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North
American School of Geomancy
Over the past 15 years Ana and Marko Pogacnik have
developed an original approach to geomancy, where working
with vital forces, elemental beings, and centers of the
landscape is linked to the awakening of the personal sensitivity
and inner evolution of the participants. As a result, participants
have the opportunity to find their own way of perceiving
and interpreting phenomena within and around them without
being attached to a certain technique or belief system.
The basis of the teaching is a holistic way of perception
that includes body, mind and heart, coupled with the freedom
of loving the Earth and Universe.
In 2006 Marko and Ana Pogacnik, with the support
of Steiner Books, instituted a two-year North American geomancy
course. Following several years of workshops and talks in
the US and Canada, in the summer of 2005 Marko led a workshop
at the Omega Institute in New York State that served as
the immediate catalyst for creating the course. In 2006
three workshops were held in different locations and were
open to anyone interested in attending. The three workshops
scheduled for 2007 are limited to students who attended
the 2006 workshops.
Reflections,
Previous Workshops
The 2006 geomancy workshops were the first year of
a two-year program on geomancy and personal growth led by
Ana and Marko Pogacnik. These reflections were written by
program participants to convey impressions and recollections
about each of the workshop experiences.
Omega Institute, 2005
New York, June 2005 - Waliyah Grandison
The group that gave a container to this Geomancy
School taught by Marko and Ana Pogacnik met for 5 days June
6-10, 2005 at Omega. Some of the group had attended the
weekend workshop in NYC. This was a rich and fruitful time
for those of us fortunate to attend. We spent most of our
time outdoors during the day visiting sites within walking
distance of our meeting hall. Marko introduced us to the
faery energy, fire spirits, water spirits and earth energy
spirits. We began exercises by simply exchanging energy
with flowers and plants, spending some time just being with
their essences. Many of the exercises are in his books,
but it all came alive as he spoke, often playfully and in
his quiet voice and helped us find the inner spaces to connect
with these beings of Nature.
The elemental beings are an energetic body that is
permeated with consciousness. There is no physical body,
yet they support the emergence and functioning of physical
bodies. Their consciousness corresponds with our emotional/astral
body. We become visible to the elemental beings and able
to communicate when we come into our heart center. They
are attracted to the Divine Light as we are.
Three moments speak to me of this incredible week.
The first happened the first afternoon when we were visited
by the Omega staff and informed that we were going to have
a severe storm and might lose our electricity. Marko instructed
us to sit quietly for about 10 minutes and be present to
the elemental beings of this storm. It became more peaceful
after a few minutes and we did not lose the electricity.
We visited one site, the sacred basin, in the Omega
woods three times. There was a sense of a sleeping giant
and the elementals needed some help to come into the present
day. Our group made a vessel of water energetically and
invited the elementals to jump in, effectively helping them
to experience this Now, on that first day. The next day
we returned to this site and helped release the sacred Feminine.
We acknowledged our sadness at the way she has been forgotten
and dishonored, let our tears of compassion run deep into
the roots and then saw them arise as wisdom. We returned
the next morning to complete the healing of this space.
The women stood in a circle, singing a chant, and the men
came from a spring and weaved in and out of our circle while
saying a very powerful chant. This was a very big energetic
release and as we were walking away, a huge black snake
sluggishly crossed our path, as if she had been released
from the depths of the earth. (Lance: In my notes the
snake laid motionless across the path, as if blocking us.
Marko wouldn't let us proceed until it passed, which it
did after all of us had acknowledged it.)
In this workshop Marko also introduced us to the
Islands of Light, an enormous loving light, with much joy
and vibrancy, which Marko states are anchors of the new
vibration of Gaia consciousness that he encounters as he
travels the globe. The ecosphere, as we know it, is finished.
Like a snake, her skin has become too narrow and she must
let go of the old, but first she grows a new skin. As we
attune to this new frequency and "Be" in it, we
help this transformation. The elementals are there to collaborate
with us in this endeavor.
