This blog brings together a range of material: pieces that Nancy has written over the years about her shamanic practice, a gallery of altars, the archives of the Shamanic Convergence gatherings held in Nova Scotia from 2009-2012, recommended books, inspiring quotations, etc. To explore the blog, use the lower menu on the left, play with the tag cloud below it, or scroll down past it to the latest articles.
Moving Mandala in the UK, September 16-20, 2021
Held at the Earth Spirit Centre, Compton Dundon, Sumerton in the UK. This program, The Heart of the Dragon, An Initiation to Embodying your True Heart and Trust, is a Moving Mandala intensive that will deepen your practice and community. … Continue reading →
Moving Mandala in New Brunswick, August 2021
August 19-22, 2021, join us for shamanic training in New Brunswick, Canada.
Continue reading →Celtic Shamanism: A Year-Long Journey around the Celtic Wheel
An online journey around the Celtic Year.
Continue reading →Moving Mandala in Nova Scotia, Jan-Mar 2020
Communicate with your Mandala soul family and embrace the non-human realms. Overcome the wasteland of doubt, disappointment and disillusion by embodying a more beautiful way to live in abundance and joy. Protect your energy by strengthening your connection to the … Continue reading →
Moving Mandala Shamanic Training, Digby, NS in September 2019
September 12th – 15th, 2019 For thousands of years the Mandala (Sanskrit for Circle) has been used to establish Sacred Space. A powerful source of creative inspiration and a symbol for wholeness, the Mandala has been called “the Basic Structure … Continue reading →
The Dance of the Light
Reflections on a reflection in a Yucatan cenote by tour participant Heather Holm
Continue reading →Star Dragon
Nancy Dancing Light describes the wild archetypal energy she has come to know as Star Dragon.
Continue reading →Awakening the Heart Flame: A pilgrimage to Ancient England
A 13-day journey of awakening, rekindling and remembering the creative fires within. October 22- Nov 3, 2019.
Continue reading →Through Dragon Eyes
Nancy’s memoir of the 2019 Star Jaguar Pilgrimage to the Yucatan, as addressed to the participants, with photos.
Continue reading →Moving Mandala in Devon, UK, May 2019
Sue-Claire Morris and Zoe Hudson are offering our 4-day shamanic initiation and training programme in beautiful East Devon, May 3rd-May 6, 2019.
Continue reading →Moving Mandala in New Brunswick, October, 2018
Brenda Marita Mason and Lori Folkins will be leading a Moving Mandala Shamanic Training Retreat October 11-14, 2018 in New Brunswick on the Fundy Coast. Find more details on the Facebook Event Page or on Lori’s website. Read more about the Moving Mandala … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Shamanic Workshops June 2018: Dismembership and Shapeshifting
You are invited to join Nancy Sherwood and Brenda Marita Mason for one day workshops in Dismemberment and Shamanic Shapeshifting (sound and movement) June 23/4, Annapolis Valley, NS. Shamanic Dismemberment is an intentional spirit journey of death and rebirth. The person … Continue reading →
Continue reading →About Traveller’s Joy Tours
David Cameron on the movement, vision and listening that animates Traveller’s Joy tours.
Continue reading →Lori’s Chronicle of our 2018 Scotland Trip, A Reunion of Souls
A day-by-day account of our trip to Scotland in April-May 2018
Continue reading →Eilean Munde
A side-pilgrimage to pay hommage at the graves of some ancestors.
Continue reading →The Glow of Twylights
Contemporary lamps that glow from the inside to invite you in.
