The Art of Embodying Elderhood: An Introduction to 8 Somatic Wisdom Portals with Penny Allport

Calling all earthing elders!! “Elderhood does not arrive at a certain age. It is an embodiment which needs to be cultivated through conscious engagement and reverence for the cycles of life…. especially the often missed rites of passage of youth and adulthood. Conscious eldering is not a given, but rather a daily practice, which calls us to grow down to grow up.” ~ Penny Allport As we find ourselves in the midst of a great transition, which may feel groundless and shaky, many of us long for containers - sturdy and fleshy, gutsy and gracious, grounded and spacious - enough to hold our species in a time of deep transformation. With our brains in need of an upgrade, our hearts long for coherent and tangible practices to navigate this initiatory passage with gravity and grit. Join us for an introduction to the 8 somatic portals that offer inquiry-based and embodied resources to meet opportunities for adulting (growing up), sometimes missed — by meeting the present with vulnerability, curiosity and a fierce commitment to future generations and the earth. Many questions arise: Will we engage in this global initiation to restore our species to its humble place in the mystery of all creation? Will we accept descent and dissolution with embodied reverence for every living being, responsible to — and for — one another? Will we meet this time with curiosity and interest for repair and care for the life-ing and death-ing required of us? These portals make no promises yet offer a real opportunity for initiation — both self and community-engaged. We can become the earthed and embodied elders we are called to be! Penny Allport (bio): As a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant, Metaphysical Minister, Funeral Celebrant and Home Funeral Guide, poet and wordsmith, yogini and Continuum Movement facilitator I relish collaborations with individuals, couples, families and communities to co-create containers for coherently crossing the many thresholds in a human life. A personal journey of healing through trauma inspires an ongoing inquiry in nervous-system regulation, resilience and reciprocity as key to our kind future. The burgeoning field of Relational Somatic Therapy informs all of my work, through past and present studies with Angeles Arrien, (1940 – 2014), Emilie Conrad (1934 – 2014) Continuum Movement, Susan Harper Continuum Montage, Hubert Godard, Rolfer, Kevin Frank & Caryn McHose,  Resources in Movement and CFTRE. This particular offering incorporates seeds from the work of my longtime mentor Angeles Arrien (1940 – 2014), Cross Cultural Anthropologist, teacher and author of The Second Half of Life, 8 Gates of Initiation, which I have facilitated for almost 20 years. Angeles loved that I brought a somatic inquiry and embodied approach to these 8 thresholds, which in these times I’ve come to experience as portals rather than gates, as we can no longer see beyond them and must have the gumption and grit to enter anyway! It is a sweet blessing and honour to co-create and facilitate programs with and for the Center for Earth & Spirit. Autumn 2022 – Spring 2023, the Centre for Earth & Spirit will offer a 9-month journey exploring the 8 Somatic Wisdom Portals with Penny Allport, Earthing Elders - The Art of Embodying Elderhood.