On the last day, we were guided by Marko to connect
with our personal elemental beings - each of us has an elemental
being housed in our body, responsible for its functioning.
Some members of the group described a sense of "coming
home" to meet this intimate being. The sense was regarding
a new aspect of oneself that remained still timeless and
familiar.
At the end of this workshop we met with Gene Gollogly
from Steiner Books and established that we would form a
Geomancy School, pending Marko's discussion of the idea
with his daughters. Lance volunteered to host us for the
first workshop, and Waliyah for the second.
Camp Greenville, 2006
North/South Carolina, March 2006 - Lance Howard
Lasting impressions
Ecstatic that it happened at all! There were times during
the long stretch between the Omega Institute in June 2005
and March 2006 that it felt like the whole idea might evaporate.
I want to thank Waliyah, Lindsay, Pam, Mary, Peter, Fatima,
Katrin, Judy, for crucial moral support during that trying
period.
Thrilled to meet Ana! Who was this mysterious person
that Marko would ask for guidance whenever he got into an
interpretive conundrum? I quote from Christ Power
and the Earth Goddess: "When there seems
no way out, I ask my daughter Ana Pogacnik for help. She
has been communicating with angelic beings for the last
seven years." Of course I imagined her to be something
of an angel herself. I even joked with Marsha after realizing
we had to supply our own bedding. What do we do for Ana?
"We could buy her a new sleeping bag and then sell
it on eBay claiming it had been slept in by angels!"
Any profit would, of course, go to the school!
I meet Ana at the airport. Somehow we recognize each
other. I drive her up to the camp. She has flown in from
Albany where there is snow on the ground. She smiles when
we drive past peach blossoms. As we drive I explain to her
in professorial fashion what I know of the history of the
land. She remains silent, then later asks if I know anything
about the history of the land. I remain silent knowing that
it wasn't her English that was the problem. By the time
we reach Camp Greenville it is clear beyond a doubt that
this is not Marko's daughter; this is Ana Pogacnik!
Ana introduced us to the angelic realm, an "ocean"
of energy. I pictured it as an overcast sky with funnel
clouds touching the Earth in places where the angelic foci
enter particular landscapes. We experienced these points
in several locations on and around Camp Greenville and were
challenged by Ana at the end of the workshop to find the
angelic focus nearest our camp. I was the only one in the
group to correctly identify it (right!!).
Along the way Ana engaged us in some powerful rituals.
Some of these were directed at our selves; for example,
she had us write the name of our "controller"
- that person who tells me I'm not gifted at sensing the
etheric and beyond - on a piece of paper and throw it into
a fire we had built for the purpose. On the last day when
seated at the "wonder place" of transformation,
I launched an image of a personal habit I wanted to rid
myself of - smoking - into the universe. I had claimed to
have quit smoking about 3 years ago, but it still had a
hold on me and would have me do its bidding from time to
time. I haven't smoked since that ritual.
Some of the rituals were Earth-directed. Ana conducted
us in our first "toning" performance. Unable to
impress her with our impersonation of an angelic choir,
she eventually was able to draw the screeches and groans
that the Earth needed to hear. Perhaps we can get her to
conduct us if we decide to try out for the next season of
"Universe Idol."
Late on the last afternoon we traveled to a place
where the moon is sending energy to the earth to help with
our present transformation. As Ana travels around,
she finds places where other planets and the moon are sending
energy to the earth, and where the new earth energy is in
place.
My take-home (just down the hill) impression of the
workshop was that of a gentle eruption of loving energy
out of the mountains flowing through "Pretty Place"
down onto the Piedmont and spreading throughout the South
which has been so thirsty for it.
SpiritFire,
2006
Massachusetts, July 2006 - Waliyah Grandison
On July 6-9, 2006 Marko returned to North
America to lead the Geomancy School at the SpiritFire Retreat
Center in Leyden, Massachusetts. There were 27 participants.
