Beginning in October 2019, the former “weekly” series will be replaced by a 9 month series featuring a deep practice of stabilizing the Universal Heart within. The Universal Heart lies at the centre of the Inner Constellation Mobile and naturally “finds its place within us” as we experience being present for both our conditioned and unconditioned aspects.
A 9 month commitment allows for a prolonged steeping in the paradoxical nature of the Inner Constellations of Silence and Sound where: less is more, slower is deeper, and thinking does not lead the way. The transpersonal nature of the Inner Constellation Mobile reflects the movement of the morphogenic field within and between us. This is optimally supported within a community of like-hearted pioneers wishing to explore and ground the profound depth of the Universal Heart in their everyday life.
This series is designed to support the subtle nature of our “inner vessel” over an extended period of time. One month of practice with each theme fosters a deeper experiential understanding of that theme as it begins to make its way into our life and consciousness. The weekly Dyad practice helps to build more coherence between our inner life and our relationships.
Experiencing the spaciousness of the ICM mobile allows deeper insight into the intelligent healing movements that exist between Human Conditioning and Soul. As embodied spiritual beings, we are learning “how to live in the world, but not of it.” The bi-weekly Wednesday and monthly Saturday ICM Workshops support our practice by reframing our understanding and supporting us to experience the more inclusive generosity of the Universal Heart.
Particularly when used in conjunction with the ICM Workshops, the Nine-Month series provides an ongoing container for exploring shadow and light in a safe manner. Although it has been taught by a few spiritual master’s in the past, embodied spirituality—or spirituality in and through the body—remains a relatively unknown paradigm of spiritual practice collectively. Traditional spiritual practices have tended to retreat from culture, whereas an embodied spiritual practice engages with the world around them. With time and practice, the “compassionate presence” of the Universal Heart softens habits of fear and trauma and glimpses of the Soul’s beauty naturally emerge.
I am passionate about this exploration and look forward to discovering with you. There is a limit of 10 participants in each of the Virtual and Vancouver Programs.
ICM Program Themes
October
Orientation to Spaciousness: Who are we? How are we relating to this moment? This month we will practice consciously connecting to life through different levels of consciousness and experience Spaciousness as the freedom to choose our focus.
November
Human Conditioning through Time, Honouring the Ancestral Lineage: The seed of our becoming bears fruit from within our belonging to the mystery: human evolution as well as our personal lineage through time. Honouring where we have come—complete with all its limitations—enables us to receive life as it is now.
December
The Timelessness of Soul: It’s a long journey but a short distance! The paradoxical nature of embodied awakening. Blessing Force/Denying Force, Grace/Shadow.
January 2020
Understanding the time-bound aspects of self: The conditioning of Culture and Family constellations are not “who I am” but they are my responsibility. Slowing down to connect deliberately with unconscious shadow patterns ensures that our spiritual practice does not become a way of by-passing patterns of pain and trauma.
(… to be continued …).
Structure and Pricing
($425- PayPal-below, e-transfer, cheque, or cash)
Monthly Schedule:
- Vancouver Tuesday group 7 to 9 PM on the first Tuesday of the month, beginning October 1, 2019.
- Virtual Wednesday group 8 AM to 9:30 AM on the first Wednesday of the month beginning October 2, 2019.
- NOTE: Exceptions to the Monthly Schedule: The first Virtual meeting in 2020 will be Jan. 8 rather than Jan. 1; and March meetings for both Vancouver and Virtual groups will change from March 3 & 4 to March 10 & 11 respectively.
Weekly Schedule:
- 20 minute weekly Dyad Practice. (Dyad partners change every 6 weeks, giving you 6 different practice partners during the 9 month program.)
- You will receive a weekly email highlighting an aspect of that month’s practice theme. This will also include a theme-related guided meditation and mini-Sound Healing attuned to the group. *Participants are encouraged to respond to the group email as they feel inclined. I will respond in kind. This helps us explore “inner landscapes” in a more collective fashion, which boosts trust and creates a more coherent resonance between us.
Combined Zoom Calls (every 6 weeks on Tuesday evening):
- Virtual zoom calls (7 total) where Vancouver and Virtual groups come together for a guided meditation, dyad and triad practices, and Q & A. Sessions are recorded.
