This is Part Two of a three-part course. Part One is available to study here and is the prerequisite to be able to study Part Two Live with Ya’Acov. The whole three-part series, which will take you step-by-step through the process of meeting, embodying and learning to work with your Inner Shaman, is available as a package.
The Inner Shaman is part of your humanity. To encounter them and discover what they know is not reserved for some special brand of human being. They are as down to earth as you can get whilst remaining connected to the stars. They walk the bridge between how we imagine life to be and how it actually is. And discovering them is a matter of choice, practice, determination and often, humour. Your relationship with them, like all relationships, will deepen according to the time and attention you give it.
Having met your Inner Shaman in Part One, it’s time to put them to work in service of your own deeper awakening. We’re going to hunt and gather the medicine they need to make the strongest impact possible in your day-to-day. Through A Basket Full Of Medicine, you will learn about:
You'll be challenged to celebrate your strengths and be honest about your weaknesses. You'll be invited to study, practice and self-reflect. To be kind and yet honest with yourself will be an important key.
Encounter Part Two continues the journey to activate and bring into your day-to-day life the teachings of SHAMAN, Ya’Acov Darling Khan’s book, published by Hay House in Spring 2020.
The cost of the workshop will include an explorer pass for the Movement Medicine Study Hub. Each week, Ya’Acov will be inviting you to include specific lessons in your practice. This brings a whole new resource to your study and it will help you to gain maximum benefit from the workshop.
M1 – Thursday May 12 15.00-18.00 - Tender & Wild: The Shamanic Power of Sexual Energy
Listening Circle 1: May 13 18.00-19.30
M2 – Thursday 19 May 15.00 -18.00 - The Animal Intelligence of the Shaman’s Heart
Listening Circle 2: May 19 19.00 - 20.30
M3 – Sunday May 22 15.00 - 18.00 - Vicious Circles
Listening Circle 3: May 22 19.00 - 20.30
M4 – Thursday May 26 15.00 - 18.00 - Medicine Circles
Listening Circle 4: May 26 19.00 - 20.30
M5 – Sunday May 29 16.00 - 21.00 Lead into Gold - Initiation Ceremony
This session will incorporate a Listening Circle within the time
M6 – Thursday June 2 15.00 - 18.00 - Completion & Integration
Listening Circle 5: June 2 19.00 - 20.30
n.b. All times are UK and all sessions with Ya'Acov will be recorded and available for 6 weeks after the end of the workshop for you to repeat in your own time.
As always, each module is carefully structured to bring you to the next step of embodied learning, as you gather your basket full of medicine. By the completion of the workshop, you will have a strong ground and some powerful tools to work with to support you to continue to deepen your ongoing, everyday relationship to the Inner Shaman and the strength, resource and creativity they bring.
You will also be eligible to continue the journey with Encounter Part Three, taught live online by Ya’Acov, in March 2023.
The workshop is an intensive journey over three weeks, incorporating live sessions with Ya'Acov each week, your Facilitated Listening Circle with a small group, a check-in with your study buddy, and your daily power hour.
MODULE 1: Tender & Wild
‘Originally, sexual pleasure was…….that which united humans with nature in general. When sexual feelings and religious feelings became separated from one another, the sexual……became the bad….the diabolical.’ Wilhelm Reich
Since everyone coming to Encounter Part Two will have completed Part One, let’s start in the deep end shall we? In Module one, we will explore this territory with the intention of healing and empowerment. For the Inner Shaman, sexual energy is the unbroken force of life itself. It is the source of their personal power and it is sacred, embodied and available not just for procreation, but for the whole art of creation for manifestation in life.
MODULE 2: The Animal Intelligence of the Shaman’s Heart
‘I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.’ D.H. Lawrence
Module two focuses on your emotional intelligence. For the Inner Shaman, all the different expressions of the heart are like weather. And though they may prefer one weather to another, they understand fully that all weathers are necessary for a healthy human life enriched by relationship with the world around them. Learning to work with E-Motion (meaning Energy in Motion) gives the Inner Shaman a flexibility and strength that combines their animal instincts with their human capacity to reflect and be conscious of how emotion enriches life.
