Exploring the Masculine and Feminine Archetypes in you.
The Sacred Inner Marriage
A Wild Rites advanced programme
this programme will run next in 2025.
What is calling you?
In a world where the old, static, binary notions of human gender have begun to break down, are you drawn to explore the interplay of these fundamental energies within you? Might the potential of a Sacred Inner Marriage between the Feminine and Masculine aspects of your psyche enable you to experience and express more completely the self you really are?
This unique workshop offers you a chance to work at depth with the natural flow of the Feminine and Masculine within you, understood as a four-fold pattern, and to explore the power of the Sacred Inner Marriage.
Why this? Why now?
All of us, regardless of our gender identifications, have feminine and masculine energies within us. These energies are also present in Nature. Some also say they are the energies which create the world and are the dynamic structure of the Self.
Now, we live in a time when human beings are moving away from polarised gender identifications and roles. Something new is emerging in our collective consciousness. We are shifting ever deeper into a non-binary expression of ourselves. Part of that shift is about discovering and educating ourselves on how the masculine and feminine archetypes move in us personally.
Both the masculine and feminine have static and dynamic aspects making a fourfold pattern of – static feminine, dynamic masculine, and, static masculine, dynamic feminine. These four powers have an active relationship with one another in our psyches. They are expressed in nature as the seasons and elements. Once recognised they can be seen in the world’s major traditions and mythologies. When honoured and integrated these four powers - and the relationship between them - form a pattern of human maturation.
The time is ripe for a deep exploration of how these four patterns are conditioned in you by family, by culture and the ways we live in contemporary society. This workshop is all about noticing these patterns as they are expressing in us, brining them into relationship together and using them to come to know ourselves better. This journey will take us away from stereotypes and gender roles, from binary thinking of “this or that” into a four-fold way of relating to ourselves and the great archetypal Self.
We might describe this journey with the four-fold way of the masculine and feminine within us a kind of inner marriage. But this Sacred Inner Marriage is not a final destination, a thing to achieve or an objective to aim for. It’s more subtle than that – and infinite rather than finite. The term describes a commitment to the inner alchemy that happens once these four powers are revealed to us and within us. The benefits of doing this work are immense and include healthier relationships both with self and other, a soul retrieval of disowned parts, greater self expression and creativity, an understanding of what’s in our shadow, and a new way of seeing the interplay of these energies in the world at large.
““Perhaps we have only just arrived at an era when enough people’s awareness makes it possible to step outside the patrivalent cultural biases into moments of seeing another new worldview. “
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Who is this for?
Have there been times in your life when you have felt stuck in a rut (static feminine) and in need of some dynamic act to shift your state of being? Perhaps you knew something needed to change and embarked upon the exploration of new aspects of yourself, which led you to set new goals for your life.
Maybe from this heroic stage you “slew some dragons” (dynamic masculine) and this made room for new constructs and ideas of yourself which you brought into the world (static masculine). Only, later when the new you had become normal, you might have found that some unexpected and spontaneous experience (dynamic feminine) once again rocked your world and transformed your awareness once more.
By attending this workshop, you will have the chance to explore the dynamic interplay between these opposites in your psyche and to work with the natural flow of the Feminine and Masculine within you. This really is a unique opportunity! We are unable to find anyone else working in this comprehensive, dynamic way with this quartenery, the power of which is so beautifully captured in the ying/yang symbol.
If you are curious about moving toward the inner sacred marriage of your masculine and feminine self, this opportunity will be unmissable! This workshop is beyond gender. It’s not about finding balance or equilibrium but enjoying the dance, the flow, the ever moving presence of the opposites and the creative, cyclical power they hold in us and in the world for birth, death and renewal.
This workshop is an advanced Wild Rites offering.
What happens during the 5 days?
Before you arrive at the base camp there will be an opportunity to reflect upon and write about your relationship to the masculine and feminine as you experience them in your life and psyche. This will enliven the field of our exploration and allow us to work deeply with the interplay of these fundamental archetypical energies.
We introduce you to the quaternary dynamic and static aspects of the masculine and feminine in an embodied way.
We work with myths and stories to reveal how the masculine and feminine move in us beyond gender.
You will explore the depths and heights, light and shadow of your own masculine and feminine self through mask work, nature-based walks, drawing/crafting, visualisation and image, individual process, movement, body, feelings and mind.
You will be held in a psychologically safe space, using the way of council as a container for our individual and group process.
As ever with Wild Rites events, Nature will be our setting and primary guide.
We work during the day and keep the evenings free to explore nature, sit by the fire, journal, relax and share the temporoary village we create at base camp.
Key Facts
A five-day Nature based Intensive into the masculine and feminine.
Lake District National Park. Camping in the bunk-barn or with your own camping quipment.
Welcome meal on the day of arrival provided, all other food is self-catered. There is a full kitchen and cooking facilities in the main community barn.
Dates: This programme will run next in 2025.
Guides: Jon Keen and Alex Hatfield Click here to see he Wild Rites guide team
Places: 12 participants
Cost: The total cost for this soumaking workshop is £895. A £395 non-refundable or transferable deposit secures your place. The balance is due 60 days before start date. Please click here to read our booking and payment policies before you book.
Fees include all guiding, facilitation, accommodation (in bunk barn or camping with your own equipment), welcome meal on Friday. All other meals are self-catering.
Fees include all guiding, facilitation, accommodation (in bunk barn or camping with your own equipment), welcome meal on Friday. All other meals are self-catering.
HOW THE GUIDES APPROACH THIS WORK
We keep an open mind, body and heart together and enter into a space of discovery with the aim of bringing the dance of the feminine and masculine to consciousness and making them personal. We include all four aspects– static/dynamic feminine and static/dynamic masculine - and their interplay in our programme and faciliatation. At the heart of this experience will be the opportunity to explore them in various ways that complement their energy and symbolism.
Booking is by application...
Please complete the form below. We will then email you with details of how to pay your deposit which secures your place - payable by bank transfer. If you have any questions or if you would prefer to speak to us before booking please contact alex@wildrites.uk.
