A couple of months ago I participated in the Wisdom Emerging retreat at IONS with Alan Briskin, Lauren Artress and Angeles Arrien. I began making the painting above during the retreat's expressive arts process and completed it a couple of weeks later. The painting symbolizes significant aspects of the rite... Continue reading

Frank Ansell recently gave this very generous talk about his life as a half aboriginal and half white person and the road he travelled to become a traditional Ngungkari healer. He left behind the spirit in the bottle, connected to the spiritual energies that are part of all of life... Continue reading

Nigel Patterson came along on The Journey into Aboriginal Wisdom, the post-conference offering that we organizsed as part of the Spirituality, Leadership and Management conference (SLaM) this year. The wisdom Nigel gained is transformational and I am deeply touched by his insights. In the following brief essay he tells us... Continue reading

photo by Amy Lenzo I recently returned form a month long trip to the San Francisco Bay Area visiting with friends and re-connecting with my network of colleagues there. Since I left Germany in 1985 I lived in the Greater Bay Area off and on for 15 years. It was... Continue reading

During one of my visits to the Central Desert to participate in the women’s ceremonies, several Aboriginal women went hunting for honey ants and took a friend of mine and me along. Before we left I knew very little about these ants except that they had a great cultural significance... Continue reading

When I first became introduced into indigenous spiritual healing traditions I began to experience things that were out of the ordinary and outside of the rules of modern western conventions that I grew up with. Many of these extraordinary experiences deeply resonated with me and somehow they felt familiar. There... Continue reading

I have had a number of inquiries via this blog for more information about the Women’s Business journeys I have taken to the Central Desert. I am now happy to be able to extend an invitation to these Desert Ceremonies here. I share a bit about my experiences with these... Continue reading

Earlier this month I hosted an event with Frank Ansell, an Aboriginal medicine man (nungkari) from the Central Desert and Sue Gregory, a leadership coach. Both of them have been exploring how Aboriginal healing approaches and coaching for professional and personal development can be complementary in their respective contexts. In... Continue reading

A few posts ago I shared my perception that ceremonies are a collective healing response to the existential experiences of being human. This clarity crystallized when I participated earlier this year in Women’s Business (Ceremonies) with Aboriginal Elder Women in the Central Desert. Previous experiences with indigenous ceremonies elsewhere, helped... Continue reading

In only a few minutes this video conveys to us in powerful images and simple language how the Aboriginal people and their 'country', their art and their stories, and their songs and ceremonies are part of one another and, in fact, inseparable. Watching this film I am reminded of Gregory... Continue reading

Sacred Women's Bu siness Women’s Business is sacred business and it is secret business. During the ceremony important cultural knowledge and sacred practices are shared and the agreement is that participants do not talk about the particulars of the ceremonies with those who have not participated in them before. However,... Continue reading

Dreamtime Sometime after the painting Incubation: Lizard Dreaming was done, I looked online to find any references to animal totems in Australian Aboriginal culture. This is when I gained my first real understanding of the concept of Dreamtime. The English word ‘Dreamtime’ is a significant idea that tries to capture... Continue reading

Mamaa - The Untouchable Ones. Photographic Print of Cave Painting by Connie Bransilver (click to enlarge) In November 2009 I attended the Parliament of World Religion Congress in Melbourne. The program offered hundreds of sessions for roughly 7000 conference participants. Each day provided numerous sessions focused on indigenous and aboriginal... Continue reading

(Click the image to see it larger) Within a few days after I arrived in Sydney, Australia in October of 2009, I had a powerful dream. It revolved around an image that has become a guiding symbol for my life here. I am sharing this dream with you because starting... Continue reading