ShamanStone.orgWhole Earth Chacana or Inca Cross

Edie Stone, MA
Certified Shamanic Journey Guide since 1995     
2027 Broadway, Suite H, Boulder, CO 80302
303-415-3755
estone@shamanicjourneys.net

Celebrate Earth Day, 2011! with Ceremonies for the Earth

This is the 41st Anniversary of Earth Day.
Do you remember April 22, 1970?

A world of caring people

See www.earthday.org for many Earth Day and Earth Week events worldwide.
Check out our events in Boulder/Denver with Bennie LeBeau last year, 2010.
Article by Megan Quinn in the Boulder Camera on spiritual healing for the Earth, April 16, 2010.

Ceremonies for the Earth 2011

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Details of Earth Week events

Ceremonies for the Earth ... Earth Week, April 2011

1. Spiritual Practices for Planetary Healing, with Edie Stone Explore Earth-honoring, heart-centered practices for personal and planetary healing from the Pachakuti Mesa tradition of Peruvian shamanism, and from ancient and modern Celtic traditions. Celebrate the 41st anniversary of Earth Day by helping generate A Billion Acts of Green™.

As a Pachakuti mesa carrier, I feel a strong obligation to support and perform ceremonial work on behalf of Mother Earth. This is also a source of great joy and spiritual reconnection for me. A foundation principle of Andean shamanism is ayni or sacred reciprocity. Ceremonies are a way we can give our energy and love to the Earth as an offering for healing, in sacred reciprocity for all She gives us. Environmental activism is also an important way of offering ayni.
We will start with the need to shift a key cultural principle or meme:
     • From earth as exploited resource to Earth as Sacred Source
We will explore practical spiritual rituals and practices that help bring us back into right relationship with the Earth and each other:
     • Sacred Reciprocity as an Earth-honoring principle
     • Rebalancing masculine and feminine energies
     • Bridging Heaven and Earth
I will explain ways to express and activate our loving care for self, community and Mother Earth
     • floor altars & mesas - for personal, community, and planetary healing
     • cairns & apachetas - creating energetic and ceremonial focus - acupuncture for the Earth
     • offerings & despachos - in gratitude and reciprocity
            Please bring a few items from the list below to create a despacho
You will experience the power of a group to amp up Earth-healing rituals
     • Link-up ceremony - bringing Celestial energy to Earth through our hearts
     • Prayer and blessing circle
     • Commitments

Donations at this event will be gratefully received to benefit Camino Verde, a non-profit organization, to support their projects for preserving and restoring rainforest land near Baltimori, Tambopata, Peru. Information on Camino Verde below.

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Ingredients for a despacho, an offering of natural and created items that we will arrange in a circular design, wrap up, and give to Pachamama/Mother Earth, in gratitude and sacred reciprocity for her many gifts to us:

Please bring a few of these items to create a mandala offering (despacho) for Mother Earth.
Any of the following that you can bring will be appreciated.  We will share, so no one needs to bring everything:

Flowers.              
Dried herbs (e.g. sage, sweetgrass, tobacco, lavender, rose petals, other sacred herbs).
Bay leaves.
Corn meal.
Seeds and beans.
Chocolate, sweets, cookies/biscuits, honey, sugar, etc.
Butter, animal fat
Small candles of various colors.
Tiny crystals or small shells.
Origami or other paper offerings.
A large piece of white paper, approximately 3x3 feet; or a couple pieces of wrapping paper.

If there is enought interest, I can schedule a full day version of Ceremonies for the Earth. Contact me at rsvp@ShamanicJourneys.net or 303-415-3755 if you would like to attend or sponsor this workshop.

2. Other local events in this tradition

Other events and activities from my friends in the Muyu Ayllu, the local group of students Oscar Miro-Quesada and practioners of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition:
will be posted tomorrow

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT EARTH DAY NETWORK AND CAMINO VERDE

3. Background on Earth Day Network

About Earth Day Network, http://www.earthday.org and A Billion Acts of Green™

For the 41st anniversary of Earth Day in 2011, the world is in greater peril than ever, but there is also unprecedented opportunity to build a new future. Earth Day has the power to bring about historic advances in climate policy, renewable energy and green jobs and catalyze millions who make personal commitments to sustainability - A Billion Acts of Green™ – mobilizing the power of people to create change by taking small steps in our homes, our schools and our businesses that add up to an enormous collective action.

Earth Day 2011 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2011 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day.

 Go to: http://www.earthday.org/ for more information!



4. Background on Camino Verde


Edie's Earth Day event will benefit Camino Verde, http://www.caminoverde.org/

HELP CAMINO VERDE PRESERVE AND PROTECT
VITAL RAINFOREST LAND IN PERU

About Camino Verde

Camino Verde is the vision of Robin Van Loon, an extraordinary young man who has been mentored by a revered elder in Peru, and who is assisting his teacher in preserving traditional medicinal practices.

Robin is working effectively to preserve the biodiversity of the rainforest in the Madre de Dios department of Peru, and to promote traditional and sustainable forest agriculture among the local populations. Currently, he is raising funds to purchase another 100 acres of rainforest near Baltimori, Tambopata, Peru.

