About Earth Session
Being born is validation enough and yet our sense of belonging and home is often sabotaged by our not enough-ness, our need for validation, and a feeling of being lost in the world. We often walk the path of the homeless in scarcity looking for an identity, a recognition, and a place to bring our gifts to our community. As we dig deep into the earth element we may find that abundance is rightly ours and the earth never said you don't belong. We come into sacred reciprocity with the earth. We come home.
About the Series
How do we practice in these times? The real question is how do we not? Amidst the chaos and conflict of the individual and collective fires raging around us, there is an invitation to find our primary call to creativity and tend to the deep self. When we realise we are not all there is, we awaken to the call to find our wholeness in the mystery and the greater earth story of who and why we are here.
In this five part elemental series hosted by Braided Wisdom we explore earth based practices to guide us in this time. These practices are grounded in the 5 elemental cosmology of the Dagara tradition - fire, water, earth, mineral and nature - and cross-cultural ways of knowing. We will draw from the wisdom of intergenerational circles. We will look to the past in order to support us in the present to move forward and leave a legacy of earth stewardship for the next generations. We will return to the age old practices of radical ritual, contemplative practices, reflection, storytelling, ceremony and the arts.
About the Teacher:
Mbali Marais is a descendant of a Khoi Khoi ( Khoi Khoi means -The Real People) peoples on her mother’s side from the Western Cape, South Africa and the Amaghebe clan of the Xhosa peoples on her father’s side in the Eastern Cape. She is mother to a Xhosa boy (who came into her life when he was 9 years old) a sister, daughter, aunt, mother to many. Her lineages include Dagara west Africa (adopted) Bushmen, Shangan, Grique, Khoi Khoi, Dutch, French Hugeunots and Portuguese.
Mbali Marais is the founder of the Return to Origin non-profit organization. www.returntoorigin.org.za an organization that works with young underserved people in South Africa to return them to their origins. She has facilitated the three year Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program and graduated leaders where inner and outer work are at the heart of transformation.