Want to have a "Golden Aura"? Then go to the Re Man meditation at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains in North India next to the holy Ganga river with Internationally renowned Healer and Yogi Guru Dev Singh Khalsa.

Every spring a large group gathers near Rishikesh to Chant the Re-Man for 7 days until until 11,000 repartitions have been completed.

This year my yoga teacher Darshan Kaur is going. I am interested in going another year.

This entry was posted on February 3, 2010 at 8:57 PM and has received 1592 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I attended my first Network For a New Culture event last weekend in Arlington VA - I met lots of old friends and made lots of new ones. Organized by Michael Rios and Sarah Taub the weekend started with a Friday night opening circle and dinner - a chance to get to know people. On Saturday I taught a Getting Real workshop that was fun. Then came the ZEGG Forum - a signature NFNC event for expression, mirroring and growth. I did some deep expression with the help from several people. I also ended up teaching a Shamballa meditation and some Kundalini Yoga. The kind of community connection and open hearted people at NFNC reminds me in some ways of PDF and also Rainbow Gathering. If you are looking for some deep personal transformation in a supportive community then check out their Summer Camp East or West.

This entry was posted on February 2, 2010 at 3:56 PM and has received 1200 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Deva Premal and Krishna Das will be performing “An Evening of Sacred Song and Kirtan” together in DC April 8th.  I heard Deva Premal, Mitten and Monose in concert in DC in the Fall and it was a magical experience. I have lots of their CDs and plenty of Krishna Das CDs too, you can see if they are visiting your city in March and April at Deva Premal's website event calendar. Places include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, DC, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, and Dallas.

Deva Premal and Krishna Das have been recording much-loved albums of kirtan and mantra since the mid-90s.Their CDs are the sound track for workouts in yoga studios around the world, and their concerts have attracted ever larger global audiences with the sense of joy and well being they offer.

Yoga Journal has dubbed Deva & Miten the “Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash of Chant.” Krishna Das has been called the “Chant Master of American Yoga” by the New York Times.

This entry was posted on February 2, 2010 at 12:47 AM and has received 1145 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This entry was posted on January 26, 2010 at 8:28 PM and has received 1194 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I came across foraging at Rainbow Gathering this summer - eating a wild food salad. Interesting article from the Gaian-Mind festival folks on foraging and other eco activities.

"For 99% of human history we've been foragers. Our nomadic ancestors gathered and hunted for food. Gardening, farming, and animal raising are recent developments in human history going back only about 10,000 out of 3 million years of our evolution as hominids.

The goal of The Gaian Mind is for our eco-arts and education collective to nurture a culture of ecological awareness and provide the means to connect urban youth and families with bioregional natural living systems.

-We hope to build and test replicable modules of alternative sustainable natural living systems that can be applied/adapted to any community throughout the world. Malcolm X advised that the only way for communities to experience liberation would be to create better working systems that make oppressive systems obsolete. We combine this axiom with the wisdom of indigenous cultures and the science of ecology which tell us that the answers to the world's problems are to be found in the ground beneath our feet. The path towards global peace, harmony, and liberation we believe starts by developing permanent local subsistence strategies that rely on the abundance of nature, not the scarcity of the industrial economy, for survival. Our purpose is to reunite people with each other and the land to restore resilient systems of human ecology.

-In this life-time we're committed to growing bioregionally sustainable communites that can survive with or without the global industrial economy.

This entry was posted on January 26, 2010 at 5:26 PM and has received 1054 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

If you like chanting and Kundalini yoga then check out the first Spirit Fest 9/17-9/19/10 in the mountains of West Virginia. Three days chanting, singing, dancing and practicing Kundalini Yoga. With morning Sadhana it is like a mini Solstice nearer to DC!

http://www.spiritvoyage.com/musicfestival/

Music Performers and Yoga teachers include

•     Snatam Kaur
•     Gurmukh
•     GuruGanesha Singh
•     Nirinjan Kaur
•     Sada Sat Kaur
•     Gurunam Singh
•     Sat Kartar
•     Satkirin Kaur Khalsa

This entry was posted on January 26, 2010 at 4:22 PM and has received 1172 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This a great sex positive event in DC - covers sacred sexuality, BDSM, transgender, poly and more. I have been to many Dark Odyssey event and I highly recommend it. It has sessions on sacred sexuality, BDSM, transgender, tantra, poly. Plus there are several play spaces - a sex play room, very well equipped dungeon and parties. All the people I have met there have been respectiveful and open. It is like going to an erotic candy store but if you don't like certain favors no one is going to force you to try them. And you will not be judged if all you like to do is suck on large mints and nothing else. Many Sandboxer have been to past DO events, so it is likely you will see some people you know. You might think of it as Beltane in a hotel.

