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The 3 Lights Project An Invitation to Participate
_______________2014-2023_______________ Maine * Vermont * New York City
  
The Unseen Hand: Medicine from Antiquity A Gathering of Physicians Artists and Scribes with Laura Barnard Stelmok
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To look at life on this earth, and at human life in particular, from the standpoint of a very high intelligence engaged in an almost impossible enterprise... The task of the Masters of Wisdom is to bring into existence beings capable of providing the earth with a soul, by achieving such a degree of mutual love and such wisdom as to be able to act as one and yet retain their individual freedom. Humankind today represents an early stage in the accomplishment of this task.
They were to demonstrate the power of humility and weakness, and from that demonstration to lead humans back to Love. They developed a Master Training which, of course, could not guarantee transformation in love, yet nevertheless, resulted in a centuries-long lineage of purity and enlightenment that may be unsurpassed in the history of spirituality.
The Masters of Wisdom: An Esoteric History of the Spiritual Unfolding of Life on This Planet John G. Bennett
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The Hidden Light Within:
As Above, So Below
To Root the Light of Heaven
3 On-Going Groups * 3 Doors * 3 Lights
A 7-year Gathering
Streetlamp Greenlight Lantern
  
"Our way is that of group discussion. In solitude there is renown and in renown there is peril. Welfare is to be found in a group. Those who follow this way find great benefit and blessings in group meetings." Baha ad-Din Naqshband, Bead of Dew
* * Streetlamp GreenLight & Lantern New York * Maine * Vermont
Beginning One Light, One Group, One Year at a Time
Her light may be compared to a niche
wherein is a lamp
the lamp in a glass the glass as it were a glittering star
kindled from a Blessed tree
an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West
whose oil would almost shine forth
though no fire touches it
light upon light
LIGHT SURA (QUR'AN 24:35)
3 Years to begin 3 Groups to kindle 3 Lights
3x3
2014: GreenLight
Maine
2015: Light #2
NYC or Vermont
2016: Light #3
It will depend upon interest and availability of a home for the work,
whether Light #2 begins in Vermont or New York.
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IMPORTANT: Though the life of each group will contract and continue for 7 years, each group will open every year for new travelers to arrive.
Much like in the past, when PLACES were held sacred
and pilgrims came when there was necessity,
we, the group, become a PLACE of remembrance,
a PLACE where light may seed.
An Invitation to Participate
GreenLight * Whitefield Maine
4 Weekends * 2014
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To Build an Arc
Part of the circumference of a circle or other curve * a curved shape * an arc of Light
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A Letter from Laura
Dear One and All,
This project, 3 Lights, has been many years calling, from the cracks in the doors between the worlds. As with all poems or arcs or children, such a light haunts and wakes one in the night over decades. How a heart is prepared to stand present to her/his Time. I have been given Teachers, here in this world and also from the Inner Worlds, extraordinary in their devotion and labor, to teach me how to wait, how to listen, how to give the Dream, away, how to cease coveting.
I was nearly 50 when I heard a Teacher say with the wisdom of forever that the human heart was given as THE PLACE, where all the worlds intersect, where the Language of Oneness is seeded. Love, the substance of creation, is the universal translator. The schools have disappeared behind the mists where those capable of such training can go, can receive the disciplines the companionship and the instructions.
We live in a time of madness, a time when the hunger for more seems insatiable, when we are willing to take until there is no beauty left. The ancients warned of this time of hungry ghosts. Even 50 years ago we could not have imagined the tar fields of northern Canada or the epidemic of Depression in our People. We live in a time where our Land is soaked with the crimes against Nature. We live in a time where, beyond hope, a language of reconciliation is needed. We live at the end of one era, with longing and prayers for another.
And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.*
Like a tree, we will grow in girth, in capacity as the years come and go. To become a Refuge for consciousness, for the witness of ourselves and our time. We will begin here in Maine, with GreenLight, where land and sea meet, by the river that runs to the sea. Sheepscot Hollow, Whitefield, Maine. The place was given for this work.
If you have any questions or would like to have a conversation with me, please don't hesitate to write me. laura@theunseenhand.org
Yours in devotion,
Laura
*from William Blake
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An Ocean without Shore
I marveled at an Ocean without shore, * and at a Shore that did not have an ocean; * And at a Morning Light without darkness, * and at a Night that was without daybreak; * And then a Sphere with no locality * known to either fool or learned scholar; * And at an azure Dome raised over the earth, * circulating 'round its center - Compulsion; * ...the Secret concealed... Ibn al'Arabi
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The work on the alchemical lead--the prima materia, that which is
"glorious and vile, precious and of small account and is found everywhere"--
is the work on the shadow, the rejected and unacknowledged parts
of our human psyche, personal and collective.
The philosopher's stone, the gold made from this lead, is our own true nature.
This light, hidden in darkness, is the lumen naturae.
It is also our instinctual self and natural way of being.
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Hope
GreenLight 2014
In April 2014 we will begin an on-going, residential
group in Maine for anyone seeking the
guidance, shelter and company
of this ancient Light of Oneness.
