Silence is golden....

Silence is the origin of all creativity. Ok, so that does not excuse me for being soooooo quiet for soooooo long, BUT I do have an AMAZING labyrinth to show that was built by four gods and two goddesses. In Spain!
I facilitated a Creating Sacred Spaces labyrinth workshop one full moon ago at Shunyata retreat in La Fuensanta (the holy spring), near Almeria in the south of Spain. A dream that my friend John Ashwell, whom I met last year at a vision quest, and I shared.
We had four days before the magestic full moon of June. A local Spanish couple were already invited to join us to walk and drum under the moonlight... To be honest, after I saw the allocated space, which still needed to be cleared and levelled, I had my doubts whether we will finish building the labyrinth in time! Here is a photo journal:

It's a loooong way to go still. Early Friday morning.

A retaining wall had to be built to level the space for the labyrinth...

Ain't that neat?

Burning and clearing the land, also our emotional baggage.

The four gods of the labyrinth: Phil, the visionary (east, left); John, the healer (south); Mick, the teacher (west); and Ric, the warrior (north, right).

Susan adding a feminine touch to the space.

Marking the pattern. With the BEST team: a structural engineer and a fashion guru!

We do what goddesses do best: dancing!

Hauling the heavy stones from the nearby ploughed almond groves took some creative thinking! 

It takes two to tango...

And only one to make us laugh!

Nearly done. Saturday afternoon... ok evening already, but the sun sets so late in the Northern Hemisphere during summer it feels like afternoon. I still can't believe we finished building the labyrinth in just two days!

We had the MOST amazing full moon labyrinth walk and drummed away into the night.

The full moon rising.

What a setting! Can you HEAR the silence? Can you FEEL the stillness? 

May you all find a sacred space where you can sit in silence and connect with the stillness within, the song of your soul!



*** All the pictures were taken by Susan Greeff (except the last one and the one of the retaining wall which were taken by John Ashwell).

WALKING THE BALANCE

Fall equinox labyrinth walk

Come and walk the labyrinth to commemorate the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere on this sacred day of equilibrium. You will reflect on balance in your life: yin/yang, light/dark, and feminine/masculine; as you prepare yourself to retreat into the darkness of winter in this next spiral of time.

The walk will be followed with a transmutation ceremony, so consider what undesirable personal characteristics, habits and beliefs you want transmuted and what you want them to transform into – for instance, anger into calmness, control into free flow, emotional pain into love.

When:                                    21 March 2012

Time:                                      09h30 – 12h30

Where:                                   Rustenberg Wine Farm, Stellenbosch

Bring:                                      A crystal or a stone.  

Cost:                                      R200

Directions:                            Phone Terry de Vries at 082 442 5623

Upcoming events

 

Upcoming transformational events

Journey through the Chakras

RESTORING BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE

Join Terry de Vries on a Day Retreat working with the ancient labyrinth, yoga, meditation and sound to bring balance back into your life. Find out where you block the creative flow of life energy and learn powerful practical tools to reawaken your authentic self.

Saturday 28 May

2 Anreith Street, Karindal, STELLENBOSCH

9.30 am – 4.30 pm

R850 (including notes)

Journey towards Joy

LABYRINTH WORKSHOP

Experience the powerful personal and spiritual transformation of a labyrinth as you walk on your journey towards joy. Some of the life changing experiences include:

• release stress
• deal with grief
• relieve emotional trauma
• find hope after a divorce
• cope with depression
• find answers
• solve conflict
• find clarity
• experience inner peace
• enhance creativity and imagination
• connect with your inner wisdom

Saturday 4 June

2 Anreith Street, Karindal, STELLENBOSCH

9.30am – 12.30pm

R350

For more information and to book, contact terrydevries@mweb.co.za. Otherwise, for more information on labyrinths, visit the website www.rainbow-labyrinths.co.za.

Life is beautiful!

This is my motto since I've done an AMAZING vision quest in the mountains last month. It doesn't matter if life gives you lemons (make lemonade or a hot toddy or even better, drink tequila!) or pomegranates (mmm, bloodred sensual pleasure), life still stays beautiful. It's just a matter of how you handle the situation: do you get entangled in the drama (and the ego) or can you stay detached and become an observer?

And yes, it does take practice! But isn't that the beauty of life - you always get to practice it again and again until you get it right.

In the mountains I have found my inner peace again. A deep quiet inner stillness that permeates my soul and my life. And although life is still happening around me (trust me I have thought about buying that bottle of tequila), I manage to keep that inner stillness. What a wonderful gift!

Walking a labyrinth can also bring you back to that inner stillness, that quiet space within you. It's like Joseph Campbell says: "Your ego diminishes and your consciousness expands to an experience of bliss as though the veil of time is lifted and our minds are opened to eternity."

Join me on INTERNATIONAL LABYRINTH DAY this Saturday, 7th May 5pm, to celebrate the beauty of life with a labyrinth walk at Jan Marais Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch. If you can't join me, walk any labyrinth - even if it is with your fingers on a handheld labyrinth - to commemorate this special day with people all over the world.

May you all be blessed with beauty in your life. May you all find inner peace again. May you all realize life IS beautiful!

Journey to Joy

The morning before I facilitated the breast cancer labyrinth walk I read in Journey Beyond Words: 

"Simply listen for joy, listen for the FEELINGS of joy - and with it will come peace."

So many of us get caught up in life that we forget to become quiet and sit still and feel the joy that is inside all of us ALL THE TIME.

The book that is written by Brent Haskell as a companion to the workbook A Course in Miracles explains further: "When you feel joy, it will well up inside you. It will seem, as if the sun were shining within your being with such radiance that it must burst free.

"I promise you the joy IS there. There is nothing you can do to remove it. You can pull the shades so you cannot see it or feel it, but it is not possible to change its presence or remove it. Do your best to KNOW within your being that it is there.

"See it as a goal. See it as a mountaintop which you know you can reach. Perhaps the goal seems too far in the distance for you to see. Perhaps the mountaintop is covered with clouds. Simply know that it IS there. And in your knowing that the joy is there, you begin to open your being to its presence and the joy WILL come."

A labyrinth too is a journey to joy. As you walk the twists and turns you let go of all your baggage, emotional and mental, and you discover the real you, your essence, again. And the essence of your being is LOVE. And Love is JOY!

To walk through your journey with breast cancer towards joy is a wonderful experience of acceptance. As one of the walkers wrote to me afterwards: "When I was diagnosed with breast cancer people spoke about it being a 'journey' which I couldn't relate to at all because for me breast cancer was just a disease that needed to be cured. But during the walk I understood and accepted that my journey with breast cancer is part and parcel of the overall journey of my life and I don't need to be afraid anymore!"

May you all have magical labyrinth experiences that enable you to connect with your true essense: JOY!

May your labyrinth journey bring you peace and fun.

May you be filled with joy and laughter.

And may you find meaning in everything that you do.

Blessings in love and joy.

Terry