02 Nov MEREDITH LITTLE - The Cycle of Living and Dying (full with waiting list) May 8-13, 2023
The Cycle of Living and Dying
with Meredith Little
Practice of Living and Dying with Meredith Little
For millennia, indigenous peoples have known "how to die". Their teacher was the natural world, and through many years and generations of observation, they had perfectly assimilated the lesson.
The cycle of life and death can be seen everywhere in nature: the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons, the death of the elders and the birth of the new generation...
Born of this knowledge, rites of passage ceremonies emerged in all traditional cultures as a means of supporting, guiding and witnessing this natural process. These rites supported individuals as they passed through the various stages of life - the little deaths of existence - and accepted the inevitable changes. Finally, these rites also supported beings as they prepared for the ultimate transition, the death that awaits us all.
As our modern world became more and more sophisticated, we were simultaneously distancing ourselves from the natural world and the ancient wisdom of the cycle of life and death. We ended up pushing death out of our lives and the dying out of our lives - to impose the illusion of control in the face of the uncertain and the unknown. We have forgotten "how to die".
Meredith's workshop invites us to relearn what our hearts and souls already know: the need to invite the evidence of death into our lives in order to live fully.
WELCOME.
"In our modern upbringing we have this idea that life is linear; that we are born, we live, and we die and that's it. We somehow move towards some place that is an end, a perfection. We grow up and then we know what's right, what's true. In the old way they understood that life doesn't work that way. We are not what we were yesterday, we are not even what we are today. We are our becomingness, we are always becoming something. We are growing into ourselves, over and over and over again."
Meredith Little
THE PRACTICE OF LIVING AND DYING:
DYING AS A RITE OF PASSAGE
For millennia indigenous people everywhere have known « how to die. » Their teacher was the natural world and, over many years and many generations, they learned their lessons well. Cycles of dying and rebirth were seen everywhere: the setting and rising of the sun, the turning of the seasons, the death of the elderly alongside the birth of a new generation. Ceremonial rites of passage emerged pan-culturally as a means of supporting, guiding and witnessing this natural process. These rites supported individuals as they let go of one stage of life—the “little deaths”—and were “reborn” into the next. And these rites supported people as they prepared for the final transition, the big Death that awaits us all.
As our modern culture has grown ever more sophisticated, we have also become ever more divorced from our natural surroundings and from ancient wisdom about living and dying. We have pushed Death away from Life, the dying away from the living-all in order to impose the illusion of control on the uncertainty of change. We have lost touch with the natural world and our place in it as mortal animals. We have forgotten "how to die."
In this particular program we will explore how to move through the dying process-be it a symbolic dying or a physical dying. Our aim is both educational and therapeutic. Educationally, we will see how the growing wisdom of the modern hospice movement and the ancient, pan-cultural wisdom of indigenous ways and the 4 shields can be interwoven: how the wisdom of one world can inform daily practice in the other. Therapeutically, time spent alone in nature each afternoon will encourage you to experience the wisdom of your own nature, and your personal truth about living and dying. In the late afternoon and evening we will sit in council to hear the stories of this solo time, and learn from each other.
We ask an inseparable pair of questions: How do we live, so we may fully become our dying? And how do we accept our dying, so we may fully embrace our living?
In 1973 in the USA, Steven Foster and Meredith Little began their collaboration and pioneering work on the return of rites of passage to our culture. Their research on the medicine wheel and wilderness practices was at the origin of a vast movement to rediscover the importance and necessity of these rites.
After the death of her partner in 2003, Meredith joined forces with Dr. Scott Eberle, the physician who accompanied Steven during his death, to create "The Practice of Living and Dying".
Meredith Little and Scott Eberle have combined their knowledge to promote a better understanding of this final phase of transformation leading to death. This 6-day program encourages us to stop and listen to the wisdom of the earth on which we live. So that, faced with the challenges of the modern world and the responsibilities of future generations, we can all live and die more consciously.
"The land around us (and within us) teaches with each passing season, and with each flood, drought, fire and storm, that out of change, crisis and a dying to what was, there appears a new story of form and adaptation. And that how we respond and integrate change into the fabric of our ongoing story colors the character of what comes next." Meredith Little
As a practical part of the seminar, time alone in nature each afternoon will encourage you to experience your own truth about life and death.
