Core Training

The Art of Spiritual Guidance

This foundation course is a 2-year training program for people in a mature place on their path – spiritually or psychologically or both – and who are committed to further learning and exploration. The training comes from an interfaith perspective, integrating the wisdom and insights of Transpersonal and Jungian Psychology.  The training is for those called to spiritual guidance and will also benefit those working in medical, religious, teaching and helping professions by broadening their understanding of spiritual development.  This is an opportunity for 20 or so people to journey together creating a sense of spiritual community and support. 

Spiritual guidance supports a process of personal transformation

that connects the soul with its longing for expression and authenticity.

It is an art, a gift, a calling…

Introductory Video on The Art of Spiritual Guidance Training

• Hollyhock Learning Center, Cortes Island, BC, CANADA: Two year-program begins July 21–26, 2024

Advanced Trainings

The Pilgrimage of Incarnation

An honoring of your journey from two perspectives:

The call of your Soul into a human life,

and your humanity seeking to discover your Soul

This program is for those who have previously studied with Atum. Priority will be given to those who have completed the core training.

A pilgrim makes an outer journey to discover something sacred that already lives within them. Some traditions use the symbol of the Divine Seed to convey the innate potential that is carried in the soul. The Call to a human incarnation is the means to realize and manifest that divine potential. In Buddhism, of all the six realms of incarnation the human one is considered the most conducive for enlightenment. The Dalai Lama speaks of the preciousness of a human life and Sufism accents the privilege of a human incarnation.

When death comes
I will step through the door
full of curiosity and wonder
when it is over
I want to say
I made of my life
something real and particular.

Mary Oliver

In this training, we shall embrace the pilgrimage of our incarnation through 40 themes, the symbolic number for transformation. Myth, creative exercises, spiritual practices and teachings form various traditions, insights from Jungian Psychology, small group sharing and creating community will be essential elements.

Both traditions teach there are countless beings longing for the human journey. Christianity is an incarnation religion in which the divine seeks embodiment and models the promise of divine resurrection arising out of human crucifixion. Judaism sees profound meaning in the human capacity to help mend the brokenness of the world. The Feminine embraces the wisdom of embodiment, relatedness and wholeness rather than perfection.

The Pilgrimage Of Incarnation training has four 3–day Zoom meetings:

Zoom Sessions: July 1–3, 2022; November 25–27, 2022; January 13–15, 2023; and March 10–12, 2023.

Download: Information & Registration
Contact: Wendy, wendyhalowski@gmail.com

Current and Upcoming Pilgrimage Of Incarnation programs: North America Europe

Mandala: An Inner Journey

The mandala is a symbol arising out of the Soul or Self to foster further integration within the psyche. The particular mandala we will be journeying through is the symbol for the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School.

A manual including the teaching material and practices for each of the twelve themes will be available. In the extensive introduction to the manual, many insights are offered on the retreat process and working with those who are seeking spiritual guidance.

We have updated and added new material to the manual plus two new chapters. The manual is designed to provided a printed copy of the core practices and teaching on the major themes. This frees participants from having to record notes on most of the presentations.

Themes of Mandala: An Inner Journey
1. Dimensions of Purification
2. The Mother Goddess Archetype and the Symbol of the Womb
3. A Meeting of Soul Friends
4. Invoking the Inner Temple of Archangels
5. The Worlds of Light and Splendor
6. The Way of the Circle: Via Negativa and Via Positiva
7. Mystical Intimacy
8. Various Dimensions of Shadow Work
9. The Heart’s Path to Mystical Union
10. Living in the Awesome Mystery
11. The Divine Spark, Seed and Center
12. The Alchemical Marriage: Integration of the Opposites

Upcoming Mandala: An Inner Journey programs:

Mandala Zoom Seminar —
Class schedule 2022: Aug. 26–28, Dec. 2–4, 2023: January 27–29, March 17–19, June 16–18.

