November 26 - December 3

A New Initiative

This week saw the roll out of the Indralaya Gap Year Mentorship program. This new ten week program for young people between the ages of 18 and 26 will be offered twice in 2014, once in the Spring and once in the Fall.

For those who are not familiar with the term, a gap year is often defined as a break in the course of one’s formal education, or between completing one’s education and entering the work world. Over the last decade or so, taking a gap year has become an increasingly common practice for young people.

A central aim of the program is to provide an opportunity for participants to consider and clarify the meaning and purpose of their lives. The program curriculum will be rooted in the premise that a balanced theosophical life is composed of three elements: study, meditation and service. While the curriculum will be embedded in the theosophical tradition, membership in the Theosophical Society is not a requirement.

In addition to participating in the regular programs and activities of Indralaya, participants will be provided with a course of study incorporating theosophical concepts, have the opportunity to experience various contemplative practices, develop practical life skills, and engage with the natural world at a deep level. They will also have the opportunity for small group meetings with program leaders and the wide array of interesting people doing meaningful work in the world who regularly pass through Indralaya.

By offering an enriching course of study for young people at a significant transition point in their lives, this program takes a big step towards more fully realizing the vision that Indralaya’s founders held when the camp was founded nearly 90 years ago.

The application period for both the Spring and the Fall programs begins in December 2013. The ten week Spring session will begins on March 31 and continues through June 8. The Fall session will run from September 2-November 11. A minimum of four and a maximum of ten participants will be accepted in each class. Tuition for the program is $1,350, which includes all program related costs, as well as housing and meals.

Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from this offering. 

For more information or an application form, please see the Gap Year Program area on the Indralaya website.

Until We Meet Again
We’re taking a winter break and this will be the last post until mid-January. If you are looking for information on next year’s program calendar, please see last week’s post for a summary. Registration for all of 2014 will begin in the second half of January. We’re looking forward to seeing you in the new year!  

November 25

It’s time for our annual look forward to programs for the coming year. We’ve got a great mix of both traditional and new offerings and invite you to begin your planning now. Registration for all of our 2014 programs and work parties will open in mid to late January.

Let’s begin with the Spring and Fall Work parties: The first work weekend will be President’s Day weekend, February 14-17, which this year includes Valentine’s Day. The Easter work weekend (April 18-20) includes the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. The last Spring work party will be over Memorial Day, May 23-26. There are also three Fall work parties: Labor Day, August 29-September 1; Fall Harvest, October 10-13, and the End of the Season work party, November 7-9.

The Spring schedule will offer three ‘first time at Indralaya’ programs. Jason Siff, a highly regarded meditation teacher, will be here April 24-27 to lead a Recollective Awareness Meditation weekend. Kim Ivy, the founder of the Embrace the Moon School of Taijiquan and Qigong, will be here to lead a QiGong weekend May 15-18, and Christine Downing, an Orcas Island resident and Professor of Mythological Studies at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, will offer a program (May 29-June 1) exploring the mythology surrounding journeys to the underworld.

Spring will also see the return of Pablo Sender, one of the Theosophical Society’s most compelling contemporary speakers, who will be here June 5-8 for a program exploring the Theosophical Path of Meditation.

The last half of June will be devoted to Therapeutic Touch, as it has been for over thirty years. Basic Therapeutic Touch (June 14-17) is for those beginning their practice, while Mentorship (June 14-20) is for those who are looking to deepen their practice. Those attending the following week (June 22-28) will explore Therapeutic Touch as a Path of Service. This program is intended for intermediate and advanced level practitioners.

We have a great line-up for summer beginning with the two traditional family weeks (July 2-8 and July 10-16), followed by Deep Singing (July 19-24), and Yoga (July 26-31). Joel and Michelle Levey will return for the week of August 2-7, followed by Connections (August 9-15). There will be two complementary programs in the final week of the summer season. First up is a three day drumming workshop with Patty Hatfield (August 18-21), followed immediately by Sacred Sound and Music (August 21-24) with Pat Moffitt-Cook.

Fall will begin with our second Deep Singing Weekend (September 4-7), led by Barbara Bellamy and Helen Bee, continue with the 4th autumnal equinox weekend with R.J. Stewart and Anastacia Nutt, this year exploring The Seven Aptitudes of Faery Healing (September 18-21), and conclude with the annual silent meditation retreat (October 2-5) with Minor Lile and Leonie Van Gelder.

