A soulful and nourishing day of transformative embodiment and liberating writing techniques. This small group workshop will be held in Maya's studio in Warburton, surrounded by Mountains and by the banks of Birrarung.

Using the practices of guided meditations and stream-of-consciousness writing, we will enter into presence with the more-than-human world and bring back other — and ancient — ways of knowing. We call this co-becoming: a transformative altered state learning that comes when we open ourselves, with humility, care and wonder, to the animate world.

Co-becoming is a term we first encountered in the book Songspirals by the Gay’wu group of women. “Country has awareness, it is not just backdrop. It knows and is part of us. It is home and land, but it is more than that. Country is the way humans and non-humans co-become, the way we emerge together and will always emerge together.” I use this term with permission from the Gay’wu group, and in gratitude for their profound work and so generously sharing their knowledge, this workshop is also a fundraiser for the Yolgnu community where they live and work.

I share knowledge and techniques gained in my Creative Writing PhD investigations of somatic and shamanistic metaphysics, where I studied the sensing of an animate world in European and Australian Aboriginal traditions, a world sometime known as the Imaginal Realm. Jung, Goethe, and Steiner carried ancient European wisdom traditions into the modern era - so too have many profound and generous Aboriginal elders. Exploring how we respectfully acknowledge these traditions and walk forward with the astonishing insights of modern biology, botany and neuroscience has been both thrilling and humbling.

The work we do together goes deep – it penetrates below the surface of thought and into the hidden world of complex ecological connections. It reveals how this complexity and aliveness creates what we think of as human nature – creates soul, magic, power, pleasure, and poetry. It can be surprising, resonant, sometimes strange, and also very funny – the animate world has a delicious sense of humour!

Early bird Price for the workshop is $115 or $90 concession before September 1

After this date - $130 or $105 concession (concession is for anyone at all who needs a lower price)

$5 from every ticket will go direct to the Gay’wu group.

Following are testimonials from past co-becoming workshop participants.

Where the human hearts and more-than-human world come together, there is a place of deep prayer that can contribute to the healing of our world. Maya shares practices, wisdom and insight that gently lead to a deeper communion than you might imagine. Not simply a writing workshop but a way of being that can be remembered and shared so simply. Pure magic. — Sieta

I feel a profound stillness and calm after a delightfully dislocating and delicious dip in the more-than-human waters. The deft facilitation, warm safe container and wonderful surrounds have allowed me to traverse some truly paradigm-splitting and enmeshment-propagating new territories. This work speaks through you with such zest and humility that it becomes easily infectious in a kind of reverse disease that produces a de-centering thought for something far greater and more splendid indeed. — Andy

This was an enlivening enrichment of the unfolding understanding of our inseparable reciprocity of human to earth, to all creatures and beings of earth. So exquisite to de-centre the individualist identity and surrender into the artfully held container of exploration of otherness and connectedness that Maya so beautifully creates. — Lucy

Thank you for the opportunity to be deeply held and to meet the invitation to connect to the realms beyond the ordinary. To feel into the experience of the other-than-human, into an animist wonderland of deep knowing and connection. — Luna

Diving into connection, freedom and ease, this work unlocks creativity and cleans the layers of confusion and fear that cloud our capacity to be innocent and expressive and generative. — Cassiel

Thank you for your beautiful work with us and for all the ways you have fostered and inspired connection and relatedness, including in our sharing and listening for each other’s experience. – Bronwen

This is deep and profound work of joy and connection, healing and offering much meaning. It deepens authentic living in surprising and beautiful ways. I feel supported both personally and professionally. Thanks Maya for your bravery and vulnerability, I think this is the leadership we need in such times. – Kerryn

Deep soul gratitude for you and the space you allow for. It is truly of and out of this world. I relish the opportunity to immerse in this beautiful community. I am humbled and grateful to journey with you, these elements and beings. And with beingness . I love what it evokes in me and what it allows. – Rebecca

A deep and lovely dive into the places I’ve always known yet forget often. A reacquaintance of sorts held with such care and curiosity by the delightful Maya. A process I can carry home and nurture the desire for connection with nature, place, myself and the divine. — Prem

Writing with the Earth — Kinship, Embodiment, Belonging - Warburton