Soul Journey in wild nature developing personal vision and awareness: mystical relation to nature skills development, soul retrieval, spirit guide connection, overnight solo vision quest in Sedona area, prayer, attention and intention, ceremony, dreams, emotional healing, new mythology.

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Inspiring, Insightful, Personal Experiences of Sedona, Arizona, the Ancient Southwest & your inner vision.

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Vision Quest Retreat: Hopi and
Canyon de Chelly

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Vision Quest in Nature
Sedona, Arizona


A 6-7 Day
 Soul Journey Retreat in the landscape temples of Sedona, Arizona

The 6-7 day retreat includes more intensive soul connection, clearing work
than the 4-day retreat plus the act of power of staying out alone in wild nature for one night .

 

"Darkness and silence were tangible things. She felt them. And they seemed suddenly potent with magic charm to still the tumult of her, to sooth and rest, to create thoughts she had never had before...loneliness was necessary to gain consciousness of the soul."
Zane Grey's words from Call of the Canyon in 1924
still speak to us today

 

"What is it exactly that called me here? Mystery is what called me here--the answers to questions I hadn't known yet to ask, hadn't lived yet. Something Wise knew I was getting ready to ask those questions--and to hear the answers, and it called me in so that we could talk."
Shay Panther , March, 2002

"The greatest friend of the soul is the unknown. Yet we are afraid of the unknown because it lies outside our vision and our control. We avoid it or quell it by filtering it through our protective barriers of domestication and control. The normal way never leads home."
Jon O'Donohue

 

 

 
Divine Communion with our own soul
is what vision quest has come to mean to me.

Present now is a rising tide of new energy, a positive surge there for us at this time in the evolution of humans on earth. Full of potentiality we can vision into a new reality. This is a time of each of us now today accepting the call to be our own shaman-healer.  No longer the sole province of the magician-seer as in times past, but a birthright, a gift, a calling voicing through each of us. 

Something inside is longing to see the bigger picture of who you are. Maybe eagle has been coming in your dreams, calling you out to the silence of the desert. You know you are not expressing your fire, there is a longing that is calling you to be more than you know you are.

We resist, yet are irretrievably drawn. At some point we feel limited or get tired of repeating old patterns and we give in to the call of our soul. The first step is to create a powerful intention for change and step out of your busy life away from familiar surroundings. You step over the edge of your known boundaries into the creative terrain of the unknown.

When your heart issues that call to pilgrimage and you answer and go to a place with great natural energy and power, you receive cellular level stimulation, awakening. Entering with a child-like sense of awe, heart wide open, in reverence and prayer opens the door. This is really a pilgrimage to your own heart-- an act of great love and courage to just be with you.

Going alone into wild nature at night builds personal confidence and power as you use your awareness tools and trust in Source to overcome fears that arise. This is an ancient way of connecting with your own soul.

You don't necessarily get a technicolor movie spelling out your big vision, but you become more tuned in, more receptive in your day to day basis life.You listen more to your heart's yearning and each new bold step out opens more doors of creative expreession taking you places you never would have imagined. You gain confidence and a new fire that people will see in the new depths of your eyes.

Simply being alive and fully present in the moment opens a direct connection to all of Creation which shamans call a state of ecstatic union. If you can feel this even for a moment, it will change your life forever. In the seeming simplest ways is hidden profound wisdom. The gateway is within.

A Hopi elder once said, to be wise, first you must ask. then pay attention, and then it is up to you.

A mythological landscape designed for soul communion in nature

I have created an integrated program that helps you open the pathways to your own soul's knowing based out of years of learning shamanism directly from wild nature, my dreams, my guides, Native peoples and other wisdom keepers of many traditions. This is your time of divine communion with your own soul supported by powerful east-west practices of self-awareness, shamanic healing and soul retrieval. I have found that this sequential process is necessary for people coming from today's modern cultures. Most of the work is in clearing the mind, releasing stress and old programs so you can be fully present and aware here and now.

If this feels right, if you feel ready, I am here for you. Creator gifted me with the ability to hold space for people, to see and reflect back their soul's gifts in an honoring way, to assist you in creating movement in your life. But your own intention and willingness to be in loving communion with all that you are without judgment gives wings to your journey!
Sandra Cosentino

Develop skills with:

- Attention
- Intention
- Focused awareness
- Signs from dreams, nature, your inner being
- Trusting what you perceive

- Cognitive dreaming
- Ceremony

- Trusting the universe listens to you
- Connecting with your inner power, fire and seeing
- Tracking how you use your energy
- Reclaiming more of your vibrant soul's presence in your life.
- Courage to see and live your truth
- Seeing yourself in a bigger view, seeding potent-realities


 

Experience shamanic journey and nature awareness to gain insights, guidance and connect with spirit helpers. We will use these skills to deepen knowledge that comes us from dreams, signs, symbols and the constant flow of energies around and within us. Gain new balance, receive shamanic healing in the Circle of Power Ceremony.

You will make a power shield of native willow you gather and shape as a frame for rawride on which you will paint your insights and visions to take home with you as a tangible support of your personal medicine. Experience too the sacred sound of your own voice and the voice of the drum as we create our own songs, voice the songs of the rocks and trees.

Soul Images Painted on Personal Medicine Shields

" It was truly a magical adventure. I am still processing the experience, but I can honestly say that it has changed me on many levels. I feel in the world, but not of it. My awareness, not only of my environment, but my body's energies has increased dramatically. I actually feel energy surges. It's very strange, but very exciting. Everyone should expose themselves to the raw beauty of nature. It's an eye opening and heart opening experience."
Laura G., Ohio (her shield is bottom one).
May, 2001

"We're very proud of what we accomplished this past week, getting to know our true selves better, and camping overnight. You were wonderful and we thank you immensely.
Tracy and Sean , Virginia
May, 2007

 

"In the purity of connection to wild nature, we have direct access to all of Creation. Domestication diminishes our direct knowing--as a wise Peruvian shaman told me years ago: "think of the difference between an eagle and a chicken."

 

"We all have our own ground to work, you know. You have yours, too. You just have to find out what it is. But you know what? It is right on the edge of yourself. At the cliff edge of life. That's the edge you go to. Put yourself in conversation with that edge no matter how frightening it seems. Look down over that edge." David Whyte, Crossing An Unknown Sea.

 

Nature, Soul and Vision Article
"When your heart issues that call to pilgrimage and you answer and go to a place with great natural energy and power, you receive cellular level stimulation, awakening. Entering with a child-like sense of awe, heart wide open, in reverence and prayer opens the door. This is really a pilgrimage to your own heart-- an act of great love and courage to just be with you.

article...The Power of Sound to Heal,
to Create New Life
"The very air seems to shiver and vibrate as a multitude of harmonic tones reaches out into an infinite universe. The essence of your cells -- your very being -- reacts, reorganizes, and harmonizes. "

article: The Patterns in the Stars are Patterns in Us.
Here in the Colorado Plateau country, a magical region lifted to the sky, the stars are a constant, abiding presence. High altitudes, transparent atmosphere, wide spaces of crystalline rock bring the stars into our nightscape. Comforting, reassuring, tantalizing, felt as an essential part of our inner landscape. The patterns in the stars are patterns in us--ancient wisdom from this land whose meaning I have sought for years.

 

Please see other related articles:

Listening, Flow and Change

Answering the Call of the Desert article

What is Healing--Sage Words from Native American Wisdom Keepers

 


Program:

These are the program elements, the exact sequence may vary. To really work with full integration of dream work, nature practices, prayer tie making, prayer, developing a practice of courage and prescence on your own in between our sessions makes a very full week.

Before you come to Sedona:
Guidance on preparation, suggested reading, and setting a powerful intention.

Day 1
Nature, Soul and Vision
Re-Visioning Your Destiny all day experience amid Sedona's landscape temples with water purification ceremony at a prehistoric site. Reading the signs, open to nature, connecting with powerful spirit helpers.

Day 2

Soul Journey session 1--Inner Pathways--focusing on emotional release, lucid dream skills, tracking energies, and the development of Presence. Chakra clearing, sound healing with Himalyan instruments.

Practical teachings on safety, wilderness mindfulness, dealing with your fears of being alone outdoors. Instructions in creating your sacred space. Shape willow hoop and prepare your shield.


Afternoon time on your own practicing communication with nature, walking meditation and shapeshifting.

Day 3

Soul Journey Session 2: Soul Retrieval Seminar

Afternoon solo practice in nature
Make prayer ties, deepen and clarify your intention, clear your mind

Evening Nature, Soul Vision: starlight stories, mini-vision quest and walking quest experiences

Day 4
Soul Journey session 3: Continue Soul Retrieval work, past life journey, recapitulation and redreaming yourself ceremony,

Afternoon time in nature: find your power song, practice soul in nature communion skills, hike to move your energies

Dawn or Dusk Medicine Wheel Healing Ceremony

Day 5
Morning session: dream sharing, deepening work with staying present with your feelings and shifting embedded patterns.

Solo overnight option (included):
Sunset to sunrise under the stars and moon in soul communion.
I stay out overnight nearby in support of your journey. If overnight is too challenging, you could elect to just do it for the evening.

Day 6:
Dawn return ceremony and discussion of your experience. Hopi blue corn pancake breakfast.

Late afternoon to evening:
Staying in dream-like communion space as you paint symbols on your shield, process your experience

Day 7:
During the day write your new mythology as you review signs, symbols, awarenesses that came all week in dreams, shamanic journeys and nature work

Evening closing circle creating the return threshhold, sharing your New Story and final soul journey session with moving into the future focus, preparing to go back over the threshold into your regular life.

Day 8 option, not included:
Hopi Mesas Journey
Taking in the energy these ancient lands pregnant with millennia of prayers and the warmth and reverence of the Hopi people is a great, celebratory way to close out and integrate your vision quest retreat.

Day 9 option, not included:
Canyon de Chelly Journey to experience Navajo prayers and communion with Holy Ones, jeep ride into this magnificent womb like canyon, plus a fire ceremony or sweatlodge, depending on availability.

Sweat lodge: inquire about availability and cost

Massage and energy work session

Yoga is highly recommended and available at 2 studios for $15 per session.

We recommend you allow yourself at least another day and night
in Sedona to integrate and process your experience.

Registration

We provide you with necessary gear and field support.

This is not for everyone. You may be physically uncomfortable as well as have to deal with fears of wild critters and of being alone with yourself with no distractions. You must take responsibility for your own well being. It is also essential to come without expectations, just a willingness to be with you and to listen. And then it is up to you to integrate this into your own life on return. One of my wise mentors once said: "When Spirit takes the energy to send you signs, you must act on it, or they won't keep bringing them to you."

Cost:
1 person, $2,100;
2 people, $1,400 each;
3 or more people, $1,100 each

Options, not included:
--sweatlodge with authentic lodge leader, if available
--personal session with Native American spiritual teacher

(In winter, if done indoors, the price will be discounted)

Lodging is not included.

To reserve your space, please send a $300 deposit made out to Sandra Cosentino to the address below (refundable less $150 with notification 60 days prior. The balance is due by 35 days prior to retreat. Payments are non-refundable and non-transferable after 35 days prior to the retreat).
Plus a $300 deposit the Hopi, Can. de Chelly Journey.

Please let me know:
--what is your intention for yourself?
--are you willing to do some preparation work to make this more meaningful for you?
--are you willing to be present with yourself and your Source?

We will send you more specific details and preparation information once you send in your registration. We will recommend retreat-friendly places to stay in Sedona and transportation options from the Phoenix airport to Sedona.

Lodging for one night is included in the Hopi-Navajo journey. But you will need a room in Sedona the evening we return.

OPTIONS TO EXTEND YOUR EXPERIENCE:

Part 2: Hopi & Canyon de Chelly
We will continue the vision quest experience with a special journey to Hopi and Navajo Indian lands: visits to villages, special blessing circle at Hopi, spending time with the people in their homes, traditional food lunch in a home, Navajo prayers and communion with Holy Ones, jeep ride into this magnificent womb like canyon, plus a Navajo sweatlodge.

$575 with 4 people minimum, goes down to $525 with 6
with lodging, jeep tour, Hopi full day experience, Navajo sweatlodge included for Sedona retreat participants (additional if only doing the Hopi-Navajo trip).