November 13-21

This week we learned of the recent passing of Dee Dee Rainbow. Dee Dee and her sister Marsha were the granddaughters of Ray and Heloise Wardall, who were prominent in the early years of Indralaya. Cedar cabin was built by the Wardalls and was one of the first cabins constructed at camp.

The ‘donation dragon’ that lives at the registration desk in the dining hall was crafted by Dee Dee in honor of her grandparents. In recent years, it has become the repository for limericks during the summer family weeks. As you can see by reading the dedication below, the glaze includes ash from Mt. St. Helens.

Dee Dee attended several of the interfaith programs that were held here in the late 90’s and early 00’s. 

For those who knew her, a celebration of Dee Dee’s life is scheduled for 1:00 pm on Saturday, January 4, at University Unitarian Church in Seattle.

November 4-12

Stonehenge

Yes, it's true. While Leonie was at camp managing the End of the Season work party, I was away in southern England visiting ancient monuments and attending a weekend workshop in Glastonbury.

Glastonbury Abbey grounds

to the top of the tor

Meanwhile, back at home there were about 25 people on hand for the work party. A big job for the weekend was pouring the concrete at Kunz cabin. Other projects included completing the siding for the now closed in area under the lounge, adding a door to the greenhouse, and putting many areas of camp to bed for the winter.

foundation pour at Kunz

red greenhouse door

new siding under the lounge

With the completion of the work weekend on Sunday, the 2013 program season that began back in February is now at an end. It’s been a great 86th year for Indralaya and we are already looking forward to starting up again in the Spring.

Three Years Later

This is the 150th posting to the This Week at Indralaya blog since it began back in October 2010. In that time, there have been over 30,000 visits to the site. The highest monthly readership was in May of this year, with 1,320 hits. Over 80% of those who visit the site are from the US and Canada. There is a high readership across Europe and a generous sprinkling of interest throughout the rest of the world.

October 28 - November 3

the 2013 board: Kim, Victoria, Crystal, Megan, Lin, Meg, Kelly

The Indralaya board of directors met over the weekend in the camp library for their annual meeting. A key agenda item was to review and approve a new gap year program for young people between the age of 18 and 26 that will begin in the Spring of 2014. The 10 week program will be offered twice in 2014, once in the Spring and once in the Fall. 

A central aim of the program is to provide an opportunity for participants to set aside a time in their lives to gain some fuller awareness of the meaning and purpose of their lives while also being of service at Indralaya. The program curriculum will be rooted in the premise that a balanced spiritual life includes the core elements of study, meditation and service.

The Board and camp managers feel that offering an enriching course of study for young people at a significant transition point in their lives takes a big step towards more fully realizing the vision that Indralaya's founders put forward when the camp began nearly 90 years ago.

The application period for the Spring session will begin in early December and more information will be posted on the camp website soon.

In other action, the Board voted to maintain the current fee structure for a third consecutive year. Other agenda items included a tour of building and maintenance projects that are underway, a review of the 2013 program year and consideration of the program calendar for 2014. The Board selected May 24 as the date for  the annual meeting of the Friends of Indralaya.

The fall meeting is also a time of transition, as the Board reconstitutes itself for the coming year. Mark Ray was welcomed to the Board as the winner of this year's elections, and Lin Bauer was reappointed to the Board for a second term. The new Board also elected its officers. Meg  Sather will continue as Board chair. Other officers are Lin Bauer (vice-chair), Kelly Bachman (treasurer) and Crystal Mossman (secretary).  The first act of the new Board was to express appreciation to outgoing Board member Kim Erickson.

October 21-27

The foggy days that have been prominent for most of the month continued through the week and into the weekend. On Sunday the prevailing direction of the weather shifted around to the north and the skies finally cleared. It was quite breezy on Sunday night, and the north wind shook a torrent of fir needles from the trees around the dining hall, covering the kitchen skylights and solar array.

time to clean the solar modules

(you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it)

a few minutes later

With the winding down of the program season, much of our attention has turned to cabin maintenance. Progress also continues on the foundation for the Kunz cabin addition. In the office, we are close to finalizing next year’s program schedule and are preparing for the annual meeting of the Indralaya Board of Directors which is coming up this weekend.

Jim working on setting the forms for the Kunz cabin foundation

Outside Juniper

At Juniper cabin the deck is being rebuilt and the big sliding glass door has been replaced by a window.

