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"Just
finished the Escort to the Beloved chapter. I have cried for the first
time since December 8, 2000—the night of the car accident
that nearly
took my life. I didn't cry then. I think I became an observer of my
life. I can't begin to thank you for writing this book.”
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Trebbe Johnson's Newsletter
September 2007
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 Dear
Questers, Friends, and Seekers of the Beloved,
In these beautiful green and gold days, tomatoes ripen heavily on the
vine and the air vibrates with the low chants of insects. Vision
Arrow's programs for the year have just about come to an end (the
Sahara Vision Quest ushers in the new year). During this summer-to-fall
month of September I've been fortunate to have offered programs at two
remarkable gatherings, one in Colorado and one in Missouri, each very
different, yet each made up of people who are committed to defining and
sharing a deeper, healthier, and more compassionate experience of life.
To those who are receiving this newsletter for the first time...
welcome! Here you'll find news of upcoming Vision Arrow events,
reflections, profiles of extraordinary people, and stories of
transformation that occur when we accept, in small, bold, startling
ways the invitations that the world is always sending us. |
| DIANA'S GROVE
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 Who
could have imagined that such a pioneering place would manage not just
to survive but actually to thrive here, tucked away in the
Ozark Mountains, three hours' drive south of St. Louis?
Diana's Grove
was the vision of Cynthia Jones and Patricia Storm, two nature lovers,
seekers, and intrepid explorers of mythology, who bought 102 acres in
southern Missouri in 1993 and determined to create a center for
exploring community, spiritual connection, and the personal meanings of
world myth. Now people come from all over the U.S., many of them
several times a year, to attend programs there.
Every January, Cynthia, a visonary thinker about myth's relevance in
modern times and a master storyteller, launches a year-long Mystery
School in which participants meet one weekend a month for an intensive,
experiential study of a myth (this year it's the Scottish ballad "Tam
Lin"). Next year's focus will be astrology from a very unusual
perspective: how each sign of the zodiac influences us as individuals
and communities: for example, Aquarius defines our personal and
collective needs in life, Pisces drives our mystical side, etc.
Guest presenters are frequently invited to offer their own programs at
the Grove. I was there September 21-23 to present my "Desire and the
Quest for the Beloved" workshop, and on Saturday night, we wove the
traditional Diana's Grove fall equinox ceremony, a meditation on the
return of Persephone to her lover, Hades, in the Underworld, with the
call of the inner Beloved to venture into the mysteries that beckon
(often frighten) us and call forth our bigger self.
I already had a special fondness for Missouri. For four years I went to
Stephens College there, so I associate that spacious, center-of-the
country land with my own centering and expanding. It's where I learned
to think my own thoughts, where I explored great ideas, feminism, and
social activism, and where I met the first man I fell truly in love
with. One evening during the equinox weekend, standing in a field as
mist rose up to a sky turning deep peach-color with sunset, and bats
pursued the insects that pursued me, I was stunned to think of how I
could return all these years later to Missouri, and once again to a
place so much in harmony with my own state of being. I am thrilled that
I will be returning to Diana's Grove next year. |
THE (MAGINAL)
WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
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 How
does a tangled strand of barbed wire form the perimeters of a
ceremonial circle? What does a weathered flower say about valuing the
rest of a human life?
That wilderness can inspire and facilitate
personal transformation in radical ways is the conviction
that
prompted Naropa University in Boulder, CO to launch an annual Wilderness
Therapy Symposium
five years ago. On September 7-9 I was honored to participate and to
meet people from all over the U.S. and abroad who "share a love of the
wilderness and a desire to work with the psyche and spirit."
My
own program, "At Home in the Maginal World," was held on Sunday in a
spectacularly beautiful golden meadow stretching beneath the indigo
peaks of the Rockies. The Maginal World, a name I coined, is the vast
and inviting place of change, creativity, and possibility that bridges
the world we know (or think we know) and our inner world, that
mysterious realm of dreams, imagery, fear, longing, and our own
powerful, often conflicting inner voices and inclinations.
We
all know how to move with ease in the Maginal World... we've just
forgotten that we know. But we can remember quickly if we're willing to
explore nature and our own deep self with curiosity, respect, and a
spirit of play. My six-hour program included a solo walk lasting ninety
minutes. Each person went out with a question about some situation in
their life that was currently challenging or perplexing them. They all
returned with extraordinary stories in which nature informed them about
their past, helped them see their present circumstances more clearly,
and even gave them clues to defining a future path.
For example,
a man who was wrestling with his own inner power struggles and how they
have injured people he loves found an old fence post wrapped with
barbed wire. When he attemped to walk away, he discovered that the
barbed wire trailed off the post and onto the ground, completely
surrounding him. Taking advantage of nature's invitation, he sat down
in the middle of the circle and began to create a ceremony. He used the
pine needles lying on the ground inside the circle to represent the
people he had hurt, addressed each one personally, and moved it out
into clear space.
Another participant, an older woman, had just
set out on her walk when she was captivated by a black-eyed Susan that
was missing most of its petals. Suddenly she found herself choked by
sobs. Seeking refuge behind a large boulder, she contemplated the
flower and realized that, like it, she had lived most of her life and
now must pour all her considerable energy into the healthy, vital
"petals" she still has left.
Every story was completely
different, and each spoke penetratingly to each person's experience in
a way no human teacher could possibly have done... especially in only
an hour and a half!
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BREAKFAST
CONTEST WINNER!
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 Thanks
so much to all of you who contributed ideas for the Vision Arrow
Pre-fast Breakfast! I received several recipe ideas and have enjoyed
trying them out on myself in my own kitchen. And the winner is:
Marla Ferguson!
Marla
(who has actually been on three vision quests and so has a pretty good
sense by now of what a quester needs when she leaves base camp to go
out in search of her solo spot) will be commemmorated starting next
July on our Deep Desert Overlook quest for her dish, henceforth known
as "Jumping Deer's Veggie Hash Browns." |
| BOOK AND WORKSHOP NEWS
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 A
website and organization worth paying attention to is the Mythic
Imagination Institute,
based in Marietta, GA. This non-profit organization sponsors biannual
conferences on mythic themes in Atlanta and has a terrific online
magazine, Mythic
Passages.
The August edition of the magazine, devoted to the often-shunned
concept of sacrifice, features an excerpt from my book The
World Is a Waiting Lover: Desire and the Quest for the Beloved.
The Latin roots of the word sacrifice actually mean to make sacred.
Sacrificing what is less necessary for something radical, loved, and
life-sustaining can be an elevating choice. |
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Contact Information
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phone: 570/727-4272
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