Download: Information & Registration
Contact: Madhura, madhuracuadra@gmail.com

The Alchemy of Transformation

This course is designed as an advanced immersion training for those who have completed the Art of Spiritual Guidance Program. The Alchemy of Transformation is an in-depth experiential study of seven essential alchemical operations, which lie at the heart of the process of transformation. Explore each operation from its corresponding psychological and spiritual dimensions. How they are reflected in and affect Relationships is also a theme. Special attention will be given to the archetypical images, myths and sacred rituals of various traditions, which embody the operations. A unique aspect of the program is emphasis upon a rich collection of spiritual practices that facilitate the alchemy of transformation, and creative exercises that help to integrate the operations.

Requisites:

	completion of two-year spiritual guidance training with Atum
	a commitment to engage these potent operations in your life, rather than seeking a solely intellectual understanding of them
	linkage with various spiritual practices offered
	maintenance of a journal for reflection, to record experiences and images collected of each operation

Upcoming Alchemy of Transformation programs: A Zoom Seminar – Information – Online Registration
 

Links to current and upcoming Alchemy of Transformation programs: North America – Europe
 

The Essential Archetypes of Spiritual Guidance

This training explores eight archetypes central to the great religions. They also form the archetypical foundation of the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School. Their significance to individual spiritual development, relationships and the needs of the world will be addressed through meditation practices, creative exercises and teachings from various traditions, including Jungian Psychology. Participants will be asked to practice invoking and engaging each archetype in informal guidance sessions.

The Keeper of the Sacred Space

How do we invoke, foster, sustain and protect the sacred space within one, with another, among a community and in the natural world. Transitioning in and out of sacred time, the symbolic shaping of space and the deep structures of ritual will also be explored.

The One Who Hears the Cries

Within the container of the sacred space there is the accommodation for inviting the deep cries, longing and dreams of the heart and soul. The gift is experiencing the longings being voiced, heard and honored.

The Advocate of the Soul

Advocation for different dimensions of the soul is to affirm the divine inheritance in humanity and the divine immanence in the creation. In this way we respond to the spiritual illness of the loss of soul so pervasive in our time.

The Wise One

The Wise One lives in the depths of all of us, abiding in the collective unconscious. This archetype holds the wisdom gleaned from all human experience. The wise person is one who has lived a full life, embracing the opposites and assimilating their journey through the heart.

The Journeyer

Human consciousness has the ability to journey into many worlds. These include the liminality of transition, the heavenly angelic states, the hell realms, the underworld, the dying process, incarnation, resurrection and mystical union. The Journeyer is able to be present with another as they pass through varied states of consciousness.

The Healer

Human life holds the possibility healing the wounds gathered in the process of incarnation. The divine healing energy and presence may renew the body, clear the mind, resurrect the heart and rebirth the soul. Relationships, communities and the natural world are calling out for healing that leads to greater integration and wholeness.

The Liberator

To be released from suffering through insight and illumination is the domain of the liberation. To find freedom from our diminishment in cravings, clingings, illusions and attachments opens us to living in equanimity in the present moment.

The Beloved

The path to the heart leads to the transformation of the lover into the longed for divine Beloved in the mystical kiss. Embodiment of the beloved, liberation through love and mystical death through absorbtion and union are defining elements of the world of the Beloved.

A Peer Group Guidance Model

The training will also contain the teaching of a spiritual guidance model based upon the archetypes that may be used among small groups whose members support each other on their paths.

Upcoming The Essential Archetypes of Spiritual Guidance programs:

A Zoom Seminar – Information – Registration
Class schedule 2021: February 4–7 (4 days), March 12–14 (3 days), April 16–18 (3 days), July 29 – August 1 (4days)
 

Current and Upcoming "The Essential Archetypes of Spiritual Guidance" programs: North America Europe

The Soul of Christianity

This program will be an in-depth journey into the symbolic life contained within the Christian tradition. Emphasis will be placed on discovery of an inner path of spiritual development, rather than on the organized religion or institutional Church. Spiritual practices and teachings that invite us to participate in experiences of the divine presence will be explored. View and download the program flyer and the registration form.

Current and Upcoming Soul of Christianity programs: North America Europe

Good Seeds Rosary Prayer Beads for a New Consciousness

At our recent International Gathering in California, I introduced a new practice for the community. It is hoped this rosary will address concerns about how to stay connected to the teachings between trainings.