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We will root our practice and presence in the ancient alchemical traditions, under the Guidance and Guardianship of the Ancient Songs of Creation.
(click on the link for more information)
The Groups will share a common purpose.
The culture and distinct need of each PLACE,will vary, one group to another.
Each year the 3 groups will gather together, ONE LIGHT,
in the dark of the Maine Winter.
Truth
For millennia, the Immortal Sages of all Essential Traditions
have observed and watched over Life.
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1. We gather to learn and discipline these rigorous and time-tested practices of service and observation: awakening the senses, cleansing the Heart, the capacity to preserve and interact directly with the seeds of Life. These disciplines involve learning to work with dreams and the cultivation of deep listening.
2. We gather to tend a diminishing light in our People, our Planet, our Time and our Selves. To live into the Group and its greater capacity for awareness, its greater strength in receiving and rooting Light.
3. We gather to mend errors that have injured our own lives and the life of our planet. To embody the Feminine Tradition of Wisdom, again, to mend the atrocities of error in the inner worlds as well as this world of appearances. To learn to live carefully in this time of transition.
4. We gather to weave a structure of relationship that will support and nourish each participant in her/his life. This will include deep teaching and training in deepening our capacities to live and work with the inner, hidden miracles of life.
5. We gather to preserve and watch over the Light, to allow this Light to infuse our heart and language, restoring the sound of Reconciliation to our worlds.
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These are Disciplines given to craft the human, disciplines
that fire the ethic and purpose of each individual.
Passed, hand to hand, heart to heart, like a
perennial root. Disciplines that open the
Light within Matter, the secret hidden
within the Darkness of ourselves.
These Disciplines purify and strengthen the Physician, the Artist, the Human Being
that, together we become able to reach to the Source of Life.
We come together in the ancient way of servants of truth: sharing food, time, conversation, prayer, and a living tradition of teaching and companionship.
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Love
The single greatest Power in Creation.
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The group has no religious affiliation; it is open to all.
What is needed is the desire for truth and the willingness to work on oneself
in the company of others, in service to the Whole.
We will come together 4 times/year.
There will be some written work that is requested for the times between.
In 2014
April 12-13
July 19-20
September 6-7
November 22-23
The groups will be residential, at Sheepscot Hollow, in Whitefield Maine.
We will begin at 12pm Saturday and finish by 5pm Sunday.
Most participants will live in Maine.
Some will travel long distance to be in the group.
Some will choose, over time, to participate in all three lights.
The light of each group will work with the EARTH, the PLACE of its origin.
Please contact us, by clicking here if you are interested.
)
"I hoped to get instruction in Yoga, expected wonderful teachings, but what the teacher did was mainly to force me to face the darkness within myself and it almost killed me....until I had to come to terms with that in me which I kept rejecting all my life." -
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When Parmenides was taken down to the underworld, to the realms of Night
and the goddess Justice, he was taken to the place where all laws come from:
to the mythical source of lawgiving where the lawgiver is given his laws.
There are the initiates who, through the intensity of their own longing,
make the journey into another world--
to the source of light and darkness--
and bring back the timeless knowledge found there.
Through them the thread that keeps humanity connected
with reality stays intact.
In the Dark Places of Wisdom Peter Kingsley
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Dates and Times 2014
Spring: April 12-13
Summer: July 19-20
Autumn: September 6-7
Winter: November 22-23
In every season GreenLight begins Saturday at noon and goes until Sunday at 5:00pm.
Location
We will meet at Sheepscot Hollow, our farm in Whitefield Maine.
There will be private, semi-private and dormitory-like sleeping arrangements for all.
Sheepscot Hollow
28 Nilsen Lane
Whitefield, ME 04353
207.549.7733
For Information
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Registration
Please email noah@theunseenhand.org NO LESS THAN 2 weeks prior to the first Gathering of GreenLight if you are interested and plan to participate.
Registration is for participation in the Group for the whole of 2014.
Each person will register annually for participation in the group.
Though it is strongly preferred for each person to be able to attend all 4 Gatherings, special arrangements can certainly be made if you have prior commitments in this first year.
Every effort has been made to keep costs at a bare minimum. The fee for tuition is for the whole year. This fee includes supplies and all work that happens between sessions. Room and Board fees will be paid per session.
Tuition
$300/year * 4 Gatherings
Click Here to pay online
Any decision about payment plans is to be made before registration.(Refer to the left hand column of the payment pages on our website.)
Room and Board
$75.00/weekend * To be paid before or upon arrival for the work
Click Here to pay online
Payment On-Line
All payments for tuition and room and board are to be made on-line through our website or with cash/check upon arrival for the work (by arrangement with our office.)
Any decision about payment plans is to be made before registration. (Refer to the left hand column of the payment pages on our website.)
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Once ago and for eons, animals and humans sang the same songs, slipped into each other, a woman became a bear, and a bear became a woman. No one fathoms this mystery, but it was so. Eleanor Ott
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Queen Mother of the West
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The Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wang Mu) is one of the oldest deities of China.