- These will take place from 7 to 8:30 PM on the following 7 Tuesdays: Oct.15, Nov. 26, Jan. 7, Feb. 18, March 31, May 19, and June 23.
During the 9 months, participants receive a 1/3 price reduction on the following: (note: the ICM workshops supplement the nine-month program, but are not a requirement)
- Inner Constellation Workshops (last Saturday of the month)
- Wednesday bi-weekly ICM Drop-in sessions (10 AM to 12 PM on alternating Wednesdays, beginning October 9)
- Private Sound Healing sessions.
Important notice: If this is your first series and you have not met me before, please phone 604-222-4111 prior to registering. This is a routine check-in to make sure this program is a good fit for you.
Cost:$425.00
A Self-Paced 30-Day “Journey into Stillness” (a practice-booster available at any time).
“A Self-paced 30 Day Journey into Stillness: This is a series of thirty (20 minute) guided meditations on the practice of inner stillness and relating to Silence. It also includes a daily on-line option for questions or comments. After purchasing, you will receive the entire series. Enjoy!
Cost: $109.00
* Please respond in the comments section below for questions, or if you wish to join the Inner Constellations e-mail list.
Principles of Group Exploration
Regular group Practice eventually births an Inner-Listening that reveals direction in a quiet and mysterious way. By taking inquiring steps in this direction, we begin to birth the deeper realities of our essential nature. This is often a surprising and revelatory experience. A feeling of having arrived somewhere we have been all along, but not consciously recognized, is not uncommon.
When this happens within group practice, we begin to glimpse a new order between us that feels exciting and enlivening. Within the resonance of a committed group, we may find ourselves relating to others differently as old habits of relating recede. Within the wake of this recession, a heightened experience of Heart-connection surfaces. The energetic Heart begins to feel grounded and engaged, informing and guiding our individual and collective transformation.
We are in the middle of a struggle to birth — and live — a new order of spiritual awareness and intelligence. It is clear to me that this birthing requires three foundations: 1) our sincere and regular individual effort; 2) grounded, compassionate, and committed leaders who are themselves integrating this “new order”; 3) and a community of like-minded/hearted people within which to practice and consolidate (embody) the emergence of this new order/intelligence.
The heart of Stillness in Relationship is manifested within the centre of our being as a fluid (non-local) relationship to the whole. At first, this seems like an impossibility because we are conditioned to identify strongly with “parts” rather than wholes. Each class series focuses on the nervous system as a reliable feedback loop, both for the conditioned and unconditioned potential within us. With practice and group support, we begin to experience a deep presence within us that is also available in stillness and movement. We begin to discover “an already-present Stillness” that is also available “in Relationship.”
When we exchange with others from within this place, we begin to glimpse the enormity of our individual and collective potential to live from within a deep and abiding resonance with the Whole. It is here that the Universal Heart at the centre of our being begins to awaken and inform us.
Participant comments are available at http://lauramadsen.ca/testimonials/
Group Practice is beneficial for 2 reasons:
1) We create a collective field of energy that can be felt and experienced in our nervous system. This shared experience supports our individual trust in the unseen, unknowable mystery that sustains us.
2) We practice relating with others through the increased spaciousness of higher levels of knowing. This helps to integrate habits of “emotional contraction” and/or “over-conceptualization.”
Previous Weekly Themes
Spring 2019 “Part 2: Connecting to the Universal Intelligence of the Heart”: Part 2 of the Universal Heart series explores the dynamic nature between our becoming (in spirit) and our belonging (to the human story through time). The Universal Heart is the meeting place between Transcendence and Embodiment. We will explore these through triad practices, journalling, silence, sound healing, guided meditations, weekly phone dyads, and group discussion. Traditional and modern approaches will be used to raise our awareness and ground our belonging in this moment as it arises.
Winter 2019 “Part 1: Connecting to the Universal Intelligence of the Heart”: The heart is an instrument of connection: both the human (individual) heart and the Universal (Cosmic) heart. As spiritual beings we feel whole when our instrument of connection is functioning. Practicing the energetic resonance of a YES to how we are experiencing life in this moment is profoundly liberating and informative–even if the YES begins with our resistance and/or physical, mental, or emotional contraction!
