The Universal Heart: A Silence in Relation Practice


By Keira Madsen at vaedderstudio.com

Exploring through the Universal Heart                          

The greatest sign of respect that we can give to life (and ultimately ourselves and each other) is to sit in silence and listen… with our whole being … through our eyes, ears, smell, touch, taste, heart, and intuition. Being still within and listening invites a deep presence and a timeless sense of connection with life. Gathering with others in this gentle focus is a practice that helps us to know ourselves and life with more clarity and compassion.

Our desire for authentic relation to life is a priceless desire. It may be fuelled by a combination of our conditioned pain or a timeless-remembering of our divine nature. For most of us, finding our authentic place in life involves a practice of being present with the pain of our dis-placement. We learn to trust our unique relationship with Silence.

With time and practice, our embodied response to life becomes a more coherent inner-outer flow. What I experience internally is connected to the world around me. As we experience less separation from life we become unique expressions of grace-in-action. In computer language, we experience a “reboot” in our life orientation.

Encounters with the Universal Heart at the centre of the Inner Constellation Mobile (ICM) is nourished by group practice. Through spacious listening, we catalyze each other’s experience of authentic relational flow. When body, heart, and mind titrate more coherently, we discover deeper dimensions of who we are and the subtle beauty of our life-purpose. 

Four Universal Heart Practice Groups

*Details for each option correspond to the number below.

1. Annual Universal Heart in Relational Series: an annual on-line series from October to March. (Enrolment is limited to 8 participants.)

2. Free Quarterly Universal Heart Gatherings : an on-line celebration of the season on the Wednesdays nearest Solstice & Equinox.

3. Annual Universal Heart Alumni Group –  on-line meetings 6 times a year (Enrolment is unlimited. See prerequisites & dates below)

4. Quarterly In-persona Nature-Informed Silent Retreats: 6-hour Saturday retreats hosted near Solstice & Equinox full moon. (Enrolment is limited to 6 participants.)

 

1. Annual Universal Heart in Relation Series

* The UH Series is limited to 8 participants with a discount for repeat participants (below)*
 
The Annual Universal Heart (UH) in Relation Series is a six-months on-line series designed to give extended support to awakening the subtle relational nature of our heart. Each month offers a practice theme that supports a gentle connection with our soul. Within this spaciousness we can turn towards our challenges and discover that they are the most vital part of our embodied spiritual walk. This allows us to be more generous with our places of pain and disconnection and to realize that our struggles are not just personal, but also generational and collective. Through practices of authentic life-connection we learn to walk together into a more coherent and generous world. 

A palpable coherence lives within each of us as the universal heart. Every moment we choose to slow down, witness, and receive our experience of life in this moment, we deepen and stabilize coherence within the personal and group nervous system. 

When working as a group we magnify both the potential and the challenge living in our individual, ancestral, and collective field. Facing these energies together as one eco-system liberates us from habits of separation and fixing to a relational flow between the separated parts. We begin to relate to life with a deep inner trust that lives within our heart.

October 2023: The Still Language of the Soul. What supports deep listening in your life (nature, ritual, ceremony, prayer, dance, yoga, meditation, breath, scripture, writing, sound, chanting etc.)? In deep listening the vertical resonance of our soul begins informing body, heart, and mind more coherently.

November 2023: Understanding Human Conditioning. An experiential witnessing of our human condition is a slowing down to be with life as it is: as opposed to externalizing life as something outside of us.

December 2023: Listening through Nature & the Nervous System. Our nervous system is the wisdom-keeper of our human journey—both light and shadow. Experiencing the nervous system’s timeless wisdom grounds a deep sense of trust in life.

January 2024: Recognizing our bodies as a flow of Ancestors walking through time. When we heal, the ancestors heal, as do future generations. What changes when we experience glimmers of this humbling reality?

February 2024: Spaciousness as the Elixir of Change. Inner-spaciousness is the profound blessing of unconditional presence in relationship to life. When we engage in life with fresh timeless eyes a sense of deep belonging begins to stir in our heart.

March 2024: Global Social Witnessing (GSW) is the practice of identifying our relationship with the world around us. Whether conscious of it or not, we are an essential aspect of the world evolving. Experiencing the truth of this phenomenon through authentic relationship awakens the Universal Heart within. (*March has 3 meetings due to the Closing Ceremony.)

Cost: $625  (Cdn. $, includes $100 down payment)

Cost: $525 (previous UH participant discount)

Monthly Structure:
    • Twice-monthly Saturday Meetings : With some exceptions due to holidays, the Saturday meetings take place on the first and third Saturday of the month. 
    • The 1st Saturday is 3 hours (10  AM to 1 PM Pacific) and the 3rd  Saturday is a 1.5 hours (10 to 11:30 AM Pacific). 
    • The 1st Saturday features a full or partial Inner Constellation Mobile (ICM); the 3rd Saturday features small and large group explorations of our monthly theme.
    • Weekly meditations and sound healings:These emails are theme-related and designed to support the weekly dyad practices.
    • Weekly Dyads: Dyads help to ground our inner-discoveries in relationship within the intimate details of our life. These can be made on zoom or phone and are 20 – 30 minutes (partners change every 4 or 5 weeks).
    • Weekly Journaling: Following each weekly dyad, reflective journalling is recommended for exploring the flavour of our self-contact while sharing & listening.