We began Friday by visiting a powerful site on the
North River about 20 minutes drive from SpiritFire. This
is a place that connects with ley lines to sites all over
the planet. Marko referred to it as a vital energy center.
We first stood near the water, where the energy is very
strong and then moved to a meadow a short distance away,
to help us identify that this energy connects with the solar
plexus.
Next we traveled into Shelburne Falls and visited
the Potholes, which are a sacred site where Indian tribes
of long ago met - a sanctuary, where there is to be no fighting
for one day's journey in all directions. Unfortunately the
beauty of this place is marred by the dams, which have been
built to hold back the water and thus control the flow.
We walked to the lower part of the falls and did a short
meditation with the water elementals, visualizing the water
flowing freely. I have returned several times to continue
this meditation. One is left with a feeling of sadness for
the water elementals who are unable to do their work, except
when the dams overflow during storms.
Our next stop that morning was to visit an old cemetery
to help us identify the ancestral energy. As Marko pointed
out the membrane between this world, the next, and the one
before this is quite thin in this location. The cemetery
retains a beautiful nature energy along with the ancestral
energy.
We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at
the SpiritFire Retreat Center hiking on their 95 acres.
We did some healing work around the pond, which acts as
an energy outbreath, and worked with different places connecting
with the elemental beings of air, water, fire, and earth
- we experienced the fairies focus, the focus of elemental
beings, elemental beings of the earth (gnomes), and other
places specific to the land there - an overlooking spirit
of the place (Pan), a rock holding the wisdom of the place,
and a center of grounding.
Saturday afternoon, we drove to a llama farm, so
that we could become familiar with the emotional quality
of animal energy. The couple that own this farm are very
welcoming and we were allowed to walk out in the meadow
with the llamas. There were five baby llamas and some of
us were able to touch the llamas.
Sunday morning we hiked up the hill behind SpiritFire
and connected to a landscape temple located there, containing
the three universal stages of the Goddess - the wholeness
(angelic), the creative (balancing the yin-yang polarization)
and the transformational (the archetypal powers of the earth.
A young tree represented the virginal/wholeness aspect,
two parts of the landscape balanced out the creative aspect,
and a very old tree completed the archetypal grandmother
- transformative aspect.
Friday and Saturday evening Marko held talks for the
larger community, speaking of his work visiting sites around
the globe in need of balancing and healing and sharing slides
of this work. In addition he spoke of the Earth Changes.
Marko also provided two drawings, one that represented the
seven dimensions of a place or landscape, and one that showed
and represented the different energetic places that we explored
at SpiritFire and in the larger surrounding landscape.
CLICK HERE -
TO SEE THE DRAWING THAT MARKO DREW IN LEYDEN, MA
DESCRIBING THE 7 DIMENSIONS.
Camphill Village, 2006
Minnesota, September 2006 —Angela Michieli
In the middle of September, 2006 about twenty of us
met with Ana in central Minnesota, at the community of Camphill
Village Minnesota by Long Prairie. This is a biodynamic farm
of about 450 acres which hosts an intentional community of
40 people, including many with special needs.
Ana had found a place in the middle part of our land
where two of the oldest trees on the property are standing.
In this place of these basswood trees one can get a sense
of the feeling of the whole place. A feeling of separation
was sensed from out of the past, but resonating with the present.
Central to all of our experiences was the concept of
mirroring, where what is within us is reflected in the landscape,
and what lies within the land resonates within ourselves.
Through the recognition of and processing and healing of ourselves
we give the opportunity to the landscape to process and heal.
As much as we are willing to be in our process, the place
can process - we can both change. We become aware of how we
influence the land. We became ever aware of the human being's
most important offering to the world: through the ability
to connect with the cosmos through being a spiritual being
- and at the same time to be able to connect with and act
upon the earth through possessing a physical body - a position
in creation unique to the human being - we are able to be
an instrument of consciousness, love, and transformation (in
partnership with spiritual beings) who can act upon the earth
both spiritually and physically.
