HEURISTIC ADVENTURES - BOTSWANA
An unprecedented opportunity to participate in a shamanic journey with the Earth's oldest indigenous culture, the San people of southern Africa's Kalahari Desert.
Five days and nights camping in isolation and privacy in the Kalahari Desert with a San clan of the Naro tribe. We share fires, food and friendships as we explore their culture at a deeply meaningful level. The main focus shall be on the healing tradition of the San. We will be full participants in healing dances, learning the complex rhythms of clapping and polyphonic singing that have evolved since the dawn of human kind. We will receive healing from the San shamans and, if appropriate, share our own healing methods and ways with them.
By day we will walk with the San into the desert, gathering herbs and edible foods and sharing their astonishing knowledge of this wilderness. They will demonstrate their simple survival skills including making fire by hand, making rope and share with us their skill in creating their beautiful ostrich egg shell jewelry.
We will spend a day with the San community at the D'Kar settlement where we will visit a San diviner and herbalist, an old man greatly respected in this community for his power to heal. We will witness his work and receive a divination from him for our journey forward. We will also come face to face with the contemporary life of the San people visiting historic sites in the settlement.
After saying farewell to our San clan we will take a two day break on the spectacular Okavango panhandle, gateway to one of the Earth's wildest and most beautiful natural landscapes. We will cruise the river at sundown and relax with good local food by night.
We then embark on the high-point of the pilgrimage, a three night vigil to the remote Tsodilo Hills, known by the San to be their mythical place of their birth and their most sacred place of power. Tsodilo is a little-known World Heritage Site, carrying a profound spiritual significance, mirrored by over 4,000 rock art paintings that were drawn by the shaman-artists who have lived here over the past 100,000 years. If the spirits are willing, we shall also visit the remote Cave of the Mountain Serpent, a sacred - and secret - site where an astonishing 70,000 year old, Serpent Petroglyph resides. We shall also be guided by a San elder into the hills where we will receive initiation at the Sacred Spring, drinking from the bosom of the mother of the San. Finally we will participate in the visioning, blessing, and birthing ceremony on a moonless night in the womb cave in the heart of the Mother mountain.
For those going on safari:
The safari will leave Maun on 30 August for two nights, returning to Maun on 1 September. Participants going on safari will overnight for two extra nights in Maun before the safari (28 and 29 August) and again for one extra night in Maun when they return (1 September) so we don't have to rush back from the safari. The pilgrimage ends after breakfast on 28 September and we do not cover catering or camping costs during these interim periods (only on the safari) although we are happy to give the clients the use of our tents. Camping in Maun is cheap and our base camp in Maun provides good meals at good prices although vegetarian options are limited. Participants going on safari will catch the earlier flight out of Maun on 2 September to make it easier to catch connections from Johannesburg. Our discounted cost for the add-on Safari will be in the neighborhood of between $500 and $600 dollars.
Participants going on safari must not leave Johannesburg on route to the US earlier than 17h00 on 2 September 2010.
Program Dates:
August 14 - 27, 2010
Group Size:
A maximum of 9 women and men.Itinerary:
For an itinerary please click on and download our informative .pdf here.Cost:
USD $3,500.
Price includes all activities once in Botswana as well as airfare from Johannesburg to Botswana.
Price is not inclusive of international airfare to Johannesburg.
Please note that we proudly partner with Openmind, an organization from the UK who manage the overseas portion of this journey.
Facilitated by Greg and Anne Laws
from "Openmind Training" in the UK
Greg and Anne Laws, are your guides. They are the founders and Directors of Openmind Training and the creators of the San Shamanic Pilgrimage.
Greg is an internationally renowned environmentalist and writer specializing in southern African culture, adventure and story-telling. He has qualified in the Foundation of Shamanic Practice and a graduate of the Year's training in Core Shamanism through The Sacred Trust. He runs his own successful training company in the UK. Greg wrote his Masters degree on the interface between remote rural communities and modernization and has decades of direct exposure to Africa's shamanic traditions including significant work with the San people. He has appeared on television and radio on numerous occasions and has been commended on his work by a minister in Nelson Mandela's cabinet.
Raised by rural Zulu, Anne has a deep connection to African shamans, being called to the Zulu Sangoma from a young age and has since trained in core shamanism through The Sacred Trust. Anne has a profound empathy with Africa's people and a deep love of the Kalahari. She is a professional photographer and a highly skilled chef specializing in catering for large groups in remote wilderness locations. Anne is also qualified in First Aid with excellent knowledge of medical care in the African wilderness.
Words from past Pilgrims
It is impossible to relate what this experience was like; words do not work. How can you describe the gifts of healing which derive from the healers' own pain, suffering and exhaustion? How can you describe meeting these gentle, harmless people who are both minimalist and ultra-rich, who express their love for you from the second they set eyes on you? They are egalitarian and put to shame both communism and democracy and are self-taught. Their generosity of spirit moves me to tears, happiness, wonder and awe at such uniqueness, lost to 21st century world pride. They have no need of conversion to religion; they have their spirit world and they have nature, all bound up in their singular experience of life. This was a completion for me as I now had experienced for myself the healing dance so vividly illustrated in the cave paintings which inspired me 50 years ago which I saw in my travels as water engineer in rural Southern Rhodesia.
- Alan Barrett
I want to thank you both once again so much for giving me the opportunity of having the privilege of spending those precious few days with the most gentle and loving people I could ever dream to meet, I will never forget the San people of the Kalahari. I feel so grateful and humble to have been a part of such a spiritual and rewarding pilgrimage, I cant find the right words to describe how the whole experience has left me and how I will carry the San so close to my heart. You were both so remarkable the way you tended to all our needs and wants in such a beautiful and caring way, you are truly amazing people and I love you both so much.
- Rosemary Shale
Programs
