Retreat: Entering Unknowing – Inner Pilgrimage for a Time between Worlds
Retreat: Entering Unknowing – Inner Pilgrimage for a Time between Worlds
JOIN ME.
JOIN ME.
Entering Unknowing: Inner Pilgrimage for a Time between Worlds
December 4–8, 2024
Valle Crucis Conference Center, deeply rooted on sacred ground Banner Elk, NC.
The soul does not live on the edge of time. It finds its rest in the universe imagined by reverie. Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of Reverie (15)
Why This Gathering? Why Now?
We live in complex times, a time “between worlds.”1 In the imaginal cells of the collective human psyche, a profound shift seems to be cocooning. We are called to the wild depths of soul.
We live complex lives. From time to time, we lose our bearings—in joy, in sorrow, in love and the loss of love, illness and injury, the unraveling of life as we know it.
And we live a special mode of life, a mode that burns with wonder about our very existence, is awed by the majesty of the unfolding universe, and marvels at the mystery of it all.
Deep inside each of us, there is a silent yearning to become intimate with what we intuit but cannot see, our deepest inner mystery and human essence.
The Pathless Path of Pilgrimage
The ancient, sacred tradition of pilgrimage invokes what words alone won’t offer: an embodied pathless path of nurturing the spiritual depths of our shared human becoming.2
On pilgrimage, we belong to the body. We step into time beyond time. In this quality of reverie, the problem-solving mind comes to rest; we leave behind a known world to come to a world unknown to our conditioned ways. We walk home to who we are.
The pilgrim’s way is that of unknowing our customary bearings by walking a path that has no path. This pathless path is lived in and through the body in communion with the earth. It is a path of self-realization.
This gathering will be a co-exploration of the inner way of the pilgrim to belong to the depths of our being and to co-wonder about our shared human becoming in these unique and sacred times.
We will invoke a four-day pilgrimage (in place), inviting unknowing through meditation/centering prayer and shared readings and reflections to explore modes of being on the pathless path, gentle practices that quiet the mind and enliven the body–heart, Earth walks*, quiet periods of rest, and conversation by the fire at the Inn at day’s end.
The setting could not be more inspired and inspiring for our time beyond time.
Our gathering will take place at Valle Crucis Retreat Center in Banner Elk, NC. The Inn is an old schoolhouse deep in the heart of the southern Appalachian mountains on 450 acres of sacred ground, some of the most ancient mountains on earth and home of the Cherokee. There are miles and miles of walking trails for all levels. During our time together, we will field-trip (by car) up to the peak of the grounds to St. Anthony’s Chapel where we will enter and be bathed in a most exquisite, palpable, protected, and sacred silence. It brought me to tears when I entered.
All are welcome.
*Earth walks are not required. There are many ways to commune with the natural world in this setting.
Cost:
Accommodations Fee:
(Single) Room + Meals + Transportation to and from Asheville airport = $456/person
This Gathering is offered on a dana basis.
Dana is a Pali word for “generosity” or “giving freely.” In the spirit of the pilgrim, I cannot “charge” for this experience. What I can do is freely give my preparation and soul and invite the presence and generosity of you as participants. Your presence makes this gathering possible, and there will be an opportunity to offer contributions at the end.
Registration
Doreen Tanenbaum has generously offered to be Retreat Coordinator. Some of you have met Doreen at the first of month Gatherings in Silence.
Please email her at tanenbaumd@gmail.com to register. She will assist you with details to coordinate your arrival, transportation, departure, meal preferences, and any details that will make your experience more comfortable and a time away from time.
Please email me with any questions you may have about the content, format, and rhythm of the retreat: reneeeliphd@gmail.com
Dear friends, if there is in you a quickening when you imagine exploring the inner way of the pilgrim, please give every consideration to joining us in December.
With love,
Renée
As I have offered in a few of these letters, an increasingly common phrase, “between worlds” intimates shifts not only in perspective but more fundamentally, at the level of perception and modes of being.
J. Krishnamurti maintained that “truth is a pathless land.” James Finley speaks of a “pathless path” in his talks on The Way of the Pilgrim. The image can be found as far back as the Taoist “watercourse way” in Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching.