Prayers in the Dark, October 2022

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see…” — Roethke

Radical personal and cultural transformation at this time requires a descent into the depths of soul, an initiatory journey that reveals our hidden and unique gifts, as well as a descent into the inescapable grief and despair evoked by a sober view of contemporary Western culture and the real possibility of self-inflicted extinction. The descent to soul enables us to cultivate our innate visionary skills, respond creatively to the dangerous opportunities of our times, and achieve real change in our world.

On a journey such as this, we encounter both demons and angels, fears, wounds, and the shadowy aspects of previously denied elements of our psyches, as well as awe, wonder, and enchantment. Your unique role in the larger Earth community is revealed in the mysterious symbols, metaphors, images, dreams, and numinous encounters that weave together your mythopoetic identity, which is your greater story or personal mission, “the truth at the center of the image you were born with,” “the largest conversation you can have with the world”. Your mythopoetic identity is your indispensible guide in fulfilling your purpose in this time of planetary crisis.

Prayers in the Dark is a wild invitation to enter the cave-womb of transformation and experience states of non-ordinary perception through a variety of practices and processes rooted in art, imagination, and the body. Our soulcraft practices will include dreamwork, council, shadow work, self-designed ceremony, conversations with the sacred Others (including cactus, sky, hawk and stone), creative expression, gentle wild yoga and movement, soul tasks in nature, befriending the dark, and sacred wound work.

Will you dare to dive into the holy dark mystery at the center of your life? Are you willing to reclaim your true voice and bravely add your song to the uni-verse, the symphony emerging at this pivotal moment in the Earth story? Are you willing to risk a radical re-imagining of your life’s purpose and return with sacred gifts for your people?

During our five days together at Harrod’s Creek Sanctuary, we’ll listen to and track what arises in our body, dreams, hearts, and imaginations, and follow our allurements. We’ll begin and end our days with prayer ceremonies, to listen and honor all the Others. We’ll live embraced by a desert community and pray to be sung to life by the profound truth of our own visions.

…Let us pray dangerously.

Let us throw ourselves from the top of the tower,

let us risk a descent to the darkest region of the abyss,

let us put our head in the lion’s mouth and,

direct our feet to the entrance of the dragon’s cave.

Let us ask for nothing less than the Infinite to ravage us.

Let us ask for nothing less than annihilation in the Fires of Love…

 — Dangerous Prayers, by Regina Sara Ryan