Sacred Arts Retreat Weekend: Thresholds of Becoming
with Naima Khabira Brown and Taj a Nur Grant
August 10 - 11, 2019, Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, NY
Led by Naima Khabira Brown and Taj a Nur Grant, this weekend retreat offers the opportunity to deepen your connection to inner guidance through the medium of creative art, amidst the beauty and inspiration of nature, and the warmth of joyful friendship. We will balance meditation practices with walks, meals, music, and sharing our creative processes. Using the form of a threshold, with doors opening to a space of possibility, Taj a Nur and Naima will share a method for everyone to explore through art visionary states of being, meditative guidance, and opening to grace and the unexpected gifts of creativity. It’s not necessary to be an artist to participate. As Murshid so beautifully said, “Art (arts) is a way of meditation, and guidance, where you are and where you are going.” In this workshop we will explore his idea.
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Art Supplies:
Participants will be provided with a wooden “triptych threshold” hinged with two doors on which to paint, draw, or collage, images that symbolize opening and moving through a threshold, and encountering another image. Metal leaf in gold, silver, and copper will be provided as well as the adhesive for these. If you are an artist and have paint (any kind), brushes, and a cleaning agent, please bring them, or any other materials you would like to work with. If you are new to making art, supplies we would suggest you bring are a small set of acrylic paint which has about 10 colors, and a variety of inexpensive brushes for acrylics. Sometimes you can find small sets of acrylics designed for children. If you would rather “collage” than paint your piece, you can bring photos or magazine images to cut or tear, and then adhere to the “triptych threshold” with Elmer’s Glue.
Taj a Nur (Iris Anne Grant) is a visual artist, Cheraga, and a 2015 graduate of The Suluk Academy. She has written a chapter in the book The Heart and Soul of Psychotherapy, A Transpersonal Approach Through Theater Arts, edited by Saphira Linden , in which she describes her method of helping people create their own inner thresholds as visual expressions. She has taught art for many years at Lesley University, and maintains a home studio where she offers painting classes for groups and individuals.
Naima Khabira Brown is a spiritual guide and teacher with 40 years of experience. She is currently a Vice President of the Esoteric School of the Inayati Order, a school of Universal Sufism, where she also was a founding mentor in the Suluk Academy, their school of spiritual practice and study.She worked in early childhood education for many years promoting and practicing whole child education and creative expression through the arts. Naima is also a visual artist, bringing to her art the exploration and collaboration between meditative practice and creative expression and fostering art as a natural flow from the source.