.: COCOON :.
four night initiation for women
27th - 31st January 2023
B A L A B R O O K, D E V O N
.: SHAKING MEDICINE :.
· SOUL EMBODIMENT ·
“It’s challenging to describe what Zazie does: it’s incredibly deep and almost beyond words.
It connected me deeply to the power and essence of what it means to be female: the fertile, living, dying, birthing, vibrant, creative force of that in all its messy glory.”
— Sophie Baker - private tutor, Stroud
JANUARY DATES NOW FULL
- so sorry to those of you who didn’t have a chance to apply, we were oversubscribed within 24hrs of release. HOWEVER I’m getting the next dates in the diary which will likely be May 2023, please join the mailing list (very bottom of the page) to be the first to know for the next retreat.
We have been sitting still and being quiet for too long. What is asking to be born through us? It’s time to give ourselves to life; to let it move us, shake us, tune us, play through us.
To end our search for the one truth and engage again with the mysterious, shape-shifting, ever changing river of spirit.
After a two year break, we’re coming together again for the next retreat. A small group of women will gather and enter into the cocoon: For four days, we’ll dive deep into the space of shaking medicine, of emotional expression, of soul expression. Working gradually, sensitively, step by step we learn together to feel and allow what is truly moving. We learn to embody our own spirit.
We never know exactly what the journey will be. But there is always magic. There is always challenge. There are always tears. There is always laughter. There is always love. So much love.
ENTERING THE COCOON: Shaking Medicine
As we enter the cocoon, we initiate the first stage of any transformational process: the dissolution of things which no longer serve us.
In this phase we will:
Ritually enter into the ceremonial space of the retreat
Learn to allow and build the natural shaking energy within us
Explore cultural and personal blockages around emotional expression, and essentially learn to feel and identify these in the body
Learn how to use our somatic sensitivity to begin to move energies previously inaccessible
Attune to ourselves in ways where judgements fall away, learning to release shame as yet another energetic form
Increase sensitivity to the truth of our own edges; working within our own true capacity for energy movement, respecting the wisdom of our body and its needs
Dive deeply into the possibilities of shaking medicine through practice and ritual
Learn to navigate the seemingly complex terrain of anger, boundaries, sovereignty, love and kindness
“I have never experienced such consistent and ever present gentleness in leadership. It was truly inspirational and was so precious to me after having experienced a lifetime of shame and abuse, my body in such a frozen rigid fearful place.
The strength which was palpable behind that leadership meant that I felt totally safe and it helped me to drop into parts of myself that I was so scared to meet.
By metaphorically holding my hand as I breathed life and movement back into deadened places and by being my witness she taught me that all of it is ok, even those parts I considered most unacceptable.”
— Rachel A. - holistic therapist & mother of four, Hampshire
Shaking & Instinctive Movement
At the simplest level, shaking and trembling is the natural way in which all mammals release energies of stress and trauma. This phenomenon is not well understood in our culture, and thus shaking along with other innate energetic release processes (emotional releases such as crying, and infinite variations of movement and sound) are frequently suppressed.
Learning to initiate this shaking response allows us access to the innate capacity for the body to heal itself; intuitively clearing and rebuilding energies in the perfect order, and revealing to us more and more deeply the absolute genius that we have access to as we learn to allow it.
Emotional Expressions as Energetic Shapes
As we learn to rest our awareness in this space, we learn also to allow emotional and more subtle energies to move and express: opening the space to move grief and anger easefully through the body, with a gradual, sensitive approach which fully honours all that this can bring.
We explore the meaning of boundaries and sovereignty in the context of a truly open heart.
Eventually with this practice, as we broaden more into the context of all of life, and as the backlog begins to clear, we start to naturally allow all energies to move easefully through the body, to act and respond more and more effortlessly, and to return ourselves to the wider natural flow.
“Do not underestimate this work that Zazie is bringing. It comes from a profound well of ancient wisdom integrated with the medicine of the body's innate healing potential.
… Through a divinely held process I found a treasure within, a sacred key.”
— Kathy Adams - counsellor & therapist, Hampshire
As we enter the depths of the cocoon, deepening our contact with this ancient energy, something even more mysterious begins to unfold.
The shaking comes like the desert wind through every level of our being; unearthing, dispersing, making what seemed solid become movable again. It is not just the physical body which is shaken. And in this dissolving within the cocoon, we learn at levels both profound and subtle, that things are not quite as they seem.
Within a chrysalis, the body of the creature within literally become liquid. All is dissolved. Trusting, knowing intimately and without doubt, the unfathomable intelligence of that which dissolves and that which re-forms: the nature of the creative force which flows from this surrender and re-creates us in our new form, taking our place once again in the web of all life.
The shaking is a true medicine from the core of our own body, and through our individual body re-enlivens the threads back to our most ancient ancestors. We are reconnected to all of the wisdom available through those who have carried this same life energy and passed it forward to us.