She lives in the Kunlun mountains in the far west, at the margin of heaven and earth. In a garden hidden by high clouds, her peaches of immortality grow on a colossal Tree, only ripening once every 3000 years. The Tree is a cosmic axis that connects heaven and earth, a ladder traveled by spirits and shamans.
Xi Wang Mu controls the cosmic forces:
time and space and the pivotal Great Dipper constellation.
With her powers of creation and destruction,
she ordains life and death, disease and healing,
and determines the life spans of all living beings.
The energies of new growth surround
her like a cloud. She is attended by hosts of spirits and transcendentals.
She presides over the dead and afterlife,
and confers divine realization and immortality on spiritual seekers.
The oldest reference to Xi Wangmu is an oracle bone inscription from the Shang dynasty, thirty-three centuries ago: "If we make offering to the Eastern Mother and Western Mother there will be approval."
Three azure birds bring berries and other foods to Xi Wangmu in her mountain pavilion, or fly before her as she descends to give audience to mortals.
The poet Li Bo referred to the three wild blue birds who circle around Jade Mountain as "the essence-guarding birds." They fulfill the will of the goddess. |
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NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY:
The Unseen Hand: Medicine from Antiquity
does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color,
ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation,
gender expression, age, physical or mental ability,
or marital status in administration of its educational policies,
admissions policies, tuition assistance programs
and other school administered programs
as well as appointments to the board of directors,
administration, faculty and staff.
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Laura Barnard Stelmok Received her Bachelor's Degree from Bowdoin College '83 in Religion and German. She studied Acupuncture with JR and JB Worsley at the Worsley Institute of Classical Acupuncture in Florida and the College of Traditional Acupuncture in the UK, receiving a Licensure, Advanced Licenciate and Masters Degree in Acupuncture in 1992. Laura continued her post-graduate clinical training with the Worsleys until 2001. From there she spent 5 intensive years studying Five Element Acupuncture and Rooting Shen with Niki Bilton. She has also studied with Jeffrey Yuen on the teachings of the 13 Ghost Points. * Laura has been in private clinical practice since 1991. Her practice, Stillpoint, has been in Rockland, Maine since 1996. She has been teaching post-graduate 5 Element Theory and Clinical Supervision groups in Maine, Vermont and New York since 2006. These diverse, highly interactive, and rigorous Clinics reach far and wide now. How to become a truer and more potent instrument of the Light of this Tradition. She roots much of her teaching in the taoist medical classics. Students now fill these groups from most every tradition of healing, as the disciplines from the Taoists and the Light of the Ancient Alchemical Songs are applicable to all. * In addition to the practice of 5 Element Taoist Medicine, Laura collaborates with working artists, the ones called to carry the seeds of what longs to be born, bringing the disciplines of ancient medicine together with the urgent call to the Muses of our Time. * Beginning at the age of 24, in addition to her studies and practice as an acupuncturist, Laura apprenticed and worked alongside of teachers Alexandra Merrill and Joyce Weir. The work spanned 20 years in small, highly interactive training groups of women, where the inner individuation work of Self was woven inextricably with the daunting political challenges of our time. Leadership Training that rooted itself in the forgotten body of the Feminine, routing out the habits of oppression and alienation between women. "We were our own subjects for many years, a large highly-interrelated community of dreamers, activists, artists, mothers, daughters, teachers, philanthropists, hobos and otherwise brilliantly disturbed modern women, each one committed to the work of remembrance and the difficult task of unravelling the deeply rooted and unconscious habits of fear and hatred in the modern female mind." * Laura is the first President and Program Director of The Unseen Hand: Medicine from Antiquity/ A Gathering of Physicians, Artists and Scribes which is currently in the 501(c)(3) application process to become a nonprofit for the Preservation and Teaching of this Tradition. She currently lives in Rockland, Maine with her husband and son. They devote their life, labor and breath to the golden thread of Teachers that return this Tradition, this Thread of Light to Our Time. |
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Our gratitude to you who sit with us at this Ancient Well of Learning.
Those who were here before, those here now and those yet to come.
Blessed Be.
To participate in the LIVING DIVINITY OF LIFE. May we, with grace, humility and careful labor remember and receive our Humanity,
that we remember our PLACE
and our RESPONSIBILITY to our Earth and one another.
We gather as physician's, artists, teachers and students, wayfarers.
Our senses returned. Our minds disciplined. Our Heart utilized.
To become Teachable to this Ancient Living Tradition of Wisdom,
that we may become Servants to and for It.
There is no greater joy on Earth.
We encourage you to pass this invitation on to any colleagues, friends, fellow students/travelers that you believe might wish to join us.
Please contact us at info@theunseenhand.org for any assistance.
With deep regard to each of you.
The Board of Directors @ The Unseen Hand.
To read our Mission Statement please click here
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Each and every part of the world is a snare for the fool and a means of deliverance for the wise.
I said to the white-haired world, "You are both snare and admonition."
It replied, "Although I am an ancient master, yet I am still His young disciple."
Form also has tremendous importance. No, much more than importance, for it participates in the kernel. Just as nothing can be done without the kernel, so also nothing can be done without the shell...But the root is meaning. Rumi
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