Willow Moon Farm is a home for healing, music, ceremony and building relationships with the living natural world through deep listening, respect and gratitude.
Grandmother Willow, sacred wisdom-keeper in the meadow.
Now is the time to know that everything you do is sacred
Sky of the Heart Winter Healing Retreat 2024
Step into the dream of nature and align with the elemental wisdom of deep winter. Receive traditional healing, explore the value of healing in community, and learn practices to restore balance between heart and mind. Reconnect to ancestral presences, the mystery of death and the vast field of emotions connecting us to heart and each other. Experience the joy of a regular presence in a safe, community oriented container, close to nature.
This month-long program is designed to support those who cannot get away to a retreat, but who choose to maintain daily life commitments while exploring connective relationships to spirit, to self and to the community of beings seen and unseen which give us our lives.
Join us January 21 to February 11 at Willow Moon Farm in Weaverville. We’ll meet three times each week. Shamanic healing sessions and teaching fires in the tipi. Workshops and healing music sessions in the yurt. Walks on the land along the river.
A global change of consciousness is needed.
To truly change the way we relate to the environment around us, we must address the ecology of our own hearts.
Great saints recommend that in these troubled times, we purify ourselves internally by diving into the river of sacred sound. Transformation takes place from the inside out. Let’s begin now.
S · P · A · C · I · O · U · S
Slow down to the Rhythm of the natural World
Now is the Time
In these times of great need and change the imbalance of modern culture can feel overwhelming. With so much at stake how can our social and political structures be so divisive and self-serving? How can we each find a way to lead on a path towards balance?
What can I do to make a stand for the sacredness of life? How can I acknowledge my feelings of fear, grief and anger that arise from the devastation and desolation of modern life. Is there a way to be joyfully human in the face of what is happening all around us?
Ancestral wisdom traditions swim in a rich sea of connection and relationship with the natural world of Divine expression. Cultivating this relationship provides for a life of health and fulfillment. Traditional healing restores balance and transforms ingrained patterns of energy, perspective and behavior that keep us stuck in the illusion of separation from the living world around us.
Join Prema and Scott Sheerin this January for a month-long experiential exploration of shamanic healing and traditional wisdom perspectives: harmonizing with the elemental energies of winter.
This program allows you to maintain your daily routines (work, family etc.) whilst receiving regular, direct support to integrate change and the emergence of the authentic Self. This is the Self that is Awareness itself, connected to the common Heart and in constant exchange with the Divine forces within and around us. Allow yourself to flow with the natural energy of winter this January, to turn within and explore your essential nature.
Welcome to the Sky of the Heart
Four Sunday workshops
Each Sunday from 1 till 5pm we’ll gather for rich, experiential learning and sharing on four aspects in the healing journey. Learning practices and perspectives to continue and deepen into the flow of life.
Jan 21 / Jan 28 / Feb 4 / Feb 11
Three healing sessions
Arranged to fit your schedule you’ll receive a weekly spirit guided healing session from either Prema or Scott. In a way all healing involves coming into relationship with what life is showing up for you.
Sessions are one to two hours in length and are by the fire in the tipi or yurt.
An evening fire each Wednesday
Each Wednesday evening there will be a Conversation of Discovery Q and A teaching fire in the tipi. Sitting together by fire in a small healing community not only brings joy and laughter it can be transformative in and of itself.
Jan 24 / Jan 31 / Feb 7 7-9 pm
Sunday Jan 21st
Program opening
Listening to the Dream of Nature: Deep Listening and connection through fire, the natural sounds of the world around us, our own voice and the presence of others.
The Heart Awareness Journey: A guided journey to experience the presence and guidance of heart. This is a doorway to the “sky of the heart”.
Workshops in the Retreat: Sundays 1-5pm
Sunday Jan 28th
Emotional Wisdom in Life and Death
When we learn to listen clearly to our balanced emotions, they are a profound source of intuitive wisdom and relational skill. What gets in the way of this ability and how do we cultivate emotional balance and fluidity.
As we move fluidly with the waves of our emotions, we also become aware of the ‘ocean of emotion’ that is the nature of consciousness itself. We begin to experience the joy and love that underlies all our feelings, regardless of whether they are comfortable or not.
This supports us to begin shifting our identification from who we think we are, this body-bound personality, whose loss we fear, to who we really are; the Self that we will merge into as we die.
Sunday Feb 4th
Connection with Benevolent Ancestors
Our benevolent ancestors are our allies in both life and death. In our life, they are invested in our wellbeing and in our expression of the unique gifts of the lineage. In death they are there to welcome us and guide us home.
