Tending the Muses' Temple: Qigong, Writing, Astrology, Voice, Hand Work for Female Identifying Participants is led by four skilled and seasoned teachers: Brea Fisher, Jodi Paloni, Andrea Goodman, Susan Bickford.
The workshop provides two spacious weeks of esoteric practices in an earthly paradise: Monte Castello de Vibio, a mountain town in Umbria, Italy, at the International Center for the Arts. When we take time to practice, listen to inner knowings, and express that through bodies into form, it serves to strengthen our foundations. Just as one might sweep out the leaves and cobwebs from an ancient temple, exercising our creative practices tends the temple of ourselves as vessels for the muse.
Moving with utter presence through Qigong form, we meet the rising sun in simple surroundings, a former convent. Give gratitude, open your heart, settle your mind, and greet your guides, saying yes to the precise course of your path in this lifetime. Qigong is movement as medicine and in this tradition, under the guidance of the Goddess of Compassion Quan Yin, we offer it as a prayer and a blessing on all.
Open yourself to the Gateless Writing Method. Listen to the swallows of Umbria, keep your pens moving, and allow what wants to come to the wide open page. Gaze at the heavenly bodies with a daily astrological reading in a sharing circle, making a connection to the cosmic dimension. Sing in "Cosmic Harmony" an improvisational sound healing modality, liberating our voices together. Make charts and maps in various media of our experience. Cast local bee's wax into the ground to make sacred candles of this special place to light our way. In addition to our daily practices we'll take a few day excursions to sacred sites such as: the Frasassi Caves, and the Gola dell'Infernaccio (Hell's Gorge) and listen for the magic while we are there.
Please note this residency includes physical complexities: moderate walking, cold-water wild swimming and a cave visit. Applicants are responsible for their own physical wellbeing.
Participants will be housed in the remarkably well-preserved Umbrian hill town of Monte Castello di Vibio. Your workshop package is all-inclusive, providing welcome and departure services and airport transfer from the Rome Fiumicino, Leonardo Da Vinci Airport (FCO), aboard our comfortable private bus; single occupancy accommodations with shared bath (a wide range of upgrades with private bath are available); 3 meals* per day, when on campus, Monday-Thursday; Prosecco brunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday (when on campus) No meals are served on Friday - our excursion day - unless previously arranged. Your workshop includes the excursions below, however, many additional options are available for an additional fee. Of course, 24/7 access to facilities and 24/7 bilingual support are provided. *Meal service is provided while in Monte Castello only, unless otherwise noted. Meals on excursions and admissions are not included in the cost, unless specifically noted in the itinerary.
Susan Bickford
Susan Bickford is an eco-somatic mid-career artist sharing her time between Maine, USA, and the Dordogne, France. Working in performance, video, installation and collaborative forms as a part of nature, Bickford brings groups together to intentionally slow down and listen. She is the founding artist of the stillness collective. www.stillnesscollective.com, and as well maintains a professional personal artistic practice. www.susanbickfordinteractive.com
Bickford has been teaching at the college level since 2003. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts and a BID (Industrial Design) from Rhode Island School of Design and a MFA from Maine College of Art. She completed a two-year apprenticeship program in Shamanic Studies with Spirit Passages, and is certified as a Forest Therapy Guide. Susan is a student of indigenous mysticisms, qigong, astrology, voice and writing. Brea, Jodi and Andrea are among her many teachers.
I am delighted to bring together this group of amazingly sensitive teachers, to this glorious place. Weaving together our gifts, for slowing, listening, making meaningful connections, and forms is what “Tending the Muses Temple” hopes to manifest. If this sounds enlivening to you, I trust that you are in the right place.
