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Voices of Sacred Earth Festival 2015

March 2015 Update

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Hope you’re enjoying the transition from winter to spring. Winter is drawing to a close rapidly here in Santa Cruz and the trees are blossoming as Mother Earth wakes up from her slumber.  My father (Brant Secunda) and I just returned from a beautiful gathering in New Zealand at the Voices of Sacred Earth Festival. We had a wonderful time reconnecting with our Kiwi friends and sharing the ancient wisdom and ceremonies of the Huichol. Thank you for all those who came to this inspirational gathering. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Our office is full of new faces and we’ve welcomed three new members to our team in the last few months. Julia Cunningham has stepped up as our Event Coordinator and has been getting all our programs into gear, while also working on setting up a new retreat for later this year! Mara Milam has joined us as Media Coordinator, organizing our massive photo and media library in order to make our images more accessible to everyone. Her and Julia are also helping to guide our social media presence, so make sure to follow us on Facebook + twitter! You may have already spoken with Angela Chambers, who is our new Administrative Assistant. She’s been busy responding to all of your emails and calls each day and can’t wait to speak with you when you call us next!

We’ve still got a busy month ahead of us. If you’re on the east coast, you can catch us in Cherry Hill, NJ next week. We’ll also be heading to Mexico for the spring ceremony with the Huichol later this month and then onto to Germany for our annual spring retreat at ZIST (and then onto Crete, Greece from there in April).

I hope to see you somewhere along the way and look forward to staying in touch!

All the Best,

Nico Secunda

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Nico Secunda in Japan

March Update

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Hope you’ve been enjoying the spring season! We have been blessed with beautiful rain over the past few weeks here in Santa Cruz. The earth is now moist and the wildflowers and apple trees are beginning to blossom. Each day brings a mix of sunshine and showers, making for a feeling of crisp cleansing clarity.

March was full of progress and more adventure. After returning from New Zealand with my father, I headed back across the Pacific to Japan for a short 5-day journey. While there, I visited the sacred Kumano region and made pilgrimages to various places of power, including Nachi Falls (the tallest waterfall in Japan) and Tate-Haramara (the Pacific Ocean).

Back to Santa Cruz for a couple days and then on to Mexico, where we joined our Huichol family for a Dance of the Deer Ceremony to welcome the spring season. It was wonderful to be back in the remote sierra with my father and a handful of close students. Many Huichol families came from the surrounding mountains to join in the equinox celebration. As always, it was an empowering time and the energy from the ceremony continues to propel us into the spring season.

During our time in the villages we also made headway on laying the groundwork for the Huichol Cultural & Language School; one of the projects of the Huichol Foundation. We’ll be sharing more about that in the near future.

Our East Coast OnGoing Group met at Cape Cod this month. Everyone managed to make it there through the frigid storms along the east coast. They had to pray extra hard for the awakening of spring, but now it’s creeping up towards 50°F.

Also, we’re excited to introduce you to the newest member of our team. Please join us in welcoming Kaia Roman, our new Outreach Manager! She joined our team after returning to Santa Cruz from Bali, where she worked with the Green School (considered the greenest school on Earth). You can look forward to some really fun and interesting initiatives coming your way from Kaia’s desk.

Now, we’re preparing for our retreats in Germany and in the Mediterranean, on the rejuvenating island of Crete and then we’re looking forward to our local spring workshop at the Pacific Ocean.

Lots going on here and more exciting news coming very soon. Stay tuned and keep in touch!

All the Best,

Nico Secunda

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Dance of the Deer Foundation Team

February Update

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We’ve been busy! First of all, we have some new faces on our team.

Nicole Silvers came on board this summer, but she may still be a new face for some of you (better a late introduction than never). She’s been doing a wonderful job, handling our communications, phone and email inquiries, and simply being a pleasure to be around for all who meet her. Most impressively, she’s put up with our  jokes. If you haven’t yet been introduced, give us a call and you’ll be sure to reach her.

Many of you already know Mats Allen, as he has been involved with the Foundation since he was born and has been coming to our retreats around the globe since he can remember. His father Mark Allen has also been a long time student of Brant’s and is the co-teacher of our Fit Soul Fit Body programs. Now, Mats is finally an official part of our team, managing our websites and online application development. He’s been an awesome asset and you can all look forward to more great things to come from him, like our online Image Gallery… …launching today!

For those of you in Europe, you likely already know Yoko Bergheimer. She’s come all the way from Germany to our headquarters in California to be our full-fledged winter intern. Her mother Utah manages our european office, so she came well-prepared. Already, she’s done an amazing job translating our website to German! Yes, finally the german speakers can enjoy our site.

We’re also currently looking to hire a Social Media & Marketing Coordinator. If you’re interested or know someone who you think might be perfect for the job, please take a look at our careers page.

Brant has been busy as usual. Last month he came back from Germany, where he led an all-night Deer Dance to welcome the new year. Then our East Coast OnGoing Group met along the gulf coast of Florida and earlier this month he gave the keynote lecture at the Peace Symposium in the Bahamas. Last week, he and I both journeyed all the way to New Zealand for the 2nd annual Voices of Sacred Earth Eco-Festival. With over 1000 attendees, it was an energetic gathering outside of Auckland, at a serene retreat center. Brant led three Deer Dance ceremonies and offered three workshops during the 3-day gathering. It was an amazing time and great to connect with so many people striving to walk a sacred path on our Mother Earth.

Over the next couple of weeks, things start to really pick up and we’ll be heading to Mexico, to visit the Huichol for their spring ceremony. Then back to Germany and Crete and on through spring we go.

We look forward to staying in touch and hope to see you at one of our upcoming programs. Keep an eye out for our next email, which will have program updates and some special discounts. And in the meantime, take some time to listen to our newly released podcast episodes and browse our ever-growing Image Gallery.

Stay tuned for more news from all of us.

With love and gratitude,

Nico Secunda

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