SINGING THE WILD HEART
The Healing Art of Lament
Saturday, November 2, 2019 | Corvallis, OR
“ Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices. ”
~ Orpingalik, Netsilik Inuit healer and poet ~
This daylong gathering offers an opportunity to experience the healing art of Lament, a near-universal and ancient oral tradition of weeping, singing, and sounding as an intuitive and embodied practice of honouring, metabolizing, and transmuting our deep emotional responses to loss, grief, and life transition. We will explore the history of Lament practices from around the world, with a focus on the traditions of Finnish Karelian singing and Gaelic Irish Keening (Caoine) and deep engagement with their modern revival forms. Through song, sound, movement, word, and ritual gesture we will learn new ways to alchemize our grief and sorrow into gifts of beauty and praise, and open our hearts up to the mystery of transformation.
We have so much to grieve for, both in our personal lives and for all that is happening in our hurting world. Yet without the ability to be present to and metabolize the energy of grief, it can become stuck and stagnant, leading to illness, anxiety, numbness, depression, and apathy. This event provides a sacred container to connect with our innate knowledge of these ancestral ways and reclaim their power to heal and transform. In remembering and reviving these ancient practices for modern times we will regain lost skills to help restore meaning during times of loss and change, deepen our sense of belonging, reveal new clarity of vision, and strengthen our hearts for fuller engagement with the challenges in our lives and of our world.
With thanks to my mentor Tuomas Rounakari, his mentor Pirkko Fihlman and to my Irish colleagues and fellow keeners Tanya Bryan, Sinead Gallagher, Tara Dominick, and Marian Caulfield for their encouragement and support. See below for some further resources on the healing power of lament.
An article on traditional Karelian
Singing and its modern revival
Tuomas Rounakari on
The Healing Power of a Lament
The Irish Keening Tradition:
Singing the Soul Home
“ Deep in our bones resides an ancient, singing couple who just won't give up making their beautiful, wild noise.
The world won't end if we can find them. ”
~ Martin Prechtel ~
Lara Lwin Treadaway facilitates healing and transformation in community, weaving earth-honoring ritual, experiential group process, ways of council, poetry, storytelling, sounding, and song. She believes that sacred grief work, ancestral healing, earth reconnection, and the creative arts are pathways to restoring deep belonging within ourselves, between each other, and with the other-than-human world. Lara’s story includes many deep initiations through grief, loss, and trauma, leading to a hard-won respect for the alchemical journey of transmuting our pain into medicine for the world.
DETAILS
DATE/TIME: Saturday, November 2, 2019 | 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
LOCATION: First United Methodist Church, Corvallis, OR
RECIPROCITY: Suggested Sliding Scale $75 - $150
Gift exchange and scholarships are available. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
If you are able to contribute more than suggested please consider doing so to support this work.
Space is limited to 10 participants only. Early registration is recommended.
If you have any questions please contact Lara:
TESTIMONIALS
"Simply put, Lara is ideally suited for this sacred alchemical work. She has the capacity to hold deep space for the sorrows
of the world while being firmly rooted in the healing power of the good, the true, and the beautiful."
~ Freyja Swan-Utsman, San Luis Obispo, CA
"Lara is a skilled facilitator who navigates the most challenging issues of our time with wisdom, sensitivity, and a wide-open heart.
Her event was a deep experience that challenged me to explore my grief and pain, while
empowering me to face those hurts with resilience and hope."
~ Kevin Gallagher, Santa Barbara, CA
"Lara is such an amazingly skilled guide in the realms of the underworld with so much tenderness into the heart of shadow.
A real transformative opportunity to unmask and get real with yourself. Not to be missed."
~ Natalia Price Vales, Nevada City, CA
"The next day I felt a great capacity to hold life and things that were unbearable before. It was a life-changing practice that
I intend to make a part of my life on a regular basis. Lara is an extraordinary spirit and a skillful facilitator.
The container she created felt incredibly safe and inclusive allowing me to do very deep work."
~ Jana Holm, Portland, OR
"This was one of the most rich and beautiful days of my life. Lara held an impeccably clear, loving space for all of us. I came
away having made friends with my sadness and peace with the anger that protects it. I continue to feel
a sense of peace as I let the grief walk beside me, no longer judged or hindered by fear."
~ Erica Indrani Eddy, San Luis Obispo, CA
"Grief work is such a vital part of our lives as full humans, and something so missing from our Western society. Lara brings
this sacred technology and offerings back into our remembrance, awakening it from our deep ancestral knowledge."
~ Alexa Lindahl, San Luis Obispo, CA
"Lara is a gifted guide through the deep well of sorrow and grief. She is receptive to the needs of each participant being aware
of the community as a whole. Lara holds a safe container in which participants can let go in ways many of us
have never been able to before. The deep joy which follows the out-pouring of grief is truly profound."
~ Oshi, Coos Bay, OR
"If you want a deeply poignant and absolutely beautiful experience, I most highly recommend this sacred work. If you
at all interested, go. If you are curious, go. If you are doubtful, go. If you think this is for you or if you
think this is not for you, go. You will be forever blessed and eternally grateful."
~ Chante Dao, Hugo, OR