Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona - 9 Day Advanced Awareness Training Retreat (Cycles 3 & 4)
Mexico ( 4/10/2010 - 4/18/2010 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

This Advanced Awareness Training is open to anyone who has done at least one Sacred Passage with John before, or equivalent nature-communion and liberation-oriented meditation retreat work with other qualified teachers. John's teachings at this retreat will emphasize six areas: 1) Practices and principles to work deeply with Pan, the spirits of Nature and its devas: learning the process of attunement; 2} How to gather and refine the Essences of Nature for physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual transformation, transmutation and growth; 3} Internal Alchemy and its relation to harmonizing and balancing the elements - within and without; and 4) an introduction to the ecological principles that are Gaia's laws of natural system behavior that come into play whenever human beings modify the natural world; we will reveal how learning and following these ecosystem laws are vital to coming back into balance with all of life; 5) John will also uncover the pathways to deepening communion with the elements; the Taoist Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water; and and the Tibetan Shamanic Five Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. We will study what these two systems share in common and how they differ. We will also learn how to build on the strengths of each system and integrate the two approaches into a unified way of cultivating our work with the elements. Mastery of Nature's Elements is a critical key to cultivating both personal and societal balance and harmony of Inner and Outer Nature; and 6] John will also teach how to practice and refine the high art of dowsing; all participants will learn how to refine their skill at this practice and how to utilize it in working deeply with Nature.

The goal of the Advanced Awareness Training is to provide profound training leading to the recognition of one's True Nature - and also how to come into harmony and balance with outer Nature. The AAT is also designed to support providing retreat time for deep internal cultivation of the core Principles and Practices of the Way of Nature's Advanced Awareness Trainings. A third goal of the Training is to qualify and provide certification of Guides to lead NatureQuests, Sacred Passages and, ultimately, various forms of Advanced Training.

This Retreat continues the Fourth Cycle of John's popular Advanced Awareness Trainings. All are welcome to attend, including of course, those who have participated in his earlier Advanced Awareness Training Cycles.

John anticipates that we will hold an average of two or three retreats a year, with a longer summer or fall mountain retreat each year to go deeper into the teachings and to allow time for profound personal cultivation. Every effort will be made to keep the programs affordable and to hold them at times of the year when most students have more time available for retreat. The Program is designed to build deepening enthusiasm and great joy in this powerfully liberating process.

Periodically, programs will be offered abroad to provide the extraordinary transmissions made possible by certain sacred areas where John's own training has profound roots. John asks that participants who would like to continue with the Advanced Training Process commit to attending the majority of Retreat Trainings offered each year. This is important to allow the cumulative building of strong foundations each year for going deeper with the teachings and practices offered in each subsequent year.

Those who have studied and trained with John in the earlier Three Cycles of The Advanced Awareness Training often report extraordinary progress on their path to Liberation. Many students have also attained remarkable insight into their true purpose for being here in this life. Even more inspiring, based on this deep connection to their inner truth, many have been emerging as powerful catalysts and leaders for enlightened cultural change.

In addition, cultivating universal energy and communion with Source together over a number of years builds powerful and heartfelt spiritual community. This extraordinary bonding is a great support to spiritual progress as we progress along path of the Way of Nature.

Part of this Adavanced Awareness Training includes daily solo cultivation time in the beautiful mountains, rock spires and canyons surrounding the central Peaks of the beutiful, wild Chiricahuas.

$999 fee.
Teacher:
John P. Milton

Chiricahua Mountain Wilderness - 10 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Arizona ( 4/23/2010 - 5/02/2010 )
Sacred Passage

The Chiricahua Mountains are one of North America's most beautiful and biologically diverse areas. Elegant trogons (a close relative of the Mayan quetzal bird), raccoon-like coati mundis and dwarf deer may greet you in your wilderness quest camp. Golden butterflies, abundant bird life, and rich forests surround your solo camp with one of the most biologically-diverse and abundant environments in North America.

John has discovered ancient stone meditation seats throughout this ancient vision quest valley, which he will teach you to use during your Awareness Training. Numerous individuals have accomplished profound spiritual openings with the help of these primordial shamanic sites. A beautiful stream flows past most of the the solo quest sites, lush with large ponderosa pines and alligator juniper. Nearby cliffs provide soaring views, lifting the spirit towards Source.

