"The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it.
It is not possible to save the world by trying to save it.
You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place.
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Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge.
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The offering of that gift - your true self – is the most you can do to love and serve the world.
And it is all the world needs."
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Bill Plotkin
Obsidian
Paths with heart
Based in the UK and South West France, Obsidian is an organisation created to further people’s ability, both personally and professionally, to vision and manifest a thriving future for ourselves and our planet.
Obsidian was founded by Helena Lovendal and Rachel Lovie PhD. Helena is a psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor, and coach; Rachel is an artist, teacher and Rites of Passage guide, with a PhD in the creative processes involved in adult development and transformative experiences.
We provide residential programmes, workshops, trainings, and coaching for personal and professional development, and employ a unique combination of a nature-based sense-making system alongside Jungian and other therapeutic techniques and embodied processes.
Join us for UK workshops: Introductory days, Integration workshops in South UK, & in France.
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For those unable to attend in person, we can offer 4 Shields teaching, Intention setting and preparation by Zoom; and Integration through nature-based practice and mythic-symbolic sensemaking.
Travelling here
Location:
South West France on the border between Tarn & Aveyron
By air:
Toulouse or Rodez
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By rail:
Carmaux
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By breaking with the routines of our daily lives and immersing ourselves in nature, we are exposed to and begin to attend to the manifestations and processes of the natural world. As our internal narrative subsides, the quiet voice of intuition can be heard, and insights into our own nature and predicaments can emerge.
Nature as a Mirror & Teacher
Mirroring stories
Mirroring is a technique taught to us by The School of Lost Borders, who have been guiding wilderness rites-of-passage ceremonies for 30 years.
Mirroring is a way of reflecting the person’s tale of their time in nature back to them in a mythic-symbolic way that people often find empowering and yet sometimes challenging to hear. In mirroring stories of journeying in nature, we often refer to the symbolic elements, traits, and movements contained within the Four Shields teaching. We describe mirroring as “shining a light on the gifts of the story”.
The obsidian mirror also reflects shadows as well as light.