Continue reading →Remembering the June 2012 Moving Mandala in Eastern Ontario
The Eastern Ontario Moving Mandala of 2012 took place on land stewarded by Alison Logee. She and her husband have made many changes to the place with spiritual connection in mind. Brenda chose the sites on the land where we … Continue reading →
Continue reading →The Journey Continues after the Session
For those of us who do shamanic work, it’s important to have self care between the sessions. After the session it would be helpful to drink extra water for 4 days to keep you in the flow of the energy. … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Shamanic Permaculture
Permaculture and the Sacred Pioneer and Visionary, Starhawk, was at the Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering in Mexico that I attended in 1996; she was teaching spontaneous ritual at the time. In fact, so much spontaneity happened during that exciting meeting … Continue reading →
Continue reading →The Dragon as an Ally
When we think of primal energy and matter, the dragon is one of the most universal images that comes to mind. It has long been associated with the elements and revered in the East, while feared in the West. In … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Calling In a Container
Calling in a Container: When you are doing intentional shamanic work it is wise to call in the cardinal directions or to form a similar energetic container to assure that the helping spirits “hear” your intention and so that you … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Video Series: Sovereignty of the Land
We are all descended from indigenous people of the earth. When we retrace our ancestors’ steps to restore our interconnection with the land and people, we re-establish right relationship with ourselves, each other and the earth. Patty Creighton and I … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Altars as spring awakens
Photos of altars at our house in the season of Brigid and the first hint of spring.
Continue reading →Brigit and the Dragon
Who would have thought I would live to see our friend John Storm’s spirit journey of Imbolc, 2002, manifested and embodied ON EARTH over fourteen years later!! During the recent September Celtic Shamanism workshop in New Brunswick, we followed the … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Silver Wheel: The Lost Teachings of the Deerskin
After working a number of years shamanically and travelling with Nancy, Elen Tompkins has come forward with her own revelatory publication. Traveller’s Joy recommends Silver Wheel, the Arrival of the Elven Teachings by Elen Tompkins, shamanic healer, author, and Reiki Master. … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Moving Journeys
or: Why I don’t journey like the Harner model and why I don’t care! by David Sherwood There is a full moon drumming group in Eastern Ontario that was born from the EarthSea lineage. I have been participating since it … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Ireland, October 2015 – Nancy’s Reflections
Ireland in October 2015 was a culmination of all of my journeys there since 1994; during the first week of last fall’s trip I was accompanied by 7 women and we stayed in the West because of its connection to … Continue reading →
Goddess in the Garden in Sacred Nova Scotia
The rebirth of the green is always welcome in spring; however, this year I felt I was worshipping the sight every blade of grass and bud, as they emerged from ground and tree. After a very snowy and long winter … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Dismemberment as a Doorway of Transformation
In the shamanic realm of experience there is type of initiation called dismemberment. It is either voluntary or happens spontaneously. To give an example of initiation to shamanism itself, you could have a sudden crisis or illness that spurs you … Continue reading →
Continue reading →The Cailleach’s Last Kick
After writing the article on the gift from Nova Scotia Winter 2014/15, I was premature in thinking that the spirit of weather had its last “say.” More snowstorms arrived, with accumulations that were almost impossible to move anywhere because there … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Feeding My Demons, Spring Equinox 2015
Last night was one where I faced one of my self-loathing demons again and again while lying in bed. I have been willing to work with compassion toward them, and when Feeding Your Demons jumped off the shelf a few years … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Seasonal Movements of Brigit, Earth Protector
In the Celtic traditions of seasonal changes, there is a belief that the summer and winter faces of Brigit, are divided during the year. Since the Goddess holds the Sovereignty, or the authority of the land, historically her comings and … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Shamanism & The Moving Mandala
This is my story: I am sharing here is because many of you have had synchronicities, visions, loss, spiritual crises, miracles, and illness, and are seeking to find a framework to put them in for understand your place in the … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Beautiful Moving Mandala Poster
A particularly lovely poster created by Lori Folkins for a Moving Mandala in Port Colborne, Ontario.
Continue reading →Ignorance, ego & enlightenment
The basis of the mandala is primordial basic ignorance, the ignoring of our true nature. This is how the whole mess that we have got ourselves into started, by a little seed of ignorance, by refusing to dance with the natural play of energy. Nobody actually knows how this started or why, it is just the basis of our present situation—a kind of cloudy ignoring, which spreads through the whole samsaric mandala and provides the basic ground for it. At the same time, this ignorance is extremely intelligent.