Our private base camp cabins', constructed of local stone, are located next to the Chiricahua Wilderness Area; they provide a superb, comfortable support for The Awareness Training with full kitchen, refrigeration, shower and camping facilities. A lovely stream flows through our retreat center, making stream bathing possible, and deep pine forests surround us - filled with ideal locations for our outdoor Awareness Training prior to your solo quest. This Chiricahua Mountain Range is one of the most remote, pristine and beautiful areas in the American Southwest.

$999 fee.
Guide: Led by
John P. Milton

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 5/21/2010 - 5/31/2010 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing.

$1188 fee.
Teacher and Guide:
John P. Milton or Senior Way of Nature Guide

16 Day Advanced Awareness Training Meditation Retreat
Colorado ( 8/07/2010 - 8/22/2010 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

This Advanced Awareness Training meditation Retreat will focus on training in the following subjects:

1) Mahamudra & Dzogchen - Practical applications for recognition of the Natural State during this retreat's 8 Day solo; an emphasis on how to stabilize this recognition in everyday life.

2) Taoist Internal Alchemy, T'ai Chi and its applications in Sensing Hands.

3) GaiaFlow, levels One and Two

4) Working with Pan, The Nature Spirits, Devas and the Elements, Part 2 (the first part was taught at this year's Spring Retreat in the Chiricahua Mountains).

5) Advanced Two-person Dyadic Practices to help simltaneous recognition of Source Awareness in Oneself and One's Partner.

6) an interfaith immersion in the devotional paths of the Goddess, emphasizing Kali, Durga, Tara and Bagala Ma.

This meditation and energy cultivation retreat is part of our powerful, heart-opening Advanced Awareness Training. As is apparent from the above outline, this Training focuses deeply on spiritual and energy principles and practices from Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Taoist, Hindu Tantric and Western Shamanic traditions. It also introduces, for the first time, a deeper immersion in GaiaFlow - a liberating Sacred Movement system that is unique to the Way of Nature Fellowship. We will continue to deepen the GaiaFlow Training through its third, fourth and fifth levels in later retreats.

We will also go deeper with Teachings on GaiaFlow, and refining how the principles of T'ai Chi and Qi Gong Training apply to deepening GaiaFlow practice. John will also share his series of dyadic (two-person) practices that he designed to realize Source in each other, as well as in Oneself, in close relationship. This series of practices could be described as interpersonal Dzogchen, with an applied continuing view of Source as the basis for all relationships and their changes.

Eight Days in the middle of this Advanced Training will be devoted to solo Mountain Retreat to practice John's teachings at a deep level.

Our summer 2010, 16 Day session of John's Advanced Awareness Training will be held in one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places: Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Southern Colorado. This Advanced Training will be open to anyone who has done at least one Sacred Passage with John before, or equivalent nature-based meditation retreat work with another teacher. Both current Advanced Awareness Training Cycles 3 and 4 are encouraged to attend this AAT Summer Retreat.

Five 14,000-foot summits lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. For deepening our study and training together, this protected land is ideal: lovely groves of aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; juniper and pinyon pine meadows wash right up to the mountains. Higher, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the rugged peaks. Eagles circle above. A large, clear stream flows more than a mile through the private, protected land of Gaia Sanctuary, where we do our solos and Advanced Training.

Native peoples trace back their vision questing and sacred ceremony here for over 15,000 years. An ancient name for this place is "The Corridor of Visions." Virtually all of the Advanced Training is done within the area of the "Sacred Land Trust" (also known locally as "Gaia Sanctuary") just north of Crestone - an area filled with literally 1000's of the Stone Meditation Seats first discovered by John in the early 1980's.

All those who have participated in any previous Sacred Passage or Advanced Awareness Training Retreats are welcome at this Retreat.

$1440 fee
Teacher:
John Milton

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 8/27/2010 - 9/06/2010 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing.

$1188 fee
Guide: John P. Milton

Sacred Passage and Workshops and Lectures with John P. Milton in Australia
Pacific Basin ( 11/05/2010 - 11/28/2010 )
Sacred Passage
Tai Chi Training

We are happy to announce our second Sacred Passage in Australia in November 2010. This program is co-hosted with the Way of Nature by Australia's Ensemble Partners and The Way of Nature's Australian Chapter, headed by David Hodes and other Australian leaders (http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/). John will also be conducting several workshops on T'ai Chi for Liberation, meditation and Qigong. He will also give several public lectures on the Way of Nature while in Australia. For details and exact dates for attending this exciting new Sacred Passage program (scheduled for Nov 5 through 15th) and the other events, contact Gillian or David Hodes and Ensemble Partners by phone at: +61 2 9387 3955 or by the website: www.ensemblepartners.com.au

For an inspiring outline on how Wilderness solos, Awareness Trainings and Sacred Passage-style Vision Quests and Nature Quests can provide Creative Visioning opportunities for leaders and organizational groups see: http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/index.php/systems-thinking/vision-quest-2009/vision-quest-2009.html

Ensemble's description of our first Australian Sacred passage included:

"As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program, in April 2009, Ensemble, in conjunction with the Way of Nature Fellowship's Australian chapter was privileged to host John P Milton, who guided a unique and special program known as Sacred Passage. Ensemble invites you to come and join us for the new Nov 2010 Passage, held together with John P. Milton for this very unique occasion."

