The most meaningful sign of respect we can give to life—and to ourselves and others—is to sit quietly and listen with our whole being: through our eyes, ears, sense of smell, touch, taste, heart, and intuition.
Being still and listening fosters profound presence and a timeless connection with life. When we gather with others in this gentle practice of witnessing, we help restore light to the wounded ground of our human experience. As personal, ancestral, and collective traumas that alienate us are illuminated in the light of relation, inner and outer peace are restored.
Our current global crisis will challenge our disconnected and unconscious shadow patterns, but it can also serve as a catalyst for our soul’s awakening. By attuning to life as it is, we not only uncover trauma within our nervous systems but also experience a rebirth of our heart’s universal intelligence. Just as light encompasses shadow, we encounter a timeless, joyful trust that has been a refuge for mystics throughout human history.
Five Ways to Engage with Universal Heart Practice
The Universal Heart sits at the center of the Inner Constellation Mobile (ICM), offering multiple pathways for connection and practice:
1. Annual Universal Heart: Silence in Relation Series
A six-month online journey from October to March, limited to 8 participants for intimate group exploration.
2. Free Quarterly Universal Heart Gatherings
Online seasonal celebrations held on Wednesdays nearest the Solstice and Equinox, open to all.
3. Annual Universal Heart Alumni Group
Six online meetings per year for graduates of the annual series, with unlimited enrollment (see prerequisites and dates below).
4. Quarterly In-Person Nature-Informed Silent Retreats
Six-hour Saturday retreats near Solstice and Equinox full moons, limited to 6 participants for deep immersion in natural silence.
5. Six-Week Silence Practice Miniseries
Occasionally offered in spring or summer between the main series. Join the “ICM Events & Blogs” email list for notifications by texting (1) 604-222-4111.
1. The Annual “Universal Heart: Silence in Relation” Six-Month Series
The Annual UH in Relation Series is a six-month online program designed to foster the awakening of our Universal Heart. Each month emphasizes a theme related to the three chakras above and below the heart. The interaction between these six supporting chakras acts as a bridge, connecting our conditioned humanity to our soul’s potential.
When we take the time to slow down, observe, and fully engage with our life experiences, we strengthen the interconnectedness of our individual, ancestral, and collective nervous systems. Working together as a group allows us to face these energies as a cohesive ecosystem, moving beyond the tendency to “fix the parts” and fostering a relational flow among them. Through this process, we start to trust in a deep, universal intelligence that resides within us all.
A Six-Month Journey Through the Sacred Centers
Months 1-2: Foundation (Listening & Belonging) Months 3-4: Depth (Ancient Wisdom & Ancestral Flow) Months 5-6: Expansion (Spaciousness & Global Witnessing)
Each month enhances the capacity for deeper silence practice while preserving the transformational essence of the entire six months. Timeless listening becomes a tangible flow within our nervous system that deepens when experienced together. There is no performance and no prerequisite — just the sincerity of showing up.
October: The Subtle Language of the Soul
Throat Chakra | Deep Listening
What in your life creates space for your soul’s authentic voice? This month we explore the delicate art of inner listening, cultivating daily 10-minute “soul listening” sessions through whatever element calls to you—nature sounds, breath, movement, or sacred text. As you practice asking “What wants to be expressed through me when I truly listen”? You’ll begin noticing when your speaking and listening naturally shifts from mind-chatter to the deeper resonance of soul.
November: Understanding Human Conditioning
Root Chakra | Nervous System Belonging
Here we slow down to BE with life rather than constantly trying to fix it. Through three daily “conditioning pauses,” you’ll stop and ask: “Am I trying to fix this moment or can I belong to it?” This practice reveals where your body holds the urge to fix versus the invitation to belong, helping your nervous system discover its natural capacity for presence over problem-solving.
December: Listening through Nature & Nervous System
Third Eye Chakra | Ancient Wisdom Trust
Your nervous system becomes recognized as the guardian of both light and shadow wisdom. Daily nature connection—even just five minutes—opens space to ask “What ancient knowing wants to emerge?” Through “precise listening,” you’ll learn to distinguish between reactive patterns and the responsive wisdom that flows from your deeper knowing.
January: Bodies as Flow of Ancestors
Sacral Chakra | Generational Healing
Recognizing that your healing ripples both backward and forward through generations, you’ll establish morning rituals honoring the ancestral flow moving through you. Placing hands on your sacral area, you sense this lineage and explore “What patterns am I ready to heal for my lineage?” Relationship patterns begin revealing their ancestral threads with fresh clarity.
February: Spaciousness as Elixir of Change
Crown Chakra | Soul Frequencies
Inner spaciousness creates ever-fresh possibility. Daily “spaciousness meditation” expands your awareness beyond current identity and story, opening the question “What becomes possible when I’m not confined to my usual story of self?” You’ll experiment with responding to familiar situations from this expanded awareness, discovering new ways of being.
March: Global Social Witnessing
Solar Plexus Chakra | World as Self
This culminating month recognizes the world as an extension of self, practicing witnessing without judgment. Daily “global witnessing” involves observing social and cultural patterns without trying to fix them, instead exploring “How does this outer pattern reflect something within my own being?” You become the change through transformed witnessing rather than effortful doing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost: $625 (Cdn. $, includes $100 down payment)
Cost: $525 (previous UH participant discount)
Monthly Structure
- Saturday Meetings: 1st Saturday (3 hrs, 10 AM-1 PM PT) features an ICM; 3rd Saturday (1.5 hrs, 10-11:30 AM PT) explores monthly themes through group work
- Weekly Support: Theme-based meditation/sound healing emails, 20-30 minute dyad partnerships (rotating every 4-5 weeks), and post-dyad reflective journaling.
