Workshops
The Medicine Wheel is perhaps the most intriguing gift from ancient America: a physical structure typically made with stones arranged in a circle, big enough for people to enter. In this workshop you will learn to use the Wheel as a personal Life guide. Each point on the Wheel represents distinct qualities and spiritual characteristics. On those points, you'll place medicine helpers that you've chosen, at times for no obvious reason; just seems like the right animal/tree/gemstone, but you will soon see that the Spirits are guiding you. When the energies of the medicine helpers combine with the aspects of the point on the Wheel where they've been placed, a story emerges that will guide you, revealing the acquired traits or core beliefs that have previously blocked you. These are personal Healing Wheels.
You will also learn about personal Free Form Wheels. Where Healing Wheels are a direct reflection of your Life-patterns, Free Form Wheels are open to the guiding influences of the Spirits (Personal Spirit Guides and Helper Spirits.) You will learn how to prepare before creating either kind of Wheel. Personal Wheels are usually small (on the dining room table, bed, living room floor), built for a specific session, then taken down until needed. Free Form Wheels are used in determining & executing Life Purpose, and in tandem with Healing Wheels, for manifesting.
The Medicine Wheel works because it reveals unsupportive core beliefs, pointing you in a better direction, anchoring that new awareness into your physical body-memory through movement: placing stones and totems, moving about the Wheel and locking onto answers the totems have brought you, what Jung called "gestalt”. Now aware of these energies, you'll have better control over your life: old, self-defeating patterns will cease, empowering you to manifest your dreams more easily. The Medicine Wheel is a non-threatening but effective teacher and workshops are kept small and confidentiality respected. You will learn how to work your own Medicine Wheel and it will bring your stuff up; it takes courage to face fears, perceived shortcomings, self-judgments, but those energies can be converted and you are worth the effort.
Includes 42 page manual.
Medicine Shields
A one day workshop where you make an ingenious tool that will help you create specific change, manifest, or even deal with fear and uncertainty. Medicine Shields is based on the teachings and practices of the Warrior Societies, and was initially a response to escalating fear in mainstream society, but has been expanded to fully utilize all its power in virtually all areas of your life.
We begin by creating a physical shield out of rawhide and natural vine. The remainder of the class is dedicated to deciding what it is each you want to change or create in your life, looking at what is behind that, then formulating a concise statement which is then "embedded" in the Shield. You will choose, on your own, the Medicine Helper(s) best suited to your purpose, which you will put on your Shield.
You are taught how to create an active, working relationship with the Medicine Helper of your choice, and how to use your Shield daily. Understanding Animals as Medicine Helpers is an excellent adjunct lecture to this workshop and it is recommended that you attend that when possible, ideally before the Shields workshop.
Medicine Shields Refresher Follow-on
A two hour refresher for Medicine Shield students. Bring Shields you are working on and need help with, Shields you have worked on that you'd like to share your experiences about, and any other Shield related questions.
Medicine Wheel Refreshers Follow-on
A two hour refresher for Medicine Wheel students. Bring Wheels you are working on and need help with, Wheels you have worked on that you'd like to share your experiences about, and any other Wheel related questions.
Forgiveness: Finding the Gift
At some point in life we come to realize we’ve been dragging old hurts around like a ball and chain, pushing them deeper into our souls, wishing against all hope that the past can be changed. Over time, these emotional chains take an enormous toll, and not just psychologically. In general, the benefits of forgiveness are not very well understood or seriously considered in a society saturated with hungry lawyers and where violent movies preaching vengeance are common. True forgiveness is empowering, and emotionally and physically liberating; it will always raise our self-esteem and self-worth. Forgiveness of others and especially ourselves dissolves guilt and fear, enabling us to step into more productive and happy lives.
This workshop focuses on the positive aspects of both specific and long term hurts. Yes, the positive aspects. And by doing so, you’ll find a safe route out of the Valley of Pain. By understanding hurts and traumas objectively you’ll de-energize the underlying emotion as your perspective on the incident, or person, or pattern shifts. Bring a floor cushion and/or blanket as we’ll take a short journey with the drum. And be thinking about one not-too-traumatic situation you’d like to forgive that you’d feel comfortable working on in the workshop. We will create a safe, compassionate environment of sharing, and what is said or happens in this workshop is confidential.
Grandfather Rick McBride is a mixed-blood Tsalagi (Cherokee) and ceremonial leader who presents workshops and lectures on Native American lifeways. The spiritual and practical wisdom of Native America is finally making its way into mainstream America, and it is having a profound impact, especially during these difficult times. Rick brings his deep personal experience in these ways, the knowledge he has gained from Elders he has worked with, and his training in Traumatic Incident Reduction into this workshop, creating a uniquely effective method of breaking the chains of the past.
The Crystal Stone People
Most crystal and stone workshops try to sensitize participants to the energies of the stone people, a universal term referring to all stones and crystals by Indians. But this often leads to frustration for those not yet ready to open up to them. Whether a person is able to pick up on the energy of a stone or not, is really irrelevant. What is important is to understand that such energies do exist, and that we can learn about them. And by learning some of the ways to work with the various stone people, the individual will begin to open to their energies as the stones teach them.
This workshop is about learning some of the traditional Native American ways starting with crystals, such as healing, development of certain non-physical skills, energy balancing, increasing spirit energy, protection of our spirit nature, communication as well as other uses.
Stone People Rock!