Robin is a great role model for young and old alike, demonstrating through his words and heart-felt actions what one person can accomplish for healing our beloved Pachamama.

In Robin's words:

The Amazon is the Earth´s greatest experiment in biodiversity.  And within the vast Amazon basin, the Madre de Dios region of Peru is often considered the home of the richest, most varied forests of all.  Camino Verde works to protect this unparalleled wealth of life by planting endangered and threatened tree species, and encouraging others to do the same.  Each planting season, we plant over 1,000 individual trees on deforested land, and work with Amazonian farmers to plant another 1,000 trees as well.  To date, we have planted 175 different species of trees.  Please help us to protect the richness of the Amazon!
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INFO FROM http://www.caminoverde.org/

Who We Are
Camino Verde is a United States-based 501-c-3 tax-exempt charitable organization dedicated to:
    •    Protecting and understanding biodiversity in the Peruvian Amazon.
    •    Protecting indigenous rights, autonomy, and wisdom.
    •    Spreading sustainable ways of life and encouraging fair, sustainable development.
Camino Verde is committed to upholding the strictest standards of sustainability, integrity, and simplicity in the course of realizing our goals.  It is our perspective that the most powerful solutions are often among the most simple and over-looked.  We believe that all change must begin from the foundation of the present, what is already here before us. www.caminoverde.org
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ARCHIVED FROM 2010

5. Boulder Daily Camera article, Faith Section, April 16, 2010

Boulder Daily Camera article on spiritual healing for the Earth, including my Earth Day events and events with Benny Blue Thunder Lebeau

Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14899581

Megan Quinn: Healing the earth, humanity a focus for spiritual groups


Megan Quinn, For the Camera
Posted: 04/16/2010 11:41:19 PM MDT

As Earth Day approaches, several organizations plan to honor their deep spiritual relationship between nature and man while others are recognizing the power the earth has to destroy.

The Boulder Shambhala Center will host a candlelight vigil and meditation session to honor the survivors and victims of the earthquake in the Surmang and Jyekundo area in the Tibetan Plateau in Western China. The event will start 7 p.m. Sunday, April 18 at the Shambhala Center, 1345 Spruce Street.

"It's an opportunity for people to open their hearts to those who are experiencing suffering," said Shambhala Center administrative director Alia Braley.

Healing is also the aim of the Shambhala Center's candlelight vigil. Participants are invited to practice tonglen, a type of meditation where practitioners actively try to take on the suffering of others, embracing it as a way to help others suffer less.

Organizers also hope to reach out to Tibetans in the community. Boulder County has at least 1,000 Tibetan residents, said Shambhala Center Director Ulrike Halpern.

In addition to meditation and a public candlelight vigil, organizers hope to raise money for relief efforts near the site of the earthquake.

The earthquake struck Wednesday, April 14, killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands injured or homeless.

The Shambhala Center has received a flood of updates about the earthquake, Braley said.

"I must have 200 e-mails from people sending me updates and pictures of the area," she said.

In Boulder County, others are turning their attention to healing nearby areas.

Practitioners of earth-based spirituality are invited to enjoy the outdoors while praying for healing at a prayer ceremony with Shoshone elder Bennie Blue Thunder LeBeau. The event starts noon Saturday, April 24 at the Flatirons Vista Trailhead.

LeBeau, a teacher and East Shoshone elder, will lead a prayer circle aimed to "spiritually transform" Rocky Flats, an area south of Boulder that was the site of a nuclear weapons production facility for more than 50 years. The cleanup of the area was a long process, and the area is now set aside as a wildlife preserve.

The prayer circle incorporates earth-based spiritual traditions. For the uninitiated, or for those who want to learn more about how to connect to the earth through shamanic traditions can take an introductory class 7 p.m. Thursday, April 22 at 2027 Broadway, Suite H.

Practitioner Edie Stone hosts an ongoing series of shamanic classes and events throughout Boulder County.

Her upcoming workshop explores simple earth-centered rituals meant to help align participants with the earth's energy. Some of the rituals draw from Celtic and Peruvian traditions, she said.

Stone became interested in Celtic rituals as a graduate student at Naropa in the early 1990s, studying Native American and Celtic traditions and their connections to the earth.

Environmental stewardship isn't just a cause for those who follow earth-based religious traditions, however. Several Christian congregations are taking steps to "green" their churches, promote recycling and keep the earth in their prayers.

Earth Day is a special time for local Eco-Justice Ministries, an agency that works with diverse congregations to make environmental issues a bigger focus during church services and service projects.

Founder Reverend Peter Sawtelle said that humans and their environment are intertwined as part of God's creation, and the healing of the earth and the healing of humanity must go hand in hand.

One of the Bible's most well-known lessons, "love thy neighbor," does not just apply to human neighbors, he said.

"It means loving all of God's creation," he said.

Megan Quinn writes a weekly faith column for the Camera and can be reached at bubblegumandbibles@gmail.com

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