Embody Your Spirituality & Wake up to Wonder

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A year of inspiration to craft your own meaningful spirituality in relation to your body and the land around you. With monthly group meetings and many resources to explore in your own time, you explore spirituality in all aspects of your life. (Re)awaken a sense of connection and wonder by remembering your sacred body, movement as a way of knowing and nature as teacher. Step into your essence as spiritual creature!
Each of the 10 sessions centres around one topic, with an informative introduction, practical tasks for you to do during and between meetings, and being in circle with other participants.

You will:
  • connect to joy and peacefulness from within so that you are resilient to face the challenges of everyday life
  • learn concrete practices to deal with overwhelm
  • reconnect with what is truly meaning to you
  • create your own set of tools and practices that help you stay connected to what inspires you
  • integrate spirituality in every aspect of your life
  • become part of a like-minded tribe of people who are interest in embodied nature-spirituality

Practical Course Details

see below for dates of the current 2022-2023 journey.


👉🏽 We meet once a month for 10 months, starting on October 21st, 2022. All sessions are 90 minutes. 

👉🏽 Meetings alternate between 2 on Friday 16:30-18:00 CET, and 1 on Saturday 9.30-11 CET. Hopefully this ensures people can join at least some of the live sessions (and always a good excuse to start your weekend early!). 

👉🏽 All sessions will be recorded and accessible as video replay in your own time. 

👉🏽 You will get access to a private area with all the materials and techniques we work with during the sessions.

👉🏽 It is not necessary to buy the book Dancing in the Muddy Temple, but should you wish to, you can order a discounted copy directly from the publishers via the button below.

The dates are:


Fri 21.10.22 (16:30-18:00 CET): Existential Questions & Life Orientation
Fri 18.11.22 (16:30-18:00 CET): Body & Embodiment
Sat 17.12.22 (09.30-11:00 CET): Learning through Movement

Fri 20.01.23 (16:30-18:00 CET): A Moving Spirituality
Fri 17.02.23 (16:30-18:00 CET): Meeting Nature as a Teacher
Sat 11.03.23 (09.30-11:00 CET): Consciousness, Trance, and Ecstasy

Fri 14.04.23 (16:30-18:00 CET): Encountering the Spirits
Fri 19.05.22 (16:30-18:00 CET): Performing Ceremony
Sat 17.06.23 (09.30-11:00 CET): Healing and Transformation

Fri 14.07.23 (16:30-18:00 CET): Towards New Narratives

Some people already made a suggestion to meet once in person, if that would be of interest! So let's see if that might be a possibility in Spring next year! 

Course Contents

Welcome & Orientation

Before we begin
Dates & Times
Zoom Link for ALL Live sessions
Community: How does it Work?
If English isn't your first language
If hashtags are your thing

Dancing in the Muddy Temple: The Book

What do I mean by the Muddy Temple? (excerpt from the book, p. xvi-xvii)
Watch the Replay of the Book Launch Event for FREE!
Sound Track: Dancing in the Muddy Temple by Ecosystems Sound Collective
Why the book is so expensive, and how to claim 30% discount

1. Existential Questions & Life Orientation

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 1: Intention, Growth Seeds, Spirituality
Session Part 1: Introduction, Group Agreements and Connecting
Session Part 2: Dance, Visualisation and Closing
Session Part 3: Presentation (recorded afterward)
Session Bonus: Practice Part in Gallery View
Reflection: Explore Your Values
Reflection: Investigate Your Habits
Reflection: Design Your Spiritual Practice
Qi Gong Session: Move Your Existential Questions

2. Body & Embodiment

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 2: Embodiment
Session Part 1: Presentation
Session Part 2: Movement Exploration
Session Part 3: Sharing and Questions
Visual: 4 Expressions of Embodiment
Reflection: Track your Embodiment
Reflection: Body~Heart~Mind~Spirit Inquiry
Blog Post: What is Embodiment and why is it useful?
Blog Post: Re-Anointing your Body as Sacred Space
Academic Paper: Clearing the way towards soulful scholarship (2018)

3. Learning through Movement

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 3: Movement as a Way of Knowing
Session Part 1 Welcome and Sharing
Session Part 2 Presentation
Session Part 3 Movement Exploration and Sharing
Reflection: Relationship to the Unknown
Practice: Moving with Lines and Angles
Practice: Blindfold Exploration
Academic Paper: Calibrating the Body: Embodied Research Strategies for Attuning to Subtle Information.

4. Dance as Spiritual Practice

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 4: Dance as Spiritual Practice
Session Part 1 Tuning in and Presentation
Session Part 2 Dance with Your Archetype
Session Part 3 Sharing
Twitter: Funny Owl Dance Clip
Reflection: Discover Your Inner Dancer
Book Excerpt: Cultural Expressions of Sacred and Conscious Dance
Interview: Kalahari Shaking Medicine
Academic Paper: Dance as a moving spirituality. A case study of Movement Medicine (2014)

5. Meeting Nature as a Teacher

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 5: Nature as a Teacher
Session Part 1 Connecting and Questions
Session Part 2 Presentation Eline
Session Part 3 The practicals of going out into nature
Reflection: Are you a Natural Creature?
Practice: Medicine Walk to Ask Nature a Question
Practice: Find your Power Place
Academic Paper: Four shamanic practices