Whatever we are bringing to be transformed, whatever inner and outer circumstances we are with, whatever emotions, thoughts, feelings; whatever difficulties, dreams and joys longing for expression: We enter this sacred space where everything is in flux, the very nature of the ever-changing; we are shaken, dissolved, attuned, re-awakened and reborn.
Through the intimate, visceral body, we open again our roots to the deep magic of our world.
“Zazie holds such a profoundly safe space and creates an incredible container for women to be able to unfold within. It’s such a strong, gentle space with utter precision and direction to enable you to fully let go and be held.
I have been able to feel energy move through my body like never before.
I have watched my body communicate in waves and ways that I could never have imagined, and speak a language that no words could describe. I could feel the lineage of where this work came from really being imbibed by myself and the group and the sacredness of it all was deeply ceremonious.”
— Michelle B. - bodyworker & sound therapist, Wiltshire
Knowing the deep capacity of our instinctive body, we can allow the waves of life to move through us: free to bring the power of the storm, and free to recline in true softness.
EMERGING: Re-Enchanting Ourselves
By the nature of our developing capacity to feel, allow and express emerging energies, the work naturally evolves into the second phase:
Giving new life to that which has been hidden within us; learning to allow through the sacred forces asking for expression through our unique being and through this life.
In this phase we will:
Re-enchant our bodies & sense of ourselves
Understand and work with the balance between the surrender of the feminine and the directionality of the masculine within our own being
Learn to feel soul resonances and work with our own personal resonant images
Uncover deeper knowing of and learn to embody our own soul expression and sacred yearnings
Learn to pray through our bodies and feel into and align ourselves with the desires given from beyond us
Explore ‘self-love’ from the perspective of emptiness and multiplicity of self
Expand the edges of our own expression in ways which may have previously felt inaccessible
Move, dance, sound & celebrate
“From this space I emerged with life changing gifts, what she teaches is guided by spirit and it resonates so deeply as a much needed truth.”
— Joy Lovesy - healer & teacher, Bristol
“I am so grateful for following that pull. There is no way to describe what you do but all I can say is that I feel it is what most women need. To feel free to step into a place of power without guilt or shame is such a rare thing to see. Thank you for giving me permission!”
— Atalanta Dickinson - yoga teacher, Barcelona
Opening to Sacredness
As we begin to emerge, we move from deconstruction to exquisite fabrication.
We begin to enter the imaginal realm; aligning our compass to chart our personal course into the very depths of our own being, our own sense of sacredness and the deep resonances and longings which fill our unique soul.
As we begin to let go of the search for the one truth, and instead attend to our ways of perceiving and how they influence what we then see, we increase the flexibility and flow of our own perceptions, opening us to the potential of a sacred cosmos of infinite depth and beauty.
“When we see the void – the open and groundless nature of all things, the inseparability of appearances and emptiness – we recognise anyway just how profound is our participation in this magic of appearances …
… the heart bows to the fathomless wonder and beauty of it all.”
— Rob Burbea —
The Sacredness of Self
We are in a time of conflicting messages about the nature of Self.
On the one hand, we are encouraged to love and honour ourselves, shine bright and share our gifts. On the other hand, we are told that the Self is the enemy: the sense of self is the ego, which we are to eliminate at all costs.
So are we trying to fall in love with the self, or wage war on it?
We explore what happens to our sense of ourselves when we take an entirely different starting point.
As we explore the deep resonances of our own being, we allow our heart to rebuild its connection: to nurture and follow the threads of connection, unique as we are, and become reconnected to the web of life.
Not as universal oneness; not as a way to transcend our human experience:
As a profoundly intimate, embodied experience of the truth of our own nature; the depth of our heart, our very bones, which are showing us every moment what we are, pulled by the ropes of love to our fullest expression in this life.
As we explore these unique resonances of our own soul, allowing fully our very particularity, our very specific uniqueness, making space for the fullness, range and ever-unfolding depth of these resonances through our body, allowing them to move us, to shape us, we can begin to feel ourself as the very unfolding of the divine universe itself…
The more the self is allowed its depth, the fullness of the vast mystery of its particular heart; the more we feel ourselves as part of the whole.
As we learn to embody the truth of our feeling, that which we love, the true textures and particular shapes of our being, we take our place in the web of connection; our sacred selves find their place in the universe at large.
What you are feeling is not wrong. It’s the rope which will lead you into the ecstatic fire of your own existence - the very reason the universe dreamt you into being.
Through new ways of seeing, we re-enchant ourselves, our gifts and desires; taking our place in the web of life, knowing our profound participation in the creative essence of our world.
Want to find out more?
“Just thank you soooo much. I'm still full of internal peace and an unfamiliar new strength, since the retreat.
I feel amazing and so strong and whole. Especially thank you so much for giving me tools and images to work with back home in my normal world...
This is amazing work”
— E.S. - mother of two, London