The Sky Meadow Mystery School, Discussed
A conversation about this upcoming residential retreat event in Vermont, which will combine permaculture praxis with mythopoetic art, ritual and philosophy on the memento mori ergo carpe diem theme.
Way of Life and Death
The Sky Meadow Mystery School: Harvest 2024
Aug 21, 2024, 2:00 PM – Aug 28, 2024, 2:00 PM The Sky Meadow Mystery School is a free, week-long residential immersion into wholesome work and Deep Play in Vermont’s beautiful Northeast Kingdom. Our theme at the 2024 Harvest Mystery School is memento mori ergo carpe diem; “remember death and therefore seize the day.” For … Read moreThe Sky Meadow Mystery School: Harvest 2024
Drawing the Death Card at Sky Meadow
Just returned from the Spring 2024 Metamodern Spirituality Lab gathering at Sky Meadow, a spiritual retreat center in Vermont’s beautiful Northeastern Kingdom. The Lab has been a wonderful immersion in Serious Play; restoring an abandoned medicine garden to its original form and purpose, designing and enacting an elaborate welcoming ceremony/pilgrimage for the weekend participants, another … Read moreDrawing the Death Card at Sky Meadow
Floralia 2024
Spring has sprung again and I’ve chosen today, with the temperature suddenly balmy at 68 degrees and at the height of the solar eclipse, no less, to “officially” begin the new season of Floralia this year. A lone Great Blue Heron at the riffle, doubtless soon to be joined by others of his kind as … Read moreFloralia 2024
“Life is short”
Life is short, eat the doughnut. Life is short, go for the long walk. Life is short, think deeply. Life is short, take chances. Life is short, write the damn book. Life is short, love hard. Life is short …
Totenpass ritual 2023
Incense burned, words were spoken, honey was tasted at midnight this evening, beneath a certain tree, overlooking a certain river. Memento mori ergo carpe diem, while you still can.
Fall is Falling
Some photos from recent river walks, as we approach the Day of the Dead: Fallen leaves blur the edges of the path, as befits the season. Layers upon layers … The first owl I’ve ever spotted along the river path. Fire and water. When the river runs gold – that’s the cue. The riffle, where … Read moreFall is Falling
Memoria 2023
Today is the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and the seasons are visibly (and in other ways) shifting. From my own perspective, within my own Way, this marks the unofficial beginning of Memoria; a festival of harvest and remembrance before the onset of the winter months. That festival will “officially” begin when … Read moreMemoria 2023
Drop Tower Shugendō: a memento mori ritual
I suspect that, had the technology been available, the Shugenja of ancient Japan might well have devised an experience akin to the drop tower towards training themselves to die with grace. As a rider, you have a choice, in the liminal moments before the drop. The drop itself, of course, is happening whether you want … Read moreDrop Tower Shugendō: a memento mori ritual