Title : Nyepi 2011 at Shankari’s Bali Retreat

Location : Shankari’s Bali Retreat – Jl. Raya Denpasar – Gilimanuk Ds. Lalang Linggah, Tabanan Bali [ view map ]

Nyepi!
Such a strange word.
Try it and see!
It’s like yippee!!!! Only with an N in front!
I am planning to share the joy and powerful healing experience of Nyepi with the world!!!! Come and join me!
Last year I travelled all over Bali interviewing groups of men and boys of all ages from different villages who were busy making the Ogoh Ogoh for the Nyepi Festival.

I discovered the most interesting thing…..after interviewing some very old men….whereas, I thought the Ogoh Ogoh were a uniquely Balinese affair! Much to my surprise before the 60′s the people of Bali did not celebrate Nyipi with Ogoh Ogoh…. The Ogoh Ogoh or (more than one ) Ogre were introduced by enterprising European tourist/traveller accommodation Management who were most likely Dutch… Since the Dutch had been an Imperial Occupying force in Indonesia for over four hundred years…until the war of independence just after WW2.
Ogres are a common theme in all European Folk Tales.
In the ancient earth cultures the idea of cleansing ceremonies and renewal festivals are indeed a universal concept.

Now we know the Ogoh Ogoh in Bali are a cross pollination from Europe the doors are open to the world to experience Nyepi!!!

The men in the village take a month or more to build their Ogoh Ogoh. They work as a team and contribute about a day a week each… Usually Saturday or Sunday.
Everyone has a great time….Last year during Nyepi in Bali I gathered my friends and guests and we built a beautiful Ogoh Ogoh in five days. The men could not believe we did it! They really believed we’d fail!!!!! (I think it was because we were mostly women)!

I had an amazing moment of revelation when I heard my Balinese Silver Quality Control Team of beautiful women beg to be able to participate in carrying the monstrous dancing beast across the bridge (the Bali Java Highway usually uses that bridge!) Then down to the river beach…
What I discovered was…. this was the first ever female team of Ogoh Ogoh dancers…. The men usually get to have all the fun while the women work!
I am returning to Bali in mid February from Hawaii to prepare for this remarkable event. Come and join me in Bali!!!
Create living Earth Magic…. and help change the frequency of all the islands of the earth including yourself!

Nyepi culminates in The Night of Fires… Wild crazy, amazingly uplifting…. Burning the Ogoh Ogoh by the waters edge….. Letting the tide take the remnants out to sea for complete cleansing and release from the past year… With all its’ mistakes and regrets, failures and successes… .
Setting yourself and all those around you free!!!!

The principle of Nyepi is cleansing and resetting the clock to Zero!!! There is a lot to learn here, I believe… The Balinese take care of the health of the spirit of their land!
With this festival followed by the Day of Silence….
I am bringing this festival of renewal to Hawaii in August… To absorb all the negative (demonic) effects of the drug ‘Ice’ from the land. The devastation to families and children deserves our attention. I believe the magic of Bali can help the people of Hawaii…
Come and become part of the solution. Practice with me in Bali in March building the Ogoh Ogoh (usually a set of two or more giant bambu and paper mache puppets that are carried by thirty people on a large bambu frame)… and then let’s do it for the children and the earth spirit of the islands of Hawaii. Why not? Surely life is about joy, with everyone doing what they love and celebrating our abundance… ?
In appreciation for the earth our mother and in support of her children (that’s us and the 70,000 foster children in care in the Hawaiian Islands mostly due to Ice….)
If Ice is the the problem let’s bring the fire of purification and Nyepi to everyone!!!!!with JOY!!!!

The Day of Silence
The day following the Night of Fires is spent in silence.
In Bali they don’t even let planes land on that day!!!
A whole day with no cars on the roads and the only sounds you hear are children playing… Since apparently the demons cannot see children they are allowed to go out and play all day on the roads!!! Quite a sight!

