Brian “Ahynx” Olynek and Annette Boelman

are a “dynamic duo” that have created together Quantum Leaps Lodge in Golden, BC. www.quantumleaps.ca  Quantum Leaps Lodge is a Retreat Centre on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and is a “safe sanctuary for inner and outer explorations”.  Together on their beautiful land, they host workshops and healing events such as Holotropic Breathwork, Shamanic Drumming, Fire Walking & Sweat Lodge Ceremonies .  Brian is a gentle teacher and motivator, always honoring that the fire and the elements are truly the teacher. Brian began walking “on fire” in 1982, with Angie from Findhorn, Scotland, a day that forever changed the way he perceived and received life. In 1994 he did the American week long certification course with the Sundoor Institute.  Since then he has guided, or as he would say “held space for” 1000’s of people on the journey across the fire.  His name, Ahnyx, given to him after vision questing with the Esalen Indians from California means “fire in the heart”.  So come join us in walking the good path, the joyful path, with this profound and sacred Ceremony.  Annette, guided by the spirit of the Deer,  adds to the experience years of Shamanic wisdom and practice. Her connection with the earth is deep and has been since her childhood.  She guides people on Shamanic Drum journeys and holds the space in the Sweat Lodge through the whisperings of the Grandmothers.  The night before she and Brian celebrated their Love in 2003, in front of friends and family, was the first time that she walked across the fire.  Since then she has walked across the fire many, many times and during all ceremonies she helps to hold the container for others to heal, awaken, and ignite the dragon within themselves.  Together at the Convergence we look forward to “Awakening the Dragon” inside each of us as we Dance on the Fire!

Shamanic Ceremonialist Teacher, Spiritual Healer, Sacred Sound Practitioner,Devotional Chant Leader ,Sacred Workshop Facilitator, Channel of Love      

Co-Creator: Andean Healing Energy Cards, “Love and Gratitude to the Water” CD

Beacon, NY 

Eileen O’Hare is a legacy carrier in the Shamanic tradition of the Andes (Irman).

She was initiated in Peru in 2004. Called to the shamanic path July 4th, 1996, she is completely devoted to spiritual transformation, study, healing practice and shamanic teaching. She is passionate about travelling to sacred sites to enact World Service Ceremony. She is deeply grateful to her many teachers in the US and Peru. Her primary lineage is the Peruvian tradition as shared by the Q’ero Nation in the Andes. She is in the lineage of Don Manuel Quispe and Don Benito Q’orawamann. She also acts as a channel of love for the Angelic, Ascended Master and Grandmother realms. She is especially grateful to those ancestors and Light Beings in the spiritual realms who have taught her so much and continue to test her so well.

During a World Service Ceremony at Mt. Mansfield, VT, Eileen was given the spiritual name, ‘Love More’, by the Guides and Angels. She is grateful for this beautiful name that reminds her of why she is here and what she is to do every day.

Eileen has a private healing/teaching practice in Beacon, NY. She also works long distance. Her beautiful and powerful healing sessions assist those who are ready to shift from separation, pain and powerlessness into beauty, connectedness and empowered love of self and others. Eileen facilitates workshops on Peruvian shamanism: sound healing, cord cutting, forgiveness, ancestral tracking, soul retrieval and shamanic dancing (and more). She leads water ceremonies and fire ceremonies and is a Kirtan Wallah (call and response chanting). She is teacher and guide for The Mesayok Medicine Spiral a longer, intensive training program inspired by the principles, practices and sacred transmissions of the Qiero Nation. Her half-day workshop Healing Your Way Into The Diamond Heart explores deeper and higher aspects of the sacred heart centre: unearthing parts of one’s self that hold great power, stepping into one’s true power, healing , loving, uniting.

Acting on a vision she received for a divination deck, Eileen, together with Joy Gilinsky and Seymour Hall, manifested the Andean Healing Energy Card Deck, a set of 44 energetically compelling cards and guide book “in honor of this most potent, sweet and deeply loving tradition”. Eileen and friends sang and produced a CD of a beautiful song Love and Gratitude to the Water which Eileen received while meditating by a stream. Of the song she says, “This song is an invitation to contribute to the flow of Love in the world by expressing appreciation to the water wherever we find it every day.”

