Full Moon Groove

“… and the Grand Facade, so soon will burn… without a Noise, without my Pride, I reach out from The Inside.. “

Saturday night we were honored to have the High Priestess of Groove in the house, Heather Winia, Groove Master Educator, Holistic Health Coach, and Fitness/Wellness Specialist, leading a super safe, outdoor movement class at The Higher Haven. You’ll recognize Heather if you’ve scratched about a bit on our website, as her unmatched wellness and leadership skills have been well appreciated since our founding several summers back. I love her guidance and classes, as they are always innovative, challenging, and seem as spontaneous as they are well-planned.

In her own words, Heather inspires people “to LIVE, I mean really feel ALIVE, through positive self-care and GROOVEment in their bodies.” I’m happy we are members of one another’s tribe, as Groove is a simple yet revolutionary group dance experience that provides a safe place for INDIVIDUAL AUTHENTICITY (held in high esteem by The Higher Haven) all while building community around functional fitness. We started Saturday night with a guided meditation, and Heather took us from stillness right into a holistically healthy, mindful movement class where every Body can Dance. And did.

We’d had hoped to throw down under the August full moon light, the moon the Anishnaabe People of The Great Lakes call Minoomini Gilzis - the Grain (Wild Rice) Moon. The full moon on the rise out over our front lawn, serving as a grassy Groovy dance floor, is always quite the luminous sight. But cloud cover kept the shining symbol of feminine energy hidden from the eye but not the heart, as our Groove went on unhindered. And the good news is the substantial rainfall, which went on all night long, didn’t start until 10 minutes after the last dance and collective exit, to the delight of every garden in Michigan.

I began this post thinking about the power of dance, the clown in me recalling that Kevin Bacon scene from Flashdance, do you know that one (?), where he quotes Ecclesiastes? It’s funny. “Ecclesiastes assures us... that there is a time for every purpose under Heaven. A time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to dance… see, this is our time to dance… It is Our Way of Celebrating Life. It's the way it was in the beginning. It's the way it's always been. It's the way it should be now.” Lol The student in me recalled another great dance story, told by Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth Series. I’ll close with that below, and know that Heather will soon return for another Fall or even Winter Full Moon Groove, with our Full Fall schedule up this week and ever evolving.

Western Sociologist:
“You know, I have now been to a number of these Shinto shrines and I have
seen quite a few rites, and I have read about it, thought about it; but you
know, I don’t get the ideology. I don’t get your theology.”

Shinto Priest:
(polite, as though respecting the foreign scholar’s profound question;
pausing a while as though in thought; looking at his friend)

“We do not have Ideology. We do not have Theology. We Dance.”

Our First Successful Mid-Summer Noble Silence Meditation Retreat

“Fire, smoke she is a rising… Fire, oh Smoke Stack Llightning, Smoke Stack Lightning… I say, send down Fire to Me…”

Wow. Wow. WOW. I know not how, to better express my exultation, my appreciation, and definitely admiration to the small crew who just completed our first Noble Silence Meditation Retreat at The Higher Haven, the Mid-Summer NSR to be exact. Which had us quickly deciding, with one and done, and clearly feeling giddy about it, to make it a quarterly gig, the Fall Noble Silence Weekend Retreat in play for October 2-4 right after Yon Kippur. What’s to say about Noble Silence, other than its made me a poet, now that you know it? To quote John Cabot Zinn, author of the book Wherever You Go There You Are and creator of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Training (MBSR) “…it’s helpful to bring to the sitting posture itself a sense of dignity.. then we stay open and awake in the present moment… right here right now… in a continual process of seeing and letting be.. “ Thus the Noble nature of our endeavor, working hard to remain in stillness while the wind of the Spirit blew through and through, in the form of body sensations, mental images and verbal self-talk, or SEE HEAR FEEL, realizing the Spirit-energy nature of our own makeup

Does that resonate with you? Like the three dings of a Meditation Bell? It would if you had spent the weekend here, as Morgan, Lauren, and Branden did — three beginners’ minds who took collective and individual quantum leaps in practice and understanding over this past weekend’s three-day retreat. For more on the virtues of making a heroic go at sitting in stillness for an extended period of time, check out This Huffington Post article on the scientific skinny Regarding the benefits of cultivating inner stillness. By developing our ability to cultivate high states of concentration, along with a sensory clarity and equanimity, we also develop an unconditional love ability, and gain inner resources in the face of death.

That’s the very, very special angle at which we come at Spiritual Practice here, Spiritual Purification to be more precise. Rather than a fundamentalist, more religious approach with a creed or set of principles — which are cool, which we love, which we’ve studied and will continue to, but points to some imagined time of spiritual bliss when one won’t suffer — we take a more balanced, dynamic approach, merging a combination of meditative techniques and Ceremonial purification, creating the place of spiritual bliss here and now. When the pandemic hit we felt the pain of wanting to jump online and Zoom… something… out of a sense of service and offeingr our solution to the suddenly worsening human condition. But you can’t Zoom what we offer here. So please keep an eye on the two constantly moving parts on our website — this Blog and our Retreats + Calendar page to find the time to come here and experience our approach, that of a direct experience of your own Spiritual Source, the Spiritual Source of all that is and will ever be.