MODULE 3: Vicious Circles
‘Shamanic Healing is a journey. It involves stepping out of our habitual roles, our conventional scripts, and improvising a dancing path.’ Gabrielle Roth
In modules three and four, our focus shifts to the archetypal. In a world in which we are educated to feel sorry for ourselves and to live inside the story of our own disempowerment, the Inner Shaman works to change this perpetual drain on their energy. For themselves yes. But also, for all that they love. The Inner Shaman has access to a circle of archetypes, each of which is medicine for the different aspects of the vicious circle that cause so much ongoing suffering in and for our world. In a very real sense, this is life-changing.
MODULE 4: Medicine Circles
‘Those who say forgiveness is a sign of weakness haven’t tried it.’ Archbishop Desmond Tutu
‘Name it to tame it’ is a useful phrase for the Inner Shaman. Having bravely entered the painful territory of how the roles in a vicious circle support the ongoing destruction of trust in ourselves, each other and life, it is time to explore the archetypal medicine that the Inner Shaman has available to them. The strength of the Inner Shaman is the direct result of the alchemical blend of The Wounder Healer, The Dancing Warrior, The Dancing Fool and The Wise Elder. In this module, our work will be to discover the powerful potential of how this works in you.
MODULE 5: Lead into Gold: Initiation through Movement Medicine Ceremony
‘That’s what alchemists do. They show that when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better to.’ Paolo Coelho
Module Five focuses on the alchemical process that is now available to you through this Basket Full of Medicine. For the Inner Shaman, lead (meaning the poison that we carry from our unhealed experience and that of our families and ancestors) is nothing more than an invitation to create gold. Why gold? Because gold is known for its stability – whatever you try to do it, it remains gold. This stability is the personal power of self-knowledge or the gold of the soul. From this ground, the Inner Shaman is ready to take responsibility for their lives.
MODULE 6: Integration And Completion
‘The Inner Shaman knows who you are and what that life force that’s beating your heart right now is capable of. And they know that the life of future generations is in all of our hands. They grieve for what we’ve lost, but they remain full of gratitude for the strong-hearted and courageous dreams of what we yet might create.’ Ya’Acov Darling Khan
Module six is where we bring all the elements of Encounter Part Two together, assess what we have learned, and turn our focus towards the road ahead. How might the Inner Shaman become an even deeper ally in all areas of your life: health, embodiment, ritual and dreaming, relationship and of course, your contribution to the world? What might be your next steps on the path? Integration is often underrated and yet it is the only way to bring the workshop experience into the dance of everyday life. The Inner Shaman knows that how we end one thing is how we begin the next. And so, completion and integration, since they are the next steps, are the most important ones on the journey so far.
However you choose to engage with the material, there are a couple of simple things you will need:
After you finish the workshop, you'll receive a certificate of completion from Ya'Acov to honour your learning journey.
Please understand that our workshops are for personal training only. You are not being taught to become a shaman or to offer this work to others. Participating in this workshop does not give you the right to share the material with others and by participating you are agreeing to that condition as part of the terms and conditions of participation.
It is vitally important that you have the inner resources and external support where necessary to keep you grounded and within your own capacity when participating in a powerfully catalytic process such as this course. This work is not for everyone. If you have a history of emotional or mental instability, please consult with a health care professional before continuing with the course.
I am delighted you heard the call of your Inner Shaman and are choosing to continue the journey. I wish you all grace, self-care and a well-crafted blend of kindness and commitment as you travel through the landscapes that this work will no doubt catalyse in you. At any point in your work, if you find that the material that arises is too much to manage by yourself, it is incumbent upon you to make sure you get the support you need to be able to work with this material in a beneficial way. There is always support when we humble and empower ourselves enough to recognise that we need it and then ask.
All the very best with your journey,
Ya’Acov Darling Khan