Imagine what intelligence it takes to decide to ignore reality and to gradually build up the whole fantastically complicated structure of personality, individuality and egohood! And it goes on deliberately ignoring things as they are, deliberately cutting itself off and thinking it is one thing in opposition to everything else, building up this whole magnificent, wonderful edifice of human beings. This energy of intelligence, however, might just as well be put to good use, and turned into wisdom and enlightenment. That is the whole dynamic behind the mandala. This same energy could just as well be enlightenment and is, in fact, but we don’t realise it.
Eileen Kramer Still Dances and Choreographs at 100
This woman’s presence is enough to charge the other dancers with her spirit. She is a connector between heaven and earth that has never given up her vision and practice: I find her inspiring and I think she and Tina … Continue reading →
Continue reading →The Practice of Altar Making
When we have no time, no place for our sacred selves, an antidote may be to build an altar at home. By focusing on a little corner or shelf or alcove, we can open up to creating more of that … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Altars: Gallery
Here is a gallery of altars created by various people, for various purposes and occasions. Some are personal, some are collective creations. Read The Process of Altar Making.
Continue reading →Dragon Dancing
Arise again! These are notes coming from remembering our final circle last Saturday, a meeting that Helga and I had, and research I was doing for a pilgrimage: the body of work I have been doing for the last three … Continue reading →
Continue reading →In Memorium: Lucie Brunet
Our dear Moving Mandala Sister, Lucie Lumière, departed from this life April 26, 2013, with family present at her home at Ste-Anne-de-Prescott, Ontario. Lucie’s life is such that when she found out she had ALS after coming back from Brittany, … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Travels in Ireland 2014: Achill Island & Achill Beg, County Mayo
See also Nancy’s description of her experiences on Achill Island and two shamanic dance videos that she made there with Patricia Creighton at this link.
Continue reading →Mandala as a Supportive Pattern
Once we recognize this unity between the space around us and the space within us, it is a natural step to see how intimately mandalas can describe our inner selves. Every element of our awareness as we move about our … Continue reading →
Continue reading →How the Mandala Dance Works
This is an update on how the Mandala Dance actually works, and why I need to write about it so that if there are untrained people present we can bring everyone along on the wave of energy. In the past, … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Article on Moving Mandala from DANS Revue
This article was published in the Fall 2014 edition of DANS Revue, Dance Nova Scotia‘s newsletter. The entire newsletter can be found at the bottom. First, here is the text of the article by Nancy Sherwood. Training in awareness, and connection … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Interview with Nancy Sherwood about Moving Mandala
by Ali Rabjohns. What brought you to walk a shamanic path and work with the Moving Mandala? This shamanic direction came from three fates finding me, to change my life. An energy shift, a shamanic initiation, offered me a chance … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Sovereignty of the Land: Shamanic Dance Videos
I walked on the granite and quartz hills of Achill Island, found the holy waters, and sat looking at the ocean, as if I was dissolving into the space between land, sea and sky. I moved along ancient paths and … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Going with the programme
I had had SO many postponements and delays, it had been like the cosmic joker has had its way with me, so I was trying to figure out which delay was “meaningful” and just surrendered to not knowing. I woke up … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Death and rebirth
“Our planet, my beloved is in crisis; this, of course, we all know. We, many of us, think that her crisis is caused by men, or White people, or capitalism, or industrialism, or loss of spiritual vision, or social turmoil, or war, or psychic disease. For the most part, we do not recognize that the reason for her state is that she is entering upon a great initiation—she is becoming someone else. Our planet, my darling, is gone coyote, heyoka, and it is our great honor to attend her passage rites. She is giving birth to her new consciousness of herself and her relationship to other vast intelligences, other holy beings in her universe. Her travail is not easy, and it occasions her intensity, her conflict, her turmoil—the turmoil, conflict, and intensity that human and other creaturely life mirror. And as she moves, growing and learning ever closer to the sacred moment of her realization, her turmoil, intensity, agony, and conflict increase.”