6. Expanded Consciousness, Trance and Ecstasy

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 6: Expanding Consciousness
Session Part 1 Presentation Eline
Session Part 2 Stone Practice
Session Part 3 Stone Sharing
Session Part 4 On Shamanism as Practical Tool
Reflection: Exploring Consciousness
Reflection: How do you view Deity?
Practice: Strengthening Your Luminous Egg
Academic Paper: A Personal Relationship with the Mystery. (Re)discovering the Enchanted Garden Through Movement and the Body (2017)
Book Excerpt: Expanded Consciousness, Trance and Embodied Ecstasy and Collective Pathways

7. Encountering the Spirits

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 7: Encountering the Spirits & Working with Power
Session Part 1 Welcome, Arriving and Mural Inspiration from Brasil
Session Part 2 Presentation Spirits, Power, Shapeshifting, Power Animal
Session Part 3 Shamanic Journey to Meet Your Power Animal
Session Part 4 Completion and Dancing your Power Animal
The Track we danced to: Nicola Cruz - Tzantza from Cantos de Visió
Reflection: Exploring Power and Empowerment
Practice: How to make a shamanic journey
Practice: Shamanic Drumming Track (20 mins)
Academic Paper: Dancing with the Spirits. Being grounded and being able to fly are not mutually exclusive (2020)

8. Performing Ceremony

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 8: Performing Ceremony
Session Part 1 Welcome, Sacred Space Visualisation, Power Animal Sharing
Session Part 2 Presentation on Ceremonial Space
Session Part 3 Practice Design your own Ceremony
Practice: Wild Guide to Design your own Ceremony
On Scepticism, Resistance & Excuses
Book Excerpt: On Meaning and Efficacy of Contemporary Reinventions (115-7)
Blog Collection: Ritual & Ceremony
Inspiration: How I designed a healing dance ceremony + link to watch me dance

9. Healing and Transformation

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 9: Healing & Transformation
Session Part 1 Arriving and Roadmap
Session Part 2 Celebrating and Sharing Ceremonial Experiences
Session Part 3 Presentation on Healing, Soul Loss and Recovery
Session Part 4 Practice Soul Carousel and Completion
Reflection: Where is the Rest of Me?
Practice: Release a story, pattern or experience and call your essence back
Practice: Egg and Herb Healing to Extract Intrusions
Book Excerpt: Towards Dynamic Wellbeing (6 orientations)
Academic Paper: Soul loss and retrieval. Restoring wholeness through dance
Article by Jonathan Horwitz on Soul Retrieval

10. Towards New Narratives

Introduction to this Module
Practice & Playbook Module 10: Towards New Narratives
Session Part 1 Welcome and Arriving
Session Part 2 Presentation Journey Motif and Narrative Ingredients
Session Part 3 Preparation for Breakout Rooms and Ritual Theatre
Session Part 4 Ritual Theatre and Integration
Reflection: Changing Your Narrative

More about Eline

I'm a creature of different worlds and modalities. I often feel I am in the 'in-between', a fertile space that is neither here, nor there. Read more about my passion for dance, culture and ceremony, check out some quirky facts and meet the teachers I studied with who inform my work.

What others say about working with me...

Geoffrey Samuel, Cardiff University

Eline Kieft’s dancing feet trace out the temple of the spirit, but they are also always aware of the everyday ground on which they (and we) stand and move. Those who choose to follow her footsteps will find her a secure and informed guide to the new disciplines through which we can learn to reinhabit, and contact the wisdom within, our outer and inner worlds. 

Matthew Trustman, Dramatherapist

I was moved and enjoyed listening to you talk. You did a great job in creating a space for mutual presence. I was delighted to hear how you talked about my question, in particular the emphasis on “curiosity”. Your facilitation is heart lead and that’s a delicate vulnerable place to put yourself in. Thank you for your generosity

Charlie Morley, Mindfulness of Dream and Sleep

Eline is one of those rare individuals who has done the work in both an academic and spiritual capacity. She has trained with me for over 100 hours in the field of lucid dreaming and for all the time I have known her she has presented herself with integrity and authenticity.
With love and lucidity,
Charlie
 

Lee

There is such a deep and sincere soul that shines through you Eline, you have really touched so many people yesterday and the comments and compliments are a testament to this.
 
On personal level you moved me deeply too, I had some personal experiences two years ago that shook my world. I am still making sense of these and I have been drawn all the way back to my youth in nature, so from some years of mediation I have moved to shamanic practice. To ‘hear’ you and experience your presence gives me hope and helps secure my faith in the path I am travelling. Heartfelt thanks and gratitude.

Marta Aponte, Artist

You are very gentle. You don’t expect us to do anything. Sometimes I’ve been in classes, people teach ‘the right way’. You don’t. You just give, and whatever people receive and how they respond, it’s find. 

You’re there for us, you are giving but you don’t expect us to do something. Like you are a tree, giving shade or fruit, being. It’s just there. It doesn’t ask something of you. You are like that. You just do your thing, and whatever people get from it you let it go. 

I feel it’s really helping me. I’m not an easy person. I’ve been to many… It’s rare that I feel what this person is offering is really helping me. That’s rare. It's contributing, triggering positive things in me. I’m very pleased, happy, thankful. Your teaching is very very special.

Nicola

I find your work so amazingly helpful in so many ways. In the Sealskin Sealskin weekend workshop, I felt something reawaken in me that has been needing a little time and attention and it has continued to roll on unfolding from there. So grateful for your wonderful work. I felt particularly inspired by your weaving together of practices, I see how much you have accomplished and how rich and deep your work is.  Although I have not undergone such intensive training and accomplishments, your words resonate with me as my own work is in a state of becoming, a weaving together of practices, an ever unfolding thing which seems to grow in the act of sharing it with others, through teaching and creative work. 

Once again, gratitudes for your inspiring work and ability to make it so clear in words.