We experienced several heart centers on our land and
in the greater landscape to feel what the essence of a heart
center is, what qualities they all have in common, and how
heart centers can also differ from one another at the same
time. We also did this with vital energetic centers: experiencing
their same essential qualities, and how they can differ in
other ways from each other. With the vital energy center of
Camphill's land, we did some toning and supporting of this
"sun within the earth".
There are two different and beautiful places in the
neighborhood: one, where the place has already transformed
and is in the energetic state of how the earth will be in
the future. We spent a couple of different times here, to
experience this new state of being and to be able to be open
towards it and move into it. Secondly, we very briefly visited
a focus of the Christ power. An awesome place. We weren't
able to stay but a moment due to unsettled cattle and thus
their unsettled farmer, in whose pasture it is located. A
very special place and a very special dramatic exit for us!
We attended to the crown chakra of the Camphill land, where
the separation energy was particularly strong. As stated before,
this state comes from the farther past, but resonance with
this has continued through the present, with possible manifestations
and reflections in the community's relationship to itself
and the land. This is also located in a site of much recent
past disruption from the mining of marl. Ana felt again that
this activity wasn't the initial hurt to the place, but rather
a further injuring due to the injured pattern of the place
which keeps resonating with this initial injury and attracting
the like. We did strong toning here, and also some eurhythmy.
Ana graciously shared with us the other foci of the
land - the root, yin/yang, inbreath/outbreath, angelic. We
all thought of ways that the community here could relate to
these places - from having a bench for people to sit and be,
to holding gatherings and celebrations and festivals - to
simply but significanty bringing consciousness to the special
place. The community working through its patterns also influences
the landscape.
A very heartfelt thanks goes to Ana for all of her loving
attention and effort with all of us and this land. We also
are grateful to everyone who came here and gave their love
and good will. This landscape has been profoundly recognized
and blessed through Ana's and the group's coming. The small
group from here who attended the workshop has continued to
work with the points and is also working with the larger community
with this. On an intimate scale, much individual relating
to these special places continues. It is such a blessing to
know of these places, and to awaken and transform with these
places.
CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM A COUPLE OF THE WORKSHOPS.
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2008
LifeWeb Congress
Let us know if you'd be
interested in coming!
Lendava,
Slovenia
Summer, 2008
Katya Majer
vitaaa@email.si
Quick Links
• Marko's website
• Ana's website
• LifeNetHome.org
Sponsor
The two-year School of Geomancy is sponsored
and administered by
Steiner Books
610 Main Street,
Great Barrington,
Massachusetts,
01230
For details please contact
Marsha Post
at marsha@steinerbooks.org 413-528-8233, ext. 203.
For logistical details
about specific
2007 workshop locations,
please contact the
workshop organizers.
Workshops 2007
I. Serenbe
Southern Country Inn &
Conference Center
Atlanta, Georgia
March 28 - April 1, 2007
Language of the Cosmogrammes
w/Marko Pogacnik
contact: Lindsey Mann
lindseyemann@gmail.com
www.serenebe.com
II. Sky
Meadow
Retreat Center
Stannard, Vermont
July 20 - 23, 2007
Vital Energy
Systems II
w/Ana Pogacnik
contact: Gail England
gengland@vpr.net
skymeadowretreat.com
III.
The Bison Ranch
Retreat Center
Heber/Overgaard, Arizona
October 10 - 15, 2007
Decoding the
Totality of a Place
w/Ana Pogacnik
contact: Sylvie Oliva
treeangel@qwest.net
bisonranchonline.com
These workshops are
for the
current class of
the North American
School of Geomancy.
Seminars
with
Ana Pogacnik
in
North America
2007
(In
addition to
North American Geomancy
School seminars.)
