Caretaker of the Earth

An Apprenticeship for Earth Healing

Facilitated by Ana Larramendi and staff

Please inquire about dates for the next Caretaker Apprenticeship, possibly beginning in 2013. This program can also be taught in your region if you choose to be a sponsor.
Contact Ana (608-255-4333) or coyote@thehollowbone.com for more information.

This advanced level 18-month apprenticeship is for students of shamanism who seek to develop the skills necessary to facilitate Earth healing and the healing of place.

This is a unique in-depth training, which weaves together many traditions of shamanism and applies them to healing the planet. In this apprenticeship we study the anatomy and cosmology of earth energy systems from a spiritual perspective. We learn how the earth is a complex living organism woven with an energetic matrix of vortexes, ley lines, energy fields and multiple dimensions which all work in harmony to support and nourish life on the terrestrial level.
We will discover how earth trauma manifests, how it is created and how to prevent it. By developing specialized shamanic skills, we learn to identify an imbalance and create an intervention to bring a place back into balance.

The Earth holds the stories of everything that has happened on its soils, in its waters and in the air. If a place holds trauma that imprint directly impacts those who live, work or interact with that place. To heal ourselves, to find peace, to create wholeness we must also heal the earth and our relationship to it.

When we see a place on a highway or at an intersection where one fatal accident after another has occurred—there is an imprint.
When a building, home or place has an unusual, chronic history of fire, or lightning strike—there is an imprint.
When we see a neighborhood in a city collapsing under a repetitive cycle of crime and violence---there is an imprint.
When a region has seen battles or has been war torn for decades…or centuries and no peace seems to come---there is an imprint.
When a place has been used for ritual abuse or violent acts and anyone living in or passing through that place feels emotionally ill or angry—there is an imprint.

Human activity on the land leaves not only a physical imprint, but an energetic imprint as well. Human activity (both physical and energetic) that is done in harmony with the land maintains the sacred balance of place and can actually raise the vitality and carrying capacity of the land.

Similarly, an activity that is out of balance with natural law and is destructive physically or energetically to wholeness will create an imprint that is out of balance. An imprint in the land often shows up in the form of repeating patterns that replicate aspects of the original trauma. This imbalance by its very nature is unstable and unsustainable and will affect not only the health of the land, but the wellness of humans and the living beings who reside in or around the imprint.

The goal of the Caretaker of the Earth Apprenticeship is to help each student develop skills that can be applied to a broad range of situations requiring earth healing, in urban, rural, and wild settings.

Class Description:

The apprenticeship consists of four 7-day sessions over an 18-month period of time. Class size is limited to 24 people. This training is intensive and very experiential. Students make an Earth Mesa medicine bundle to use as an anchor for their earth healing and personal healing work. As the Earth Mesa grows through the months of the apprenticeship, it becomes your Shaman’s tool for grounding and mediating earth energies. Each session includes a portion of personal healing work to align you more deeply to the energies of the Earth. In addition, there are activities to develop your awareness skills and to provide training in land healing interventions.

In this apprenticeship you will learn how to work with these situations:

Land that appears unhealthy or has been damaged by development, human interference and neglect, for example: dumps, quarries, logging, poor land management
Working with Nature Spirits to revitalize soil, plants and the carrying capacity of the land to bring it back into natural balance.
Land that has an elemental imbalance (i.e. too much fire, water, air or earth energy) for example a place that has a history of frequent fires or water damage.
Locations where violence or accidents repeatedly take place.
Balancing, awakening or healing disrupted sacred sites.
Places or homes that feel cursed, haunted, have heavy energy or ‘bad karma’.
Activating or realigning power places, vortexes or ley lines that have been dormant or disrupted by human activity.
Each session will have a particular focus and the sessions will build upon each other.

