Riding the Wild Bullfrog of Metaphor Martín Prechtel's New England Writer's Workshop Craftsbury Commons, VT Oct, 13-20th, 2001
	Good Friends and Colleagues of the eternal and hopeful possibility of our human capacity to carry and keep alive the seed-heart of beauty, which is watered by the tears of grief before they turn to violence and cultivated in the ashes of that which has already done so, please let me reassure all of you that I, Martín Prechtel, have every intention of coming together with you to continue the Ghost Ranch Event of the Flowering Mountain and The Writer's Retreat in Ojo Caliente and Vermont. Not one person has actually called to cancel and numbers are very high. It seems to me that it is even more imperative that we should get together in these instances as well as a couple more times in the next six months, perhaps, in order to keep alive what really matters: to discuss and ceremonially metabolize this recent collision of several literalist forces who on every side have lost their indigenous souls and have become what we have been always addressing as the entranced carriers of ancient grief frozen into today's violence on every side. Please come, we'll talk, weep, write, sing and ceremonialize. All Blessings on all you do. Maybe we should all go weep with somebody invisible in our villages, to begin with, to get ready for the conferences. Long Life, Honey in the Heart, No Evil, Thirteen Thank Yous. Love to you all- Martín Prechtel
	As humans each of us has a unique natural spirit: maybe a windstorm or a dragonfly, a shelf mushroom, an ocelot, maybe a sooty-tern. Each of these beings are words spoken into life by the Divine.These natural souls are words in a Divine sentence from the Big Story of life, whose telling are the lives we live. When each of us can give some of our art, our human creations back to this Unseen Speaker of Life we feed the Great Storyteller who then feeling abundant exaggerates the Story and more flowers blossom. When rigid thinking from the past or the careless flatness of today’s sitcom sarcasm trivializes the whirling ecology of our human beauty, then our stories, our ancestral tongues and accents, our clothing and our songs flee with our indigenous souls to a place where these rigidities and flat thinking cannot follow. This is why the Divine listens only to metaphor, and speaks in stories lived out because rigidity cannot persist in metaphor and flatness becomes a texture in a story well told. Inside us all, overlooked by the machine culture, there is a pond in which for centuries the tadpoles of our indigenous happiness continue to wriggle and swim waiting for the day when they can climb out of those hidden pools of amnesia and shame, to leap onto the shores of our hearts where as full frogs they can sing out the symphony of grief and beauty they’ve been saving in the egg. If writing is useful in any way it has to feed something bigger than the writer, the people or the culture; it has to feed life. Please join me as we all come together to gestate our own metaphor frogs, saddle them up and see where they take us. — Martín Prechtel	Martín Prechtel's schedule at floweringmountain.com Contact: Craig Ungerman in US or 860 -923-6987 email: hiddenwine@earthlink.net http://www.hiddenwine.com Check this out! Interview with Martin Prechtel: by Derrick Jensen in "The Sun" April 200 Download a printable poster in Adobe PDF format
	Some of the subjects we will cover at this workshop are: Letter writing to Gods, Lizards, and Lovers Hearing the Earth’s speech, animal talk Finding the language of our Nature to speak back to Nature Making gifts of words to feed the Holy, making failures into spiritual food Story listening, story speaking, story writing Plot lines from nature, the ancestors and the recent life Rhythmic prose Musicality of words Writing and community/togetherness and diversity Learning from ancient writing of the diasporas, and not so ancient writing for today’s spiritual diasporas Learning to see out of the eyes of the trout, the tree, the house, the car, the bee, etc. Wrestling the dragon of the verb “to be” Proper usage of adjective pile-up Fencing with Death: the flowering sword of metaphor Language of visionary experience: hunter language, shaman language, codes of the Spiritual Exaggeration, repetition and the epic
	Waiting under the wild, leafy forests of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, the Craftsbury Common Outdoors Center hides, peaking out like a golden frog from the shores of their famous pond amidst 140 acres where riders of metaphor frogs can surely find the unguarded majesty of their own spirit and creativity. Workshop Food and Lodging Tucked away in the tranquil setting of Vermont's "Northeast Kingdom", the Craftsbury Outdoor Center is a located on a secluded lake on 140 private acres. The Center offers an informal, friendly atmosphere. The rooms vary from simple and comfortable doubles with a hall bathroom to rooms and suites with private baths. The Center is famous for its excellent food. The kitchen prepares three hearty meals daily, and vegetarian fare is always available. The food is all homemade. We will be reserving all rooms for this event. Our special group rates for food and lodging for a week are: $439.50 per person double occupancy, shared bath. $518.13 per person single occupancy, shared bath. $679.83 per person double occupancy, private bath. $782.14 per person single occupancy, private bath. Some apartments and lakeside cabins are available for higher costs- For Food and Lodging Registration Form click here ( see below ) For more information about Craftsbury Outdoor Centerl visit their website at: http://www.craftsbury.com	Workshop Cost: $ 475.00 (does NOT include lodging & food) $150.00 deposit due with registration. Space is limited. Refundable until September 1st less $25 handling fee. Balance of $325 is due by September 15th . For more information about Hidden Wine events: Call or 860 -923-6987 E-mail: hiddenwine@earthlink.net On the Web: http://www.hiddenwine.com/ For Workshop Registration form click here ...see below...
	Please bookmark this page and return for updated program materials and information!

