Wisdom of the Earth offers unique and exciting Nature immersion programs and camps for children, teens, adults and families, to develop a sense of wonder, appreciation, and partnership with the natural world. Jean-Claude Catry and Frank Doss combine adventures, exploration, active games, experiential activities, story telling, and ancient crafts and skills to create meaning out of our observations of humans, animals, plants, minerals, elements and their interactions.

Fun, adventure and joyful aliveness are only part of the story. Important skills like teamwork and communication, gratitude, awareness, self-confidence, respect for self, each other and nature, problem solving, and inner guidance, are woven invisibly into each day.

WILDERNESS AWARENESS & ANCIENT LIVING SKILLS are the focus of this program, specifically:

–extending the senses and developing our awareness: learn to use owl eyes, deer ears, bear nose, raccoon touch

–tracking: exploring the past and future by reading animal tracks

–shelter: building primitive shelter for survival

–exciting ancient and traditional skills and beautiful natural crafts

–fire-making: with one match and without matches

–understanding bird language and concentric rings

–learning and using wild edibles and medicinal plants

–storytelling, games and fun experiential activities

–gratitude circles: sharing appreciation for our experiences and the whole web of life

Our mentors:

Jean-Claude Frank

Jean-Claude Catry and Frank Doss are inspired by the survival skills of ancient scouts of many cultures who were intimately connected to the interdependence of all beings. They have a combined experience of over 30 years of training and practicing these skills, and working with youth. Both have spent extended time in the wilderness, relying on their skills.

In addition, Frank has 17 years of extensive training in martial arts and the ancient survival skills of the Japanese Ninja. Jean-Claude spent 10 years as a mountain wilderness guide, by horse, ski, and foot. Jean-Claude is a homeschooling parent of three. He also has training in Compassionate Nonviolent Communication, and often brings this aspect into his work, to connect with children’s deeper feelings and needs.

Jean-Claude and Frank live and teach through the art of mentoring and “coyote teaching,” developed by naturalist and tracker Jon Young, which blend the art of questioning, the art of giving information and the “trickster/transformer”. Experiential practice and connection to the natural cycles of learning is integral to this approach, and evoke passions, hunger to discover, and true understanding.

Short or day-long workshops, week-long day camps, weekly programs and overnights for children, youth and adults. We will tailor to your needs.

To book a program or for additional information, call 250-653-9122 or email instinct@saltspring.com

Parenting with Nature

An outdoor, experiential, parent-child workshop for a new earth-connected culture

For parents and children aged 0 to 6 years old

With Wisdom of the Earth and WOLF Kids mentor Jean-Claude Catry

and Waldorf Early Childhood Educator Deanna Ziraldo

Sunday, April 1, 2012, 1-4pm,
$40 per adult/child, $15 per additional family member
More info: 250-653-9122
instinct@saltspring.com

WILD CHILD offers Nature Workshop for Young Children and their Parents.

Many people are familiar with the saying “it takes a whole village to raise a child.” The saying originates from cultures where it is understood that the villagers are already intimately connected to the natural world. Parents in contemporary society not only find themselves increasingly disconnected from “the village” but the connection to nature is often reduced at its best to a few moments of recreation here and there.

In an attempt to support parents of little ones who would like to increase their own nature awareness while simultaneously learning how to help their children develop a deep sense of connection to the wild, Wisdom of the Earth is offering a program aimed specifically at parents with children between the ages from birth to 6 years old. Children and parents attend the workshop together.

WILD CHILD workshops offer a “unique, outdoor, experiential opportunity for a nature-connected culture.” Striving to move beyond simply attempting to fix the growing challenges of “nature deficit disorder”, Wisdom of the Earth founder Jean-Claude Catry says he is proposing “a new movement of ‘Nature-fulfilled maturing’ in which the wild is recognised as the fundamental inspiration for the creation and growing of self and community.”

This workshop is a unique collaboration between Wisdom of the Earth founder and WOLFKids mentor Jean-Claude Catry, and Waldorf Early Childhood Educator Deanna Ziraldo. They hold the vision that deep connection with the earth and community is vital to our planet and for cultural regeneration: “By learning to be cared for by the Earth we learn to care for Her,” says Catry.

Wisdom of the Earth has been offering wilderness programs and camps for school-aged children for the past 7 years in the Gulf Islands. “Parents have been asking us for a long time if we could offer our wilderness programs for younger children, and this is our response,” says Catry. “We believe that young children are deeply nurtured when they can connect to nature by empathising with an engaged parent, and we also wanted to offer something to the many parents who want to learn about wilderness awareness and skills without having to leave their little ones.”

The one-day workshop on Sunday April 1 will propose numerous experiential activities, stories and games for both adults and young children. Parents will be introduced to the concept of the “coyote mentoring” model of education inspired by traditional earth-based cultures around the world, and implemented in both WOLF Kids and Wisdom of the Earth programs.

The April 1st workshop is the starting point for a 5-week Sunday afternoon series of fun-filled family adventures, where parents and children ages 0-6 years are invited to continue this exploration together as a group, building community and connection with each other and the Earth. For more information call 250-653-9122 or email instinct@saltspring.com www.wisdomoftheearth.ca

presents

Finding your true place in Life

A Deep Nature Connection
Rite of Passage for Men

Are you longing to be fully activated
in living your gift and walking your vision
with fierce clarity and deep awareness?