Caretaker Apprenticeship Description

Session one, The Earth:
We begin our apprenticeship by transforming our relationship with the Earth. Students delve deeply into healing and releasing the conscious and unconscious fears, traumas, and wounds that separate us from the Mother. Here we begin to build our medicine bodies and create our Earth Mesa medicine bundles. Following our personal work, we begin to study the anatomy of earth trauma from a shamanic perspective.
An understanding of the spiritual cosmology of the Earth and spirit realms prepares us to learn how the imprint of trauma on the land is created. We then practice the use of perceptual shifts to read and track energy and perceive concentric rings of disturbance.
Throughout this first meeting, we deepen our spiritual connection to the divinity of the Earth. As we awaken our awareness of the natural world, we learn to read the energies of trees and plants, the messages of birds and animals, the energies of the elemental beings, and the overall spirit of place. Students practice tracking energy fields, reading signs and omens in the natural world, and communicating with the Spirits of place and the devic realms.

Session two, Awareness:
In the second session, we focus on inner awareness of personal shadows and outer awareness of Earth energies. The most important aspect of land healing is to clearly read the true needs of the land and become a pure unbiased tracker of energy, a hollow bone. If we use the filters of our own wounds and projections to identify places to be healed, we are more likely to make intervention choices that are a reflection of us instead of what is really needed by the land. In order to refine our awareness skills we need to illuminate our shadows and unravel our projections. Here is where we learn how our shadows can impact our effectiveness as caretakers.
The first half of this session focuses on personal shadow and healing work. Here we delve into the places where we are hooked into rescuing or hold anger, hatred, judgment, fear and other shadow imprints. We work together in group ceremony to clear these imprints and personal filters.
The second half of this session covers more advanced awareness and energy tracking skills. We delve more deeply into experiencing the elements and surrendering to the earth. We explore our understandings of ceke lines, ley lines, huacas, pacarinas, vortexes, toruses and energy fields as they relate to the healing of place.

Session three, Transmutation:
In this third session on transmutation, we again balance personal and land healing work.
We begin with personal work and ceremony to shed our attachments and identities, becoming timeless and embracing fluidity.
From there we move on to learn different forms of physical and spiritual intervention work for land healing. We begin to map the spiritual realms where we take toxic energies to bring them into balance and neutralize an imprint. We begin to learn the ceremonies of other traditional shamanic interventions, such as soul retrieval, grief rituals, transmutation and transfiguration, as well as psychopomp (conducting of earthbound spirits to the light) and terrapomp (conducting earth energies back to their source). In preparation to practice, we explore the qualities of curses, hauntings and different types of land imprints in relation to the types of healing the presenting issue requires.
In this session we focus on the importance of ethics and permission in land healing. On the final evening students receive the ancient rites of the Earth-Keepers and full activation of their Earth Mesas.

Session Four, Caretaker:
In our last gathering, we learn about the elements of ceremony, how to create ceremony, how to match rituals to the needs of a particular land healing situation. Students learn how to build a strong “healing team” to facilitate ceremony for land healing and how to incorporate and involve inexperienced landowners/participants in a land healing ceremony. We explore how to create a safe container for ritual, including skills for working with group dynamics and tracking the energy of the circle during ceremony.
During this session, we visit places where there has been a request for land healing. The locations are selected to practice a varied range of skills. Class members work together to diagnose, track, read energy, develop a healing intervention and perform a ceremony. Ample time is spent after the ceremony debriefing and learning from the experience.

On our final night together, a graduation ceremony honors all the caretakers.

Location:
Class will be held at a Retreat Center near Dodgeville, WI. This spectacular 500+ acre site adjoins Governor Dodge State Park and is a beautiful example of Southwestern Wisconsin’s “Driftless region”, a unique unglaciated region of the state. Our location features springs, ponds, many rock cliffs and abundant, diverse wildlife. Much of our class time will be spent enjoying this beautiful land.

