Spiritual Direction Info Webinar with Rev. Sara Jolena Wolcott
You have heard a Call.
You are answering.
You do not need to travel this road alone.
March 5, 1 pm to 2:15 pm ET
Who is this Info Webinar for?
You have heard a Call. That Call is summoning you.
From the mist on the mountain
from the simmering of eco-erotic encounters
from the depths of the waters
from the surface of the stillness of rock and dune…
You know entheos: the filling up and overflowing of that essential creative juice of life (from which we get the word "enthusiasm").
You’ve been doing your own work for quite some time, and probably have many teachers and support people (therapists, coaches, priests, leadership development, spiritual teachers)
You are edge-walking and bridge-building - going in between places/people/ ideas/spiritual traditions in ways that might not have been done before
You are working with big energies (material/financial, spiritual, land/waters; lineages) and deep inquiry in ways that really matter.
You want to safeguard your joy; embrace the luminous darkness; and laugh your way towards healing.
You are in this to be of service to others, not just for yourself - and yet, at the same time, this is just for you.;
“What I like about working with Sara Jolena is that she's able to go places where regular coaches don't want to go. Her breadth of experience and knowledge is incredible. She's able to advise and help on strategic leadership decisions, on spiritual issues and on things to do with music and ritual. And shecan put all these things together. I’ve never worked with someone who can do that the way she can: most often, these parts of our lives tend to be treated in very separate boxes."
- Anna S.
What happens during the Info Webinar?
During the webinar, Sara Jolena will:
Give participants a chance to hear themselves and their own inner wisdom as well as the wisdom of the circle as it relates to the paradox of self and collective discernment;
come away with a deeper understanding of our "Dragonfly Eye" perspective as a key component to discernment;
Get into why this type of integrative 1-1 leadership development work is such a critical offering right now for edgewalkers, eco-system builders, innovators, ReMemberers, and others actively engaged in shifting our collective legacies and our inheritance;
Distinguish the "what" from the wider field of similar offerings (ie therapy, coaching, and other more common expressions of spiritual direction);
Share examples and stories; Consider when it is appropriate to "walk alone" vs when it is risky to engage in an unaccompanied way;
Have the opportunity to take the next steps into a yearlong program.
"The first time we talked, I just remember being like, wow, these are the level of questions that I need to be asked, that I want to be asked, and from someone who has a much deeper understanding of the waters I'm in. Because most spiritual spiritual directors are not going to be able to speak to what it means to be doing cross cultural work between Indigenous and non Indigenous communities, what it means to be going deep with women, about the oppression of the church and the kind of misogyny at the root of their empire. But you (Sara Jolena) get it.”
Current Spiritual Direction Participant
Some of what people experience with Sara Jolena
"What I experience in our work together (both classes and 1-1 work) is a level of deep integration and tearing down some of those spaces of separation, about learning, about what it means to engage in therapeutic/coaching experience in a deeply, deeply interconnected way. And in a way that is deeply grounded in a sensory experience of history, ancestry, deep, moral, cosmic frameworks. And we can bring in the enchantment piece as well. This is so refreshing, clarifying, and helpful - and something I rarely find elsewhere."
- Anna M.
“I have this real sense of your own practice, Sara Jolena, and you bring it to each of our conversations. I have an image of you standing in the woods, calmly stirring, stirring a witchy brew in a cauldron of - this big medicine that, over time, maybe coalesces into a cosmology or global ethos - etc. We who are lucky enough to work with you get to sip some of the magic you are brewing and also add to it, contribute to it in our own ways. … in such a short time, you have already made for me a sweet, warm container so I trust what shows up… and that I can show up frayed at the edges and that’s a-ok.”
- Jonah S.
“ I never really know where our sessions are gonna go, but they're always so useful. It's a mix of the presence that comes with the spiritual director and how a coach sees patterns and tracks things in my life over time and how they interrelate with one another, and the ability to go deep into the psychology, into myth and metaphor, and into the collective zeitgeist. I really appreciate the silences that we have and the invitation to go inward, and the more ritual components that you invite me to. ”
- Sarah Jane B
Register now
From Brianna, a participant in this work:
“When we first started talking, you (Sara Jolena) were the first person who started to peel back the layers, and remove some of the masks I had been conditioned to wear. Both the personal masks, and even more so, the blinders - you were able to provide the language and the structure and the context to understand why this moment feels so fractured and deeply confusing.