Are you craving the nourishment and shelter
of Nature and community
to find and deliver your best?

Do you want be part of an emerging movement
towards a new culture
patterned on the natural world?

This one week course provides
a clear map
and the inspiration
to establish and reinforce
connections to self, community and nature.

Together, we will:

• Learn a set of core routines that offer life-long impact
• Practice expansion of sensory awareness
• Identify and activate your most meaningful gifts
• Read signs and learn the 5 Arts of Tracking
• Explore primitive skills to establish resilience, confidence and competence
• Navigate the 8 Directions to discover our place in the wheel of life
• Reflect upon our core values and the role they play in our emergent masculine wisdom
• Practice deep listening and sacred silence to deepen inner guidance
• Share and grow in community
  

Discover a passion for play, deep curiosity,
an expansive sense of self
and a new vitality!

This workshop is a preparatory pre-requisite for an actual initiation journey to an uninhabited island in September with ceremony of coming back in the community.

Date: A Week in July (Exact dates to be determined)

Location: Salt Spring Island, BC

Are you intrigued? We want to hear from you!

Registration for this course is limited to ensure a high quality experience for participants.

For more information:

http://www.wisdomoftheearth.ca

Call or e-mail today.

Contact:
Jean-Claude Catry 250-653-9122 jean-claude@wisdomoftheearth.ca
or
Pravin Pillay 250-538-8898 pravin@wisdomoftheearth.ca

Both workshop leaders are seasoned mentors in supporting people moving through life stages by drawing on the wisdom of nature.

Jean-Claude Catry is the founder of Wisdom of the Earth and has been studying, practicing and teaching wilderness connection skills for over 30 years.

Pravin Pillay (MFA/MBA) is an artist, writer, householder-yogin and leadership mentor. He is also the former Executive Director of the Rediscovery International Foundation – an organization dedicated to engaging indigenous wisdom to inspire deeper connection within oneself, between cultures and with the natural world.

Spring Ninja Camps:

exciting and fun-filled 2 DAYS

Or 5 DAYS camp for boys and girls aged 7-14

One day camp for adults and teenagers

•  Survival
• Invisibility
• Communicating with Animals
• Storytelling
• Self Defense
• Scout skills
• Stick Fighting

Survival Course

Can you imagine yourself spending a night alone in the wild with close to nothing, and feeling at ease and grateful for being alive, well and growing to a new level of awareness and vitality?

In earth-based cultures, some form of this foundational formative experience was a part of every person’s journey to becoming an adult anchored in his or her core self.

Here’s an amazing opportunity on Saltspring Island to experience an initiation into knowing your Self, your fundamental relationship to wild nature and your own gifts.

Three richin learning packed Saturdays of training are followed by a 24 hour experience of survival in the wild with nothing more than clothes, a knife, and possibly a blanket.

You will be prepared at every level–spiritually, psychologically, emotionally and physically–for learning and practicing the skills necessary to feel at home in the wilderness.

Sunday May 20th 10am to 3pm
Shelter
Expanding the senses

Awareness
Navigation
(the latter three will be deepened every week)

Sunday May 27th, 10 am to 3pm
Fire without matches
Water
Working with the sixth sense

Sunday June 3rd, 10am to 3pm
Food foraging
“Tying the bundle”(harmonising the skills)

Saturday June 9th, 11:00am to Sunday June 10th 1pm
Sending out ceremony
24 hours alone with the wild
Welcoming back ceremony

The instructors:
Jean-Claude Catry (53) and Ayden Catry-Bauer (15) are inspired by the survival skills of ancient scouts of many cultures who were intimately connected to the interdependence of all beings. They have a combined experience of over 35 years of training and practicing these skills.

In addition, Jean-Claude spent over a decade in the Pyrenees in France as a mountain wilderness guide, by horse, ski, and foot.

Ayden has been mentored with the wolfkids program (www.wolfkids.org) for 6 years and is continuing his education with the wilderness awareness school..

Both have spent extended time in the wilderness, relying on their skills, and have been working together for four years leading youth and adults in discovering the wild through Wisdom of the Earth programs.

Jean-Claude and Ayden live and teach through the art of mentoring and “coyote teaching,” developed by naturalist and tracker Jon Young, which blends the art of questioning, the art of giving information and the “trickster/transformer”. Experiential practice and connection to the natural cycles of learning is integral to this approach, and evoke passions, hunger to discover, and true understanding.

<And once again thank you for your knowledge and wisdom. I grew so much from my time with you. I am looking forward to the winter session>.

Location: 115 Forest Ridge Road  (south end) on Saltspring Island

Cost: $265 for the whole experience. Bring a friend and get it for$ 250

Only if space permits, we will consider participants for individual sessions on the first three Sundays: $70 per session
This workshop is intended for adults and teens ( under 16 with special arrangement)

Space is limited, to assure for individual attention.

Non-refundable payment of $50 will hold your space.
For questions and to register, contact Wisdom of the Earth

www.wisdomoftheearth.ca

Phone: 250-653-9122
Email: instinct@saltspring.com , jean-claude@wisdomoftheearth.ca