"John P. Milton is a pioneering ecologist, spiritual teacher, meditation master, vision quest leader and shaman of international note who has led solo nature retreats for international leaders and members of the general public for many years."

"Since the 1950's, John has guided thousands of people into the wilderness, always sharing with them a profound connection with Nature, and a deep commitment to the realization of Source Awareness."

Our second Sacred Passage in Australia will be held from Nov 5 to 15 on beautiful Flinders Island , located between SE Australia and Tasmania. The training will include deep Awareness Training to help individuals and leaders clearly access their source of creativity. This Training will be accompanied by a carefully designed, safe solo journey into nature, modelled in part on the solo journeys of indigenous cultures like the Native American Vision Quest and the Indigenous Australian Walkabout. One unique aspect of our Australian Passage will be the inclusion of creative elements inspired by the continent's ancient aboriginal means for realizing inner truth. As with all our programs, solo journeys into nature modeled after ancient wisdom traditions are a time-tried way to reconnect to nature, reflect upon oneself and access profound levels of creative insight.

For costs and other details, call: +61 2 9387 3955 or online at: http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/

Baja California's Wild Pacific Coast - 12 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Mexico ( 1/13/2011 - 1/24/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Immerse yourself in a sacred journey to Baja California's wild, beautiful Pacific Coast. We will also spend time in the lovely historic town of Todos Santos, the "Santa Fe" of Baja California. Our Nature and Source Awareness Training is based at our lovely La Via Natural Retreat Center near Todos Santos. The town is set in the middle of a natural oasis of tropical gardens with palms, mangos, papayas, bananas and citrus - these local gardens provide us with our own fresh fruit and local food during John's Training before and after the coastal wilderness solos. This
prrogram's Nature and Awareness Training will share extensive teachings on John's universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. They will also teach on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements. The integrated solo time allows for a great deepening of these practices and is heart-opening and soul-enlivening

For those who would like the option of staying in nearby Todos Santos during the Awareness Training part of the Retreat, we can help you with local accomodations in our three recommended facilities; Hacienda Todos Los Santos Guest House Inn, or The Todos Santos inn - both beautiful and elegantly appointed accomodations in the heart of Todos Santos near our La Via Natural Retreat Center. A clean, charming more budget-minded option also centrally-located is Hotel Maria Bonita. For those desiring to camp, our beautiful campground at La Via Natural is available at no additional cost for the Sacred Passage Retreat. We have showers and a lovely private campground shaded by palm trees. La Via Natural is only a 5 minute easy walk to town and many fine local restaurants. The beach is an easy 15 minute walk from our retreat center.

Your solo is on a secluded beach, often in a beautiful cove enclosed by hills, bluffs and mountains. Most people are visited by friendly whales and dolphins during their solo. Bird life abounds, and a powerful ocean inspires communion with the depth of your Being. Watching the sunsets from these secluded beaches is incredible. From each solo site, clear skies stretch out over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean - opening your Heart and merging your Spirit with sky and ocean's spaciousness and light.

Your Nature and Awareness Training before and after the solo is deep and soul-enlivening. This Training will share extensive teachings on John's universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. He will also teach extensively on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements.

$1350 fee.
Guides:
John P. Milton

Baja California's Wild Pacific Coast - 12 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Mexico ( 2/10/2011 - 2/21/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Immerse yourself in a sacred journey to Baja California's wild, beautiful Pacific Coast. We will also spend time in the lovely historic town of Todos Santos, the "Santa Fe" of Baja California. Our Nature and Source Awareness Training is based at a our lovely La Via Natural Retreat Center near Todos Santos. The town is set in the middle of a natural oasis of tropical gardens with palms, mangos, papayas, bananas and citrus - these local gardens provide us with our own fresh fruit and local food during John's Training before and after the coastal wilderness solos.