You just have this gift of being able to stand in the eye of the storm and expand my understanding —- to get that bird's eye view of what led us to this point, and a possible direction (wherein) the tornado doesn't have to destroy everything in its wake.
I am so grateful for the work we have done together.
There is no way I would be where I am today without you.”
Sara Jolena - interwoven and interweaving
Sometimes we way-find in luminous darkness.
Sometimes we can sense Spirit’s calling through study, discipline, and insight. Shining light, brightly, into many places.
Sometimes the next right step is enough.
If religion is like language, then I am fluent in a few (Quakerism and witchy-ness); highly conversive in Christianity/Catholicism, and comprehensive in Indic traditions and certain American Indigenous traditions.
I bring multiple disciplines and trainings to our time together. Formal studies include: McKinnon Institute of Massage Therapy; Reiki (Level I and II); Anthropology and the Arts (BA, Haverford College) Science, Technology and Society with a focus in financial systems (M.A., Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), and eco-theology, worship, and the arts (M.Div.,Union Theological Seminary).
I’ve been working with people 1-1 in different ways (leadership development, healing work, rituals, etc.) for over two decades.
What would you like to know about me?
I could tell you a story of being gifted. My grandmother recognized my healing gifts when I was five years old and my gifts for ministry by the time I was nine. Being raised in a Quaker family, that didn’t mean I was “special”: it was understood that God blesses us all. By the time I was in my early 20s, I had some practice in the core gifts of Ministry: listening, preaching, eldering, healing, art, song, storytelling and sensemaking. And the clear calling to be a Minister. There was much less clarity about what that meant in practice.
Gifts come with challenges and I had many of them. Neurological divergences. Attention “deficit”/distractions. An interest in “too many things.” Mental health shtuff and chronic illness (mine was inherited).
I could tell you a story about my successes - I have several - but it is often my so-called “failures” that tend to be just as useful in sessions I have with people.
I can tell you a story of a wild global Odyssey, seeking out root causes of climate change, of chronic illness, of systemic isolation; of broken promises and broken hearts; of going from being a social scientist in a top academic institution in Britain to singing to the Moon in rice fields in India; of meeting with ministers to discuss energy and development policy in London to studying religion and climate change in the midst of deforestation in Indonesia. Of sitting with indigenous elders in America and experiencing - histories, realities, dimensions, emotions (shame/guilt/fear/anxiety/grief/hope/possibility) that changed my sense of self. Of the lessons from fire, song, and silence.
I can tell you a bit about how important it is to remove the concrete of colonization so the already-bubbling Spring of the Spirit can flow. Of practices of orientation and re-orientation. Trim-tab pathways, and Spirit/your own inner genius will lead you well.
I can tell you many stories. But with you I want to listen. To you - yes. And to the Mystery wanting to be heard.
This photo (and the one of me below) were taken by David Zung, an ongoing client, used with his permission. Like so many people I work with, he is immensely talented across multiple artistic spaces.
There are many names for this work.
Leadership development. Legacy Advisory. Strategic Decision Making Meets Spiritual Discernment. Integration Work. Presence seeking Presence. Strategy attuned to Spirit. Embodied Ethical decision making. Discernment. Spiritual Direction. Collaborative ritual. ReTurning to Ancient Ways. Aligning your work with your soul. Coaching. Accompaniment. Spiritual midwifery. Bringing something new into the world. Daring.
I’m happy with whatever words best fit your perspective - and your budget line.
Because this work ultimately doesn’t have a singular framework. There are many expressions indicating multiple Ways.
And there are no words: the work of naming the Mystery is ultimately impossible.
Yet here we are. Listening. Anticipating. ReMembering. Receiving downloads/codes/visions/dreams/luminous darkness/power.
Not that this is about me.
And it’s only somewhat about you.
I’d like to think we are both here for the bigger Mystery.
For that which keeps inviting us both to ReMember.
to Re-En-Chant.
"Finding the abundance-pathway is amongst the most interesting journeys we can be on, and that is what I experience with Sara Jolena every time. Her brilliance and ability to hear parts of myself that no one else can is a value that cannot be appropriately reduced into monetary means, though in our world that’s what we still have to do.
For sure, the laughter and playfulness are the most important parts for me."
- Ram O.