Eileen acknowledges that in this time of profound change we are being invited to move deeper into our Heart of Hearts for the highest good of all, to raise our vibration into Unity Consciousness.

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Lori Forkins,

Firewalk Leader

Lori Folkins is an Intuitive Energy Worker/Healer/Channeler, Reiki Master and certified Sundoor Firewalk Instructor/Empowerment Coach. From a very young age Lori could see/feel Energy and Spirit and felt very called to channel energy towards healing and balancing. Lori has been studying different forms of healing for most of her adult life and studying/practicing Shamanism for approximately 5 years and loves to incorporate Drumming, Song and Sound into her healing practice. Lori attended her first Firewalk in 2007 and was forever changed by it. She experienced a major shift in the way she saw herself and the World around her. She began to question all those self limiting beliefs that played through her mind in the past.. She felt her heart open to so many possibilities. Her connection to the Natural World deepened and she felt immersed in the infinite, like she was dancing with the Divine, connected to the Ancient Wisdom of the Ancestors and the Elements. Since then she has danced with the beautiful Fire over a 100 times.. each time unique.. each time deepening her connection to the Fire, deepening her connection to herself and to all things.  Lori believes in the power and importance of Community and Ceremony.. that we are much more than we know.. that we are powerful/magical Creators.. that with heart, intention and focus we are capable of great things.. that Love is the highest energy, that all life is sacred and connected and that life continuously offers us opportunities to step into our greatest possibility.. to embrace our own unique medicine, magic and song..

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Armand DeGrenier,

Nova Quest, Nova Scotia.

I have been guided in spiritual practice in this incarnation following the instructions of the pre-birth council of coherence … after meeting and studying the path of “Core Shamanism” with Michael and Sandra Harner in the early 1980’s, I began experiencing a series of co-incidences that could be best described as emanations from “non-ordinary realms” … these moments of awakenings have been like a map of a path of guidance which continues to unfold to this day … in the late 1990’s, after being curious about DNA-genealogy, I was drawn to Font-de-Gaume in the Dordogne region of south western France where I experienced a profound heart connection with the lineage of the ancient cave painters … thus the 10,000 year old roots of my shamanic path became clear ! I am heartfully indebted to the many teachers, family, friends, sisters and brothers on the path I have met over the years … in particular when I review my sacred walk, i think back to the 1970’s and humbly honour the teachings freely gifted to me by Manitonquat (Medicine Story) of the Wampanoag nation in Massachusetts and more recently am sincerely beyond grateful for the guidance and sharing of tio (uncle) don Caesario, donna Maria, don Augustin and don Rojellio of the Secoya people of Ecuador and to sobrino (nephew) Jonathan Miller, at guaria de osa retreat centre in costa rica, ethnobotanist, inter-cultural guide and rainforest protector-activist for our shared vision of (inter)planetary wholeness.

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Nancy “Dancing Light” Sherwood

EarthSea @ Serenity, Nova Scotia, www.travellersjoy.ca

Nancy Dancing Light Sherwood has been an innovative educator for most of her life. Nancy’s exploration of  intuitive sound, movement, and sacred arts has made her  a pathfinder who has helped people find wholeness in co- creating a culture that acknowledges all living beings.

Her own grounding of holistic principles has included co- founding a shamanic ecovillage and living there  for a decade, stewarding a private park, and bringing up a family with earth based practices and knowledge of plants, animals,  and building in sustainable ways.

She has travelled extensively to educate herself about the indigenous soul that is in all of us. She has participated in community ritual and community living within in her own country, Canada, and in Mexico, Europe, India and Africa. A Shamanic initiation from a Maid, Mother and Crone gave her the ability to hear  the dream of the land in each place and to understand the role of the Cosmic World Tree as it joins heaven and earth.

After a decade of travelling with the intention to listen to the Sovereignty of the Land that she walked, Nancy started to take others with her. During the last 15 years of those  journeys the pilgrims have gathered to travel to ancients sites where the ancestors  sacred view has survived the changing times. Pilgrims meet contemporary people who carry on the stewardship of the earth with love and respect. The stories that they share rise from the land within the indigenous people, as well as from the participants’ own intuitive remembering. The pilgrims replace the ancestral and soul memory of woundedness and disconnection with fresh, shared experiences, that inspire them to go home and reframe their own lives.

