Traditional medicine cultures such as the Xhosa use plant medicine in a variety of ways to bring about a state of harmony in body, mind and spirit. The plants are used to cleanse the body and spirit of impurities and thereby remove any obstacles or blocks surrounding the person.
The main job of a Sangoma or traditional shaman is to help a client dream and realise their potential in this life. Plants are powerful allies along the healing journey. John uses a variety of plants in workshops to help facilitate deep and profound spiritual healing.
This plant healing ceremony should prove to be a unique, very personal and deeply internal experience for all participants.
Participants will be guided through an energetic shaking dance practice to stimulate their ‘Umbilini’ (Kundalini) energy to heighten the effects of the plant ceremony. John will chant in the Xhosa language from South Africa to help everyone connect to the ‘dream/ancestral space.’ A guided heart-beat meditation will then follow as a means to help strengthen the connection to the soul, otherwise known as the wind, the Umoya in the Sangoma lineage.
A plant medicine mixture will be then administered externally. Participants will be encouraged to place their feet (or hands) in a bowl of warm water mixed with the plant medicine. While soaking in the medicine in this way, John will pray, use instruments, and sing to encourage the spirits of the plants as they interact with the spirits of the participants. This is often a profound and moving experience for those involved. It is a direct healing encounter with a high potency.
John frequently uses the local plants in the vicinity of his workshops. He also tends to mix in some South African plants to increase their efficacy, which he travels with. Please note: All plants used are non-hallucinogenic.
All participants will subsequently be invited outside for a sacred fire ceremony, where John will be giving a talk entitled:
Alchemy & the Path of the Wounded Healer; learning to transform our wounds to heal our world.
Exchange: $101
Brief Bio on John
John Lockley is one of the first white men in recent history to be initiated as a senior Sangoma (Shaman) in the Xhosa tradition in South Africa, the tribe of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. His apprenticeship in post-Apartheid South Africa took him 10 gruelling years to complete, from 1997 to 2007.
For additional information & Booking, please contact Anthony via email at: las_nubes00@hotmail.com.
All participants are invited the bring along a soaking bucket to place their feet in during the plant ceremony as well as towels.
