Circle Program Curriculum: Circle Retreat Format

The retreat-based program is structured into nine quarterly three-day retreats in circle. Each mirrors our body-mind-spirit intentions and invites a variety of learning styles, or ways of knowing and being. Included in the retreats are:

• Sacred Circle
• Ritual
• Prayer and Meditation from a variety of traditions
• Singing and Chanting, Body Movement, Sacred Arts
• Leaning into one's interior
• Personal Solitude
• Full Group Presentation
• Small Group Processing
• Practicum groups
• The Integrative - in which each student invites the Circle into her journey over the last quarter. Past Integratives have included group ritual, song, dance, poetry, art, readings and visualization.

Home Study

In addition to the Circle retreats, the following components round out the program experience:

Daily:

• Enliven your senses to the nuances of living through your body-mind-spirit
• Grow your "Story Lens" and widen your "Story Pouch" by daily integrating story's gifts into the fiber of your being

• Study of assigned and elective texts, journal subscriptions, audio CDs, and online explorations with accompanying personal reflections

• Meeting with a spiritual director of your choice
• Visit one spiritual gathering your choice (Included but not limited to: Buddhist meditation, Native American rituals/ceremonies, Christian worship services—including those of other languages/cultures, Jewish temples, Muslim Mosques, Quaker meetings, Sufi Dances of Universal Peace, Women's rituals, Bible Studies, concerts, Unitarian Universalist gatherings)
• Participation in the school's private online forum

Practicum and Internship:

Essential to the program are Practicum and Internship experiences. During year one, Practicum Groups meet during Circle retreats allowing participants to begin practice mentoring and story midwifing each other. At the beginning of year two, participants embark on an internship of their own design outside the retreat setting. This process allows participants to practice, form, and hone their unique and beautiful personal styles of Story Midwifing in a secure and supported environment, and invites participants to personalize and focus their callings.

Curriculum Topics and Emphases:

Spiritual Director as Story Midwife
Dream, Symbol, and the Inner Life
The Universal Story: The New Cosmology and Stories of Origin
Enfleshment: Body, Sexuality and Soul
Shamanism: The Spirituality of Indigenous Cultures
The Dance of Light and Dark and Dark Nights of the Soul
Compassion and Lovingkindness Through the Buddhist Lens
Mystics and Saints in the Christian Tradition
Maiden, Mother, Crone: Exploring the Feminine Face of God

Certificate of Completion

A certificate of completion through Spirations Institute will be presented at the conclusion of the program.

Graduates will readily say that Spirations has profoundly changed the landscape of their lives. During and following the training, some will identify spiritual direction as part of their vocation, perhaps opening a practice; many more will integrate their learning into their current careers, or recognize a sense of empowerment to a very different career path; others engage the program primarily for personal transformation. All graduates—regardless of their chosen career path—leave the program with a greater sense of healing and compassion - for self and others - in their wings.

Through Spirations I have experienced profound life changes on many levels, including clarity on forming a new business venture and exploring the depths of my creativity.

-Betsy Leighton, Minneapolis, MN

In the work place, while teaching yoga, or sitting with someone in sacred space, I feel the shifts and changes of my Spirations experience working through me to offer a richer, deeper experience to those around me.

-Kathy Schutz, Yoga Instructor and Spiritual Director, Milwaukee, WI

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