For those who would like the option of staying in nearby Todos Santos during the Awareness Training part of the Retreat, we can help you with local accommodations in our three recommended facilities; Hacienda Todos Los Santos Guest House Inn, or The Todos Santos inn - both beautiful and elegantly appointed accomodations in the heart of Todos Santos near our La Via Natural Retreat Center. A clean, charming more budget-minded option also centrally-located is Hotel Maria Bonita. For those desiring to camp, our beautiful campground at La Via Natural is available at no additional cost for the Sacred Passage Retreat. We have showers, simple cooking facilities, and a lovely private campground shaded by palm trees. La Via Natural is only a 5 minute easy walk to town and many fine local restaurants. The beach is an easy 15 minute walk from our retreat center.

Your solo is on a secluded beach, often in a beautiful cove enclosed by hills, bluffs and mountains. Most people are visited by friendly whales and dolphins during their solo. Bird life abounds, and a powerful ocean inspires communion with the depth of your Being. Watching the sunsets from these secluded beaches is incredible. From each solo site, clear skies stretch out over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean - opening your Heart and merging your Spirit with sky and ocean's spaciousness and light.

Your Nature and Awareness Training with John P. Milton before and after the solo is deep and soul-enlivening. John will share extensive teachings on his universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. He will also teach extensively on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements.

$1350 fee.
Guide & Teacher: John P. Milton

Moab and Canyonlands, Utah - 9 Day Awareness Training, Meditation Retreat & NatureQuest Solo
Arches and Canyonlands-SW USA ( 3/12/2011 - 3/20/2011 )
Sacred Passage

This 9 Day Awareness Training, Naturequest Solo and Meditation Retreat will bring our AAT Community together in one of the world's most beautiful and spectacular natural areas .

Beautiful red, white and orange slickrock canyons, waterfalls, extraordinary rock arches and other stone formations create one of our favorite places to enter the Sacred Way. You experience a land that evokes visions of dinosaurs and ancient beings, whose shapes are echoed in the formations of the canyons. Explore the numinous qualities and distinctive energies hidden within the radiant red rock canyons, pristine waterfalls, exquisite natural arches and stone spires of this spectacular region.

Part of this retreat will build on the Dzogchen transmissions John has provided in earlier Retreats. He will emphasize teachings from the great Dzogchen master, Longchenpa. This teaching holds some of the purest teachings of the Way of Natural Perfection. John will also teach on a series of Dzogchen practices to clear, open and empower our right, left and central channels. Half our teaching time will be devoted to both of these extraordinary Dzogchen Teachings.

The retreat will also emphasize some of John's teachings on Taoist Internal Alchemy. He will select from some of the following: Opening the Micro and Macrocosmic Orbit Circulations, Fusion Practice, and a new series of Qi (Chi) Energy Cultivation practices that help with the conversion from Jing to Qi, from Qi to Shen (Spirit) and from Shen to Wuji. Overall, the Advanced Awareness Training emphasis in 2008 and 2009 will include a significant emphasis on cultivating Internal Energy through a series of esoteric yet very practical both Taoist and Dzogchen techniques.

Daily T'ai Chi for Enlightenment training on form will also be included. Also, daily "Sensing Hands/Push hands' practice will be taught. John will also teach on the linkages between these Taoist practices and Tibetan Buddhist, Bon, Native American, and Dzogchen teachings and practices.

We will also go deeper with Teachings on GaiaFlow, and refining how the principles of T'ai Chi and Qi Gong Training apply to deepening GaiaFlow practice. John will also share his series of dyadic (two-person) practices that he designed to realize Source in each other, as well as in Oneself, in close relationship. This series of practices could be described as interpersonal Dzogchen, with an applied continuing view of Source as the basis for all relationships and their changes.

There will be four days of wilderness solo to cultivate these advanced practices during this retreat. The whole focus is on the teachings and the chance for individual meditation retreat practice in the solitude of the wilderness.

All are welcome to attend this retreat.

This Retreat will embrace the vast spaces and natural luminosity of Utah's Canyon Country. The land and John's unique training will integrate to support the special practices he will be teaching - an inner cultivation that will help us to recognize our Primordial Awareness that underlies all Being.

$999 fee.
Teacher: John P. Milton

Sami Traditional Reindeer Mountains, near Are, Sweden - Special Advanced Awareness Training in one of Europe's Last Wildernesses
Europe ( 6/04/2011 - 6/12/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

Co-sponsored with The Way of Nature by Goran Gennvi and Sweden's Naturakademin, this special Nature Retreat is designed to provide an Advanced Awareness Training accessible to Africans, Asians and Europeans. This is the first in a series of special Advanced Training Retreats planned abroad over the next several years. We are also blessed by the support of Reidar Nordfjall, Kerstin Angantyr and the Great Sami People who have generously provided their wild traditional Sami Reindeer Range for part of our training and solo retreats.

