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Workshop Facilitator --
Debra "Rainbow Turtle" |
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Debra Tate
of
Nagual Healing Centre,
located in London, Ontario, provides counseling services
with specialties in grieving, addictions and relationships.
She also provides life coaching services and in the holistic
world, offers drum and crystal energy workshops, past life
regression services and with this background is a
sought-after facilitator of Women's Circles. Debra's
holistic treatment modalities include reiki, therapeutic
touch, chakra balancing and hot rock massage.
Debra is a
Cherokee grandmother
whose medicine name is
Rainbow Turtle.
As she explains, her given name represents the physical body
and her medicine name represents the spiritual body or her
soul. "The significance of having a medicine name is to be
mindful that we are spiritual beings having a physical
experience on Earth and our medicine name can change from
lifetime to lifetime depending upon what we have chosen to
accomplish." (reprinted with permission from
WomenSpeak Magazine, London, ON, January, 2006 edition).
To learn more go to
www.womenspeak.ca . |
Debra will be
the first workshop facilitator at Nature's Retreat to greet
participants arriving on
Monday, July 16th.
In the
afternoon,
"Rainbow Turtle"
will facilitate a sweat lodge ceremony and bring the group together for
purification, cleansing and healing purposes. The sweat lodge itself is a
dome-shaped framed structure in which a group assembles for healing.
First, they come together in ceremonial fashion with a spiritual offering
and then, with the guidance of their Cherokee Grandmother, are invited
inside to form a circle surrounding the central fire pit. During this
event, a specific number of rocks are provided by the Firekeeper who is a
key player in the sweat lodge ceremony. As is widely believed in native circles,
helping spirits are called into the lodge by means of prayers, songs,
drums or shakers. Cedar water is poured on the rocks --called Grandmothers
and Grandfathers--creating a cleansing steam in the lodge. At the end of
the ceremony, the spirits are thanked and sent home. Many people have
reported feeling as if their spirit feels new and alive following this
experience and they see and are aware of the beauty of all Creation around
them. |
Debra Tate shown here holding her native talking stick.
On Monday, July 16th, the first evening of the Retreat,
Debra "Rainbow Turtle" will be offering the Medicine Wheel
Teaching Workshop after the Retreat group first experiences
a healing sweat lodge. Debra is also one of the holistic
practitioners who will be offering chakra balancing
treatments. |
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The Medicine Wheel Teaching Workshop
At this workshop, the group will explore the Medicine Wheel
within each of them. The "Way of the Circle" as it is also
known has been passed down from generation to generation and
is taught through storytelling, teachings, dance
and ceremony. The medicine wheel reflects how all things are
interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. It is the
four seasons: spring, winter, fall, and summer. It
represents the waters that nourish and cleanse us; and the
earth that feeds, supports and protects us. It represents
the air we breathe, giving us wholeness; and it is the fires
that feed our spirit and passion for life.
The group will also make a dream catcher which in native
American tradition represents wisdom and knowledge that
comes to us in our dreams. The dream catcher design is taken
from the spider web. The web design is symbolic of our
brother, the spider who teaches us of eternity, reminding us
that the spirit lives on even after death.
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