WISDOM OF DEATH: Re-embodying Generative Stories of Life, Death, Grief and Renewal, Online Program

ABOUT THE WISDOM OF DEATH LEARNING JOURNEY

This 4 week, 4 session, and multi-teacher online program is an embodied learning journey that invites you to bear witness to the transformative power and regenerative wisdom held within the processes of life, death, grief, and renewal. An invitation to re-embody the relationship to our interconnected mortality and to reconnect to the generative capacity for storytelling that resides deep within each of us.

Our stories are more than just words and thoughts; they are reflections of our lived experiences, shaped by the living memory of our bodies and the languages of territories that surround and move us. As individual threads of a vast and interwoven whole, our stories become mirrors of the intricate dance between our bodies and the greater earth-body we are inseparable from.  Stories shape our collective reality, our sense of history, our cultures, and our visions of the future– they’re the eternal companions of humanity and have been our solace, our wisdom, and our vessels of transformation in the face of loss and grief. They guide us beyond the veils of fear, despair, and denial, offering a bridge to understanding, acceptance, and aliveness.

When we live in a world that is often burdened by its fears and losses, there exists a profound and revolutionary act—a collective endeavor to tell stories with grace, compassion, and a vibrant sense of aliveness. Yet, in cultures where death and grief have become estranged from the vivacity of life, and where pain is divorced from pleasure, grief from joy, it can be challenging to perceive loss as an alchemist of transformation, and grief as a healing portal for the soul.

We invite you to join us in this embodied and generative exploration of the interconnected impermanence of life’s processes–guiding and inspiring us, and our grief, to move toward the limitless realms of transformation, renewal, and enlivenment.

Join the learning journey from March 17-April 7th, 2024. Every Sunday from 10am-12pm CST
(Sessions will be recorded and made available via the Comuna Exchange platform for later viewing)

“In the face of so much destruction, distraction, and extraction, creation is the healing ceremony.”
- Alixa Garcia

To tell stories that are rich, textured, hopeful, and vibrantly alive, we must return to the sensory embrace of our bodies in the present moment—an embodied, ecological experience with the processes of life.

By granting ourselves and eachother the privilege of feeling, moving, and engaging with the vast territories within and without, we unlock a reservoir of creative possibility. We are reminded that we are not alone; that within our very beings reside stories echoing with not just our own, but the experiences of our human and more-than-human ancestors. Memories that form the stories of our individual and shared narratives–of strength, resilience, sorrow, violence, loss, grief, survival, joy, pleasure, and aliveness.

LEARNING JOURNEY CALENDAR

Live sessions will be held on Sundays from 10am-12pm CST (Mexico City) please check the time in your local timezone here. To learn more about our teachers, please scroll down.

• MARCH 17: Taught by Ren Lucia

  • Ceremonial opening, Re-embodiment through pleasure and play, tantric breath, anchored somatic expressions and sensuous movement, guided visioning and journaling practice

• MARCH 24: Taught by Isadora Carneiro

  • Documentary film and photography, exploring life-death-life processes through a reconnection to birth, guided audiovisual storytelling practice

• MARCH 31: Taught by Ioana Todosia and Sara Dubeau

  • Exploring migrating territories of loss, grief, resilience, and aliveness, language as a territorial experience and embodied expression, guided Deep Time ancestral remembrance, and oral storytelling.

• APRIL 7: Taught by Asya Shenini

  • Ceremonial closing, Embodied integration through conscious connected breath, movement, sound, and meditation

WHO THIS LEARNING JOURNEY IS INTENDED FOR

Folks who:

• are experiencing and witnessing thresholds of upheaval, change, loss, and grief and have the desire to deepen into embodying, and living with, the transformative process of life-death-renewal so that they may continue to stay receptive, present, and co-creative with the process

• may be experiencing points of friction or overwhelm in relationship to loss and grief

• are curious to explore the innate art of storytelling through different embodied and guided practices

• want to learn how to befriend death, grief, uncertainty, and resistance, through embodied resources that can help one to better identify the process of life-death-renewal in one’s own experience, outer environments, and greater culture

• want to access the wisdom and capacity contained within to come into a more integrated relationship with pleasure, joy, goodness, creativity, and presence as a necessary balm for resilient wellbeing

• know or intuit that we are in an epidemic of isolation and loneliness and many are grieving or experiencing the processes of life-death-renewal alone

• have the desire to orient towards community spaces of belonging where the exchange of our lived experiences, a focus on generative medicine stories (oral, visual, written, somatic), meaningful reflections, creative imagination, and resourcing is in service of systems of well-being in our present lived reality and possible futures

• have the desire to unfold into greater individuation where their unique, multi-faceted self-expression leads them to reciprocate, contribute to, tend to, and lead their communities, while re-imagining more generative futures, living systems, and cultures

WHAT THIS LEARNING JOURNEY IS NOT INTENDED FOR

While this program is an experiential learning opportunity intended to explore our inner experiences, open up doorways of perception and relating, and deepen into resources that support getting in touch with, and developing the capacity for freely and safely expressing embodied sensations and emotions, it is to be approached with discernment, responsibility, and care by all participants. While we offer a safe and supportive container and are guided by an understanding of mental-emotional wellbeing, this program is not intended to be a substitute for group counseling and psychiatric care with your trusted provider.

