Mud, Magic and Manifestation: 
Natural Building and Magic Workshop for Women

May 29-31, 2009

With Starhawk & Sage Mata

Cazadero, N. California



Including

NATURAL BUILDING, MAGIC & RITUAL, LIGHT STRAW CLAY, WADDLE ‘N AUB, COB, NATURAL PLASTERS, HANDS-ON ACTION-LEARNING, SONG, CIRCLES FOR WOMEN

Course Description

Get down, get dirty and get covered in mud in the beautiful Cazadero Hills, for a magical weekend learning the ancient building skills of our ancestors.  We’ll work with cob—sculpted clay, sand and straw, as well as light straw clay, waddle and daub, and natural plasters to learn practical skills we can use in building low-cost, low-carbon, beautiful structures from the Earth.   We’ll learn truly down-to-earth skills and share ritual celebration,  empowering ourselves to create shelter and spaces, within and without.  And as a circle of women, we will support one another to be strong, creative, and empowered to manifest our visions and make our dreams real!

Course Details

The magic and power of how to create, both visible and invisible, is part of the life-giving powers that we, as women all carry within us.  This Women’s Weekend Workshop will explore different ways of building homes, sisterhoods, and our lives.  In this Introduction to Natural Building workshop, we will discuss theory of Natural Building and mostly get real, hands-on experience working with several different techniques, including: cob, light-straw-clay, waddle and daub, green retrofitting and finish plasters.  We will learn how we can care for the Earth and for ourselves through the structures in which we dwell – living with a big heart but yet a small footprint!  And throughout the weekend we will integrate ritual, magic, and celebration in a sacred circle of women.  From dancing in the mud, sculpting out of the Earth, and dancing in spirals, this course will have the power to change our lives and manifest our dreams!


Facilitators & Instructors

Starhawk


Starhawk is a committed global justice activist, organizer, speaker, teacher, and the author or coauthor of ten books. Starhawk is founder of Earth Activist Training, and travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism for diverse groups, communities and audiences. Starhawk is perhaps best known as an articulate voice in the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion. Besides her inspiring, much-read books, she is a cofounder of Reclaiming, an activist branch of modern Pagan religion, and continues to work closely with the Reclaiming community. Her works include The Spiral Dance, long considered the essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement, and the now-classic ecotopian novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing . A personal favorite is award-winning Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising. Starhawk's latest book is The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. Starhawk's books have been translated into many languages, while her essays are reprinted across the world, and have been included in numerous anthologies. Her writing is influential and has been quoted by many hundreds of other authors, from magazines to trade and academic press. Her books are often used in college curriculums.


Sage Mata


Sage is a permaculture designer, earthen builder, gardener, teacher and community organizer passioned by her love of the Earth.  With nature and community as her teachers and inspiration, she spreads her laughter and light as she works to reflect the harmonious and regenerative patterns of nature into human design systems. She earned a Bachelor’s degree of Ecopsychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she taught a UCSC course of Ecopsychology and Social Change and co-facilitated a UCSC cob bench building workshop in 2004.  She received her Permaculture Design Cerificate in 2004 through the Earth Activist Training (www.earthactivisttraining.org) and has then been involved in various permaculture projects from British Colombia to Argentina.  She worked as a natural building site leader at O.U.R Ecovillage (www.ourecovillage.org) and co-manager of the bountiful gardens at GingerHill farm/retreat center on the Big Island of Hawai’i (www.gingerhillfarm.com).  Emily has worked for several organizations, such as the Homeless Garden Project (www.homelessgardenproject.org) and the Garden Path Project of Berkeley Youth Alternatives (www.byaonline.org/heat).  Sage has recently completed a Permaculture Teacher’s Training Course at the Bullock’s Homestead, WA. Currently, she is an associate of Gaia University, earning her Master’s in Integrative EcoSocial Design, where she is studying action-learning as a system to integrate patterns of consciousness and the development of culture.  


Contact

For questions and more information regarding the course


call: (707) 634-1461