Building & Closing the Containerwith Jason Cohen
Jason will be leading the creation of the fire circle and the digging of the root fire.
Be part of the ritual creation and closing. Elemental Altars, an Ancestor Altar and sometimes other altars are co-created. Break down and the closing of the space happens on Sunday. Please bring items for the altars, offerings of herbs, incense and song.
The model of the fire circle itself is attuned to hold us throughout our journey. The more care we pour into the space, the more care we pour into ourselves and each other.
Jason “Many Hats” Cohen is the producer and lead wizard/rattle shaker of the ceremonial fire circle gatherings known as Forestdance. He is the Executive Director of the HeARTbeat Collective Inc, and has produced and held musical space for 100’s of healing and expressive arts rituals. He has a deep knowledge and level of experience, with sensitivity and training as a ritual facilitator, and has walked and danced with a lifelong pursuit of making music that connects people with nature, Spirit and one another around the fire. Jason was one of the founders and chaired the Board of Managers of Camp Timber Trails, LLC, until he became the Camp Coordinator.
Jason’s latest efforts is as the Director for the historic Montague Retreat Center, a gorgeous 34 acre venue with a geo-thermal Great Hall and a deep and fantastic progressive legacy.
Jason is a community organizer deeply committed to creating spaces where people can become empowered and inspired. He is a musician, composer and songwriter and sings and plays keys, accordion and percussion with his project Incus.
Jason is a proud and loving father, and takes much of his inspiration from his humble and direct connections to nature and his ancestors.
Root Fire, Plant Walk and Attunement with Gina Schvartsman
Gina is an Earth lover, often dappled in dirt or plant matter. She finds joy in the depth of connection offered to us through radical relationality with one another, our more than human kin, and this beautiful planet we call home. Guided by the seasonal rhythms and the breath and pulse of the Earth, Gina is inspired to be part of the re-membering of our human animal ways and that we are nature. She is a farmer/homesteader, community herbalist, shiatsu bodyworker, songstress, wild crafter and the culinary and herbal-artist of Radical Rose Botanicals. Her lifeways prioritize reclaiming our agency and vitality by being in direct connection with that which nourishes and provides our basic needs, and opening our eyes to the abundance all around us and within us.
Returning to hold the Root Fire for the second time, Gina is excited to invite everyone to explore our individual and collective relationship to the quieter, more receptive, yin side of life. Surrounded by a predominately outward, active, yang culture, most of us are still learning how to truly rest. The Root Fire is a place to stop, pause, and notice, to rest and look inward through a lens of silence and stillness; to explore the messages that arise in the space between. How can we reconnect to our innate capacity to listen deeply? How can we rewrite our stories and grow our capacity for vulnerability, care, curiosity, compassion, and trust? Remembering that each of us is power-full in a way that is a gift to the self and the whole, that reminds us of our path and what we were born to be and do. Together we weave this tapestry of life.
Music and Service around the Firewith Ult Mundane
Ult Mundane invites us to explore principles of drumming together, to help us bring confidence and sensitivity to our service at the sacred fire. Ult loves to blend the high energy of traditional African rhythms with the dynamic conversational elements of group improvisation. We will experiment with adding our voices to the group in the spirit of service. Together we can deepen our ability to support establishing a rhythm, use call and response to hear and be heard, and add some fireworks when the energy is on its way up.
Ult has been studying traditional West African drumming for over fifteen years, playing djembe and dunduns. He has learned from world-renowned teachers such as Famoudou Konate and Mamady Keita. Since 2010 he has been studying with Namory Keita, a master drummer from Guinea. Ult currently teaches a weekly class where he lives in Southern New Hampshire and leads the drumming for a dance class in Keene, NH. Ult is the president of the HeARTbeat Collective, Inc., a non-profit art and cultural organization.
Intentional Offerings with Djeli
Djeli is a Ritual Arts Facilitator, Ceremonialist and Storyweaver who focuses on intentional offerings through the guidance and practice of re-indigenization. Djeli brings 20+ years of experience in energy healing into every aspect of life. Among Djeli’s many offerings: “Deepening your channeling practice”, “Navigating the opening and closing of portals”, “Journeying to other worlds”, “Divination” are but a few. Djeli delights in engaging in Ritual Arts practice with folks at all levels. Djeli being spirit led will graciously pivot potential offerings as spirit directs. Let’s explore and grow and deepen our connection as we re-indigenize.
Djeli uses the pronoun ki (pronounced key), meaning full spectrum being of love, light and shadow, yet is comfortable being referred to with any pronouns. Djeli is a storyweaver who helps transform overwhelm to overjoy. Ki uses a multitude of practices to create an atmosphere of curiosity and dialogue, even around difficult topics. Ki supports others to breathe life into their own process as part of a healing practice of creating from the heart.
Djeli is a thought leader, life coach, ceremonialist, public speaker, lifelong storyteller, and former Cirque du Soleil acrobat who has traveled the world weaving energies to remind us of our interconnectedness. Djeli is an initiated Dagara diviner and Ritual Arts Facilitator as well as a Reiki Master Practitioner.
Djeli is the co – founder of I M Project, mentoring men, young men and boys and co – founder of The Sacred Center supporting healing transformation of mind, body and spirit through the interconnection of all beings. Djeli is also an active member of the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS)
www (dot) iamdjeli ( dot) com
Embodied Animism with Esja
Animism is not a religion. It is a belief and worldview that the fundamental nature of reality is relational. That consciousness is not a quality belonging only to humans, but to literally Everything – trees, rivers, mountains, stones, fire, storms. Even abstract ideas like archetypes and songs.
What happens when one shifts from the current dominant western worldview which systemically objectifies the non-human – to one in which the whole World is Alive? What happens when you are no longer a subject in a world of objects, but one subject amidst a vast and intricately woven web of many other subjects?
In this workshop, we will be utilizing guided and intuitive movement and conscious embodiment practices as well as ritualized, direct contact with nature to explore these questions and how they feel and move through the body. How they impact the way our bodies relate to each other and our surroundings, and how the answers could inspire us to move differently through a living world.
We will also have a chance to explore and discuss how these practices and worldview can inform and enhance how we show up to and experience Ceremony at Forestdance itself.
Esja is a bipedal hominid. Her heart beats more than 100,000 times a day, and like most members of her species she spends her days in a delicate tight-rope walk somewhere between enraptured awe and existential terror.
She is an artist, a poet, a facilitator, a practicing occultist and a dirt worshipping heathen and has taught numerous workshops and classes on subjects like animism, embodiment, death / dying, conscious kink and creative expression.
Her free time is most often spent laying in the grass, looking at flowers and wishing that she could kiss bugs without hurting them.
Registrar: Nick Mikita
Nick first attended Forestdance in the wake of a beautiful experience with the HeARTbeat Collective’s Unifier Festival. The intimate, intentional, ceremonial character of Forestdance inspired Nick to volunteer for the organization, and eventually join the HBC Board of Directors. “Serving as Registrar for Forestdance, I am honored by the opportunity to welcome and accommodate all who join us.”