In addition to shamanism,  the contemplative practice of sitting and walking and dancing meditation have given Nancy the balance needed to hold space for large, energetic events created by community  gatherings, ceremonies, pilgrimage, healing  dance  and other forms of collective intention. You might not even see her doing that  if you look  with ordinary eyesight!

She has also initiated a training for living in the 21st Century through The Moving Mandala,  a series of initiations and practices that support humans in being able to carry awareness from the timeless realms into specific  situations and places  She is currently teaching new teachers in Canada, UK and France,  with the intention of training others who also feel  that we can trust  our deepest intuitions with respect to the earth. Consciousness of the many realms of existence and its inherent wholeness can be grounded in experiential programs such as the Moving Mandala, as we embrace the swift changes of these times with equanimity, courage and creativity.

The heart of creativity is a bold heart and a gentle heart. This year’s convergence is about Fire being breathed from the Belly into the Heart so that we can align with the aspects of the Earth that are known to different cultures as the Dragon. Nancy brings her spacious approach to this convergence by supporting the collective intention and she wishes  to be of service, in gratitude for all of you that answer your inner call to come to Dorje Denma Ling.

She has asked for help, help, help in accomplishing a vision of a shamanic convergence in Nova Scotia that came to her in 1992. It has taken years, and surrender, and the dedication of many people to achieve what is coming so powerfully together in 2012, with the co-operation of the helping spirits. Thank you to All.

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Maria MacKenzie-Cann

Maria is a seasoned psychotherapist, healer and facilitator. She has been learning and practicing core shamanism methodologies for over 16 years. Her spontaneous journey experiences into Tibetan shamanic realms led her, in 2001, to attend a training program with Dr. Larry Peters, an initiated shaman in the Tibetan tradition. While holding a thorough appreciation of the numerous and complex details and levels of Bon shamanism, Maria knows deeply that when it comes to shamanism real knowledge comes not from “book learning” but from relationship with the spirits. The spirit realms are not separate worlds but all is one, all is connected, all is reality, life is continuous. Maria believes that releasing the old and embracing the new is often a core component of deep personal healing. She teams up with Nancy Sherwood to participate in offering such a healing experience at the 2012 Convergence.

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David “White Thunder” Cameron

Shaman’s helper, Grandfather, Web Chef (more like short order cook for this site!), shamanic artist, currently bent on bringing shamanic lamp light into as much of the world as I can. With Nancy Sherwood, founded EarthSea Shamanic Ecovillage and now residing with her at Serenity on Zwicker Lake (a misty in-between place, great for Celtic shamanism). I’ve been on this winding woven path for several decades and have danced the dance in the Highlands, the Western Isles, Botswana, the Yucatan and the Prairies. I count many teachers in many tribes, including all of my shamanic friends.

I’ ka kimat (try hard) and Blessed be.

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Carla “Dancing Rainbow Dragon” Silver, Riversong Keep, Nova Scotia

Carla rekindled her relationship to Creator and Mother Earth through the ancestral wisdom teachings of Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, and inter-wove these Peace Keeping ways with a degree in Environmental planning. She pledged to walk in beauty, to cultivate right relationship and to live in harmony with all beings during her first vision quest some twenty years ago. Her earth walk brought her to the intentional shamanic eco-village of Earth Sea, to live and study with her life long Teacher Nancy “Dancing Light” Sherwood.  Carla is a carrier of Women’s Medicine and receives guidance through the divine feminine ways of the Celestial Grandmothers. As an Earth Keeper she practices land stewardship with her partner at River Song Keep, a bio-dynamic farm, shamanic studies and experiential learning center in Chester Grant, Nova Scotia. Life at River Song evolves around the practices of honoring ancestral holy days and the celestial ceremonial wheel. As a long time student of Tom Brown Jr’s School of Tracking, Nature Awareness and Wilderness Survival and, Vision Quest Protector through the Earth Heart Institute of Vision and Healing, Carla offers nature based experiences and shamanic healing to individuals and groups. Carla is a Sweat Lodge Keeper and is a member of the Shamanic Grandmothers Council of Nova Scotia, Nova Quest Medicine Drum Society and the South Shore Meditation Center of Shambhala International. Carla owns and operates Shamanic Pathways Nova Scotia.

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David Nodding, “Grandfather Turtle”

Chief Fire Keeper

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