Urban Mountain Events
Friend, hope for the truth while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are live!
What you call "salvation”
Belongs to the time before death.
If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
Do you think your spirit will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
Just because the body is rotten -
That is all fantasy.
What is found now will be found then.
— Kabir
Our Hero’s Journey work has placed a strong emphasis on re-enacting ancient journeying rites that involve cutting all ties to the current culture, retreating to the forests and mountains, having a series of transformative adventures, and then returning to their modern day lives renewed and revitalized.
Many people in today’s technologically dominated and ‘busy’ culture are hungry for a return to ancient and restorative communal rites and practices that restore a sense of awe, mystery and renewal to their spiritual lives, and yet often do not have the resources or the time available to retreat into rustic settings in order to change their perspectives, or renew their appreciation of mystery and awe, or participate in communal rituals that hold depth and meaning.
Therefore, the Hero’s Journey Foundation have decided to bring the mountain to the city for those who do not have the means, the readiness or the ability to venture into wilderness settings to experience transformative rites and practices.From time to time, we offer the same rites or rituals that we would provide as part of an intensive weeklong wilderness experience, in the course of a day or an evening, in an urban setting. We call these events "Urban Mountain” journeys.
Our "Urban Mountain Journeys", such as the one recently offered at Carnegie Mellon University’s Alumni Concert Hall in Pittsburgh, provide participants with experiences of meditation, storytelling, drumming, chanting, poetry, and a talking staff circle.
Attendees can choose to participate actively through drumming and chanting, or simply experience this vitalizing and energetic happening through silent witnessing and attention.
For a list of our future Urban Mountain Events and descriptions, click here or go to our calendar page for more details.