In the late afternoons and evenings, we'll gather in a circle to share our stories and learn from each other's experiences. We'll use the Medicine Wheel of Human Nature developed by Steven and Meredith to guide and orient us in this essential exploration.
Meredith Little
Meredith Little is an extraordinary person, an extraordinary elder. Her generosity and formidable ability to support, encourage and guide make her a precious person in these times of difficult questioning.
Meredith and her husband Steven Foster founded The School of Lost Borders in California in 1981, an organization pioneering the return of "rites of passage in nature" and ecotherapy. The essence of their work can be found in numerous articles, documentary films and books.
Books available in English: The Book of the Vision Quest, The Roaring of the Sacred River, The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature and Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness.
Since Steven Foster's death in 2003, Meredith has continued to coach and train Rite of Passage guides in the USA and around the world. With Scott Eberle, she founded and has been teaching the "Cycle of Life and Death" practice for over 10 years.
With this program, she aims to open dialogue and combat taboos surrounding death, in order to restore death to its natural place at the heart of the cycle of life.
"We began way back when, in the days when revolution was 
in the air, when rock and roll was filled with protest and the young were sticking flowers in the gun barrels of National Guardsmen. Even then, the answer to the dilemma of culture was clear: True revolution would never come about until the children remembered the way to get to adulthood - and the adults to true elderhood - and the elders to honorable death. And none of this would ever come to pass unless I learned the ancient art of birthing myself, and, by definition, others of my species, through rites of passage in wild nature, our true mother home."
- Dr. Steven Foster, Co-founder, The School of Lost Borders
The seminar will be taught by Meredith in English and translated into French.
Places are limited.
A deposit of 260,- chf guarantees your registration, the balance of the course is to be paid in cash on site (please bring the exact balance with you).
Deposit payable to Association pour les Rites de Passage, IBAN CH16 0839 0039 1577 1000 1, Banque Alternative Suisse, Association RoP, Rue du Port-Franc 11, cp 161, 1001 Lausanne.
6-day seminar price: 560,- chf
Accommodation at the Sunways Hotel in Champex: CHF 650.00 single room, CHF 550.00 double room, CHF 500.00 triple room (subject to hotel availability).
It's very rare that this course by Meredith Little is translated into French. An opportunity not to be missed.
Meredith will be assisted by Carine Roth (she/they), Line Bachmann (she/her), Lien De Coster (she/they) and Guido Albertelli (he/him).
What to expect:
- deep listening
- art of mirroring
- solo time in Nature
- council
- healing power of stories
- the 4 shields of Human Nature
Schedule:
The seminar starts on May 8 at 2 p.m. Please arrive a little earlier to settle into your rooms and pay the hotel. The seminar ends on May 13 after lunch.
We'll start work every morning at 9:30 and work in small groups in the evenings.
Location:
We'll be welcomed and pampered by Stéphanie at the Hotel Sunways in Champex, in the Swiss Alps. A sublime place and nature to help us die well. Please book your room directly with Carine, not through the hotel. Please specify any allergies or special dietary requirements when registering. All our meals are vegetarian.
What to bring:
- weather-appropriate clothing for outdoor work
- your whole being
- your personal history and relationship with death
- something to sit on - yoga mats available in the room
- if you have a song, poem or dance to share with the group for the closing of circles, welcome.
To register or request more information,
please contact Carine in Switzerland:
« Meredith dedicates her life to bringing back significant and culturally appropriate rites of passage for all people. These rites, which are intimately linked with the natural cycles of living and dying, are essential for a healthy life and a healthy world. She also devotes herself to the task of helping people reconnect with the deep roots of their own nature, which are reflected in the wisdom of the land around them. She is passionately committed to the diversity of life, to human nature, to the voice of ritual, and to the healing powers of community. » -Purpose Guides Institute
in partnership with RoP, Association for NATURE-based rites of passage
An Earth Exchange Café conversation with Trebbe Johnson and Meredith Little, December 15, 2022:
Meredith Little and her husband Steven Foster, co-founders of Rites of Passage, Inc. in 1976 and The School of Lost Borders in 1981, pioneered new methods and dynamics of pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness. These practices are now offered in communities throughout the world. After Steven's death in 2003, Meredith and Dr. Scott Eberle founded The Practice of Living and Dying, to break the taboos and silence that pervade the subject of death and to help restore dying to its natural place in the cycle of life. - Radical Joy for Hard Time - Trebbe Johnson