Michael

http://www.darkodyssey.com
February 26-28, 2010
Washington, DC


We also want to let you know that we have some great new presenters coming
to Winter Fire for the first time. Our presenters come from all across the
country to share their skills, experiences and classes with us all. With
over 45 workshops and special events scheduled they add to our amazing
community of sex-positive people.

BRAND NEW PRESENTERS TO WINTER FIRE
If you have been following us on Twitter you may have seen some sneak peaks
to this year's presenter line-up! We are happy to announce an amazing
line-up of first time Winter Fire presenters this year. They include:

   * Angel & Sebastien - Activists & educators on gender, kink,
spirituality, and society.
   * Bobby - Polyamorous Dominant, speaker, trainer, and transgender
healthcare advocate
   * Danielle dv8 - Matriarch of House dv8, personal trainer, energy
worker, and yoga instructor
   * Julian Wolf - Leather Queer Educator and Author of "Carnal Conundrums"
column in the Weekly Alibi
   * Lqqkout - Fun-loving rope geek, sex educator, and Minneapolis
TNGÅ“"Min-KY" board member
   * Mistress Max Rulz - Mistress, Educator, and founder of "Just Us -
Women in Kink" BDSM support group
   * Q - International Ms Bootblack 2008, sexuality educator, and
alternative porn actor
   * Sir C - Bondage expert, polyamorous Master and BDSM educator

Be sure to follow us at twitter.com/darkodyssey
<http://twitter.com/darkodyssey> for the latest news on presenters!

All this happens in an upscale hotel located near the Capitol in Washington, DC, with all the amenities you'd expect at a nationally known hotel and an amazing rate of only $129/night! You can book your hotel room at the same time you register, and be included in the attendee's room block.

Reminder: we have extended the current registration rate through December
15, so don't miss out on your chance to register at the current rate!

Dozens of community organizations have signed on as participating groups in
Dark Odyssey, and we add new groups every day. Check the website to see if
your group is one of them, and you'll be entitled to a registration
discount.

Visit our website, http://www.darkodyssey.com for more details. We hope you
will join us for this exciting event!

Best Regards,

The Producers of Dark Odyssey:
Tristan, Colten, Greg, and Karri

Register Now: http://www.darkodyssey.com/winterfire/registration.html
Follow us: http://www.twitter.com/darkodyssey

This entry was posted on January 5, 2010 at 4:50 PM and has received 1277 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

FYI several Sandboxers have been in the previous version of this group and said they got a lot out of it.
FYI Barra will be presenting at Sandbox on Wed 1/6/10 - save the date!
Michael

Core Energetics is an evolutionary form of body-psychotherapy, based on the ways in which energy and consciousness work together in the transformative process of healing. It holds that we all harbor energy blocks in our bodies that keep us from living our lives fully.

Energy blocks are unconscious defense mechanisms to prevent wounding, which likely happened early in life, from happening again. These defenses are called blocks, which stop the free flowing expression of who we really are.

Along with talking about the issues in your life, we use certain modalities, like body readings to uncover the stuck places and physical processes to move that stuck energy. This frees you up to explore the issue from a different perspective.

A Core Energetics process group is composed of individuals who are committed to change in the context of a safe space. Group provides a magic that cannot happen in individual work

The group process involves a physical warm up, grounding exercises, role plays, deep interaction with group members, moving energy through physical modalities, connecting at a deep level.  By using and moving the energy in the body you can learn important things about yourself that you were not aware of, and make changes that allow freer expression of your essence.