     

    Monthly Schedule for Group Zoom Meetings 2024/25: 

    October  5  &  19

    November  2  &  16

    December  7  & 21

    January  4  &  18 (2025)

    February  1 & 15 (please note that Feb. 15 falls on the Family Day long w/e)

    March  1   &  15

    March 29: Closing Ceremony (10 AM to 12 PM Pacific) 

Important Reminder: If this is your first series and you have not met me before, please phone (+1) 604-222-4111 prior to registering. This is a routine check-in to ensure that this program is a good fit for you.

 

2. Free Quarterly 2024 Universal Heart Gatherings

               March 20, June 19, Sept. 18, & Dec. 18.
               (Wednesdays, 10 to 11:30 AM Pacific)  

These free quarterly on-line events are designed to synchronize our nervous system with the seasonal rhythm of the earth. 
Please contact me by text or phone at 604-222-4111 if you wish to be added to the email reminder list.

Each of these quarterly gatherings consists of a theme-related guided meditation, triad sharing, and large group sharing. If there is time, we close by creating a whiteboard drawing together to express our experience. This is sent to all the participants, along with recordings of the meditation and group sharing.

Spring Equinox Emergence as Becoming: Like sap rising, discovering the fresh energizes of spring-emergence awakens a thrilling promise within our heart.

We have to discern the heart first, then bring in the mind. The heart doesn’t mean the emotions. Listening to our heart means to fall into silence, into quietness. The impulse of our heart arises from stillness. As it arises it becomes freedom, and carries great excitement with it, great certainty (Richard Rudd, The Gene Keys).

Summer Solstice Tending our Belonging: What has ripened within us that allows for more wisdom, depth, meaning, and relational flow?

As soul and body find increasing inner-communion, we begin to understand that we have never been -- and will never be -- separate from life.

Fall Equinox Rooting through the Ancestors: Precise nervous system attunement to even one ancestor can deeply transform our life orientation.

Bowing to the Ancestors, 
holding more intimately the disrupted ground I stand upon. 
Honouring the wounded life my body wears
invites eternal belonging ...

Learning to bow becomes a blessing stream.
A home for restoration
A place of peace
A walk in timeless grace ...
Winter Solstice Attending to the darkness before turning to the light honours the mystery of our origin, and the universal womb from which all life is born. In darkness the innate depth of our soul in God/Source is deeply nourished, as the dark soil of the mystery provides the spacious womb for the light’s seed. Its arrival in our awareness is the light born of darkness and the transformation of our awareness.
 

A Winter Solstice Prayer

  • May I dwell gracefully in the darkness of the silent unknown.
  • May my inner-stillness provide a womb for the unborn light that shines through eternity as the inexplicable mystery of our sacred belonging. 
  • May my heart dissolve into the light of the universal heart in these darkening days.
    • The secret of our greatest blessing lies within the sacred dance between the dark and the light, the hidden and the visible, the unknown and the known.

      By honouring the darkness, we also honour the unborn       and hidden parts of ourselves and humanity.

      We turn towards the light, not to get away from the dark, but to honour life's mystery and our unconditional belonging in that process.

 

3.  Universal Heart Alumni 2025

A Universal heart-path is about learning to walk with life even in its wounded state–both the flow and the stuck. This allows us to co-create a more generous weave of understanding who we are, why we are here, and why it is that we struggle. The annual UH Alumni group is held on Zoom and designed to support those who have participated (or are currently attending) a Universal Heart Series, ICM Workshops,  in -person Nature-Informed Silent Retreats, or a Returning to Silence mini-series*.

  • 2025 Alumni gatherings are from 10 to 11:30 AM Pacific on the first Sunday of alternating months (except February): Feb. 2, April 6, June 1, Aug. 3, Oct. 5, & Dec. 7.
  • Designed to till the soil of our group’s depth and connection, we will begin with meditation and group sharing.
  • The direction of the group will evolve organically with the option of a full or partial ICM, sound healing, or simple practices that support inner-stillness and unconditional belonging.
  • All sessions are recorded and emailed to participants after the session.

Cost: $150 (Canadian) for one year — e-transfer, cheque, cash, or PayPal all acceptable!

* The Returning to Silence mini-series is a sporadic 6-week on-line course offered in the spring between the 6-month Universal Heart Series.

 

4. Nature-informed Silent Retreats at “Madsen Maples”

If you read the book of Nature, no scriptures are needed. Meister Eckhart

The greatest sign of respect that we can give to life and ourselves is to sit in silence and listen with our whole being. Silence practice days are an opportunity to slow down and breathe nature’s timeless spirit into our body, heart, mind. In listening, we discover that we are life, and that life is constantly informing us of our unconditional belonging. 

Being still and listening invites the timeless gifts of presence and grace into your heart. Gathering with others in this gentle focus helps deepen our sense of shared connection.

2025 Silent Retreat Schedule
March 22, June 14, September 20, and December 13 
(Saturdays, 10 AM to 4 PM)

* Please note that retreats are limited to 6 participants.
Cost $75

Indoor-seating is provided as well as various outdoor-seating areas designed for solitude and nature-reflection. 
A fire-pit, hot tub, and pool are available for use.

Please bring appropriate clothing & blankets for outdoor meditations, along with snacks & tea for the day. If planning to use pool or hot tub please bring bathing suit & towel.

Filtered naturally-flavoured water is provided.
Retreat days begin and end by sharing what we are bringing into the Silence and what we are leaving with.

Illustration by Maurice Sendak from Open House for Butterflies by Ruth Krauss

 
Cost: $75