Feb 28 – March 8th (8 nights/ 9 days)
We will pick you up from the airport for free! Just let us know your itinerary. The journey is about 1.5 scenic hours up the West Coast of Rural Bali.
$65 per day per person Twin share. Or $125 per day
Single person in a Private room
There are only 14 rooms available in our Retreat Center…
Don’t miss out….
Book early!!!!
Can’t wait!
Blessings S xx

Price Includes:

- Continental Buffet Breakfast of fresh fruit and home made mueslii..All materials and
- Tuition for creating the Ogoh Ogoh
- Traditional costumes for attending ceremonies.
- Tour to the Crocodile Temple…. Like walking back in time!!!
- Pre Nyepi Feast in the Balian Palace Dining Room.
- Traditional Balinese Dance performances
- Yoga daily
- Crystal Bowl Healing Circle
- 10% discount on Talisman of Power Jewelry from Shankari’s Boutique.
- 6 months free subscription to The Stone Soup Moving Feast School of Modern Mysteries on line.

Places are limited. Let us know as soon as possible if you would like to come to Paradise in Bali for Nyepi 2011.
Blessings on all your adventures. Shankari the Alchemist.

After five months of nurturing in Bali, I have returned to Hawaii, starting my new project.
Returned to long views and whistling trade winds… and the excitement of what I am planning to create here.

I am developing the Ocean View Creative Arts Festival Hawaii… the OVCA Festival…

My vision is to bring the powerful process I have experienced in Bali with the creation of the “Ogoh- Ogoh” and the way they absorb negative energy from the island of Bali annually.

…For more info on the Ogoh-Ogoh… please read “The Original Burning Man”

They are created by the village, and then burned after they have absorbed all the demonic energy floating around the island.
I want to bring this process here to Hawaii and teach the kids in Foster Care how to build these monsters from bamboo and Paper Mache so they can absorb all the demonic energy on the island. Especially the energy created and sustained by the use of the drugs like Meth which is sadly epidemic on the island of Hawaii.

This could be very powerful magic by the people for the people…

In the creation and then the burning of these effigies of darkness we can do a great service to the energy of the whole island chain.

There will be crystals on exhibition and for sale, art competitions and sale.
An “Earth Oven” baking bread, live music carried on the wind… good feelings all round.
Healing modalities of all sorts

A Sound healing Stage with Crystal Bowls, Flute, Chanting, Brass Bowls, Guided Meditations…
Renewable energy ideas showcased.  Alternative building materials and techniques displayed, recycling and zero carbon footprint intention…

Food stalls from all over the world, organics and honey, bee keeping workshops…
Stage for live theatrical pieces, Dance performance,  Poetry Out Loud performances,  Live music, guitars… perhaps a song writing competition? Gardening competitions throughout the district… tours of the winning gardens…

I have so many ideas I am going to burst, if there is anyone out there in my audience who has experience with such things or would like to come and spend time in Hawaii helping me get this together for August 2011 please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know how we can work together to make magic happen in Hawaii .

Blazing tales of wonder remembering all we have ever been and are about to become

Your sister through chaos and comfort

Shankari the Alchemist

During these past months I have been experiencing huge waves of grief, followed by new levels of awareness.

I am becoming more conscious of  in every way how much my parents love or lack of it created who I am today…

The universe abhors a void so every time something is removed or deemed ineffective or unworthy, something else of a higher frequency appears to replace it…

I had a vision the other night… it was 3am on my roof grid in the Balian Palace…
A vision of the universal polarity, between male and female…
A wild visual experience of expansion, contraction, enmeshment and liberation.

Vivid colors accompanied the images as I watched what seemed to be The Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine struggle through the erotic, outrageous dance of relationship… the journey to the bliss of integration…

I had a revelation of forgiveness.

How to free myself from the grinding process of humanization, forced upon me by my parents obvious (and some not so obvious) dysfunctions… Since I am not of this earth originally, I find the process of humanization daunting!

The integration process… a mystery…

Then I had a clear awakening.
It does not need to be a process of intellectual analysis… it can be a transpersonal experience beyond mind…
How to achieve this?

Ceremony and ritual…

Do it the way it has always been done… It’s worked for centuries…
Experience the marriage of the dark and the light, the male and the female…

Imbue the Ogoh – Ogoh with all the dysfunctional patterns of your parents…
Of yourself…
See them married and integrating in the ever Divine Ceremonial Dance of life death and rebirth…

Load them up with all the pain, frustration, rage, grief, disappointment, and resentment you can find inside you, then set the whole thing ablaze… on the river beach in the dark of night, at the perfect time for liberation!

