The Dance of the Elements

We live in this precious world, and are also a part of it. Sometimes we might think in terms of 'making use of natural resources', but are they really separate from us? Outside air becomes my breath, becomes outside air ... The exchange is continuous and ever present, with air, water, earth .... all the elements!

Can we live in partnership where we take care of the world, as the world takes care of us? Can we feel into it as a dynamic exchange, a joyful dance that can reveal new relationships all the time?

Come and try out new dance steps!

Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.  (Robin Wall Kimmerer 'Braiding Sweetgrass')

Can we experience our participation in this world like a dance, where all the elements enjoy their unique movements? How do the elements move? How does water dance ... or earth, fire, air animals and plants? Can we learn steps from them and discover new ways of being for ourselves?

On this retreat, set in beautiful countryside, we will experience our dynamic interaction directly in nature, in our own dance, in meditation and in our relations to each other - we will observe and take part in how the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and space) move:

Our new steps can be

• solid - like earth

• flowing, always downwards - like water 

• always rising up - like fire

• all possibilities are open, moving in all directions, suddenly - like air

• all of that is held in space, comes from space but never hinders space or fills it ....

In nature and in improvisational movement we explore new ways of being, playfully. In meditation and with each other we discover how we become fresh from moment to moment.We bridge the gap between isolation and participation and find our place in this elemental dance of the world.

If we have little sense of the space we move in, and cannot at all see that it is our source, ground, field, essence then when we act we impact and shape the interpreted environment we inhabit. Our selective attention gives us access to only a little of the

potential we are part of. The environment also acts on us, shaping our feelings, moods, memories and all the other self-aspects which inform our being in the world with others. Shaping and being shaped is the basic dialogic pulse, the mutual interaction and

development of subject and object. (Embodiment, karma & freedom, James Low, November 2017)

This retreat is open to all, with or without previous experience in movement or meditation. Booking directly via Berghof please.