Monthly Schedule for Group Zoom Meetings 2024/25:
*Please note: March has three meetings due to the two-hour Closing Ceremony.
October: 5 & 19
November: 2 & 16
December: 7 & 21
January 2025: 4 & 18
February: 1 & 15 (note: Feb. 15 is Family Day long weekend)
March: 1 & 15 & 29*March 29: Closing Ceremony (10 AM – 12 PM Pacific)
New Participants: If this is your first series and you haven’t met me before, please call (+1) 604-222-4111 before registering for a routine check-in to ensure this program fits you.
2. Free Quarterly 2025 Universal Heart Gatherings
Wednesdays: March 19, June 18, Sept. 24, & Dec. 17
(10 to 11:30 AM Pacific)
These free quarterly online events seek to align our nervous systems with the Earth’s seasonal rhythm. Each gathering features a theme-related guided meditation, triad sharing, and extensive group sharing. If time permits, we conclude by collaboratively creating a whiteboard drawing to express our experiences. This drawing, meditation recordings, and group sharing are sent to all registered participants. (If you wish to be added to the UH email list, please text me at 604-222-4111.)
Spring Equinox Emergence as Becoming: Like sap rising, discovering the fresh energies of spring’s emergence awakens a thrilling promise within our hearts.
We must first discern the heart and then engage the mind. The heart does not refer to emotions. Listening to our hearts means embracing silence and stillness. The heart's impulse emerges from this stillness. As it arises, it embodies freedom and brings profound excitement and certainty (Richard Rudd, The Gene Keys).
Summer Solstice Tending our Belonging: What has ripened within you that allows for more wisdom, depth, meaning, and relational flow?
As soul and body find increasing communion, we begin to understand that we have never been — and will never be —
separate from the evolution of life.
Fall Equinox Rooting through the Ancestors: Precise nervous system attunement to even one ancestor can profoundly transform our life orientation.
Bowing to the Ancestors,
holding the disrupted ground I stand upon more intimately.
Honouring the wounded life in my heart
invites eternal belonging ...
Learning to bow becomes a stream of blessings.
A home for restoration
A place of peace
A walk in timeless grace ...
The secret to our greatest blessing lies within the sacred dance between dark and light, the hidden and the visible, the unknown and the known.
By honouring the darkness, we also celebrate the unborn and concealed parts of ourselves and humanity.
We turn towards the light not to evade the dark but to honour life's mystery and our unconditional belonging.
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, which shines through eternity as the inexplicable mystery of sacred belonging.
- May my heart dissolve into the universal light of the heart in these darkening days.
3. Universal Heart Alumni 2025
A Universal Heart Path involves slowing down and learning to walk with life through grounded mystical practices of inner stillness and listening. Even, and especially in its wounded state, life remains our best and most uncompromising teacher. In a committed group, we learn to trust life’s deep intelligence. This helps us co-create a more generous understanding of ourselves, our life challenges, and the eternal beauty of our souls. The annual UH Alumni group meets on Zoom. It is designed to support those who have participated in (or are currently attending) a Universal Heart Series, ICM Workshops, in-person Nature-Informed Silent Retreats, or a Returning to Silence mini-series.*
- Alumni gatherings for 2025 will take place from 10 to 11:30 AM Pacific on the first Sunday of alternating months: February 2, April 6, June 1, August 3, October 5, and December 7.
- We will begin with meditation and group sharing, followed by an ICM exploration or triad sharing.
- All sessions are recorded and sent to participants via email after the session.
Cost: $150 (CAD) for one year — e-transfer, cheque, cash, or PayPal are all accepted!
* The Returning to Silence mini-series is a sporadic six-week online course between the six-month Universal Heart Series in the spring or summer.
4. Nature-Informed Silent Retreats at “Madsen Maples”
The most significant sign of respect we can give to life and ourselves is to sit silently and listen with our whole being. Silence practice days allow us to slow down and breathe nature’s timeless spirit into our bodies, hearts, and minds. In listening, we discover that we come alive as life blesses us with a sense of our timeless belonging. Gathering with others in this gentle focus helps deepen our understanding of shared connection.
If you read the Book of Nature, no scriptures are needed. Meister Eckhart
Man follows the earth, the earth follows the universe, the universe follows the Tao, and the Tao follows only itself (vs.25)
We only truly experience the world when we shut off our minds and use our senses. When we touch, taste, hear, see, and immerse ourselves in the world around us and find a peaceful, calm way to do that, we find a vision common to all of us; we see how we are a spiritual part of everything (Jack Kakakaway, One Drum by R. Wagamese, 2013, p. 146).
2025 Silent Retreat Schedule
March 23, June 22, September 21, and December 14
Sundays, 10 AM to 4 PM ($75)* Please note that retreats are limited to 6 participants *
Indoor seating is provided, and various outdoor seating areas are designed for solitude and nature reflection.
A fire pit, hot tub, and pool are available for use.
Please bring a journal for reflective writing, appropriate clothing, blankets for outdoor meditations, snacks, and tea for the day. If you plan to use the pool or hot tub, please bring a bathing suit and a towel.
Filtered, naturally flavoured water is provided.
Retreat days begin by sharing what we bring to the Silence and end by sharing what we are leaving with.
Illustration by Maurice Sendak from Open House for Butterflies by Ruth Krauss