BECOMING BEAUTIFUL BARBARIANS

BECOMING BEAUTIFUL BARBARIANS is a program dedicated to proliferating imaginal buds beyond the coordinates we’ve inherited from Modernity’s machine of death, through an earth-centered, anti-colonial, liberatory lens. Part culture change lab, part envisioning liberatory futures, and part inner and outer composting Empire with the toys and tools of council circle, somatics, nature connection, poetry, play, art, action, and ritual.

“It’s not that I like the Empire, I hate it but there’s nothing I can do about it right now”
—Luke Skywalker, A New Hope

“It can be dangerous to investigate what our lives depend on, to recognize that freedom requires a species scale betrayal of our founding mythologies.” —Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Becoming Beautiful Barbarians is subsidized by a wondering: What might it mean to intentionally practice being a barbarian, to divest from Empire’s map? How can we embrace the magnificent thresholds of transformation at our doorstep and intentionally both compost what is dying and invite what is arriving through us? 

In Becoming Beautiful Barbarians we ask these questions/sit with these inquiries:

• What is Empire & Where does Empire live in me?
• What imaginations beyond Empire live in us?
• If Empire is symptom, what upstream wound tending is required?
• What post-imperial butterfly Earth beckons and how can we practice that in our daily lives?
• What ‘dying well’ practices are required of our current civilizational psychosis?

Over 8 weeks, we’ll explore through Online Gatherings, Council Circle, Poetry, Somatic & Soulful Practices, Creative Expression & Integration activities. The style is emergent, playful, curious, awkward, vulnerable, and honoring.   

Drawing on a diverse range of black, indigenous, and radical liberationists and earth-based practices, and a new collection of poetry “Becoming Beautiful Barbarians’, but ultimately rooted in each of our authentic lived individual and collective experience and imagination, we will tend the following themes:

WEEK #1: THE WATER WE SWIM IN: WHAT IS EMPIRE

• Naming the Moment
• Settler Colonization 101. How is colonization ongoing?
• What systems and pillars perpetuate it?

WEEK #2: TURNING TOWARDS THE TROUBLE

• Challenges/Opportunities
• Embracing Liberatory Discomfort & Joy On the Decolonial Journey

WEEK #3: COMPOSTING EMPIRE #1: WHY AND HOW

• Requirements for Composting: Slowness, the Heat of Truth Telling, the Moisture of Grief, the Oxygen of Space, and the Nitrogen of Not Knowing
• Biodiversity of Tactics, Tools, and Toys

WEEK #4: COMPOSTING EMPIRE #2: INNER

• Where does Empire live within us?
• Dismantling Supremacies and Interrogating Entitlements
• Practicing Beyond Supremacy, Patriarchy, Individualism, Extractivism, Exile and Punishment

WEEK #5: COMPOSTING EMPIRE #3: OUTER

• Divesting From Empire’s Sacred Cows (militarism, nationalism, whiteness, capitalism)
• Traitor!: Unanchoring Allegiances and Practicing Betrayal of Founding Mythologies
• Beyond Nation-State & Borders

WEEK #6: TENDING THE UPSTREAM WOUNDS

• Welcoming Home the Hungry Ghosts
• Deep (Be)Longings
• Ancestral Tending

WEEK #7: COLLAPSE AWARE/EMERGENCE AWARE

• What Emerges in the Collapse? 
• Building New Soil: Meaning Out of Mess
• Dancing the Apocalypse

WEEK #8: FROM CATERPILLAR MODERNITY TO BUTTERFLY EARTH

• Cultivating the Proliferation of Imaginal Cells
• We Are: Otherwise Power
• Pleasure and Possibility Activism

A note about the title:
‘Becoming’ denotes our ongoing shapeshifting and emergent creation, and ‘Beautiful Barbarian’ is our reclaiming of visions and values beyond the definition and control of Empire.

Empires have always called any peoples beyond their domination ‘barbarians,’ from ‘bar-bar’, that Greeks used to refer to those outside their civilization. Probably onomatopoeic in origin, the “bar bar” sound representing the perception by Greeks of languages other than their own.  Those who were close with the earth, those with intact cultures, those who resisted the citizen regimes of the hungry ghost nation-states have always been targeted. Rooted in severance from Life, Imperial civilizations—from the Greek and Roman Empires to U.S. Empire and Israel today—use the language of dehumanization and know only domination, denial, and deception as methods of perpetuating themselves

Among the Foragings:

• Become a conscious composter of the old paradigms and co-creator in the new paradigms.
• Be part of an earth-honoring community oriented towards collective liberation
• Tend the imaginal buds in the chrysalis of our personal and collective transformation.

REGISTER HERE

When: Stay Tuned For Fall Dates
Time: TBA
Where: ONLINE – Zoom (and practices and invitations between classes)

Email info@wildnatureheart.com to be on list

*Maximum 10 participants to ensure an intimate experience.