LEARNING JOURNEY FORMAT

This Wisdom of Death learning journey will be held online in a month-long small group container (max. 20 ppl) and will include:

• 4 Live Sessions (2-2.5 hours each, 8+ hours total)

• Home-care exercises and rituals, resources, and guidance in between sessions through the Comuna Exchange online community platform

• Facilitation of learning journey in English

TEACHERS

REN LUCIA

Based in Mexico City, Ren Lucia (MA, CMT, 200 RYT) makes sense of this life through the lenses of a matrixial human, trauma-literate integral somatic therapist, circle-holder, entheogenic facilitator, craniosacral practitioner, and House dancer.  She is committed to co-creating experiences that honor and resource our sensual nature for decolonial wholeness-making and liberated expression.

Connect with Ren’s expressions here.

ISADORA CARNEIRO

Isadora Carneiro is an artist, film director, cinematographer, and editor hailing from Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil. At the age of 17, she made the pivotal decision to move to São Paulo to pursue her studies in Audiovisual at Centro Universitário Senac.

Inspired by the works of Heloísa Passos and Katia Lund, Isadora made her debut as both a director and cinematographer with the film "Mulheres da Terra" and co-founded the Women of the Earth Institute. This feature film marked a significant turning point in her career, sparking a deepened passion for exploring feminist themes in her productions.

Presently, Isadora spearheads the "Futuro do Nascer" project, wherein she transforms real birth footage into short films, offering a unique perspective on the miracle of life.

Isadora Carneiro's artistic journey is characterized by a commitment to storytelling, a keen eye for cinematography, and a dedication to empowering women through her cinematic creations.

Connect with Isadora’s expressions here.

ASYA SHENINI

Asya is a breathwork therapist and integrative yoga practitioner. She is trained and specialized in yoga, conscious movement, rebirthing, conscious connected breathwork, and BioDynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release System method. By employing music, vocal cues, touch, and bodywork, her work primarily focuses on providing an intuitive and safe healing space that allows her clients to reconnect to body, mind, and spirit through the release of emotions and trauma. Her sessions take clients on a deep journey of inner discovery to help them obtain more balance and clarity in life.

Connect with Asya’s expressions here.

IOANA TODOSIA

Ioana is a rooted futurist bridging people, place, and paradigms through cross-cultural exchanges that contribute to shared living and healing systems of wellbeing. As the Creator of the Comuna.Earth platform, she envisions and facilitates regenerative education, bio-cultural residencies, and transformative experiences for cultural wellbeing.

Ioana is also a multi-disciplinary creative being, exploring the rematriation of sacred spaces, bodies, and life processes through bio-art, herbalism, and storytelling.

Over the past 4 years, Ioana has been intuitively and humbly receiving the wisdom and alchemical teachings of death and grief in service to the Eros of life. Learning to welcome and walk with death, both within and without, through relationship with the natural world, and reclamation of the gifts and re-storying of the traumas of both her lineages.

When resting, she’s feeding her inner fire creating art, being moved by dance, connecting to underground culture through music, and learning about bio-cultural plant medicine systems.

Connect with Ioana’s expressions here.

SARA DUBEAU

Sara is a Natural Healthcare Practitioner, facilitator, and speaker. An eternal curiosity to understand what nourishes a vital, connected, and spirit-filled life led Sara to seek profound, enriching experiences under the apprenticeship of many wise teachers. What began as a desire to learn about natural therapeutics as a holistic healthcare practitioner, has evolved into an intimate relationship with Mother Earth and our more-than-human relations, and highlighted the importance of being in integrity with oneself, one another, our ancestral healing wisdom and medicines, and our ecosystems. As a co-creator and facilitator of the Comuna.Earth Learning Journeys, Sara brings her knowledge and experience of natural, holistic therapies, embodiment practices, and the integration of healing experiences to collaborative offerings in the spirit of co-creation and kinship.

Connect with Sara’s expressions here.

COST ACCESSIBILITY MODEL

• The regular exchange for this month-long learning journey is $275.00 CAD. Fairly valuing the inputs of time, presence, and expertise in co-creating and facilitating the course container by our generous teachers and contributors, and allowing us the ability to continue creating meaningful offerings into the future. In other words, $34 CAD/hour.
  Price is in CANADIAN Dollars. To check prices in your preferred currency, we offer the resource to this conversion calculator.

• We are motivated to make these learning oopportunities as financially accessible as possible while sustaining and honouring the work. Therefore, if you are feeling called to participate in this offering and feel you could benefit from financial support, please utilize the Sliding Scale registration option.

• The more people who participate at the higher level, the more bursaries we’ll be able to give. If you are economically secure, we respectfully ask you to offer what helps you feel generous, rather than contracted, so as to support those who are experiencing financial hardship or live in less resourced regions of the world. (Thank you to Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams and The Work That Reconnects for this economic model.)

• If you would like to become a Seed Supporter of our bursary fund and sliding scale, so that we may offer more access to those experiencing financial constraints, we would be honored if you considered choosing “Seed Supporter” when confirming your participation.

  Profits from this course are shared between contributors and help us to continue to create meaningful offerings into the future.

Join the learning journey from March 17-April 7, 2024. Every Sunday from 10am-12pm CST
(Sessions will be recorded and made available via the Comuna Exchange platform for later viewing)

FAQ

• The live online sessions will be held on Sundays from 10am-12pm CST (Please check the calendar above)

• Please check the time of this course in your local time zone.

• Live sessions will be recorded and made available to watch afterward if for any reason you are not able to be present for the live gathering, find yourself in a different timezone, or can only join a portion of it. The recording links will be shared within 48 hours, and you will have access to the recording and course materials via the Comuna Exchange community platform after the learning journey has ended.