1 day Hopi Journey is $195 plus tax based on 4 people minimum,
but do have a self-drive option with intro in Sedona and then go up and meet Hopi guide

Facilitator

Sandra Cosentino, an earth-spirited facilitator-teacher native to Arizona and founder of Crossing Worlds. Her informed passion, mystical understandings, intuition, work with spirit helpers and shamanic healing, and honoring of the wisdom-spirit that dwells in each of us, create a bridge for you to enter this world.

With 4 or more people will include a Native wisdom keeper guest presenter

Please see more information and quotes on vision quest below!

Canyon de Chelly Earth Medicine Retreat
 with Native sweatlodge and 5 days of wilderness camping, a day with Hopi peoples
--June, 2008--

"The vision quest is a spiritual journey to wisdom that has been practiced by people for as long as history can remember. The resulting visions are recorded in cave drawings and described in the oral traditions of cultures throughout the world. Native North Americans believed that animals took vision quests when they hibernated during the long winter months. Christ's forty days in the wilderness was a vision quest. Many of the prayers, meditations, and rituals used by the world's religions originally were developed as vehicles for the vision quest. .. We and the other "moderns" on this planet are perhaps the first people in history not to practice some form of the vision quest as a regular part of our education process."
(John Perkins from
The World is as You Dream It, Shamanic Teachings from the Amazon and Andes)

In the Words of our Participants

"The retreat has sent me off on an exciting new spiritual journey. Connecting with the universe through nature has grounded me and set my spirit soaring at the same time."
Sharron Norton, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sept., 2005

"Sandra, when my soul called me to come out and do the full retreat with you, it was such a blessing. I came full of fear and anxiety, missing and longing for a piece of me that had been lost. Through your guidance I pulled out a giant cork that had been stopping up a well inside me for many years. I found a self-acceptance and self-validation. I know I will never be the same again. Anyone who has felt that longing of emptiness should take the full retreat with you. The training leading up the the vision quest is indispensable. The vision quest itself is like a favortie topping on a favorite dessert. This is truly a journey of the self. I anyone is feeling that call, they should definitely come here. Thank you so much!"
Neal Lieberman, Birthing Tiger
Aug., 2004

"We had an excellent experience with Sandra and our Sedona Vision Quest retreat. This was the very first time we had done a retreat, and we of course had some reservations, but we were instantly put at ease by Sandra's genuine kindness, and intuitive abilities. We were able to experience the beauty of Sedona while simultaneously tapping into the beauty of our own souls through shamanic journey work, nature exploration, journaling, and crafts. We felt more whole going home than we did when we arrived in Sandra's care, and we are the better for it!" Tracy and Sean, Virgina, May, 2007

Barbara Furlotte came from eastern Canada to Sedona, Arizona after months of preparing for her solo journey in nature never having camped before. I was honored to support her in her powerful intention for deepened soul awareness. Here are her insightful words:

"First I would like to say that there was a lot of preparation before going out into the desert. And that this was something I was drawn to do for a long time. On my Solo journey I could feel a deeper knowing . It is hard to put into words, but I just knew that I was not alone. I had nothing to fear alone in the desert or in my life. That feeling is with me still.

What you accomplish on a Solo journey depends on your reason for doing it. What is your intention for going into nature alone, and how willing and open are you to what may come to you. Most people I think use the Solo experience to find themselves or to deepen an already strong connection to spirit. Whatever the reason, if it is done authentically, it will change your life forever.

A journey alone is really the only way to connect with yourself. You rely and trust only on your own instincts. You pay more attention to your gut feelings. You are not following another's advice or opinions, you do not have the false security of others around you. You are not trusting another to keep you safe and out of harms way. Nothing and no one can give you the confidence and courage to trust yourself, to live your life fearlessly only your own connection to spirit can do that.

I do know that all spiritual masters spent many years of their lives alone with nature. This should tell you of the powerful energy of nature. The same life energy in nature is also within us, we just have to stop our way too busy lives long enough to feel it. Being alone gives you a more peaceful and aware feeling towards your own life. You begin to see things in your life differently and you begin to react with more understanding and Love to the situations in your life. And I do believe that LOVE is the most powerful energy known to us all !!!! "
Barbara Furlotte, Canada
Sept., 2000
 

updated March 4, 2008

Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats
P O Box 623
Sedona, AZ 86339

1-800-350-2693 for quick info calls
Office:  928-203-0024
eMail: journeys@crossingworlds.com


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