	Martín Prechtel, For the last couple of years Martín Prechtel, author of “Secrets of the Talking Jaguar” and “Long Life, Honey in the Heart,” has been conducting very successful creative writing workshops where the prose writer, non-writer, poet, and lovers of spiritual literacy can all come together, learn from each other and Martín. To be released this fall, Martín Prechtel's eagerly awaited new book, "The Daughter You Get," a traditional Mayan story with revolutionary insights, is already receiving advance praise and critical acclaim. Martín Prechtel, an author, teacher, and shaman, was raised in New Mexico on a Pueblo Indian reservation. In 1971 Nicholas Chiviliu, an aging Mayan shaman from Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala called Martín to become his student. Martín lived with Chiviliu for years, was initiated as a shaman and after his teacher’s death, succeeded him, healing and shamanizing among 30,000 Tzutujil Mayans in his new found village. After 1978 Martín became chief initiator and a public leader, guiding the young men through long ceremonies.	Robert Bly describes Martín as “A short kind of pony that gallops through the fields of human possibility with flowers dropping out of his mouth...”
	Martín Prechtel's schedule - at floweringmountain.com

Workshop Registration (Please print and send in with your registration deposit) I am registering for the New England Writer's Workshop in Vermont with Martín Prechtel, October 13-20, 2001 Name:............................................................................................................... Street:............................................................................................................... City:................................................... State:................ Zip:............................... Phone:................................................................................................................. E-mail.................................................................................................................. Workshop Cost : $ 475.00 (does NOT include lodging & food) Space is limited to 70 participants. Deposit of $150.00 due upon registration. Refundable until September 1st less $25 handling fee Payment method: ___ Enclosed is a check for $___________ Please make you check payable to Hidden Wine. If you are sending the $150 deposit the remaining balance of $325 is due by September 15th --------------------------------------------or by credit card------------------------------------------------------------------ ___ Charge my Visa or Mastercard $ _______________________ If you are charging the $150 deposit the remaining balance of $325 will charged to your account on September 15th Card Account #________________________Exp. Date_________ Signature_____________________________________________ Mail To: Hidden Wine 406A Lowell Davis Road North Grosvenordale, CT 06255 For more Information call Craig Ungerman at Hidden Wine: Call or 860 -923-6987 E-mail: hiddenwine@earthlink.net http://www.hiddenwine.com/

Food and Lodging Registration (Please print and send in with your food and lodging deposit) I am reserving a room at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for the week of October 13-20, 2001 I am also registered for the New England Writers Workshop... Name:............................................................................................................... Street:............................................................................................................... City:................................................... State:................ Zip:............................... Phone:......................................................... E-mail....................................................................... Food and Lodging Costs: Please Check your lodging preference and payment method below (All prices include Vermont tax) Deposit is refundable until September 15th less $20 handling fee Lodging Preference: ___$439.50 per person double occupancy, shared bath. Required 20% deposit to hold room is $87.90 ___$518.13 per person single occupancy, shared bath. Required 20% deposit to hold room is $103.62 ___$679.83 per person double occupancy, private bath. Required 20% deposit to hold room is $135.86 ___$782.14 per person single occupancy, private bath. Required 20% deposit to hold room is $156.42 ___Some apartments and lakeside cabins are available for higher costs- Contact Craig for more details. ___Camping fee for camping on the premises: $105 for the week ( $15 per day ). To be paid upon arrival to Craftsbury Outdoor Center ___Facility fee: if you have your own food and lodging arrangements, an additional cost above Workshop Cost is required of $105 for the week ( $15 per day ). To be paid upon arrival to Craftsbury Outdoor Center Payment method: ___ Enclosed is a check for $________ Please make your check payable to Craftsbury Outdoor Center. If you are sending the 20% deposit the remaining balance of $______ is due upon arrival. --------------------------------------------or by credit card------------------------------------------------------------------ ___ Please have Craftsbury Outdoor Centercharge my Visa or Mastercard $___________. If you are charging the 20% deposit the remaining balance of $______ will charged to upon arrival. Account #___________________________________.Expiration date_______________ Signature______________________________________________________________. Mail To: Hidden Wine 406A Lowell Davis Road North Grosvenordale, CT 06255 A confirmation letter will be mailed or e-mailed on receipt of your registration and lodging deposit. For out-of town guests a van will be available for a fee to transport you to and from Craftsbury Outdoor Center and the Burlington Airport. ( see update below:) For more Information call Craig Ungerman at Hidden Wine: Call or 860 923-6987 E-mail: hiddenwine@earthlink.net http://www.hiddenwine.com/

	Travel By Air: Arrival- If you are traveling by air, you will arrive at the Burlington AIrport. We have reserved a van to take you to and from Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The cost for this is $50 round trip paid in advance. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center van will be at the Burlington airport by 3:30 pm on Saturday, October 13th and will leave for the camp by 4 pm. The van will return to the airport on Saturday, October 20th no later than 1.00 pm. Please try to arrange your flights so that you arrive at least 1 hour before the van departs from the airport and 1 hour after the van arrives back to the airport. By Car: If you are travelling by car, please see the directions to be posted later here. For detailed information about driving to Craftsbury Outdoor Center visit their website at: http://www.craftsbury.com/getting.htm By Bus or Train: If you wish to travel by bus or train, please call Craftsbury Outdoor Center (800) 729-7751for more information.
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