NEW: THRESHOLD: Earth Intimacies & the Art of Transformation

THRESHOLD: Earth Intimacies and the Art of Transformation is a 6-week interactive course dedicated to tending both our personal and collective thresholds with intention and heart. With the images of threshold and caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation as guiding metaphors, we will deepen our ecospiritual practices, practice being present with the whole of what is at our doorstep, and proliferate imaginal buds for what is emerging.

I created THRESHOLD because I am tickled by a wondering: How can we, with wild nature hearts & humble courage, remember what we’ve forgotten, cultivate ecopsiritual intimacies, and intentionally embrace the magnificent thresholds of transformation at our doorstep? 

This course-journey is one container to deepen into the next turn of our spiral and where we can meet each other, stay with the trouble, and be changed.

Over 6 weeks, we’ll explore through Online Gatherings, Council Circle, Emergent Dialogue, Poetry, Somatic Practices, and Creative Expression & Integration activities.

The style is emergent, playful, curious, awkward, vulnerable, and honoring.   

Among the Foragings:

• Deepen our ecospiritual intimacies by tending sacred relationships with the more-than-human world (including water, slug, lichen, sky)
• Cultivate an earth-centered, purpose-anchored, and ecosensual life.
• Cultivate deep belonging to pace, place, purpose, and people.
• Tend the imaginal buds in the chrysalis of our transformation
• Re-align with our wild purpose and inhabit our unique gifts as an ecological niche.
• Become a conscious composter of the old paradigms and co-creator in the new paradigms.
• Explore your inner wilderness and expand your toybox of exploration.
• Experience a supported solo overnight or extended day on-the-land renewal ceremony through the framework of wilderness rite-of-passage. 

When:  6 Fridays, October 27 – December 8
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm PST
Where: ONLINE – Zoom (and practices with the land between classes)

*Maximum 10 participants to ensure an intimate experience.

THEMES WE WILL TEND:

• 🦋Crossing the Threshold: Intention and Inquiry
• 🦋Ecological Intimacies and Sacred Kin Apprenticeships
• 🦋Sacred Pauses and Deep Listening
• 🦋Deep Belonging: Pace, Place, Purpose, People
• 🦋Cultivating Our Imaginal Cells
• 🦋Sacred Grief and Pleasure as Portals to Liberation
• 🦋Uncertainty: Sitting in the Waves and Expanding Our Skies Within
• 🦋Story & Sacred Apprenticeship Council
• 🦋From Caterpillar Modernity to Butterfly Earth

A core component of this experiences is having the opportunity to do a supported solo overnight or extended day quest on-the-land renewal ceremony through the framework of wilderness rite-of-passage. 

The program includes: 

• Six 2-hour group Zoom gatherings with a small group of peers
• Sense-based and soul-expanding practices and invitations that help us re-connect to inner and outer wild nature, drop deeper into our body and senses to build embodied capacity; and reclaim aspects of our wholeness and wild purpose.
• Creative prompts and practices to deepen our ecospiritual commitment and journey
• 1:1 consultations on program material and the solo wilderness ceremony experience
• Private online group to connect, share, learn, and ask questions between calls
• A copy of Re-Membering: Poems of Earth and Soul
• Additional poetry and decolonial/uncolonial and ecopsychological resources
• Discount on future Wild Nature Heart Courses and Wilderness Programs

Recommended Investment: $199
Other options: $149-$249

Scholarships available for BIPOC and LGBTQ2+
*10% of the course’s proceeds will go to front-line indigenous water and earth protectors.

REGISTER HERE

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

Scholarships available for BIPOC and LGBTQ2+
Class limited to 8 participants

About the Instructor:

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, re-wilding, & re-membering. 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.

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 Level 1 and 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:

“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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