Our wisdom workshops are offered in the sacred Mount Mondanock region of southern New Hampshire. We love our lone mountain, which looms within sight of us on a daily basis and provides guidance and direction. The second most climbed mountain in the world (after Mt. Fuji in Japan), it is a formidable energetic presence. On its slopes and in the adjacent towns and valleys that spread around it, many people have felt the call of spirit whispering to them. There are numerous luminaries who have been inspired as they have trod along Mt. Monadnock’s paths over the centuries – from Thereau and Emerson in the nineteenth centuries to local hero Jonathan Daniel – one of the first martyrs of the civil rights movement and many others- in more recent times.

An intention of our wisdom workshops is to acknowledge and deepen our sacred connection with our land – including the mountain that graces our horizon. Many indigenous and ancient spiritual practices around the world – from the high Andes to Tibet, and from the jungles of Mexico and Central America to the looming red Ayers rock in Australia – embrace the mountains and hills that surround them as keepers of wisdom and sources of power and healing. We would like to bring some of these practices right here, to our own home place and with our own people.

Sacred relationships between people in our families and communities, as well as between members of the human family and those of the animal, plant and mineral realms, involve deep intention and dedication. Like any relationship, they need to be nurtured and cared for. In many shamanic practices, this involves ritual and ceremony, community and celebration. Our wisdom workshops are created with this purpose in mind!

In August 2008, I had the great pleasure of travelling through the Yucatan visiting ancient Mayan pyramids and sacred sites. During this pilgrimage of sorts, I interviewed a Mayan man named Pastor whose father and grandfather were both shamans. We were discussing 2012, and what he thought it really meant, as a descendant of those wise ancients who developed the Long Count. After a slight pause, Pastor replied that 2012 is not about the end of the world, or destruction of any type. Instead, it is a call to renew the ceremonies and offerings that his ancient ancestors had done three thousand years ago.

And then he finished with the following suggestion… “ You don’t have to come to the pyramids here for 2012. Go home to your people and do ceremonies in your own way to your own land. That is what we are all being called to do right now… “ Join us at Jade Journeys to do just this!