Opening eco-program “Awakening the Dreamer” Part 1, with Leila Bruno is an initiative of The Pachamama Alliance.

Conference opening with Mi’kmaw Elder Ellen Hunt, to honour historical aboriginal stewardship of this land and bless the gathering.

Caitlin Matthews, The Perpetual Choirs of Song:
The ancient power of the voice which sings the soul of land and acts as a medium of healing and inspiration, reveals the continuity of the Celtic bardic tradition. Together our voices will make a bridge between time and place to deep communion with those in the Perpetual Choirs of Song.

Sacred Sweat Lodge Ceremony led by Carla Silver and Fire Keeper, David Nodding, with assistance from various shamans
-an opportunity for some of us to begin the gathering with a bit of purification. Carla will be publishing protocols, and the number of people that can be accomodated for each sweat opportunity. The sweat has been an important part of shamanic activity in many places and times. There is a Gaelic term for the lodge, “Teach nan alais” that interprets as “Healing House” and the Celtic lodge door faces west towards the setting sun, as for the Celts the new day begins at sundown. Traditional North American Lodges mostly have the door facing the east or rising sun. Differing cosmologies, same intent. The lodge we will be using is an “Alchemist” lodge-a new type of contemporary lodge.

Accessing the Personal Roots of the Shamanic Path, with Armand De Grenier
A two hour empowerment-journey experience, requesting spirit information about the roots of one’s personal shamanic path and how this weaves into the planetary trance-formations currently unfolding, with 2012 as a pivot point in time.

African Medicine with Sula and Theresa
Workshop: Dagara Medicine and the Art of Sacred Healing Stones.
In a Dagara Mineral Ritual working with soap stones and stones from the nearby ocean, as a participant, you will take part in a healing ritual to reconfigure the water in your bone memory, unleashing the power of your gifts and purpose in this Mineral year of the Dagara Medicine Wheel. Participants will learn about the African Medicine Wheel, the Clans and Dagara numerology. A short dvd presentation will provide a glimpse into a Dagara Ancestralization Ritual. 50 people – 3 hours -support from Robert Walker, Tingan Sob, East Coast Village (Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation): Hi Theresa, Thanks for letting us know about the SCC in Nova Scotia. I wish you and Sula well in doing a great presentation of the Dagara work. Blessings, Robert.

Martha Lucier: Connecting and Deepening our Roots:
We begin by singing a song:

Standing Like a Tree
Standing like a tree with my roots down deep
My branches wide and open
Down comes the rain, down comes the sun, down comes the fruit
To the heart that is open to be
Standing like a tree …..

Each circle participant is invited to go out onto the landscape and find a tree to connect with, sit with and merge with. We each ask these questions of the ancestors:

• How are we connected to them.

• What they wish for us to do at this important time on the planet. Standing together again, we form a circle holding hands and begin doing a simple dance to the heart beat drum. We empty ourselves welcoming the Spirits. Every other person steps into the centre of the circle and faces outward holding hands. The dance continues as both the inner and outer circle dances to the heart beat drum. When the drum stops, the dancing stops and each person finds themselves across from another. They sit down facing one another each placing a hand on the person’s heart sitting across from them. They close their eyes and the outer circle holds the intention of merging with the spirit of the ancestors. The inner circle holds the intention to merge with their helping spirit. the heart beat drum plays while this is happening. When they are ready they open their eyes. The inner circle gazes into the left eye of the ancestor and asks the question “What limiting beliefs and attitudes do I carry from the ancestors that need to be transmuted’? They divine the information from gazing into the eyes of the ancestor (ancestor does not speak). They speak out loud the answers they are receiving and ask more questions that come. They indicate when they are complete. The ancestor then offers a blessing to them. We all join together in the large circle again, doing the same heart beat drum dance. Those who were the ancestors step into the centre and create the inner circle. The whole process is done again. When this is finished we form small pods of 4 and sit back to back facing outward. We journey again to the ancestors and ask:

• How do they support us and how can we support one another in our work? We finish by doing a Sufi Dance in which we honour one another and the Spirit within each of us

Twelve Celtic Winds*: Celtic Divination Embodied.
Dancers and musicians from two continents join Nancy Sherwood for the presentation and facititation of an interactive shamanic dance experience for participants here in sacred Nova Scotia. The winds permeate all things and foretell change. Experience a contemporary expression of divination by the winds, that arose from the Celtic ancestors’ practice of going out at dawn to see the “color” and to feel the essence of the wind. The character of each day can be predicted by experience and connection to the winds. This can help us support change in our lives, in our community, and on the planet. Witness the 12 winds shape-shift, through movement, voice and instrument. Expect to move and be moved. Join in a dance encompassing the whole of being, alive to the moment, knowing you are invited to share the ecstasy of shamanic expression as we end our afternoon together. *Nancy’s inspiration for the Twelve Celtic Winds came from Jean-Wright Popescul’s book The Twelve Winds, 1997. Ms Popescul is a native Nova Scotian author and educator from Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton. Another reference is in John Matthews’ Talesin, Shamanism and the Bardic Mysteries in Britain and Ireland,1991.

Blanket Healing Ceremony, Louise Gauthier.
This process is one that will help you heal yourself as well as others. The Spirits gave this process to my friend Paul Bolduc and afterwards, we found out that it was used among some native people of South America for healing. It is a series of journeys that are being done one after the other, three to four steps to bring healing energy from the Spirit world into this one by the way of a blanket. The love and wisdom of the Universe to heal you will be kept in the blanket. You will wrap yourself in it and get the healing or you will be able to wrap someone else. It is a simple but powerful process to bring healing energy into this world. You could also use the blanket to bring healing energy to a place that needs it.

Ancestor work with Nova Poirier.
If we trace our familial lines most of us will find a place in our ancestral history where our people faced mass displacement. Consider the impact on a people who have been torn from their homeland, a place where the soul of people and the soul of the land are one. The effects of such displacements are with us today; in the unrest of the ancestor spirits, in the placelessness of the descendants and in the land itself. This experiential presentation will explore the effects of ancestral displacement and introduce ways to bring healing to ourselves, our ancestors and the Earth.