Special Events

World Wheel River Retreat for Women
with Sherry Anderson and Vijali Hamilton
on the Colorado River, Southeastern Utah
May 12-17, 2008
note changed dates

All that you have gone through and all that you have learned, your memories and your skills and all your limitations are only a small sliver of what you have to give to this life. Join us on the Colorado River as we travel an initiatory spiral of separation from the old way of being to what is growing in us now.

Together we will enter the spacious possibility of our essence in the touch of stone, the sound of the river, the starry reaches of the desert sky at night. As we raft down the Colorado, camp in sleeping bags and tents on her banks, and walk directly into the canyons, we will have time for gathering in circles and for solitude. Our explorations will flow into ceremony, art, and meditation with the creativity that springs from intimate contact with the Earth.

Finally, we will weave the threads of presence into a full preparation for our return home. Because, after all, we take this time out of time not only for ourselves but to cultivate the fruits of wisdom and beauty for our families, our communities, and our world.

Itinerary:

Arriving at the Grand Junction, Colorado airport, a bus will pick you up at the airport at 5:45 PM on May 12th. The 40-minute drive will take you to your first campsite at Dewy Bridge where a meal will be waiting for you when you arrive. Please let us know if you have food restrictions. If you are driving, you can drive straight to the site on Scenic Route 128. (UT 128 is off of I-70 coming from Grand Junction and coming from the west is off Highway 191 north of Moab) There is a place to park and leave your car. After setting up tents, we will have a movement meditation to allow our bodies to shake out from travel and to feel our connection with the river, earth and sky.

The next morning we will raft down the Colorado River to a sandy shoal site, Onion Creek, with views of Fisher Towers and the La Sal Mountains. Here we will spend three days, in our personal vision quests in the canyons of this area, returning to community, meditating in response to nature, and allowing our innate wisdom to take form in ceremony, writing, song, and art.

On the 16th we will raft further down the Colorado enjoying its red walls of stone, light white water, to our next campsite. In ceremony we will weave the threads of presence and all we have gathered within us into a full preparation for our return home—to live our insights in daily life, with family, and as a gift into the world.

After an early breakfast on our last day, May 17th,, we will raft further down the Colorado River and take out before the bridge on highway 191. You will be given a box lunch to take with you and a bus will drive you back to the airport to catch your afternoon or evening flights from Grand Junction, or to drop you off where you left your car at Dewy Bridge. If you wish, you can instead, stay on in Moab to continue your explorations. There are many motels to choose from on the Moab website, and you can register online.

Weather: We have chosen this time of year because it is the most pleasant with cool evenings and balmy days. But be prepared for the unexpected.

What to bring: Bring as little as possible. Everything has to be put in waterproof containers on rafts and you need to be able to carry it a short distance to our sites. Bring a light backpacking tent, mat, sleeping bag, sunhat, sun block, sun glasses, flashlight, shirt to cover your arms, a light waterproof windbreaker with a hood, one change of clothes (perhaps shorts and long pants), swimsuite, Teva-like sandals or hiking shoes, towel and toiletry (no detergents), insect repellent, a journal to write in (Vijali will bring art supplies), if you have a small instrument, like a flute, or rattles, bring it if you wish.

Application:

Space is limited and a phone interview is needed to apply. Please contact sherry at srgreywolf@earthlink.net.

Vijali Hamilton is a multimedia environmental artist. In 1986 she founded her first World Wheel project, a seven year spiritual and artistic pilgrimage during which she circled the globe creating monumental stone sculptures and community-based performances in 12 countries. In 1999 she began the Second World Wheel: Harvesting Wisdom through the Arts.

Sherry Anderson is co-author of the Feminine Face of God: unfolding the Sacred in Women, and The cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are changing the World. She teaches the Diamond Approach for Spiritual Development® in the United States and Europe.

Ocean Spiral
an art performance ceremony for the waters of our planet

The first Ocean Spiral event was held May 5, 2007 in the Caribbean waters of Costa Rica. The day was special as we fifteen women, mostly Casta Rican activist, gathered together, dressed each other in colored sarongs of the rainbow, drank water that had been given to me from the sacred waters of the world (Ganges, Tigres, Nile, Colorado, Amazon Rivers etc.) and entered the ocean holding hands. We formed a pod with our hands raised as prayers for the pertection of the Caribbean waters were said. One by one we broke loose from the pod swimming to form a spiral as we let loose organic colors of the rainbow gathered from around the world. Poems were read, and all the while, Gaudalupe Urbina, a powerful Costa Rican singer and composer blessed the day by singing her songs about water.

The second Ocean Spiral event will be held in the South Pacific, June 2008 in the waters of Fiji. Again I will be creating a spiral dance dispersing natural colors of the rainbow as a prayer for the protection of our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans of the world. I am asking people of the world to send in their poems about water that will be read at the ceremony as it is televised: poems about our intrinsic connection with water, our bodies being 70% water—poems about the pollutions of our rivers and oceans and the death of whales and sea life because of sound pollution and chemical pollution—poems about the spirit of water, the beauty of water, the inspiration of water.

Please send in your poems to my blog and sign the release so that I can use your poems or a line or phrase from your poems to create a group poem for the Ocean Spiral ceremony and any related media such as films, books, and publicity.

Vijali Hamilton •  World Wheel Retreat •  HC 64, Box 2703 •  Castle Valley, UT 84532