Saturday 3 Nov 2018, 1–4.30pm
Venue: Women’s Centre Christchurch, Unit 3, 242 Ferry Rd, Waltham, Christchurch.
This standalone workshop also acts as a taster/introduction for the upcoming 7 day retreat at the Wangapeka in June 2019.
And coming up: A longer 4 week online series in September. A 7 day retreat at Origins Retreat Centre (Chimé Shore) near Perth, Australia around Easter 2019. Southland, NZ 2019 dates soon to be announced.
Meditations that encourage
wellness, clarity of mind and joy
Learn how to go into deep meditation with healing ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse goddesses. A rare opportunity to experience a Western form of empowerment and transformation.
More about this work
Aphrodite
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of how important it is ‘to keep the heart awake to love and beauty.’ Love is healing – to feel loved is to feel divine. This very human impulse to love, and be loved, is the honouring of the goddess Aphrodite. In ancient Greece (and through her counterpart goddess Venus in ancient Rome) this spiritual love was honoured in a higher form, and many temples were built in her name. These places had an atmosphere which cultivated healing for what weighed on peoples’ hearts. It is possible to still feel this healing experience now.
Athena
It has been said that ‘Justice is a woman satisfied’. Many ancient texts speak of the divine feminine and masculine energy dwelling in people of all genders. To consciously house these energies is to be empowered in wisdom. By integrating what is unknown in our shadow, we can then create a life filled with compassionate understanding. Humans can then empathise more easily with others, and life can contain less suffering. In ancient Greece, the goddess of wisdom was known as Athena. As a strategist and protector, she was called to help on battlefields. Carved on Athena’s statues are many symbols which explain a path to protecting and healing your heart, body, and mind. All you need is the key.
Artemis
The ability to protect oneself and provide nourishment resonates with our fundamental survival instinct. Many would say that we need the wisdom of this goddess of the hunt more than ever. As we explore Artemis further, are we ready for her challenge? ‘Stop complaining and start aiming!’ Artemis is the goddess of the forests and mountainous wild lands. A moon goddess, she is a protector in childbirth, of nine year old girls (who were called her “little she-bears”) and relieving women’s ill health. Always virginal, she was self-wed, free to roam and be true to herself. To connect with the qualities of Artemis within yourself is to ‘come alive again’ and have sharp, clear mental focus.
Meditation Teacher
Mira Riddiford is a meditation and mindfulness teacher who runs retreats and series in New Zealand. Her online classes have participants joining from North America, Europe and Asia. With more than 20 years of daily practice, Mira has been trained through retreat work, study and apprenticeship in the Namgyal Rinpoche stream of teachings. She has a close ongoing relationship/association with the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre and the Auckland Sphere Group.
Having worked in creative fields, Mira enjoys how mindfulness can enhance the arts, and she is respectful of diversity in all its forms. Mira focuses on the relevance of mindfulness in modern daily living, and how it can help with stress relief, calm and wellbeing. She specialises in making teachings on Western Mysteries, archetypal integration and non-duality available. (There’s no problem if you don’t know what any of that means!) Her contemporary, warm and engaging style breathes life into these meditation teachings.
Mira is passionate about meditation teachings on ancient Gods and Goddesses and how these teachings can work as a map for personal development. You can find out more about her work here: www.westernmysticism.com
Course fee: $60. Contact Sue if you are in need of a scholarship.
Or secure your place now with your credit card through Eventbrite.
Contact Sue: foxyxjesse@gmail.com or 027 327 7498 for more information