restoring our shared living systems of wellbeing.
Working with Earth-based systems through an indigenous knowledge perspective will facilitate an embodied inner exploration of turning healing into outward solution-oriented action, and ultimately, positive change, within and without.
THE COURSE FORMAT
This live online course will be co-created and co-facilitated with the guidance of Zapotec traditional Holistic Therapist, Lorena Villanueva, and Tierra Sagrada. Held via Zoom on November 19 and 20th from 11am-5pm EST, and hosted within the Comuna Exchange community learning platform. We’ll be unfolding in this expansive and collectively held container through the following concentrated 2-day format. Reconnecting mind, body, and spirit to Earth’s living systems through active participation that activates all of our sense: To see, to listen, to feel, to taste, to smell, to intuit.
DAY 1 | MIND: 6 Hours, including a 15 min Break + 45 min Lunch
Opening Ceremony
Opening ceremony led by Lorena Villanueva and Tierra Sagrada
Group embodiment meditation
Introducing collective and individual intentions, the central theme, and setting of the group container
Ceremony as a container to facilitates our ability to open and receive, give freely, process, let go, and step into transformation
Concepts and Transformative Healing Power of Relating to Death
Exploration of forming a healthy and relational connection to death, detachment, letting go, and grief
An immersive introduction to Dia de Los Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico (Day of the Dead)
Looking to Earth Systems as Teachers and Guides
Cycles, the elements, decomposition, the mushroom kingdom, and underground mycelial networks
Relating to the natural world as Kin, being in right relationship with Nature, and reattuning to the governing cycles of Nature
Shadow-work and Dark Elements
Introducing the concept of shadow-work, and our inner underworld and fears
Exploration of archetypes, storytelling, and myth
Relating to the ways we get shaken up from our comfort, internally or externally, and enter the natural life cycle of journeying down into the darkness
DAY 2 | BODY & SPIRIT: 6 Hours, including a 15 min Break + 45 min Lunch
Somatics and the Body
Introduction to the Soma
Group movement and embodiment practice
Guided somatic practices for processing feelings of grief, fear, and change in the Soma
Co-regulating the nervous system with what is with you and around you
The importance of rituals
Living in exchange and relationship with the natural world we are a part of, and how we co-regulate one another.
Decolonizing our language towards being relational vs. object-based by learning how to re-animate our environment by cultivating a practice of giving animist qualities to the world we are interconnected with and in constant relationship with.
Energy Work and the Spirit
Group meditation on the element of fire as a great transformer
Practicing intentional releasing, the art of compassionate detachment, letting go of energetic imprints, and active integration
The element of Fire as a greater energy/archetype and exploring the activating role of fire in permaculture practices, controlled burning, seeds
Closing Ceremony
Fire Ceremony led by Lorena Villanueva and Tierra Sagrada
Closing the container
*Additional Gifts you’ll be receiving
A small package with a welcome postcard, limited edition Oaxaca art print, lunch recipes, a protective bracelet handmade in Oaxaca, and copal incense for burning.
A sound journey playlist specially curated for this event
Additional exercises, resources, support, and integration via the Comuna Exchange community platform
EXCHANGE
The regular exchange of $350 CAD for this 12-hour live online course fairly values the work and energy put into curating this course, our teachers and collaborators, and allows us the ability to sustain future offerings.
It’s important to us that our course offerings are financially accessible for as many folks as possible. Therefore, if you are feeling called to participate in this event but require financial support, PLEASE REACH OUT. We will be offering a limited number of places at a reduced price through a sliding scale pay-what-you-can model. First come, first serve, no questions asked.
If you would like to become a seed supporter of our Bursary program, so that we may offer more access to these courses for more folks, we would be honoured if you considered choosing “Supporter” when booking your spot.
FAQ:
This live online course will be held from 11am-5pm EST, on November 19th and 20th.
Please check the time of this course in your local time zone.
Sessions will be recorded and available to watch after the live sessions if for any reason you are not able to be present for the live gathering, or just a portion of it. The recording links will be shared the following day and you will have indefinite access to the recording and course materials via the Comuna Exchange community platform.
Supporter tickets are for folks who have the means and can afford to pay a little more in order to support our Bursary program and provide access to those who can not afford the regular price of courses.
LORENA VILLANUEVA
Lorena Villanueva is a Zapotec Curandera (Traditional Holistic Therapist) and Temazcalera from Oaxaca, Mexico. As a traditional holistic therapist, she helps people not only return to a balanced state of wellbeing, but also guides each individual toward shifting their narratives and understanding of what it means to live a life of balance, wellbeing, and holistic health, in right relationship with themselves, one another and the earth we're a part of, from both within and without.
"My grandmother was a Curandera (Healer) in the village of Villa de Etla, close to Oaxaca City. As a little girl, I learned some of her healing arts but I never thought that one day I would follow in her footsteps. I studied Law to become a lawyer and ended up specializing in Human Rights – I wanted to help people. My first job brought me into many Indigenous communities of Oaxaca. It was in these communities of Oaxaca where I remembered my ancestral heritage, curanderismo. This ancient art of healing is something that is still very much alive in the villages and Indigenous culture of Oaxaca. And so, I realized that this was my true calling and began reconnecting with my ancient knowledge. For more than 20 years I have given my service as a holistic therapist (Curandera) working with the body and with Spirit, giving massages, ritual cleansings, therapeutic temazcales, and workshops."
SARA DUBEAU
Sara Dubeau is a multi-hyphenate natural healthcare practitioner, wellbeing communicator, facilitator, and farmer. She’s also the co-creator of the Ceremonia Sessions in the Comuna ecosystem.
“I’m a passionate advocate for health education, modalities, and experiences that reconnect us with our innate healing capacity and inner guidance. My clinical experience and personal evolution inspired me to extend my knowledge beyond clinic walls and develop unique opportunities to experience deeper healing work in community – teaching others how our health is expressed through our physical vitality, and also, our ability to live in alignment with our highest self-expression.”
CLAUDIA SCHURR
Claudia Schurr is the Co-Creator of Tierraventura and Tierra Sagrada in Oaxaca, Mexico.
“My passion and love is towards traditional medicine. We work with healers in many different locations in Oaxaca and organize workshops on this fascinating subject. In 2019, we opened Tierra Sagrada, our evolution from adventure to sacred, and the land of Oaxaca is truly sacred. It always fascinated me how the Indigenous communities were still so connected to their land and they’ve taught me so much over the years. It’s not only the use of healing plants, it’s this deep connection with the elements and with Spirit. And so, this is our main focus at Tierra Sagrada, to reconnect people with Nature, Spirit, and the Elements.”
IOANA TODOSIA
Ioana Todosia is the Creator of the Comuna ecosystem. She’s a cross-cultural pollinator, rooted futurist, and experiential facilitator, bridging inner & outer living systems to co-create regenerative education and experiential learning experiences for transformative cultural wellbeing.
“An Indigenous Wisdom Keeper from Oaxaca once told me that I have a very big appetite. Joy comes to me in exploring the ancestral connections between land, creativity, and spirituality, as much as when letting go in the dark, magic rooms of underground music scenes, diving into the science of wellbeing, waxing lyrical on philosophy, being moved by the arts, or getting my hands dirty learning traditional food systems and cuisines. I’m always seeking and absorbing; new experiences, perspectives, and wisdom. Plurality is what makes me come alive and fuels this lifework of creating and facilitating more access to transformative and regenerative cross-cultural exchange and education.”