The association and its purpose
The place in the forest
Céline (responsible for most of the activities proposed here)

Céline

 

I was born in 1986 in Brussels in a loving family. I have been feeling connected to the Earth and the living beings, and started practicing prayer, meditation, and ritual spontaneously since childhood. These studies and practices have been consistent since then. I have a deep love and commitment for life, Earth, and Spirit.

 

My awareness and concern for the sickness of Western civilization, the destruction of nature and the injustice, goes back to childhood as well, and I started being angry and looking for answers in early adolescence, mostly in books. I began encountering teachings from Indigenous people of the world, and was especially inspired by Native American culture.

I started spending time with plants, established a medicinal garden, and began studying medicinal plants at the age of sixteen. 

 

I studied at the University of Brussels from 2004 to 2011, earning a Master's degree in Anthropology, focusing on the Anthropology of religion, socio-linguistics, indigenous movements, and gender studies, and a Master's degree in Linguistics focused on comparative linguistics and religious concepts and discourses. In 2010-2011, I spent 5 months in Ethiopia and wrote my Master's thesis on the religious practices of the Aari people, focusing on their practices, the discourse around them, and their concepts for God, spirit, blessings etc. I recorded elders and observed various rituals. Beside the study of various human cultures, and the practice of anthropological and socio-linguistic research, my academic studies also included courseworks in psychology, health, history, politics, etc.

 

During this time, I worked in Brussels with NGOs and citizen projects in supporting youth, social equality, victims of human trafficking, undocumented immigrants, and I travelled, including participating in social projects for children during a few weeks in Kenya and in Senegal. Travelling and multicultural interactions have remained consistent during my life. Working with youth has been part of my professional experience later on (alternative schools, Erasmus projects).

 

Meanwhile, I was continuously practicing ritual and meditation, and learning about plants and health.

 

In 2010, I participated in my first Inipi (Lakota sweatdloge), which felt like home, and started following Native American traditions. The leader is the first person who told me about what was the Sundance and I new immediately that this was what I wanted to do. 

Since around this time, I also started participating in plant ceremonies. 

 

Since 2012, I have lived in a cabin in the Ardennes forest in Belgium. My son was born in it in 2013. We have been living most of the time alone, while welcoming people wanting to be with the forest and share time together and around the sacred fire. I've been providing this space and supporting people in learning about prayer, health, and themselves for all these years.

 

This part of the Ardennes forest, on the French frontier, is very biodiverse and wild for Western Europe. Springs and rivers of pure water abound. We live with the roe deer, wild boars, birds, trees. Water is taken from a beautiful spring. The house is warmed by a wood fire. Since 2020 we have a bit of electricity from solar panels. The house is a 15-minutes walk away from the road. I have seen seasons passing, developed a deep relationship with the land and its inhabitants, and bathed countless times in its waters. I consider relating to other living beings the foundation of human essence.

 

I have studied to be a Nature guide (Cercles des Naturalistes de Belgique) in 2015-2017, and travelled actively to meet natural spaces, wild beings and water bodies, mostly through Europe. Hiking and living outside in a wild remote place is natural to me. 

 

Being an activist for the respect of the Earth and the innocents is essential to my life. I participated in militant activism supporting the protection of the Hambacher Forest in Germany, which is one of the last remains of the old Western Europe forest, destroyed in most part by RWE, a company extracting coal for electricity alimenting weapons factory and creating the biggest hole in Europe. I have also participated in protecting the forest around me from clearcutting, and supported the revival of biodiversity on my land, which was a clearcut when I arrived, including by developing a permaculture garden and medicinal plants garden.

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Collecting wild medicinal and edible plants and mushrooms has become a routine. I have studied the work of various herbalists, and given workshops about herbalism and wild edibles. My favorite approach is that of Stephen Harrod Buhner. His approach, and mine, focus on building and caring for relationships with the plants, as have done Indigenous peoples around the world; more than solely knowing their chemical active properties, the Western medicine perspective. I have been using medicinal plants extensively on myself, advising other people, and learned to take care of wounds and some health issues. I also completed a course in Naturopathy and practiced and studied various therapies and healing techniques, including a certification in Mental Coaching/NLP.

 

On the land, we have a sauna, which is a little temple built by my son's father in 2012, that has welcomed a lot of people, prayers, songs, tears, and laughter. I pour water from the river on the warm stones, the fire is inside, it is beautiful and simple. 

 

I started guiding sweatlodges in 2019, with the blessing of James Robideau, spirits and friends.

 

In 2014 I participated in my first Native American Church ceremony and my first Sundance, and met James Robideau and people who would become my long-time friends. James Robideau is a Native American spiritual leader and indigenous rights activist, who I have helped write his memoirs (Remember the Morning Star).

 

I have participated consistently in ceremonies, Vision Quest and Sundance since then, following James' work as well as ceremonies of other lineages, and holding an active role in the organization and work for ceremonies.

In 2016 I made my first Vision Quest and was bitten by a tick which gave me Lyme disease, a very debilitating disease that impacted my nervous system and has been a source of deep pain, handicap, and teachings.

In 2017 I visionquested with James in mountains in the South of France. 

 

The sweatlodge, the use of the sacred pipe, the Vision Quest, the Sundance and the Half-Moon altar are my preferred altars and are at the center of my life. 

Following the request of 4 people, I guided a Vision Quest in the Ardennes in 2019. 

That year, after working at the support of the Sundance in the kitchen, cedar, singing and various tasks for 5 years, my child was big enough to leave him with the community in the camp, so I finally could start sundancing. Since then, I have consistently taken care of the Sundance, including through participating in its organisation and work.