FOREST
temple
Forest Temple is a cultural co-creation space celebrating the human-earth-spirit connection. We host in-person seasonal celebrations and facilitate experiences that awaken interbeing and deepen our reverence for the natural world.
Through relational and ecological embodiment practices and honoring cycles of life, death and the eternal now, we explore how we are being shaped by place. The nature of how we gather is ever-evolving and follows the changing tides of the seasons. Together we practice paying attention to the way earth speaks, sings and whispers to and through us. Guided by earth wisdom and the longing to deepen our relationship to land, everything we do is centered around cultivating our bond with the natural world.
SEASONAL CELEBRATIONS
Cultivating kinship with our bioregional landscape
This is where we practice listening and paying attention to the way spirit of place speaks, sings, and whispers through us by weaving together nature-connection practices; reflection, contemplation, prayer; folk craft-making; music, song, movement and so much more!
As an invocation of emergence, we welcome spontaneity and we surrender our seriousness to the art of play as prayer!
You are invited to join us in this co-creation by becoming a contributing participant, space holder and/or by offering a creative skill or expressive gift as you feel inspired to. We welcome the gifts and contributions of all to help shape the culture of this space. This is not about performance nor will it ever be a striving for perfection. This is quite simply playful co-creation.
Together we will move at natures pace and engage in meaningful practices, storytelling (non/verbal), and rituals that orient us relationally in space/time, ground us in somatic presence, and explore the gifts, intelligence, and healing benefits of our journey through the Wheel of the Year.
Want to help co-create our next seasonal celebration?
Please reach out: wayofbelonging@gmail.com
WHEEL OF THE YEAR
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of eight earth festivals (known as Sabbaths). It combines two different celebration cycles: the four solar festivals: Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox) and the four seasonal/agricultural festivals: Samhain (sow-win), Imbolc (im-ulk), Bealtaine (byel-tin-uh) and Lughnasadh (loo-nuh-suh).
Under industrial growth society, we follow the concept of linear time, however in the past, when we lived in close relationship to nature, time was perceived as cyclical. The Wheel of the Year is a calendar focused on this cyclical journey of the seasons.
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond."
― Robin Wall Kimmerer