I’m thinking now of my Teacher Shinzen’s recording titled: In Praise of Confusion, as there’s been an awful lot in the world these days, and the path as we walk it is one of an undoing as much as a doing, a negation as well as affirmation, a connection to life and death. Check the Noble Silence Meditation Retreat schedule and you’ll see a Fire Circle Saturday night. This powerful intention setting Healing Ceremony, based on the inipi or Make Your Life Ceremony, with an intravenous dose of Heyokaism, provides attendees a taste of purification. And coupled with extended sitting practice through the weekend, provides a solid foundation for a regular practice, a wonderful skill to acquire in this currently Weitgo (Crazy) world. Above is the Ceremony’s ashy aftermath, live action pictures doing it a disservice, as it’s to be Experienced to be Believed.

Regarding word play, and as you may know, I always get by with a little help from my friends, loving a good alley-oop when telling these stories, with thanks to Branden for the perfect pass below.  If you read this and you’re more confused then ever, Great, and should consider turning things around from bad to good at an upcoming event like the next Ceremonial Weekend Overnight - The Way of The Contrary Weekend, or our Bolt from the Blue Moon Dance this Saturday night, with a whole four months of additional Fall Happenings up for Registration on the aforementioned Retreats page during the first week in August. Toksha

"Attending the Noble Silence Meditation Retreat at Higher Haven was the best investment I could have possibly made in my life. Despite being one of the most challenging things I have ever accomplished; I left feeling thoroughly rejuvenated, immensely empowered, and with a deep profound sense of inner peace and control. Paul was a conduit who gave me the tools to fix my problems internally by utilizing meditation and techniques from a myriad of ancient traditions and cultures. The decision to seek guidance at Higher Haven was truly the best gift I could have given myself. I now have the keys to the universe and the possibilities are endless and exciting. Throughout the retreat Paul kept me nourished with delicious organic foods amidst an astounding environment that has to be seen to be believed. My heart is filled with gratitude and boundless love thanks to Higher Haven. Pilamaye!"  - Dr. Branden Welch

A Collectively Mellow Experience of the Universe Through Our Forest Wilderness

The dark red sticky caps, red pores, and network-like pattern of Boletus frostii aka Frost's bolete or the Apple bolete.

Well, the Mushroom Mogul did not disappoint, leading our Mid-Summer Hunt and Nature Walk on a beautiful, tepid July evening. We started with a prayerful song and the Wendell Berry poem mentioned below, rolled into the front then out to the back woods and ended up in the retreat house kitchen. A post-text from Anthony alerted me to the fact that Hen of The Woods Jerky was in the house, which I unfortunately missed. But the pickled Chanterelles and ramps, Black Trumpet/Shiitake Goat Cheese and Candy Cap Mushroom Cookies with pecans and dried cranberries were delectable. And several interesting forage finds made for a collectively mellow experience of the Universe through The Higher Haven’s forest wilderness.

We started with collecting Indian Ghost Pipe, which always excites me but isn’t anything incredibly new, having written previously of my first encounter with the parasitic plant two summer herb walks back. Looking fungus like, this plant feeds on mushrooms, holding an interestingly parasitic symbiotic relationship with only two species — Lactarius and Russula. Ghost Pipe needs a very specific environment to grow and thrive and can be made into a tincture that’s an amazing nerve disrupting pain medicine, effectively used in treating severe mental and emotional pain due to PTSD and other traumatic injury, as well as the severe nerve pain of Lyme disease. Purple Tooth was found nearby, a mushrooms that, like the inky cap, oyster and shiitake, have a voracious appetite for wood. We also learned of the mushroom-tree connection, as mushrooms don’t have roots but rather mycelium for an under system, the mushroom being the flower. Cool. Mycelium strands link up with tree roots and communicate, trading information, and, accoring to Anthony, “exchange gifts, like borrowing from a neighbor”, all done underground, with some mushrooms even sending trees growth hormones. If only we could be so connected.

We found common old edible, delicious mushrooms that grow on hard and soft wood like Platterfulls (Megacollybia Rodmanii) and learned of mushroom’s spore-based reproduction system. You can do an actual spore print by putting a mushroom down on a piece of paper with a cup on top, the spore print being like the perfect and unique thumb print of the mushroom, with each mushroom having its beautiful, interesting mark, not unlike like us. Mushrooms are made of Chitin, which is what crustaceans and insect exoskeletons are made of, thus wild species should always be cleaned and cooked for better health and digestion, as they are overly hard on the gut, “unless you come from a long line of bug eaters,” per Anthony.

Now the people may point to the highlight being when we bridged the river and first saw the blood-red eyes of Boletus frostii, inspiring a group gasp. With its dark red sticky caps and bluing reaction to tissue injury, our specimen even offered up a golden rose comb mutation, along with its lemony, citrus taste that lends itself to being candied. But for me, a major highlight was when Anthony segued from discussing bruising and actually being able to write in mushroom flesh to declaring them “a sensorial experience.” “Give them a smell… taste, touch, feel… identifying mushrooms is all about the senses. Feel them break them apart, taste them - that’s how you get to know them.” Spiritual practice, too, is a sensorial experience. And actually everything is, but it’s attuning oneself to the senses in a very special way.

Consider learning more about that at our Summer Noble Silence Meditation Retreat, but since we begin in twelve hours, come out for the Fall Noble Silence Meditation Retreat the weekend of October 3rd, soon available for registration at the start of August. Or join us for a daylong workshop with Anthony on Saturday September 19th. Many thanks to the unassuming dude who puts the fun back in fungus and all the folks who made it out. Hope you make it out soon, too. Until then, Peace, like a River.