Congrats on being accepted! As you are preparing for this crazy beautiful adventure, here´s a list of things we wish we knew before coming to the Ranch.
Rancho Mastatal Wildlife Catalogue
Rancho Mastatal - A Paradigm Shifter
The Ecstasy of Cheese: A Meditation on Our Conceptions of Value
Wealth Exists Not in Having Great Possessions, But in Having Few Wants
There’s no escaping from the fact that we are in the midst of a social, economic, physical and mental health crisis. We have been waking up to this fact at an increasing pace and the majority of people can see that a change is essential if we don’t want to enter another mass extinction of our own doing.
An Interwoven Life
Phytochemicals: The Key to a Longer and Healthier Life
How to Make Your Own Homemade Soap
Book Recommendations and Reviews #3
Due to the unique circumstances of the past two plus years, I never seemed to find the time to write what I hoped would be a yearly blog on the books that I read. The two times that I’ve done this in the past we were stateside visiting family, with a bit more time to dedicate to catching up on what seems to be an ever growing list of “books to read”.
The Wizard and The Prophet — A Book Review that Resolves the Duel
Discovering the Elements
Discovering the Elements
From Plants to our Body, a Permaculture Journey
By Kealy Rudersorf
Lead Teacher for Discovering the Elements Course
July 17 - 30, 2022 at Rancho Mastatal, Costa Rica
Over twelve years ago, after completing my Permaculture Design Course at Rancho Mastatal and spending almost 2 years down the road at La Iguana Chocolate I was fascinated with how people "read" nature. They could look at the curve in the terrain and know instinctively how the wind blew, where there were potential water problems, how the sun was shining down. They knew through observation that this area will be wet and hot, therefore we should plant this plant. I remember others being able to look at a plant and tell me SO much about it, without even knowing which plant it was, just by reading it. How was that? How could I learn this incredible knowledge? It was like they were speaking a completely different language to this city girl.
As I started to speak the language of plants and nature, I came to deeply realize how closely we are a part of nature too. It was at this time that I set my intentions:
● I want to read bodies like I was learning to read nature, the land, the leaves, the roots, the water.
● I want to learn to read myself and those around me.
● I want to learn how to move from disharmony to harmony, creating balance within bodies.
I followed my intentions. I started to study herbalism and food choices. I furthered my practice of yoga. I continued to observe nature and heighten my intuition. And I learned how to apply my hands on myself and others to move and balance energy. After some time, I started to speak the language of nature through the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. I discovered how to read the elements within the body and I saw that, for example, salsa dancing supported our water element, eating root vegetables supported our earth element, squats supported the fire element, and choosing to be gentle with ourselves supported our air element.
In following my intentions, I discovered how I could apply what I first learned through permaculture to people. Yup, I turned permaculture into a verb and figured out how to “permaculture people”. Intuitively, I knew that we are so closely connected to nature, whether we know it or not, whether we feel it or not. I learned the tools to feel this connection, to feel the body's energy systems and shift myself and others from disharmony to harmony.
Applying the Elements to Ourselves, an example
In Discovering the Elements Course, we will be focusing on how to support the elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether in ourselves and others. We will do this through body work, while incorporating ceremony, herbalism, food choices, yoga and movement, and deepening our intuition through connection to spirit. Throughout the course, we will continually inquire: how can we be in balance like a healthy ecosystem?
First, you will learn to identify the disharmony. For example, we can look at the earth element by studying soil. We know that planting food in sandy soil is super challenging, it doesn't hold water and has few nutrients. The same is true for someone having a weak earth element – it is like having sand in your hands. They tend to always be late as time, like sand, always slips through their fingers. They can be overly sensitive and defensive, not having a structural backbone to hold themselves up. They have no boundaries, again like sand falling through the fingers in your hand. They make themselves the constant victim and feel like they are always in need of help to move forward. The person might feel ungrounded and unsure, caught in the fight, flight or freeze mode. Commitment is challenging for them and they are often flighty and isolated from a community. Similar to trees that over winter and store their sugars in their roots, weak earth people often have an addiction to sweets, they also frequently binge and struggle maintaining a healthy weight.
There is absolutely no judgment in this, only compassionate observation. In fact, I chose to speak to the weak earth element because it is what I see the most in people.
After identifying the disharmony, the next question is, how can we help a person with a weak earth element?
There are many, many ways! The important part is it needs to be something that they will actually do.
For example, we can support the earth element through food. Encourage them to eat more red meat if they are meat eaters or more tubers and roots. Have them do pottery or work with the earth - like gardening or natural building (yes, this is a plug to sign up for one of Rancho's amazing natural building classes)! You can teach the people how to ground themselves through meditation. There are yoga poses like mountain pose, a yoga squat, or child's pose that can help support the earth element. And, what I believe is the most profound support is body work or placing hands on people to shift energy towards harmony.
Your Next Steps: Learn!
I am so happy I followed my intention 12 years ago to discover how to use the elements to bring harmony into our bodies, in particular with the body work. For each element, there is a protocol for this body work, which combines your intuition with step-by-step processes of using your hands to balance the body's subtle energy systems. The body work can be thought of as whole-body reflexology, with its roots in Polarity Therapy - an approach based on traditional healing modalities such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine.
My current intention is to connect people to nature, through medicinal plants, gardening, herbal products, spiritual practices, building community, body work, and more! I believe the more we are connected to Mother Earth, the more we will take care of Her. This is why I am so excited to be offering the Discovering the Elements Course at Rancho Mastatal.
If you would like to acquire a set of practical and ready-to-use skills, being prepared to help balance the energy of both yourself and others, to become a holistic energy medicine practitioner, follow the link to learn more about the Discovering the Elements Course. Through both the detailed course material and living at the beautiful and wild Rancho Mastatal, you will leave with a different perspective, heightened intuition, new hands-on skills, and hopefully a deep and lasting connection to nature.
For more information:
Book Recommendations: The Titles I Read this Fall
Last year I wrote a short article about the books that I read while visiting my family last fall in the United States. I received a handful of positive responses after we posted it to the Ranch’s blog and as a result I thought that I’d go ahead and repeat the exercise this year. The books are in the order that I read them. I would recommend and learned something important from all of them. A few of them impacted me profoundly. I will try to incorporate the lessons that I learned in many of these books into my personal and work life.
Ranch Reading Recommendations: 8 Great Books I Read This Fall That Relate To Our Work
During my annual visits to see family in the United States, I oftentimes have the opportunity to catch up on some reading that regularly alludes me during the busy seasons here in Mastatal. More than any year in recent memory, I felt as if I hit the jackpot with the titles that I was recommended, came across, and picked up this fall.
Permaculture Due Diligence Workshop
A few months back a series of clients began asking me questions that I didn’t have the answers to. I knew just enough about the topics to know what I didn’t know. One client wanted to know about building restrictions around a small body of water, another needed information about opening up land for a road through an existing forest, and a third was seeking support to enroll in the FONAFIFO Environmental Service Payment program.
Help Improve Workshop Access for Central Americans
Workshops, one of many forms of education, are expensive to organize, risky to run, and an immense amount of work to pull off and host well. They can also be transformational and inspirational for the participants and provide them with an amazing educational experience. We have been offering life-changing courses and classes in a vast array of areas related to sustainability for over 15 years
Build Your Skills: 2017 Workshop Series
Our 2017 workshops exemplify the type of world we hope to shape. They train students to look at their landscape, shelter, and food with a new perspective; one that honors ecology and craft, that promotes a sense of place in an often disconnect world. We hope you will join us for one of these powerful courses.