~ Paula Gunn Allen in The Woman I love is a Planet; The Planet I love is a Tree, 1993, p.36
Divine collision
“But after all humans are not in the world to succeed, to be more secure, to tame the Earth, to build big commercial structures or to crash into them to find God; humans are not here to become comfortable, to purify themselves or anybody else, to be immortal or to get their way. Humans are here to become complex, simple-living beautiful things into which the Holy itself cannot resist crashing, because in the Divine collision of God’s desire and our beauty, the world jumps back into flower with all its detours, griefs, joys, pain, reliefs, breakthroughs, and ironies as its accepted petals.”
~ Martin Prechtel
Wisdom at Work
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. ~ Viktor Frankl
Continue reading →Scotland 2013: The Cailleach
The Wise Old Woman of the Scottish Landscape, and Climate Change Now: Oct. 8–20, 2013 I don’t regret my lust and rage,for even had I been demureI still would wear the cloak of age. The cloak that wooded hillsides wearis beautiful; … Continue reading →
UK Fall 2012: Teaching and Spirit-Guided Tour
Nancy took time to visit and revisit sites by herself and with other wise women as well as to teach and to play. Oxfordshire: White Horse of Uffington, Wayland’s Smithy and Oxford Glastonbury (see below) Wales: Brecon Beacons, Myddfai Physicians, and … Continue reading →
Moving Mandala, Cornwall and Devon, October 2012
The trip to Cornwall and Devon put me/us in a context of the primal dragon energies again, while entraining* the body centres to align with the great world tree (vertical) and to allow the embracing circle of the Moving Mandala … Continue reading →
In Memorium: Peter Langille
By David Cameron In memory of our dear friend and shamanic traveller, Peter Langille, 1950-2012, pictured above, last Fall, with Armand DeGrenier. You had to know Peter (and many of you do) to fully appreciate what has been lost to … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2012 Program Schedule
Thursday, September 27th 2:00- 5:00 pm Arrival , registration, orientation @ Dining Room 5:00- 6:30 pm Dinner @ Dining Room 7:00- 9:30 pm Opening Circle and Cultural Ceremony Shamanic Grandmothers Introductions Logistics Music Transition into silence Lighting the Sacred Fire … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2012 Presentation Outlines
FEELING DRAGON–FREEING DRAGON Facilitated by Eileen O’Hare (IIOI) Join Eileen O’Hare (IIOI) as she guides us through our own visceral experience of ‘Dragon’. We intend to cultivate our awareness of ‘Dragon’ as individuals and as a collective. We will … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2012 Presenters
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 … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Preparation and Protocols for Sweat Lodge
There will be both a Native American sweat lodge ceremony and a Celtic sweat lodge ceremony. Our intention in the sweat lodge ceremonies is to purify and pray together. Clear instructions will be given on procedure before you go in. … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Terms and Conditions
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: Program Information: Shamanic Convergence 2012 programs contain activities that can be physically and emotionally demanding. We will try to accommodate people regardless of physical disability whenever possible, but we must have full discloser of all physical and … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Shamanic links
Blogroll Dorje Denma Ling In the Press Shamanic Practice Meets Shambhala Culture Shamanic resources Caitlín & John Matthews David Cameron David Hickey EarthSea Interpretations Eliot Cowan-Blue Deer Eliot Cowan-Plant Spirit Medicine Nancy "Dancing Light" Sherwood
Continue reading →2012 Awakening The Dragon
4th Annual Shamanic Convergence Ignite and reclaim your passion September 27-30, 2012 @ Dorje Denma Ling Retreat Centre, Tatamagouche, N.S. ~ where we are privileged to continue our Shamanic/Shambhala connection. From 2009 “Returning to Our Roots” (Air), 2010 “Returning to … Continue reading →
Continue reading →The Water Dance
Written by Nancy Sherwood in response to a question by a participant preparing for the 2011 Pilgrimage to Wales and Brittany. The work with water purifies us in that we have to have forgiveness and gratitude within ourselves to do it; … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2011 Remembering 2011
2011-Plant Medicine shaman Eliot Cowan introduced us to the Huiochl Sacred Fire. and his history of involvement with plant medicine. We also enjoyed presentations by Eileen O’Hare and David Hickey. Eileen is returning for the 2012 Convergence. Presentations by local … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Celtic Shamanism
Shamanism is fundamentally a way of viewing reality and responding to that view. The shamanic practitioner works with protection of the soul, which is referred to extensively in Celtic literature as “soul shrine”. Celtic shamans accessed otherworld realms through journeying, … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Why Converge?
