DJEDI VILLAGE
Temple Art Studio
Welcome friends and family to the mountain, to Arcoora Arts and Ecology Training Ground.
This event is for all who feel called to connect with this land, this work and this tribe. We regularly take breaks from running programs and hosting events through the year so we can create space for our community to connect with each other and nurture this special place so that it continues to blossom in beauty, as a place for tribe to come and learn, heal and belong.
Djedi’s have become synonymous with Arcoora as we endeavour to care for this place in the right way. Djedi’s create a culture of service, respect and care. You don’t have to have perviously participated in a Djedi Training or Djedi Village to join us for this event. Our doors are open to anyone who is curious to learn more about the Arcoora project. It is also a window for tribe to touch home base. If you have been meaning to come and visit but have not quite made it here yet, this is the perfect opportunity. This is a family friendly gathering. You can come for a day, a night, a weekend or the full length of the event.
This Djedi Village will incorporate a special theme for any that feel to participate:
Temple Art Studio
Arrive as you are, all is welcome. Together we will begin to create space through yoga, mindfulness and meditation. Feel into our internal landscapes as we find the ground that supports us. Sense each other as we converge in this space. What is present here? Open our eyes and connect, we’re here together, let’s make art!
Temple as Art Studio was conceived by Elissa McAuliffe, co-founder of Arcoora Arts and Ecology Training Ground, Gurri ally and land custodian-in-training in service of Gulli-bul and Bundjalung culture.
“The idea arose from a yearning to move energy through art.
There is always energy and inspiration in the world that wishes to be moved and shared. These times feel particularly potent with great change, initiations, grief and utter bewilderment at our current circumstances. There is so much that wants to be told beyond the confines of our internal lives and reaching out into the future: stories; songs and images for the world and for our children. Events are more mysterious than ever, a dance that cannot be grasped easily. There is humour, stories, insights and tragedies that want to be told.
My favourite environment to make art in is a shared studio space, or in nature. I relish the atmosphere of creation, the support of peers, the potential to learn and heal and share joy together.
Whether it is simply being in the company of others to paint a canvas or having the opportunity to collaborate on a creative process or project, coming together with the simple intention to make art makes all of this possible.
With the permission of the Arcoora team and Gulli-bul elders artists are encouraged to use natural fibres from the land, and may wish to make a mark somewhere on the land or existing structures.“
The Arcoora grounds provide abundant spaces in which to make art. Set up an easel in the cool rainforest or take a notebook and a pen to the peak of the mountain. Share an acoustic soundscape in the Gonpa or a DJ set for the kitchen crew. Sharing space is co-created, we will establish our own rules of play as a group as we go.
What will happen during Djedi Village?
Collaborative arts space in the temple
Many epic shared meals
Group morning practice of yoga and meditation
Gentle or strenuous garden play, as you like it
Construction and maintenance projects
Sharing workshops, songs, stories, crafts
Dance celebration evening on Saturday 9th
Camp fires & Yarns
Movie nights
Pizza Nights
What to bring?
Folding chair, blanket, cushion for outdoor sit spots
Yoga mat
Gardening gear and tools
Wet weather gear
Bath towel
Torch
Snacks
Closed in shoes (for gardening & bushwalks)
Slip on shoes such as crocs or gumboots (no shoes inside please, except clean soled shoes in the kitchen)
Dancing shoes (for dancing 😉)
If you can, please bring your own bedding (sheets, doona, pillow, blanket and towel). We can make up some shortfall if needed.
If you’d like to participate in the ‘Temple Art Studio’ space, please also bring:
Your own artist’s tools and materials (easels, paints, palettes, pens, instruments, cameras, paper, carving implements etc)
Towels, buckets, cleaning fluids etc for cleaning your brushes/ tools.
Drop sheets
What is the contribution?
$35/night, kids are free. Includes communally prepared vegetarian and vegan meals. There is limited dorm room accomodation for those that register early, and plenty of room for camping!
(As with all Arcoora programs we don’t want funds to be a limiting factor that prevents participation - please get in touch if things are tight and we’ll see if we can arrange another exchange)
Other Details
Child Minding: Let’s be pro-active and creative. The Gonpa is reserved for artists for this event (so will not be available as a kids play space), children are welcome under the same rules of play that we create together, whatever they may be. Let’s create a kids space, perhaps under a big tarp on the grass. We may or may not choose to create artist-only zones for any reason such as safety, peace and quiet, protection of art and artist tools. Likewise kids may choose to create kids-only zones!
Arrivals: Arcoora is nestled within a community, free range kids and wildlife are our top priority. Please drive within our speed limit of 25km/hr. Additionally our driveway is 4WD only. We will ferry anyone in 2WD vehicles up the hill. Please read the directions we send you carefully.
Pets: Please leave your pooches at home, we cannot accommodate dogs or pets here as we are a wildlife sanctuary.
Drugs and Alcohol: On a day to day basis we create a space that is drug and alcohol free. Please smoke away from the communal areas and dispose of your butts carefully.
Registration: Registration is essential to help us organise arrivals, accomodation and meals.
Who were/are the Djedi?
The Raising of the Djed took place in ancient Egypt at the Winter Solstice, at transitional times such as the death of a monarch or the end of rule and the beginning of another. The most important time for the raising of the Djed and the revealing of secrets and mysteries was at the end and beginning of historical eras – as is written on the texts of Edfu Temple in Egypt. This is the time when it is most important for mankind to raise the Djed inside us, individually, once again.
The initiates of this mystery were known as the Djedi, the ‘stable ones’, ‘pillars of the world’ - wisdom keepers of one mind and one spirit who, as initiates of the Osirian mysteries, comprised the living, terrestrial body of the archetypal, celestial Osiris. They served the planet and the plan at the end of the world age and guarded and transmitted the secret teachings. Thus, in this time of world change, it is time for the Djed to be raised in all of us again.
Contemporary Djedi are self-selecting re-generators of cosmos. They are those who, regardless of race or creed, are awakening to mission in service to the planet and the epochal imperatives of stability, continuity and regeneration. The Djedi sense, and know, Osiris’s arising as their own. As Osiris awakens from the sleep of the aeon, the Djedi also “rise to the occasion,” moving into resonant relationship as the re-constellated members of the collective Osiris. Therefore, as the mighty bones creak and the ancient One stirs, let the Djedi return. This is the historical moment of our awakening and our call.
Associations and projects are emerging across the world to raise awareness and take action on one issue or another. Throughout planet Earth human beings are actively engaged in Raising the Djed without associating it with the ancient Egyptian practice.
The Djedi are champions of the downtrodden, the underdog, the deprived and most of all champions of women and the Divine Feminine imprisoned in women throughout the world. The Djedi are those raising awareness, raising consciousness, stirring the rest of us to stand up for what is right and good in the world, to stand against oppression and tyranny – they are raising the Djed.
“S-aha Djed!”