This year in March leading up to the Equinox…
We are laying the groundwork for a new experience on Earth!
A new form of relationship that will clear the way for each of us to experience true love and devotion from a worthy partner….

If that is your ambition or your quest, I highly recommend this incredible event….

Nyepi 2010

Bali… a land of deep healing and infinite wisdom, ancient ceremonies support the evolution of modern mystics… Come and experience this for yourself…
You will not be disappointed!

Shankari the Alchemist is a master magician, trained in many traditions, she has worked with the priests of Bali for 22 years.

She has a deep understanding of the elemental powers and how to harness them in service to the healing and ‘enlightening’ of your Being.

Dance laugh and sing… long into the velvet night

Experience the integration of your child-self with your adult-self…

Be present for the marriage of ‘the dark and the light’
The integration of the positive and negative, the past and the future….

Within yourself and the greater cosmos…. Experience …Magic in action…

There is the extraordinary opportunity here… for 22 individuals… to learn and practice powerful magic for transformation…from a master teacher and practitioner of the arts.

Individuals who are willing to step forward and explore the mysterious terrain of personal alchemy….’The Alchemy of Enlightenment’ with Shankari, your humble servant in the dance….

All profit from this event will be used in the creation of the Sacred Dance Mystery School and Divine Mother Soup Kitchen, Big Island Hawaii…. Ah hui ho!

I have been in Bali for the last two months… it’s wonderful to be in such a nurturing environment….

It soothes the soul and reconnects the human spirit to the natural world.

I feel so blessed to be here and to feel the healing power of the earth… here in this spot, by the river, looking down to the sea.

When you arrive in Bali as a stranger you will be surprised how warm, happy and welcoming the people are…

They are genuinely loving and inclusive… how can this be so…. after centuries of slavery and mistreatment, by their own Maharajah’s, the Dutch plantation owners, the Japanese invaders and now the abusive Multi National Corporations?

I believe it’s because the Balinese have a secret.

As a culture (not Indonesia) the Balinese are truly the last Magicians on earth working in the old ways….

This is why we understand each other…. this is why it is such a healing environment for me…

Do you remember the Bali Bomb Attack?

One year, one month and one day after 9/11…. Manufactured by the same force as 9/11 for the same purpose…. to get the troops to Iraq… to protect the oil owned by some very greedy irresponsible individuals called corporations who have the power through control of the media to command governments…

After that bomb which killed 220 people and engaged 88 countries in a huge international interconnected healing process….

The Balinese Priests found in their ancient records a prophesy, about  just such a catastrophic event and a clear list of instructions for the priests on how to ‘space clear’ and ‘restart and heal the heart’ of the island!

It was transcribed six hundred years earlier, from a vision by a priestess while praying in the Temple high up on Batu Karo, the nearest volcanic mountain to the retreat center.

Yes that’s right! Bali is truly a land of organic magic.

The priests of the old land based religion found the instructions for the ceremonies to be performed to restart the heart of the island…

Everyone joined in….. for months large groups of men clad in black shirts and a black and white checked sarongs (the black and white checked sarongs representing the integration of the dark and the light,)  walked the back streets of villages with big wooden bells on their chests, holding them with both hands, in unison they would shake the bell and make the sound of an enormous heart beat that traveled out over the land through the villages, the rice fields, the coconut plantations and down through the rivers onto the beaches….

The sound seemed to reactivate all parts of the island….

It was a truly thrilling experience, to be in the midst of such single minded devotion to the energetic health of mother earth, ‘Dewi Sri’ in Balinese.

As an active alchemist and ritual magician I was fascinated by the highly organized ceremonies prepared and carried out in a rolling fashion across the island… by a cultural system dedicated to the energetic health of their land and the inner health and harmony of their people.  Such love and devotion with no promotion or advertising or resistance was amazing to watch…..

How do the people of Bali stay so calm and so clearly happy despite being enslaved and abused in all manner of ways for centuries?

There are perhaps a variety of answers to this question….