Fall 2018 “The Art of Listening & the Human Condition”: This series explores the relationship between the Inner Constellations of Listening and Human Conditioning. Understanding the relationship between these two Constellations is a vital resource for embodying a grounded spirituality. Our ability to live in the world from an integrated depth depends upon the development of this relationship.
Spring 2018 “Spaciousness & Inner Constellations”: It is a liberating experience to be able to attune to the nervous system (NS) from inner-spaciousness. It is in this field of generosity that we can begin to acknowledge inner constellations that have been hidden from consciousness. When not met with consciousness these inner constellations often become projections onto others or areas of numbness within us. Recognizing and experiencing (physically and emotionally) the presence of these inner constellations grows an Inner-Awareness and Spaciousness
Winter 2018 “Calming the Nervous System through Connection”: “Calming the Nervous System” is much more than just relaxing the body. From a spiritual perspective, calmness is developed through a spacious relationship to life as it is in this moment. Within this deep spaciousness, a Trust is experienced that allows the nervous system to ground and find roots in life. From here, our life begins to serve in ways that both thrill and challenge. This dynamic opens us to new landscapes within, revealing areas to be explored and integrated.
Fall 2017 “Restoring Structures in Consciousness”: As we choose again and again to re-align ourselves with the depth and spaciousness of Inner Silence, “structures in consciousness” naturally begin to reveal themselves. For the most part, these structures operate without our awareness, but they deeply effect how we feel, and the world that we co-habit. These structures could be described as “constellations,” “unconscious energy-agreements,” or “morphogenic fields.”
Spring 2017 “The Way of the Heart”: The Universal Intelligence of the Heart emerges from within three distinct energy chambers — each with a unique flavour of transmission. When we learn to trust in these higher dimensions of the heart, we naturally begin to integrate (experience) their intelligence within the body-mind. A “knowing beyond our personal understanding” emerges from within us and between us.
Winter 2017 “The Gift of Engaged Stillness: Energy Awareness as Healing”: We naturally become Still and centred as we focus on our spiritual capacities of intuition and deep receptivity. Discovering ourselves as energetic beings with an innate receptivity to an abundant (always-present) flow of earth energies, cosmic energies, masculine & feminine energies, encoded heart-energy of Scripture (Judeo-Christian, Sufi-Islam, Buddhist Dharma, Bhagavad Gita-Hindu), inter-subjective energies of communion, and receptivity to the energy of Sound. When we are willing to explore beyond structures of concept and belief, we ground ourselves in energy-awareness and discover our innate capacity for healing.
Fall 2016 “Exploring the 3 Faces of God”: This series addresses the importance of following our divine impulse and discovering our root orientation to God/Self. There are three primary paths of God-relationship: I-I (God as first person – I Am That), I-Thou (surrendering to God or Bhakti), and I-We Faces of God (Bhagavad Gita’s “One in the Many and the Many in the One”). Experiencing ourselves through the eternal depths of these primary God-Relationships allows for an innate Trust to emerge within us: we begin to understand that “All is Well” and Life plays out within that.
Spring 2016 “Spiritual Practice as Waking Up, Growing Up, and Showing Up: There are 3 aspects of practice that are important if we are learning to “walk our spirituality in the world”: Waking Up (traditional spirituality or enlightenment), Growing Up (ingesting shadow or unconscious areas), and Showing Up (in the world in surprisingly new ways). The energetic Field of the group can be a powerful container for exploration. We all carry crippled traits that we “think” are “ours,” and try to “fix” before enlightenment, rather than see that they are different aspects of practice or direction of focus. Frequently, these are patterns of generational and/or collective wounding that need to be seen clearly, held tenderly, touched unconditionally. We do this by focusing on the energetic patterns, and leaving “the story” behind (as story often belongs to our patterns of defense & resistance.)
Truly inspired creation! As I read your words I feel as though it is channrled. And the artwork by Keira as well.Thank You Laura for Who You Are and for your Courage to Share Your Essence.
Thank you Cathy. We are travelling together. That is why the words resonate. When we open to the Universal Heart we share in a timeless resonance of the transpersonal.