 Inside Juniper

Jacob & Thea finishing up a new roof for Hemlock

October 14-20

Mushrooms have sprung from the ground in amazing profusion this fall: Boletus, Shaggy Mane, Shaggy Parasol, Chantrelle, Puff Balls, Orange Milk Cap, Russula, Oyster, Amanita, Matsutake, and many, many more, found in clusters and fairy rings, growing at the base of trees and along old decaying nurse logs.

Kunz cabin excavation

Work continues on Kunz cabin. This week the area where the new addition is going was excavated. We are aiming to have the frames for the foundation in place and ready for concrete in time for the November 8-10 work party. If you’d like to attend the work party and help with the pour, let us know!

Over the weekend, a small group of people involved with planning for one of the 2014 Therapeutic Touch programs gathered here and explored possible themes and program structure for next year. Camp treasurer Kelly Bachman was here to prepare financial reports for the Board meeting coming up in a couple weeks. There were also two people visiting on personal retreat - all of which made for a fairly busy “no program” weekend.

It was quite foggy for most of the week. On most days the fog never did quite lift, and on the days when it did, it was usually only for a short period of time in late afternoon.

Oct 7-13

This was the weekend of the annual fall harvest work party. While this year’s harvest was moderate in scale, over 80 people were on hand to participate in this popular tradition and a lot of great work was accomplished. The camp shuttle from and to the ferry was in high demand, with an overload crowd arriving on the late afternoon boat on Friday and 33 people shuttling back to the ferry as the work party wound down on Sunday and Monday.

In addition to picking, juicing and slicing apples, wood was split, the garden was put to bed for winter, the skin of the greenhouse was attached, new insulation was installed under Juniper cabin, the dock was brought in, wiring and lighting were installed under the lounge, and great food was prepared including an especially delicate and delicious Saturday night batch of cinnamon-saturated apple pie with just a hint of citrus. Yum!

bringing the dock in under grey skies

heave-ho!

processing apples

Glena and Elliot at the apple grinder 

the green house nears completion

 

Anne

Jen, Mark, and daughter Naia

Cora

September 30 - October 6

The dream workshop this last weekend was the last of our 2013 programs. Participants in the workshop joined together twice each day to discuss their individual dreams. A core element of the program was the making of masks representing some aspect of the dream realm that a participant was interested in exploring.

Each of the masks were amazingly evocative and several of the participants had revelatory experiences in wearing their mask. In order to protect the confidential nature of the experience, these photographs are of the unfinished masks only.

q: who’s that hiding under the driftwood?

a: mr and mrs lizard

On Sunday camp awoke to a foggy and mysterious morning:

Later in the day, Ian and Margot came by and planted roses at the bower that was installed a couple of weeks ago at the Rose, Hawthorn and Apple program.

The big fall harvest work party is coming up this weekend. 

The apples are ready and waiting!

Sept 23-29

Fall pronounced its arrival in a week that began with wet and windy weather and ended the same way. At one point on Saturday afternoon, it was raining so hard that it was difficult to see the dining hall from the teepee!

This week also saw the return of Pat Moffit-Cook to Indralaya. Pat was here to lead several programs in the  early years of the century, and this was her first time back since 2006. She is a truly remarkable teacher of sacred sound and it was an inspirational weekend, with nearly 60 people in camp.

Janet & Pat 

September 16-22

It was an inspiring week at Indralaya. In addition to the Rose Hawthorn and Apple program with R.J. Stewart and Anastacia Nutt, a bower was installed in the upper garden celebrating the threefold alliance of the human, animal and faery realms.

R.J. and Anastacia arrived on Wednesday evening. Much of the morning and early afternoon on Thursday was devoted to siting and installing the cedar poles that compose the bower space. Two climbing rose bushes (one with white flowers and one with red) will soon be planted at the base of each pole. Over time, the rose bushes will be intertwined as they climb the poles and join together in the center.

peeled cedar poles all ready to go

Jacob, Anne, Anthony & R.J. during the installation

the dedication ceremony

The program offered a compelling exploration of the subtle power and presence of three members of the Rosaceae family. Each of these three plants - rose, hawthorn and apple - have played an important role in the faery tradition of Britain. Each is also found here at Indralaya. The program was composed of music, storytelling, lore, meditation and ritual connecting participants with the powerful consciousness of these species and their faery allies.

all hail the sun on the morning of the equinox