There are forty prayer beads, a number related to transformation. Each bead is associated with an essential seed thought from various traditions. Working with the rosary as a gathering of good seeds, we will explore four levels of the practice: planting, watering, cultivating and harvesting the seeds. Quotes are drawn from Carl Jung, Helen Luke, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Frances Vaughan, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Pema Chodron, Tiehard de Chardin, St. Teresa, Rev. Zalman Schachter and others. In the seminar there will be offered a context for the practice with further explanation of the four levels and various formats, along with amplification of the thoughts. The training is only for members of the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School.

"The Rosary of the Good Seeds", Other Upcoming Locations and Dates:

Soul Friends: A Peer Spiritual Guidance Model

Over the last several months we have become profoundly aware of the need for community. As we look toward the future there will be an ever greater need to hold the center and stand together. Peer Spiritual Guidance between Soul Friends can provide a refuge and a foundation during these difficult times of global transition.

This workshop will explore 5 dimensions of the Soul Friend’s Model. 1. Creating and maintaining the Sacred Container for Spiritual Guidance. 2. Clearing the Personal Heart of impressions and opening into the Deep Heart. 3. Letting go of Ego drama and seeing from the Soul’s perspective. 4. Deep listening to the Soul’s Call as it seeks to unfold and manifest. 5. Affirming one’s Center and discerning one’s way. Teachings and Practices from various traditions will be integrated into the above 5 step process.

Current and Upcoming Peer Spiritual Guidance programs: North America Europe

The Urgent Cry For Planetary Consciousness

"While The World Is Burning You Seek Profit.
Why Are You Not Seeking A Lamp To Find Your Way In The Dark?"
Buddha

This program is for those who have previously studied with Atum. Priority will be given to those who have completed the core training.

In our present time, humanity is in a profound transition of consciousness at a scale never encountered before. We are called by the Soul of Humanity to expand into a planetary consciousness, at a time, when presently, people are living in many different centuries on the Earth.

In deep transition, there can be no return to the past, for it is dissolving, and the new life and forms are not fully revealed and embodied. In such times there is the great fear of uncertainty, and the profoundly meaningful call to be a co-creator in the birthing. As Carl Jung wisely saw, in such transitions, the great myths and their traditions must be retold, to meet the developing greater consciousness.

In this training we shall explore this profound transformation we are living through, by identifying core elements of planetary conscious. We shall engage visionaries in the following traditions that are helping us find and trust the way.

Judaism: Reb Zalman Schachter

Christianity: Teilhard de Chardin, Marcus Borg, Cynthia Bourgeault, Martin Luther King, Mathew Fox, Helen Luke

Sufism: Hazrat Inayat Khan, Pir Vilayat Khan, Taj Inayat, Noorunissa Inayat Khan

Buddhism: Dalai Lama, Pema Chodron, Roshi Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzburg

The Emerging Feminine: Frances Vaughan, Mariam Woodman, Karen Armstrong, Mary Oliver. These women teachers are spiritual teachers who do not represent a particular tradition but have made significant contributions to planetary consciousness.

The training in Planetary Consciousness has five three–day meetings.

Seattle: Session dates: March 22–24, 2019; July 18–20, 2019; November 15–17, 2019; March 20–22, 2020; June 5–7, 2020
Download: Information
Registration Form
Contact: Pat Hoglund, hoglundp@aol.com

San Francisco: Session dates: November 8–10, 2019; March 27–29, 2020; June 19–21, 2020; September 11–13, 2020; December 4–6, 2020
Download: Information & Registration
Contact: Madhura Cuadra, madhuracuadra@gmail.com

Spiritual Guidance Special Programs

Atum offers special events and programs on a biannual basis for those who have completed a core training program. Each program is unique, and is often co-taught by another member of the Spiritual Guidance community or one of Atum's own mentors. Past special programs have taken place at Hollyhock in Canada; in Amsterdam; Burlington, Vermont; and Boulder, Colorado.

Upcoming Special Programs