Requirements:
You should be extremely comfortable and adept in your journeying skills, personally or through training. My expectation is that you have done a good deal of your own personal healing work, are emotionally mature, respectful, stable, can work well with others and you have a deep desire to heal the earth.
While this class does not require that you be physically fit, it does require that you are mobile, agile and in a relative state of good health. Many hours will be spent outdoors sitting, standing,
hiking or crawling on the earth, in water or in other unexpected places. A willingness and ability to participate in these activities is important!

To Apply: Acceptance to this apprenticeship is by applicationand interview. Please contact Ana Larramendi by phone 608-255-4333 or email coyote@thehollowbone.com to receive an application. (Download Acrobat Reader if you have problems accessing the application)

Download complete class description (coming soon!)

Caretaker Apprenticeship #2 – Please Inquire

Meeting Dates:
Dates will be set by June 2012 for a program in 2013

Testimonials:

“The Caretaker for The Earth Apprenticeship is the best training I have received in 15 years of shamanic work. My body and the land are becoming one. This class has required and supported my growth - propelling me forward in my personal evolution. I return from each session excited, inspired, and envisioning more possibilities. Ana Larramendi is smart, thoughtful, passionate, flexible, fully committed to her work, and never loses her sense of humor. She teaches us to work impeccably, not just by saying the words, but by living her teachings. She is meticulously prepared for class and then carries the willingness to scrap her teaching plan on a moment’s notice to attend the needs of her students. Further, Ana continuously balances the needs of the class with the needs of every individual in it. In becoming caretakers, we are well cared for.” E.A. Philadelphia, PA

“I highly recommend this class. I’ve never had such consistent progress with healing on so many levels as in this class. I was encouraged by the depth we addressed the ethics involved in healing the earth.
Ana’s love for the earth motivates her teaching, her work, and her life. She is an inspiration. The assistants she chooses have much to add in their own right. This class is what comes after you’ve learned the basics and are ready for the big work that’s waiting to be done.” C.E. Detroit, MI

“Ana offers the wisdom of the teachings she carries with integrity, compassion, and humor. She is generous in her support of each participant’s unique journey while holding the ancient ways with clarity and respect in the modern world. I felt safe and well-guided at all times. Therefore, I was able to surrender to unexpected and astounding leaps in my own healing and in becoming a more skilled Earth Caretaker.
This is definitely a class that leaves the indoor conference center behind and immerses you in a carefully designed sequence of experiences and practices to deepen your healing, your relationship to the Earth, and your skill as an Earth Caretaker.” A.F. Madison, WI

Ana Larramendi is a teacher, speaker, Vision Quest leader, wilderness enthusiast, ceremonialist, chef, and shamanic practitioner since 1989. She is an initiated mesa carrier in the Inka tradition, is a member of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, www.shamanism.org, and is a founding member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners, www.shamansociety.org, an organization created to support the re-emergence of using shamanism as a form of spiritual healing in our culture and integrating it with western medicine.
Ana has been a lecturer for the University of Wisconsin Medical School, and the Madison Area Technical College. Her ministerial service has included: working with prisoners at the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institute, hospital visitations, working with the dying, presiding over memorial services, officiating weddings and supporting community ceremonies.
Ana has studied extensively with teachers from many traditions including, Alberto Villoldo, Sandra Ingerman, Myron Eshowsky, Jaes Seis, Tom Cowan, Angeles Arrien, Dr. Larry Peters, Brant Secunda, Tom Brown Jr., Jose Luis Herrera, Marko Pogacnik and others. Yet, her greatest teachers have been the Earth, elements, plants and animals. Her focus is to heal the Earth and humankind’s relationship with Her.

Ana’s service work has included working with prisoners at the Prairie Du Chien Correctional Institute, working with the dead and dying and performing land healing/clearing ceremonies.

Ana teaches numerous classes and is a public speaker and educator on shamanism.

The Blindfolded Otter Crawl:
Students learning to merge with the element of water in a local trout stream.

Ana joins the fun!

Surrendering to the Earth: By merging with the Mother, we learn to feel what she feels.

Ana teaches the process of a "Limpia" (egg extraction)	...Then begins to evoke the helping Spirits.