Fourfold Way Medicine Retreat in Bahia, Brazil
November 2 - 15, 2021
Overview
A pilgrimage with Gabi to Brazil for a Sacred Earth Medicine retreat with her Shamans from Chama Trina Community and the Huni Kuin tribe. This 12-day retreat is anchored in the plant medicine practices of indigenous Amazonian tribal elders and inspired by the wisdom of ancestral communities from Africa, North America, Asia, and Europe.
Objective
Participants will engage in plant medicine ceremonies and immersive workshops and healing practices based on the Medicine Wheel and the Four Archetypes: the Warrior, the Healer, the Visionary, and the Teacher/Guru. In this laboratory of consciousness, we will alchemize our deep intergenerational, personal and collective healing to become good ancestors for our descendants, builders of sustainable communities, and stewards for the regeneration of our Mother Earth.
Retreat Themes and Concepts
-
Building a Regeneration Culture to Address Existential Crisis
​
"The crisis [we face on this planet] is a multiple bankruptcy of all agencies and we urgently need to rescue a new/old cooperative way of life". Roberto Crema
This is not really a retreat in the commonly -accepted sense of the word - it is, rather, a reconnection. It is a preparation. Currently, we human beings don't have a sustainable lifestyle that respects the ability to reproduce the planet's natural resources; our current economic system cannibalizes its resources. Our work is to take an active role in the collective transformation of human-kind and to do that we must question systems of beliefs and values ​​that are ingrained within us:
Who am I really? Where do I want to go? How do I want to relate? What kind of planet do I want to inhabit? What do I really need? How do the choices I make impact the environment and the lives of future generations?
​
-
The Medicine Wheel and the Four Archetypes
"Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that's when we get into trouble.” - Babatunde Olatunje
​
The Medicine Wheel of ancestral Amerindian traditions is a navigation map, an orientation compass to position ourselves as a species that inhabits a planet supported by the strength of the four essential elements: air, water, fire, and earth. The wisdom of the medicine wheel guides us to operate our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual being in a manner that harmonizes with the great Wheel of life.
We can learn to move around the Wheel of Life with beauty, balance, grace and self-responsibility over absolutely everything we dream, feel, think and act. We can learn to take advantage of the energetic potential, qualities and teachings from each of the four cardinal directions: West, South, North and East, in order to consciously create union with the All.
Retreat Structure and Activities
Retreat Structure and Activities
With each of the four parts of the medicine wheel, comes an archetype that exists within us all.
The guiding principle of this retreat is to understand ourselves through the reading of the images of the soul, of the archetypal expressions of the body, to essentially be the medicinal wheel itself.
We organize the retreat around the study of and immersion in the four archetypes in the following manner:
​
THE WAY of the HEALER
Direction: West
Healing Balm: Telling Stories
Element: Earth, Physical Body
Energy: Feminine
Intentions: The Healing Heart - The Art of Loving, Caring and Being Cared for - recognizing, bonding and paying attention to what has heart and meaning; knowing how to dream, silence and compose oneself; realigning the heartbeat to the natural rhythm of the earth's cycles; nourish yourself with live food; taking care of the land: skin, body, home, community and nature; knowing how to listen, feel, evaluate and choose to what to cut from one’s life, to follow one’s heart; honor the feminine/receptive energy within yourself.
Retreat Activities: Women’s healing Circle, Men’s healing circle, Tantra healing, Ayahuasca medicine ceremony.
THE WAY of the VISIONARY
Direction: North
Healing Balm: Singing
Element: Water, Emotional Body
Energy: The Inner child
Intentions: The Visionary Child - The Art of Integrity - speaking the truth without blaming or judging; cultivate the Sacred Arch of authenticity; honor yourself and others; relearning to dream by listening to the soul's call; to develop vision, intuition, clarity and discernment; the ability to walk fluidly, play, let go/detach, be the alchemist of the truth itself; honoring the divine child within yourself.
Retreat Activities: Vision quest (1 day). Art medicine therapy. Jurema plant medicine ceremony, Biodanza.
​
THE WAY of the TEACHER
Direction: South
Healing Balm: Silence
Element: Air, Mental Body
Energy: The Wise Elder
Intentions: organize the loose and tangled threads created by the mind, be the voice of the mountain, impartial witness of the silence of those who wisely see the dark clouds that pass each impermanent cycle; the exercise of non-attachment; the strength of ancestry that supports your mission's designs; honor the elder within yourself.
Retreat activities: Fasting, Meditation and Silence. Family Constellation experience. Ayahuasca medicine ceremony
This can be used in conjunction with other alternative therapies. It takes into account the whole person and helps activate each patient’s natural healing processes as well as restoring their physical and emotional well-being.
Individualized Nutritional Guidance
Holistic medicine is a broad range of practices based on generations of tradition. After a single session, you’ll start to see changes to your body, mind and energy levels. Contact me to find out more.
Initial Consultation
This is a hands-on body treatment that leaves patients feeling relaxed and renewed. I love showing my patients how just a few treatments can make an enormous difference to their health.
Intuitive Counseling
This can be used in conjunction with other alternative therapies. It takes into account the whole person and helps activate each patient’s natural healing processes as well as restoring their physical and emotional well-being.
THE WAY of the WARRIOR
Direction: East
Healing balm: Dance
Element: Fire, Spiritual Body
Energy: Masculine
Intentions: The Warrior Without Weapons - The Art of Peaceful Presence; how to be the mouthpiece of the sacred word that sustains compassionate action; the firm will to manifest one’s purpose, respect for all relationships and the struggle for the preservation of life; knowing how to use the words “yes” and “no”; how to be a disciple of oneself, be responsible for what you do or don't do; assume the four intelligences (emotional, mental, corporal and spiritual); the power of clear communication and positioning; honor the masculine within you, generator of vitality.
Retreat Activities: Sweat lodge, Fire Prayer ritual. Biodanza (dance therapy) and other Systemic Exercises.