In these changing and challenging times it is essential to stay grounded and find the skills and guidance necessary to develop and maintain Right Relationship with ourselves, our relatives and our uncertain future.
Full Circle Poster
Full Circle Poster
Introduction to Full Circle
On behalf of the Pathways School, we welcome you to Full Circle – a yearlong apprenticeship and rite of passage in Reawakening our Sacred Humanity.
In these changing and challenging times it is essential to stay grounded and find the skills and guidance necessary to develop and maintain Right Relationship with ourselves, our relatives and our uncertain future.
The Full Circle program focuses on the practical and essential skills to live simply, close to the Earth, as well as the Wisdom Teachings, Healing and Spiritual practices necessary to rediscover our True Humanity and live a compassionate life of service and connection with all things.
We will meet weekly to receive the Teachings and Guidance necessary on our journey to Wholeness, engage in practices like Qi Gong (Daoist Yoga) and meditation, as well as gather in circle for sharing and healing. We will also go on wilderness adventures throughout the year learning the skills that our Ancestors knew to not only survive, but thrive in the natural world. Occasionally, we’ll spend a weekend indoors learning and practicing more hands-on skills and crafts.
Most of what will be offered will be made available online as podcasts and instructional videos.
Participants of Full Circle will be guided on a journey through the Four Seasons and the Four Directions of the Medicine Wheel. Nature shows us that each season has a different “Spirit” with different challenges, lessons and intentions. By moving with the cycles and intentions of Nature we will have the opportunity to go “Full Circle” in experiencing the interconnectedness between ourselves and the world we live in. The Medicine Wheel is a Spiritual Compass, with each of the Four Directions reminding us that we are here to live with the Earth on the Earth, grounded in relationship with all other Beings.
Below is a quick overview of what we will be learning throughout the four seasons.
Fall is a time of Gathering Our Resources.
Our greatest resources are our health, our relationships and our clarity of awareness. To improve our health and awareness, we will learn about the Ancestral Diet, Massage, Energy work, Qi Gong and meditation. To improve our relationships, we must begin the beautiful and challenging journey into right relationship, with ourselves and others. We will begin this journey by exploring how we “place” ourselves in our World and our Relationships.
Other essential resources in life are skills and experience. In Fall we will learn Wild Harvesting and Food Preservation and celebrate the harvest with a feast. We’ll also learn Hide Tanning and Leatherwork as well as the essentials of Hunting, Trapping, and Tracking. To ground these skills in experience, we will spend two weekends living simply on the land, first as modern wilderness survival students and then as our ancestors did many thousands of years ago.
Winter is a time of Listening to Our Mentors and Elders.
Not that long ago, in Winter, most of our families would gather together around a fire and listen to stories of adventure, humour and the history of our people. Within these stories, we learned about how to live a good life and Walk in a Good Way. Along with stories, those gathering around the Fire heard the Wisdom Teachings, usually from someone who could put them into action.
In Winter, the Full Circle program explores the Wisdom Teachings of the Indigenous people of Asia and North America. These traditions are very similar, if not the same, in their depth, practicality and affection for living simply, joyously, and in tune with Nature and Her Rhythms. We will learn from the Eight Branches of Daoism (See Below) as well as how to navigate life with the teachings of the Great Spiritual Compass, the Medicine Wheel.
To keep our hands busy, we will learn to make and care for rattles and drums, make cordage (string or rope) from plants, make bone and stone tools, make moccasins, and make a wool coat from a blanket. To continue our deepening relationship with nature, we will learn to make a Winter Shelter, do some Ice Fishing and celebrate the Winter Solstice with a feast and a Ceremony.
Spring is a time of Re-Awakening and Reconnecting to the Web of Life
As Life pours, crawls and grows back into the world, we will have our greatest opportunity to learn about the Web of Life or the Nature of Nature and the interconnectedness of all things. Learning about the Web of Life requires two things, observation and participation. To appreciate and observe Nature more closely, we will learn the oldest calendar in the world, used by hunters, gatherers and homesteaders throughout history to understand our Sources of Life.
Participating in Nature requires some Dirt Time, some time dedicated to being outdoors learning from the plants, the weather, birds and animals. We will learn about edible, medicinal and useful plants and make baskets. We’ll grow a prolific garden using the new/old science of Permaculture. We’ll also learn the ancient ways of starting, using and carrying fire, build a shelter, learn connected awareness, natural movement and instinctual action and make a bow and arrows by hand.
Reconnecting to the Web of Life also asks us to move into a deeper relationship with the Spirit that moves through all things, however you hold that to be. We will explore traditional ways of purification, healing vigils, embodied prayer, the making of offerings and some “protocol” about seeking guidance from Elders and Medicine People.
Summer is a time of Celebration and Community
In Summer, all of life is flourishing, becoming the greatest manifestation of itself. Summer is also a season of community coming together, adventure, transformation, and endeavor. The Pathways Gathering will bring together our larger community of instructors and students for four days to share and learn the skills and wisdom needed to live close to Mother Earth and in harmony with our self, community and all life.
In the middle of Summer, we will deepen the transformation achieved through the three previous seasons. Full Circle will ask each participant to design his or her own Rite of Passage and completion ceremony.
As for adventure, we will go on a Walkabout and apply all of the skills we have developed over the last three seasons. Many of the skills we will rely on will be practical but the most important will be how we communicate, share in the endeavors of meeting our needs and staying in Right Relationship. Imagine the experience of Living in the Natural world, the real world that all of our Ancestors lived in for countless generations. Imagine living in a community of migratory Gatherer-Hunters, with or without technology, living simply with people you have spent a year getting to know. This kind of experience changes lives, opens hearts and heals many of our old wounds.
Participants who complete the Full Circle program and their Rite of Passage will be recognized and honored, in ceremony, as a person committed to the journey to wholeness, who has attained skills and received wisdom essential for Our Times. As someone who now carries these teachings, you will spread this wisdom of Right Relationship through your family, community, and outwards like the ripples of a stone thrown into a quiet pond.
The time is now. We are the ones we have been waiting for. – Hopi prophesy
Hi Mike and Chris,
Thanks for extending this wisdom to our community!
I see you’ve mentioned some of the topics covered in the Full Circle program on the website.
The talk Wednesday was informative.
I’m wondering how much of the learning in this course is ‘hands-on’, experiential, so that one feels it and is empowered from within. Ie. What are some of the concrete tangible ways students will assimilate the information you teach?
I would rather not listen to alot of talking and rambling and just get down to work. Does this make sense?
Also, is their a payment plan or sliding scale option for the course?
I’m still deciding – it’s a huge time and financial commitment and I understand it is your first year offering and so there may be some “teething pains” as you learn also as mentors.
Alternatively, is there a drop-in option (I notice you have one for the plants walk tomorrow?) I may only be able to “drop in” as 7 + hours a week may not be possible, or perhaps it may be by receiving more information about the course curriculum specifics and assurance of experiential learning.
Feel free to phone me at 551-3156 if it’s too much to reply electronically.
Thanks, Delia