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UK Workshops Desert Wisdom: in the woods Weekend retreat at Hazel Hill, Wilts   Desert Wisdom Desert Wisdom Insights from the Desert   Desert Journeys Desert Journeys Introduction Soul in the Desert A tempter: about desert journeying Rumi in the Desert An example of a desert journey Letters from the Desert An account from the timeless sands Practical Info Details about going to the desert

Desert Wisdom Retreat: Nature, Nomads, Prophets

inspiring sources of simplicity, clarity, transformative healing and renewal.

Facilitators: Alan Heeks, with musical accompaniment by Dominic Ashmole.
Venue: Mull Room, The Gillis Centre, 100 Strathearn Road, Edinburgh, EH9 1BB.
Dates: Saturday 10 - Sunday 11 March 2012.
Time: Registration: 9.30am-10am. Retreat Days: 10am-4.30pm.

Event Description: The space, beauty, silence and solitude of the desert make it a profound source of inspiration, simplicity, clarity, transformative healing and renewal. Its nomadic peoples offer us a potent role model in finding stability and renewal amid constant change and uncertainty. And the prophets who found their voice in the desert offer us deep wisdom and practices which can still guide and transform us now.
Alan Heeks has led a dozen retreats in the Tunisian Sahara, travelling by foot and camel with Bedouin guides. In this retreat, he offers a chance to experience the wisdom of the desert for yourself, to find new insight, healing, and inspiration. The retreat will use a range of approaches, including guided meditations, periods for silent reflection, desert walks, Dances of Universal Peace based on texts from Jesus and Muhammad, and extended translations, sound mantras and body prayers from the book Desert Wisdom by Neil Douglas-Klotz.

In the desert, it is easier to feel oneself in unbroken connection with the peoples, the spiritualities, and the questions of the eras of Muhammad, Jesus and Moses. This weekend can help you to feel this continuity with the Caravan of Creation, and to find ancient keys and practices to current simplicity, clarity, transformative healing and renewal.

Alan Heeks is a practical visionary. After a Harvard MBA and highly successful business career, he has spent the past 21 years leading retreats and workshops, and creating three unique land-based teaching centres, all aiming to help people connect with spirit, nature and sustainability in practical ways. Alan is Director of Hazel Hill Wood, a 70-acre conservation woodland retreat centre in Wiltshire, and founded the Magdalen Project, a 130-acre organic farm and teaching centre. He also founded the Threshold Centre, the first mixed tenure cohousing community in the UK. Alan has a long-standing passion for the people, spiritualities and landscapes of the Middle East and North Africa. He has studied under Neil Douglas-Klotz since 1995, and has led retreats on Desert Wisdom and Aramaic Christian texts in the UK and internationally. His book the Natural Advantage: Renewing Yourself was published in 2000, and he is currently writing Men Beyond 50: Lost and Found. A guide to enjoying life now!

For more information, including Alan’s desert retreats, see: www.living-organically.com
Cost: £50 (both days), £30 (per day). For a Registration Form contact: Neill Walker, mesp2012@hotmail.co.uk, 0131 331 4469. For festival brochure click here.