Healing Waters: Rites of Passage & the Embodied Masculine

Join us for this unique opportunity to explore the masculine traditions of the Esselen Tribe, integrated with the fundamentals of the 5Rhythms® movement practice. Answer the call of 55000 Highway 1’s healing waters and travel with Douglas and Little Bear on a hero’s journey. Together, we will explore what it means to embody the sacred masculine in this modern world. With courage, integrity, and receptivity, we will create renewed understandings of masculinity as a group and learn how we, as men, can “walk our talk.”

Healthy and uplifting rites of passage have always been an important aspect of humanity, yet they are largely missing from modern society. People from all walks of life and religions have historically gone through different experiences and coming-of-age ceremonies to prove they were ready to move into their next stage of life. Men were traditionally taught by their fathers, grandfathers, and uncles, but this traditional upbringing is now missing for many. In order to overcome today’s accepted norms of masculinity, it is important for men to be able to find solace with one another, learn from one another, and relate at the heart level.

In this weeklong workshop, we will have the opportunity to:

• Learn about the practice of acknowledging the land.
• Use dance, voice, and 5Rhythms® movement to feel into our bodies.
• Participate in the reconstruction of traditional rites of passage.
• Seek deeper connection with Mother Earth.

The intentions for our week together are to create a sacred space for men to come together and reignite our sacred fire, as well as to build a new bridge to manhood — to gentle warriorhood. 

Guest Faculty: Musicians Sanga of the Valley and Nick Ayers will accompany this workshop, and faculty Mac Murphy will also join us.

Sanga of the Valley has played African drums from an early age. Sanga moved to New York City in 1970 from Trinidad, where he met Babatunde Olatunji and became one of Olatunji’s students. Sanga went on to be one of Olatunji’s lead djembe players and spent 25 years as a member of Olatunji’s Drums of Passion. Sanga of the Valley has worked with artists such as Carlos Santana, Nina Simone, the Grateful Dead, the Neville Brothers, and Stanley Jordan.

Nick Ayers has been a professional musician and dancer for over 25 years. Nick knows the sensitivities of deep listening. He is a massage practitioner at Esalen Institute and the creator of the Wavetable, a vibro-acoustic sound table that massages the body through his original musical compositions.

Mac Murphy is a practitioner of human transformation, massage, and bodywork and embodiment practices. He grew up in Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco, among the redwood ridges and beaches surrounding Mt. Tamalpais. That’s where he fell in love with the magic of nature. Mac is a fourth-generation steward of the land of Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. There is a pristine rawness of nature at Esalen, an ancient ground with a profound human history dating back 10,000 years, when the Esselen People first arrived there at the end of the last Ice Age. The powerful energy of the land lives inside of him.

If you would like to begin your own journey to understand the past and present of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey Country or to support the tribe in the progress of its work, please visit www.esselentribe.org.