One of their secrets,  is they have developed annual space clearing rituals as a context for whole communities to express their creativity coupled with rage and fear appropriately… rather than in petty ways, against each other and more importantly they wisely created ‘time’ to integrate the outcome…. A change in frequency… How amazing is that!?

The time of year they chose to perform this profound social ritual for peace by expressing creative rage aligns with Easter in the Christian experience, the Passover for the Jewish community, it includes the ideas of the Wicker Man and in more recent times the modern American Mystics of ‘Burning Man’…. in US underground culture.

The rule is … if you don’t let loose once a year, your negative energy will overcome you and disturb the harmony of the village…
Now we all know that’s true!

I have been thinking about this for a while and now I am going to do something about it!

I’m going to stop trying so hard and relax, play, dance, sing and swim in the sacred dance of ceremonial life in Bali for ten days….

We get to build two giant size bamboo puppets from all local materials. They are known as ‘The Ogoh Ogoh’ (literal translation ‘more than one Ogre’). The night of the burning…. On the river beach…. We get to scream and rage with the village and set them on fire…..

By the end of the “Night of Fires”, ‘The Ogoh Ogoh’ have finished their important work… they are a cosmic sponge for all forms of evil, all forms of disharmony in the body, mind and spirit of communities and the individuals.

Join me… let’s find out what we can do together…
Nyepi 2010… read all about the workshop, what we will be doing and how to join in here…

I’m ready to have fun, play and create with my soul family, I’m ready to express my feelings and find a new level of inner peace on the day of silence… are you interested?

Blazing tales of wonder,
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become…… S xxx

Wow…
Doesn’t time just fly by?!
It seems it was only yesterday we were celebrating the Spring Equinox.

This is a very potent time of year because it’s when the energy of nature has reached a pivot point of equilibrium… Night and day are the same length and after that moment the energy begins to recede once again.

It’s a solar event…

The moment when day’s journey reaches the moment of equality with the night…
It’s a marriage of equal yet opposite energy….
A time of change and integration…

Lately I find that I have become a burden unto myself as my fear of the future has made me blind.

Now I understand!

To be blind is to be forced to begin to use your other senses.
To awaken to the whole of yourself and not to focus on the small part that lives in fear of lack.

I am ready…

As I sit here in my garden in Hawaii… it is such a beautiful evening.
I can feel the energy of the Goddess lifting me up…
The stars are so bright I feel inclined to sing to them!
With my imagination I stretch out my hand, take a few and pop then into my mouth.

As I swallow, I actually feel a sparkling effervescence inside traveling down my body and through every cell.
I am filled with stellar energy and ready for the next step…
The equinox when used properly can support your life into great change…

The autumn equinox leads into winter so it is a time where you are naturally contracting and taking stock of your stores for the winter ahead.
A time of preparation for hibernation…
But not forever…
In only six months time everything will change to the reverse position and the energy is awakening and preparing for the joyous nature of summer.
I will be in Bali!

My students and I will have made monsters — Ogoh-Ogohs from bamboo, leaves and jeweled paper…
We will dance in the streets with them… attracting the negative energy that surrounds us, carrying it in a theatrical procession followed by the members of the whole village and what seems to be a hundred screaming children… to the river’s beach… their faces alive with anticipation and adrenaline…

When we reach the bank of the river the monsters will be burned down in preparation for the day of complete silence that follows…
Nyepi, a sacred event in Bali.
An experience of a lifetime…
The whole island of Bali goes into silence so that they can clear the energy in preparation for the year ahead in gratitude for all the blessings already received.

Come and join me in Bali for the next equinox…
Pray with me and be cleansed by the sacred waters of the crocodile temple…
Meet the wonderful old women that are the priests of this amazing jungle temple and ancient sacred space.
In the coming weeks I will be sharing more information about how you can participate and prepare yourself for the coming journey.

The equinox…
Such a great inspiration!
With mother nature, nothing ever stays the same because to be alive we will always experience the OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE…
Use it wisely!
How are YOU going? Are you feeling inspired?
Have you found some solutions? How can I help?

Blazing tales of wonder remembering all we have ever been and are about to become.
Riding the lightning bolt of change in the new millennium
Your sister through chaos and comfort
Shankari the Alchemist xxx