Who are our ancestors and which ones are benevolent ? Here we will have the opportunity to safely cultivate relationship with those ancestors who can offer us guidance, wisdom, compassion and protection.
Sunday Feb 11
Prayers for Earth and Sky
The heart of a healthy life may well be learning to practice respect and gratitude for all our relations. This of course includes ourselves, as well as all the beings seen and unseen who give us our life.
Learn simple, time tested ways around prayer, fire, natural elemental presences and expanding our identity as self to include much much more than who we think we are.
Program closing
In this month-long program you will receive:
Three individual shamanic healing and sound healing treatments. One per week.
Four half-day Sunday workshops providing perspective and tools for daily practice
Three weekly “conversations of discovery” tipi fires for questions, group reflection and integration of learning into our daily lives.
January is the beginning of winter and the New Year. Our connection to the the darkness and ancestral presences are enhanced.
Nature invites us to turn within, to rest, recharge and rejuvenate. She becomes quiet and still. The increased darkness provides the perfect environment to gather around the fire to connect and to explore who we really are and what is the source of our life.
YOUR COMMITMENT
Aside from the financial commitment your investment includes a willingness to give yourself the luxury of slowing down the pace of your life so that you can really engage with the different elements of the program. We’ll meet three times a week for this month. One of the values of a concentrated immersion in this work is that there is an increased opportunity to interrupt the incredible momentum and pressure of our lives, to reflect and renew, with guidance and support. This is a gift you can give to yourself which will also bring benefits and blessings into the lives of those around you.
The Sky of the Heart Winter program will run from Sunday January 21st through Sunday February 11th at Willow Moon Farm near Weaverville.
We are an easy 20-to-25-minute drive north of downtown Asheville. Most of our exploration will be done in the tipi or the yurt around the sacred fire. We will also be walking on the land, connecting with the ancient willow trees and visiting the river to connect with the beauty and spirit of the earth, water and sky.
TUITION
Full tuition is $595 with a registration deadline of January 14th.
Members of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying receive a 20% discount which can either be applied to the tuition or offered as a donation to CCLD.
Space is limited so early registration is recommended. There are two partial scholarship spots available.
About us
Both in their sixties, Prema and Scott Sheerin have been married for 23 years and living in these mountains for the past 12 of those. With a deep love of learning around the mysteries of prayer, spirit, consciousness and healing, they dedicate themselves to bring healing and understanding to our people and be of benefit to all our relations.
Together they have over 75 years experience as healers and students of various holistic healing ways and spiritual practices. These days the emphasis for Prema is traditional spirit guided healing, ancestral healing and dreamwork.
Scott’s work these days is primarily with the mystery of music and sound and where it connects with spirit and the world, however it may be showing up for us. An accomplished and pioneering healer and musician trained in both an indigenous and a Vedic tradition in the ways of music as prayer and healing.
“it was such great medicine to slow down my mind and listen to my heart, sitting in front of a fire with warm, fun , open-minded people. I felt my heart stirring – like I was waking up”
V. B.
Testimonials from past participants
““If you feel called to really dedicate some focused attention to your heart, your growth and your healing, I TOTALLY recommend the Sky of the Heart Retreat…This program was an incredible time for me. I thought it would be too much with work and personal life but found it extremely easy with the support I needed to explore and work with the teachings and all the juicy stuff that came up! I opened a door inside me and allowed many layers to peel away, making way for so much more to come into my life….Doing this around the fire and in nature was a huge gift. I learned more about listening - to nature, to the Gods and to my heart. It was so rich and amazing.”
A.A.
“I received so much love and nourishment through connecting with nature, my heart, my emotions and other people….I loved having the structure of the retreat to take a break from the business of every other people….I loved having the structure of the retreat to take a break from the business of every day life, to slow down and connect with myself, my fellow retreat mates and, most of all, the natural world “
E.H.
I am amazed at how much support and shift happened for me this month. I kept getting reminded to listen to my heart, to be gentle, and compassionate and awake to how I feel. We sat with the fire and listen to my heart, to be gentle, and compassionate and awake to how I feel. We sat with the fire and listened to the dream of nature. We visited the river and heard the song of the wind and the birds.We learned a new way to dance with fear. I feel very supported.”
S. A.
“I received so much love and nourishment through connecting with nature, my heart, my emotions and other people….I loved having the structure of the retreat to take a break from the business of every other day life….I loved having the structure of the retreat to take a break from the business of every day life, to slow down and connect with myself, my fellow retreat mates and, most of all, the natural world “
E.H.