Toronto, Canada
June 6-10, 2007
Lectures
and workshop
Outer
Landscape
as a Mirror
of the
Inner Landscape
info@arscura.com
www.arscura.com
____________
Vermont, USA
July 8-14, 2007
One
week
intensive seminar:
Outer
Landscape
as a Mirror
of the
Inner Landscape
Rudolf
Steiner Institute
registrar@steinerinstitute.org
www.steinerinstitute.org
Marko
& Arja
Pogacnik
Seminars in the
UK 2007
(English speaking)
Derbyshire,
England
April 27 - May 1, 2007
Intelligence
of Nature
in Relationship to
the Etheric Structure
of a Place and its
Sacred Dimensions
Nightingale
Centre,
Great Hucklow,
in the Peak District
in the north of England
silke@elementalplace.com
____________
Gloucestershire,
England
September 3-6, 2007
Language
of
the Cosmogrammes
Hawkwood
College,
Stroud, England
info@hawkwoodcollege.co.uk
www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk
Note: Both courses are
part of an ongoing
education program,
but are also open
to other participants
as long as there
are free places.
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Previews,
Upcoming Workshops 2007
The 2007 geomancy workshops are the second year of a two-year
teaching on geomancy and personal growth composed of six
units. The three units of the first year are open for everybody
interested to attend. The three units of the second year
include a group of students from the first year interested
in a more continuous study.
I. Serenbe · Georgia, 2007
Atlanta, Georgia, March 28-April 1, with Marko Pogacnik
Organized by Lindsey Mann (lindseyemann@gmail.com)
Workshop Location:
Serenbe Southern Country Inn and Conference Center
Serenbe is located about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta,
on an 800-acre farm with turn-of-the century buildings surrounded
by flower and vegetable gardens. The name is the combination
of two words - serenity and be.
Lindsey: Serenbe was the vision of concerned citizens
of a particular watershed, a relatively unspoiled area,
who foresaw the impending doom of sprawl headed their way.
Through amazing efforts of collaboration 40,000 acres were
preserved with a conservation easement, allowing for a small
development (a conservation subdivision village), collective
greenspace, and the farm, inn and conference center. We
are free to roam the 800 acres of the inn and conference
center during our visit. Workshop cost is approximately
$400 per person for 4 nights, all inclusive. (www.serenbe.com)
Workshop Description:
Language of the Cosmogrammes
This course offers experiences of different forms of universal
language, but focuses then on cosmogrammes as practical
possibility to convey a visual message to beings of nature
or consciousness of a given place. Different places in the
vicinity of Atlanta and in the city will be explored and
experienced. Participants than will use different
tools to do geomantic healing work there. One of them would
be to create a cosmogramme for a chosen place, to meet a
specific need of that place. Drawing will be practiced as
a tool for this purpose. The capacity learned can be used
later while working with other places, or while taking care
for one's own place.
II.
Sky Meadow · Vermont 2007
Stannard, Vermont, July 20-23, 2007, with Ana Pogacnik
Organized by Gail England (gengland@vpr.net)
Workshop Location:
Sky Meadow Retreat, Stannard, Vermont
Gail: Sky Meadow Retreat is a 120-acre hill farm in what
is known as the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. It is not
a fancy resort, but is a simple place, a retreat center
that has been created to work in harmony with nature, not
conquer it. The old barn has been converted into a retreat
center with a large central meeting space. The residents
grow most of their own food and choose to live a simple
lifestyle. The basic cost will be $215 per person for the
three nights lodging and meals. This does not include rental
of linens. Most everything you need to know can be
found on the web site - look at: "Information for Participants."
The retreat center is 1.5 hours from the Burlington Airport,
at least 2.5 hours from Montreal. When Miles Sherts (the
owner) was young he had a dream of creating a place where
people would have the space to connect to the spirit. I
can't begin to tell you how delighted Miles and the staff
are to have us at Sky Meadow, to deepen their understanding
and connection to elemental beings and earth energies. Ana
has asked us retreat leaders to look at the area around
the retreat centers to see what other possibilities there
may be to work at different sites. There is a Camphill Village
(like Angela's but much smaller) called Heartbeet in Hardwick.