The program includes: 

• Eight 2-hour group Zoom gatherings with a small group of peers
• Sense-based and soul-expanding practices and invitations that help us slow down, drop deeper into our body and senses to build embodied capacity; and reclaim aspects of our wholeness and wild purpose for composting Empire in this Great Turning.
• Creative prompts and practices for the in-between to deepen our decolonial commitment and journey
• Private online group to connect, share, learn, and ask questions between calls
• Additional liberationist poetry and decolonial/uncolonial and ecopsychological resources
• Discount on future Wild Nature Heart Courses and Wilderness Programs

Recommended Investment: $199
Other options: $179 – $249

*Equity Pricing for BIPOC: Use Code: BBBEquity at checkout for 50% discount

EGISTER HERE

Or Email: ryan@wildnatureheart.com with your interest & send registration fee to PayPal.Me/WildNatureHeart or Venmo: @RyanVanLenning

About the facilitator:

My name is Ryan Van Lenning, Founder of Wild Nature Heart, and I am an earth-lover with a deep desire to be of service in the work of re-connection and re-membering and dreaming beyond paradigms of Empire. I started Wild Nature Heart to support people to re-connect with the wisdom of both inner and outer wild nature, to live their soul callings into the world, and to assist in the work of repairing broken belonging. It has evolved to place the work and play of de/uncolonizing, grief tending, and post-imperial imaginings at the core.

I am an inner/outer wilderness guide and poet (author of Re-Membering: Poems of Earth & Soul) and High-Cooing Through the Seasons: Haiku From the Forest. I am trained as a rite-of-passage/wilderness vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders, certified as an Ecotherapist through The Earthbody Institute, where I teach the Levels 1-3 ecotherapy trainings. Prior to moving to California 14 years ago, I taught Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Environmental Ethics at Sinclair College in Ohio. I live among the forest and rivers in northern California, ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land.

RECENT TESTIMONIALS:

“Ryan created a welcoming environment that fostered a culture of connection, curiosity, and creativity. I so appreciated the passion that Ryan offered in his facilitation; he models to us the possibility of bravely taking steps to live our callings!” – Gemma A., Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies and the Great Turning, (Spring 2024)

“There were soo many valuable things. Encouragement and validation for my deepening relationship with the rest of the natural world. It took me deeper into myself and my connection to everything wild and breathing and alive… and I loved being in a small group of wilderness lovers and poetic travelers.” – Sky, Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies and the Great Turning (Spring 2024)

“Thank you for your dedication to this work and for modeling new/old ways of being in leadership and community! I gained a sense of companionship on the journey of exploring some of life and death’s biggest questions. The community formed in the group gave me a glimpse into how we can come together to unlearn, deconstruct, remember, and create more natural and balanced ways of being and relating. One of my biggest take-aways is understanding belonging as something inherent rather than “found” or “earned”. Being witnessed and witnessing others after our solo time on the land was very powerful and deeply meaningful to me on my/our journey.” —Leslie Hammer, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“Ryan is an amazing human being and teacher. This course will nurture your soul, challenge you, and open up new ways of seeing yourself and our wonderous planet. I will definitely be signing up for another Wild Nature Heart experience!” —Rob Daroff, MD, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“I loved this course! This is the second course I’ve taken with Ryan and both times I felt affirmed and supported as he led us on a journey delving into themes of belonging, being, grieving, healing, and growing. Ryan encouraged us to engage with the more-than-human-world on an intimate level of discovery and connection thus cultivating a more earth-centered life. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper connection with self and with the natural world.” —Cecelia Futch, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“I find myself repeatedly touched by the depth of your caring for Earth and all her beings and by your dedication to practice and evolving new pathways of relationship and culture. I am moved by the presence that you bring to deep listening and your willingness to explore different perspectives. Your ability to express through poetry and action what’s in your heart and your desire for healthy relationship among all beings is a source of inspiration for me.” —Marianne B. Rowe, MS, LMFT, Summer 2022 Level 3 Ecotherapy Training, Earthbody Institute

“Ryan’s well-designed course on Deep Belonging for the Great Turning was just what I needed at a stressful time in life. The facilitation, knowledge and materials shared were generous and truly a gift to enhance my nature connection and learn about myself. This course also provided support for a solo experience which was rich and rewarding. I appreciated being in a group and connecting with other like-minded people.” — Lezlie Scaliatine, Psy.D, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant (Fall 2020)

“Ryan is a very thoughtful and sensitive instructor. His background in teaching and poetry, along with his ability to effectively “mirror” our stories about our journeys make him an excellent facilitator. Ryan helped us to organize our thoughts and feelings in this politically and environmentally challenging time, gave us hope, and guided us towards developing a personal plan for coping with the future of our planet.”
— Nan Siringer, California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant (Fall 2020)

“Thank you again Ryan for your mentorship prior to this quest of mine. You empowered me to trust in myself, in the wild, and in the ceremony and it seemed so fitting to receive these gifts of yours just prior to a decent. I love and am sincerely grateful for your poem. It certainly helped give me courage to unflinchingly make those leaps over trees and off every known cliff and will continue to do so. I feel super motivated to continue on this path of mine and stay open to all the wild mysteries that present themselves within myself and within this more-than human world of ours. And to taking the next steps in unfurling my own gifts and presenting them to the world.”— Brady W., Wisconsin, 1-on-1 Ecotherapy Client and Course Participant (Fall 2019)

“This course is a deep-dive across 6 weeks. Ryan’s skill and generosity of spirit has guided me through a variety of themes and practices that have been both thought-provoking and empowering. I’ve valued this time immensely, and the abundant materials provided will keep me moving through this journey for a long time to come. I’ve developed a richer relationship with my Urban Wild environment in very unexpected ways, and for that I am so very grateful.”—Claire, United Kingdom, Course Participant (Fall 2019)

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