The process of this evolutionary work is to unblock our defenses, move the stuck energy to create healthy flow and to transform the negative, distorted emotions from the Core. This is done by penetrating the mask, softening the body armoring, transforming the negative emotions of the shadow self, and expressing primal wounds.  The Core Self is then experienced as loving, joyful and connected.

In January, I am starting a new Core Energetics process group in Falls Church - a mixed group that meets on Wednesdays from 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Groups are magical... wonderful ways to explore, risk, and grow. A great way to engage in the powerful work that is Core Energetics.

If you are interested and want to try something new for 2010, reach me at 703-786-7065, or barra3 (at) gmail dot com

This entry was posted on January 5, 2010 at 4:46 PM and has received 957 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

For this Yule party I surrendered control of hosting - both to the many helpers and to the universe and turned down the perfectionist voice in my head that said I "should" do this or that. I also set a clear intent that the event would be easy, fun, spiritual and growthful and exactly the right people would turn up for that to be. Thank you universe for helping!

Thanks everyone who helped, if I missed your name below it is not due to lack of gratitude; rather it is lack of sleep on my part!.
Thank you to

• Thia for long hours of help on the basement and backyard and love and support for me and for looking after herself
• Millie for early set up, cuddle area design, apple cutting lesson and magic
• Leonard for candles and light in back yard, greeting, lots of clean up and for bearing his chest to all
• Gail for leading the quarter callers, calling East, cleaning up spilt candles in basement and for having firm buns in Santa Baby outfit. And for being so empowered that when you wanted to be sure that there was great dance music you brought your own dance mix CD along and got the dancing going.
• Marley for offering to call a quarter and gracefully being ok that someone else ended up calling it and for lots of dish cleaning without being asked
• Edie for smudging, calling South so passionately, sharing her Yule poem in circle, washing dishes for reuse and for doing healing on me when I got overwhelmed
• Roseann for calling West so beautifully and clearly
• Roger for calling North with gusto even though he was a quarter virgin until the party
• Ondre'a for fire tending and bring her magic powders to add to the fire
• JudyRose for doing a wonderfully spiritually smudging for the circle abd for sexy dancing
• Anthony for playing violin to both get people to the ritual and for the improv quarter music
• Hillary for enthusiastically leading people to the ritual even when they were distracted by the party upstairs, for starting the pagan singing by the fire (what an unexpected delightful surprise)
• Davinda for leading the singing of beautiful native American songs by the fire
• Penelope for sharing her laser wand healing with me and others and for changing out of jeans into one of my sexy red skirts in mid-party then doing a yoga demo in it too
• Floyd for dancing up a storm with me and at least 20 other women
• Jeanne for helping with clean up and food and drinks and for unzipping her bond-girl jump suit just a bit more
• Barb for calmly organizing the food area
• Kathleen for helping to greet
• Lori for helping to greet
• Erika for offering to play piano
• David G for helping to clean up (as he always does at Wednesday gatherings too)
• Randy and Richard for starting the fire and making it roar
• Alex for teaching me Tibetan breathing healing methods and a wonderful shoulder rub
• David H, Reed, Kathy et al for helping start Sandbox all those years ago
• Tom and Melanie for doing an impromptu tantric yoga set on the dance floor at 2:30am
• Everyone who stepped up and helped out when they saw something needed doing without being asked.
• Myself for setting a clear vision, inviting interesting and diverse people and for looking after myself before and during the party so I could be a centered, calm, playful and welcoming hostess.

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again
love
Michael/Michelle

This entry was posted on December 13, 2009 at 4:55 PM and has received 812 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I am hosting a Thanksgiving Feast for those who choose to spend 
Thanksgiving afternoon in the company of a warm group of friends rather 
than with family or on their own. We will be hosting the gathering at my 
house in Rockville. We're begin gathering at 1:00pm. We shoot for lunch 
at about 2:00 and wrap up at 7 o'clock.  We're asking all who attend to 
bring a dish. Organic if possible. Feel free to bring a friend. Please 
let me know by Nov 20.

RSVP and directions at
http://www.abundantmichael.com/blog/page.cfm/Thanksgiving

This entry was posted on November 23, 2009 at 9:31 PM and has received 791 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.