Faculty: Anne Baring, Ruth Cunningham, Jim Garrison, Andrew Harvey, Calen Rayne, Peggy Rubin, Banafsheh Sayyad and Gyorgyi Szabo
In this Video Course, we explore the alchemy of relationships and the mysterious journey toward the healing of wounded relationships through understanding, love and forgiveness. This is the great work of Alchemy, the pathway that turns lead into gold. No crucible is more agonizing, ecstatic and essential than that of deeply learning to love one another.
Through lecture, deep reflection, joyous celebration, prayer, song and dance, we cherish and embrace the rising of feminine healing power and beauty in our consciousness, in our bodies, in our relationships, and in our actions on behalf of Mother Earth.
This journey takes us deeply into the heart of Chartres, France during the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (August 15) which honors the Church doctrine, enunciated by the Pope in 1950, at the beckoning of 8 million people, that Mary was assumed directly into heaven upon her death and now presides as the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven, a title held by Goddesses such as Isis and Inanna. We will celebrate the rise of the Divine Feminine and her transmutation and union with spirit as her daughters and sons and as those who long to expand the reality of her presence in the world.
This is nothing new. From deep antiquity, the Divine Feminine has been understood as the womb of life, as the soul of the world and as nature. Matter was considered and lived as sacred. But for us today, this worldview and attitude needs to be restored and revitalized as we leave behind the old paradigm of separation and competition and usher in the new era of connection and cooperation.
We are to find the sanctity of all of life in the midst of our lives, exactly where we are. It is urgent that we live the sacred here, and now. This coming into right relations with ourselves, one another, and the greater ecofield is the great task of our time. Our survival depends on it.
The world needs each of us to bless one another, to anoint one another with love, compassion, understanding and wisdom. During our time together, we will explore the alchemical healing balm for our broken relationships and reinvigorate the relationships with those we love. We will explore what it means to be a friend— a friend to oneself, a friend to all beings, and a friend to life.
We will explore some of the teachings of the Divine Feminine embedded in Chartres Cathedral, this 1001-page luminous manuscript, and create a replica, a virtual cathedral where we will contemplate, pray, dance, sing, share deeply, laugh and cry and renew ourselves. We will also learn to inhabit the cathedral of our body with reverence.
Each year on the Day of the Assumption, a statue of the Black Madonna is carried through the streets of Chartres before being placed in front of the statue of the Assumption of Mary, where she is kept for one week and then hidden away till the following year. Parading the Black Madonna in this way recalls the way the Druids in ancient times brought her out of the grotto underneath the granite promontory upon which the cathedral today stands. They honored Mother Earth and the cycles of the seasons through the Black Madonna.
Together, we will explore the nature and scope of the dark feminine as manifested in the Black Madonna as well as her healing dimensions.
Our intention is to heed the call of the Divine Feminine, to see her around us and become her in our very cells so we can live in harmony with each other and with the Earth and all of the Earth community. We will integrate head, heart and body through wisdom teachings, song, dance and theater, and immersion in the imagery and symbolism of the cathedral.
This Course is a balance between:
Wisdom teachings on the Assumption; The tradition of Alchemy; the Black Madonna; Tara and Quan Yin, Chartres Cathedral as a grail and container of mysteries.
Embodiment practices that bring you into heart presence, open a pathway for you to embody the wisdom teachings we explore, help you release what no longer serves you and renew yourself through sacred dance, song and theater.
A virtual journey into Chartres Cathedral consisting of an exploration of the references to Mother Mary and the Assumption, the Black Madonna and the crypt, the labyrinth and the rose windows.
Live music that will bring inspiration, blessing and healing.
Course Audience: This course is suitable for ALL who love to move, all genders and age groups as an immediately accessible embodiment tool to ground and center yourself and become more conscious, joyful and energized. Additionally, this course offers trained dancers, yoga instructors, creative arts therapists and other movement practitioners the opportunity to deepen their professional skills.
Certification: This course counts as a foundational Dance of Oneness® course and fulfills 14 hours of the 200-hr Dance of Oneness® Certification Program.
Please find FAQ and Read Health Disclaimerﾠhere
Banafsheh Sayyad is a master Persian sacred dancer, choreographer, activist and founder of Dance of Oneness®. With an MFA in Dance & Choreography and an MA in Chinese Medicine, she is a deeply profound and highly accessible spiritual teacher of embodiment, dedicated to individual and collective healing through dance. Banafsheh performs and teaches internationally, initiating people into the wisdom of their bodies. Her signature style of holy wildness ignites transformation and illumination in all those who dance with her from around the globe. Her easeful instruction and welcoming spirit empowers students from all stages of life to feel a true sense of belonging in their bodies and passion in their lives, by integrating wisdom teachings.
Dance of Oneness® is the dance I had been waiting to do all my life. From a young age I had danced, read watched and followed Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Joffery Ballet, Margie Gillis, Gabriel Roth and many more than I can name that moved in a way that spoke to me. Dance of Oneness® is the culmination of all that I had been drawn to in the other dance forms which seemed to be missing the main ingredient. Banafsheh has found the missing thread which is the opening to the Beloved, to truly give yourself in movement to the Divine energy that resides and moves through all of us from the Earth and the Heavens. I felt that for the first time in our dancing. It also reintroduced me to my own body, allowed me to accept my imperfections and for the first time in years swim naked in the ocean. All of this and more.
Janet Sawatsky
Transformative! Banafsheh skillfully takes us step by step to an experience of dance that brings me deeper into my body, to peace, feeling grounded and open to beauty and to love. Most importantly for me, the process brought me to experience a lovingness toward myself. I appreciate her presence of gentleness and fierce passion, and I’m inspired to bring my best self into my world.
Mary Regis