The folks at Heartbeet welcome our working with their land.
In addition there is the 190-acre Green Mountain Monastery
in nearby Greensboro. It is a Ecozoic Monastery dedicated
to enhancing the human/Earth relationship. The Northeast
Kingdom is the least developed part of Vermont. For years
logging and farming were the main occupations. Some feel
that this region is closer to what Vermont used to be like
than any other part of the state. There are also some beautiful
lakes, ponds and mountains that have attracted the rich
and famous, so everything is changing. Since a picture is
worth a thousand words, see www.skymeadowretreat.com
Workshop Description:
Vital Energy Systems II
We will continue with discovering the vital-energy level
of the landscape, which we started in the September 2006
Minnesota workshop (Vital Energy Systems I). With different
exercises we will get to know different qualities and energies
of the landscape and the organs of the Earth, which we can
compare with our chakra system and meridians of our body.
Through this deep contact with places and qualities, we
will be mirroring our self in different aspects of the landscape
- and in this way discovering our own inner landscape.
We will also continue with inner work and observe inner
patterns that are holding us back from being fully present
in our life. Through being together in the group in the
landscape we will experience different techniques concerning
how to work with the landscape and places.
III.
Bison Ranch, Arizona, 2007
Mogollon Rim, Northern Arizona, October 10-14/15, with Ana
Pogacnik
Organized by Sylvie Oliva (treeangel@qwest.net)
Workshop Location:
Bison Ranch Retreat Center, Heber/Overgaard, Arizona
Sylvie: Bison Ranch is called a "retreat
center" to attract school groups and church camps, but
it does not generally advertise itself as a retreat for the
religious or spiritual seeker. It has a colorful "Western
town" façade with a few shops and eateries on
the ground level and time-shares on the second level. The
land used to be the largest farm in the area. Leisurely walks
from our rooms to the dining room (a nice space we might share
with others) and to the meeting room are probably 7 minutes
point to point. Phoenix is a 2.5 hr drive on a beautiful,
easy highway. The basic cost for room and board is $315 per
person, 4 nights. www.bisonranchonline.com
The Mogollon Rim is a limestone escarpment on the southern
boundary of the Colorado Plateau, formed 600 million years
ago. Its elevation rises from 5000 to 11500 feet. It
stretches 200 miles from here to Flagstaff, so its 2 million
acres have a variety of vegetation types (from desert to alpine).
However, at this altitude (6700 feet) we're in the largest
contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest in the world, including the
Apache and Sitgreaves National Forests. Junipers and cedars
live here, as do elk and trout. Cactus and rattlesnakes would
shrivel here! There are 950 miles of National Forest trails,
with little undergrowth to impede or comfort you. Think petroglyphs,
red soil, deer, coyote, wooded lakes, some aspen, birds of
prey, an occasional porcupine or even bobcat, and you get
the rugged picture!
Workshop Description:
Decoding the totality of a given place
In this unit we will accede to the place as a concluded integrity.
We will discover its different levels and aspects and search
for its primeval power, as well as its weaknesses and imprinted
patterns. Through this research work we will touch the essence
of the place and unknot its riddle, and in this way we will
come nearer to its deepest truth. Through the work with different
places, energies and aspects in the landscape, we will also
touch our own primeval power and essence, and get to better
know our deepest inner truth. We will also continue with the
work concerning the inner vision of our life, and see how
we can bring it ever more into reality - and into our daily
lives.
|
2008
LifeWeb Congress
Let us know if you'd be
interested in coming!
Lendava,
Slovenia
Summer, 2008
Katya Majer
vitaaa@email.si
LifeWeb
Network
Europe
contacts:
Anna & Achim
Gruber-/Schmaelzle
anna.achim@gmx.de
Books!!
Looking
for a book?
Ana and Marko Pogacnik
have published books
available from:
Steiner
Books
Lindisfarne
Books
Findhorn
Press
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