This powerful awareness Training will explore a variety of ways to deepen the experience of Unity with all life.

Building on the Pathfinder's pioneering training, John P. Milton will teach a variety of principles and practices that lead to the direct experience of inner and outer Nature as Sacred. Many of these practices are rarely taught in modern society, so this Training provides a unique opportunity to learn them. They provide all who learn them with powerful "keys" to open the Heart and experience oneness with Nature. They also ground the experience of recognizing pure Source Awareness as the ultimate foundation of all perceptions and all of Nature, both inner and outer.

As Pathfinders, we will learn the GaiaFlow Sacred Movement system as a means for experiencing communion with all life through Nature-connected, flowing postures. We will also learn how to develop Natural Mandala Awareness through a deep exploration of relaxation techniques, presencing and the refinement of sensing exercises. Visualization practices and Ceremonies to honor The Sacred Circle (Sphere) will also aid us as Pathfinders. We will go deep into dyadic (two-person) exercises (both moving and stationary) to dissolve the usual personal barriers to non-dual awareness. Lastly, we will cultivate profound ways to safely purify, refine, amplify and store universal energy. In The Way of Nature we follow three interconnected Pathways to Unity and Liberation: the Pathway of Universal Energy, the Pathway of the Open Heart and the Pathway of Awareness. The spontaneous unification of these three Pathways leads to full Liberation. This Advanced Awareness Training will cultivate all three Pathways at a deep level.

One of the goals of this training is to deepen the process of "Pathfinding," and to help support the training and certification of new guides in the global growth of Nature Quests, Sacred Passages, Rites of Passage and Vision Quests.

For more information and to register contact Goran Gennvi:
Telephone: +46 8 716 3677
email: gennvi@naturakademin.se

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 8/25/2011 - 9/06/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing..

$1188 fee.
Guide: John P. Milton

Sacred Island of Bali - 10 Day Advanced Awareness Training & Pilgrimage (Open to all)
Asia ( 11/08/2011 - 11/18/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

Join us on a 10 day Advanced Awareness Training and Pilgrimage to magical, sacred Bali. Our teacher and guide, John Milton, has led pilgrimage and done spiritual practice here over many years. The extraordinarily friendly people of this amazing Hindu island culture have preserved one of Southeast Asia's most deeply spiritual ways of life. We will immerse ourselves deeply in Bali's ceremonies, sacred temples and incredibly beautiful landscapes. Our Balinese friends will share their secrets to opening a life of harmony, ceremony, beauty and sacredness in every step.

In addition, John will teach his carefully-developed system of Qi Gong for health, for revitalization, for building powerful life force and for spiritual development. Qi Gong, which is a major foundation of Chinese health care, is easy to learn, safe for all ages, and fun to practice. John will also teach on Taoist Internal Alchemy - a spectrum of powerful practices for spiritual illumination at the heart of the Taoist Path. Additional teachings on Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu will complement the strong immersion in Taoist cultivation at this retreat. John will also share meditations from his extensive background training in the meditation practices of many traditions. With John's 12 Principles for Spiritual Cultivation as our guide, each day we will devote at least three hours to learning and cultivating complementary forms of Qi Gong, Advanced Taoist Yoga, Dzogchen, Tantra and practices from other meditation systems.

Devotional cultivation of the path to the Divine Feminine will be an important part of our Bali Retreat. This will focus on honoring of Kali, Durga and Bagalama through ceremony, prayer, mantra and meditation as part of our deep exploration and cultivation of the Divine Feminine.

John is keeping this pilgrimage-based Advanced Retreat open to those new students who are either joining the Advanced Awareness training for the first time, to students who have done training or Passages with John before, and to those wanting to experience deep Pilgrimage on this extraordinarily sacred island.

With the help of the rich tradition of spiritual teachers from Bali, we will also delve deeply into the ceremonies, practices and modes of spiritual cultivation of the remarkable Balinese People. In particular, we will discover the Balinese mastery of bringing the Sacred View into every aspect of everyday life - and explore how to create this spiritual harmony in our own lives, wherever we are.

$999 Fee for John's Teaching
(meals, housing & land transport costs shared upon request)
teacher: John P. Milton