A journey for the whole family
All ages and generations together sharing experiences and learning the unique lessons afforded by connecting to the earth.
This is a unique experience. It is a departure from the learning method of dominant society and uses a holistic systems approach to learning, including many perspectives- from the scientific paradigm to ancestral modeling, and even your own common sense and inner wisdom. In this training, the teachers are numerous, including the earth, the skills, the tribe, the family, yourself, your guide, and the great mystery.
The cross generational education that nature provides allows all participants to learn and grow at their own unique level, style, and timing. Much emphasis is placed on the journey and process of awakening the primal human within you, and that journey is nurtured and protected by facilitators as a sacred path.
This journey of connecting to the earth and to the way of the keeper includes many paradigm shifts and changes who we are and how we see the world as we awakens to our primal nature. The tools, skills and practices we learn support us and those around us in profound ways that help the world move in a more life supporting direction.
How it works
Earth Keepers is an ongoing adventure, year round in the wild.
When: Wednesdays from 10:30-4:00
Cost (per family)
By donation. Suggested value:
$250 monthly (per family)
$75 drop in (per family)
Structure:
10:30-12:30 Core practices & games
12:30-2:00 Downtime, wandering, play
2:00-4:00 Skill building & projects
This training journey follows the seasons and helps participants get their hands on many different skills (see list below). To help shape the experience we have a mentoring guild where individuals become guides and eventually keepers of different skill sets. This allows the teaching to become more embodied, and for the group to keep more of the many lessons and skills learned as a whole.
Tribes, clans & societies
Collectively, all who participate are the tribe.
Clans are individual family groups that form clan names and have unique medicine.
Societies are specialty groups with members from across clans with a specific role.
Societies include:
Path keepers
Story keepers
Tool keepers
Hearth keepers
Medicine keepers
Wisdom keepers
Peace keepers
Soul keepers
What to expect
Of course this kind of training has its benefits and its challenges.
The benefits include deep long lasting relationships to the knowledge, skills and to each other that fit within a shared context that transforms everyone in the family in a sustainable way leading to authentic and sustainable growth.
The subtle yet powerful healing that occurs when we reconnect to mother nature and to our own nature through the skills of living with the earth are unpredictable and spontaneous.
When these connections are made, the whole family benefits and is able to witness and experience the healing of each other within the gentle arms of the earth and the great mystery.
The challenges include logistical and schedule planning that is required to have the whole family present in a class setting in spite of our busy lifestyle.
It is also challenging to trust the process and allow each experience and lesson take its place within each member of the family in its unique way. What may be interesting and meaningful to one person may be missed or already present for another.
Finally, it can be challenging for the appropriate roles to be established in a learning environment where the parents stretch to be students and parents and the kids to be students and kids.
What is an Earth Keeper?
“There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives.
These things are so ancient within us…that they are ground into each separate cell of our bodies…we are shaped by such forces. You can say to yourself, yes, I see how such a thing may be. But when you look inward and confront the raw force of your life unshielded you see your peril, you see that this could overwhelm you.
The greatest peril to the giver is the force that takes, and the greatest peril to the taker is the force that gives. It is as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking.
I am at the fulcrum, I cannot take without giving, and I cannot give without taking.”
Dune- Frank Herbert
An earth keeper is one who has the knowledge, skill, and wisdom to tend the earth and the balance of life. Within each of us there are the ancient forces of giving and taking, each of them necessary yet incomplete and interdependent with each other. Within each of these forces there is a blessing and a curse and left to their own devices they disrupt the balance of life and ultimately lead to suffering.
The Keeper understands the dynamic tension between the force of giving and the force of taking and does not identify with either, but rather sees each force as the complementary elements of a greater whole, and as a way to keep the functional flow of life in balance.
The keeper is one who walks in wholeness, unity, peace and harmony. At times the keeper must become the giver and at other times they must become the taker. At all times they must recognize they are both and cannot have one without the other, and know that it is how one gives and takes that makes the difference.
If we are cold for example, our internal heat has been “taken” from us and in order to be warm, we must take the energy stored in the dead, dry wood in our environment by building a fire. By building a fire correctly, we can “give” energy back to our tribe in the form of heat and light.
As the fire burns, it takes oxygen from the air and gives nutrients back to the soil in the form of ash. To build the fire in the first place, we must give even more energy and collect the wood, and start the fire with enough work to create friction.
To have the energy to do this work we may need to take a drink of water and a snack that was given by the rain, and the life of the plant or animal we are eating, and on it goes.
As a human being, the force of giving can be understood as the healer, while the force of taking can be understood as the warrior. When united, the role of the keeper emerges from this fusion which can be understood as the protector.
An earth keeper is a protector of the earth and of the gift of life- a healer and a warrior tending the balance of life and of our earth mother.
What we do
This is an overview of some of the skills, tools and practices covered.
Tracking
Awareness
Observation
Identification
Interpretation
Flowering plants, shrubs, trees
Birds
Mammals
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Insects
Measurements
Pressure releases
Compression
Gait
Trailing
Mapping
Sign
Aging
Concentric Rings
Ecology
Camouflage
Stalking
Hearth
Creating
Using
Maintaining
Modifying
Shelter
Water
Fire
Food
Camp Chores
Hygiene
Storage
Cleanup
Tools/skills
Creating
Using
Maintaining
Modifying
Tools of connection
Baskets
Pottery
Cordage
Hides
Clothing
Tools of separation
Woodwork
Bone work
Stonework
Weapons
Traps
Skills
Separation & Connection
Lashing
Hafting
Firing
Boiling
Steaming
Smoking
Process skills
Harvesting
Gathering
Hunting
Preparing
Cooking
Roasting
Baking
Steaming
Boiling
Frying
Preserving
Drying
Smoking
Caching
Medicine
Emergency med.
Entropy
Homeostasis
Yin/Yang
Complex adaptive systems
Health
Recovery
Nutrition
Movement
State
Anatomy/physiology
Pathology
Constitution
Plants
Identification
Parts
Collection
Herbalism
Taste
Energetics
Constituents
Tissue state
Constitution
Preparation
Dose
Healing
Contact
Peace
Awareness
Conditioning
Movement
Martial Arts
Tactics
Ethics
Philosophy
Communication
Agreements
Wisdom
Mystery
Complexity
Polarity
Distinction
Principle
Process
Pattern
Critical thinking
Systems thinking
Scientific method
Art of questioning
Directions
Frameworks
Games
Exercises
Projects
Processes
Journaling
Core concepts
Lists
Story
The game
The myth
History
Prophecy
Vision
Journey
Teaching
Memory
Poetry
Music
Songs
Art
Spirit
Sacredness
Intuition
Instinct
Intention
Attention
Mindfulness
Gratitude
Ceremony
Sacred objects
Council