Dear Ones, I am reading a wonderful book, The Raven’s Gift, on a scientist’s journey through Siberia; Jon Turk encounters a century old shaman and her reindeer tribe and goes back many times to see what the shamanic viewpoint is … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2010 Convergence Presenters
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 … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2010 Convergence Program
2010 Convergence Programs: Awakening the Dreamer – Changing the Dream of the North with Leila Bruno. Based on our own experience, and according to a majority of the world’s social, political and scientific experts, there is now overwhelming evidence that … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2009 Convergence Program
Opening eco-program “Awakening the Dreamer” Part 1, with Leila Bruno is an initiative of The Pachamama Alliance. Conference opening with Mi’kmaw Elder Ellen Hunt, to honour historical aboriginal stewardship of this land and bless the gathering. Caitlin Matthews, The Perpetual … Continue reading →
Continue reading →About the Path of the Dragon
Background to the 2011 tour The Chinese first started drawing symbols for dragons 6000 years ago, so we know that that culture had a sense of what the energy of “dragon” entails in symbology, and of course the Celts were … Continue reading →
2010 Remembering 2010
2010-Turning from the ocean waves of Convergence 2009, to inland quiet waters for 2010. A black mink roadkill was discovered by a presenter on her way to the Convergence site. A live mink swam under water in front of beach-trolling … Continue reading →
Continue reading →FAQ Page
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 1. Is this convergence more experiential or more of a lecture style conference? We intend for it to be as experiential as possible. This event is a very intentional and energetic convergence of shamanic cultures and traditions. … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Woodpecker Medicine
This is my story. Just before the shamanic convergence of 2009 we had a visitor from Britain that stayed with us at Serenity. Tina Cockett and I had done shamanic work together when I was invited to Britain. Tina, another … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Traveller’s Joy and Soul
Traveller’s Joy has been initiated for soul healing. Pilgrimage makes it possible for the energetic parts of ourselves that have been lost through our ancestors’ displacement, or through similar dislocation experienced in our own lives, to be returned. We take … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2009 Participant Comments
Much happened! Great mysteries: an eagle “nearly big as a man” perched on the big rock; woodpecker medicine (see that page) ; the Acadians gather for ancestor work with Nova (unplanned but it became apparent during Nova’s Ancestor workshop that … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2009 Presenters
Caitlin Matthews is acknowledged as an authority on Celtic wisdom and the ancestral shamanic traditions of Britain. Born of British and Irish parents, she has explored the ancestral heritage of these beautiful islands, finding practical ways that help us maintain … Continue reading →
Continue reading →2011 Convergence Program Outline
This was our program for 2011. Eliot Cowan Are We The Weavers? A boy who suffers from hay fever can grow up to be an herbalist. An isolated brainiac can grow into a community leader. An agnostic rebel can become … Continue reading →
Continue reading →Convergence History
shamanic convergence story This is my story: while reading the ”Gaia Atlas of First Peoples” on Spring Equinox, 1992, at the Ovens Park, NS, I went into an altered state: I “saw” that first peoples could not bring the medicine … Continue reading →
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