Living from the Mystery - Switzerland
In-person Retreat
LIVING FROM THE MYSTERY
A Luxury Retreat exploring Tandava, Kashmiri Massage, Tantra and Conscious Movement in a gorgeous Palladian Villa.
You are invited to this unique experience this January 24-27 with Laura Deva and Eugene Hedlund where we will gather a small group of only 20 participants to explore the living mystery through the embodied practices of the tantric lineage of Kashmiri Shaivism.
This is a deep dive into the unknown for those called to experience themselves as something beyond our physical and thought forms and are ready to allow the spanda, the vibration of life to reveal itself to them in real time in an ever unfolding journey of the paradox of form and formless, where we may align to the unfolding expression of life consciousness and trust that current to take us on a journey beyond where our focused will may arrive.
You will be invited to empty your mind of agendas, dissolve expectations and surrender to the arising of the mystery moment to moment.
Although we will use and repeat practices that involve meditation, embodiment, movement, silence, touch… they aren’t the focus, they are here to support the awareness of the formless freedom of being danced by the mystery.
“I had to get out of my own way over and over to drop deeper and deeper into layers of intimacy I didn’t even know existed (...) it was terrifying and blissful all together”
– Judy Blair, Lake Hawea, NZ
“This is the only workshop that has been able to give me a glimpse of no mind and refine my quality of presence. Complete letting go and acceptance of all that is.”
– Stephanie, Melbourne, AU
We will use practices that involve meditation, embodiment, movement, silence, touch… to support the emergence of the dark, individually and within the group field.
When our sense of individuation surrenders to source and gives space for the dark to be at the center of our existence, we experience a sense of profound rest, a return home, a blissful taste of totality and simplicity.
“A condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything” - TS Eliot
Although we will explore various practices, they aren’t the focus. They are here to support the awareness of the formless freedom of being danced by the mystery. This state of inner spaciousness and emptiness will allow synchronicities, effortless exposure, core intimacy, deep insights, acceptance, objectless bliss and the potential for many more describable and indescribable experiences.
“I felt naked with nowhere to hide… while I’ve felt on the edge so many times during the workshop, I simultaneously realised that I’ve always wanted to be there… my experience has been full of liberating contradictions!”
– Justin, Melbourne, AU
‘Living from the Mystery’ retreat is for:
Anyone who longs to dissolve a separate self.
Anyone who is willing to let something greater direct their lives.
Anyone who is willing to sharpen their capacity to pause in any given situation and listen to what life wants.
Anyone who wishes to embody ecstatic spaciousness and deep stillness.
Anyone who is tired of resisting life as it comes and ready to let the mystery lead the way.
Anyone who is longing for true freedom.
Anyone who is longing to find togetherness in their deepest aloneness.
This retreat is open to all genders and non binary folk, as well as all relationship styles and preferences. You can attend alone or with partners.
This retreat will include:
Radical discontinuity - don’t be attached to structure
Individual and group practices
Live demos to direct transmissions
Introduction and practice of Tandava (see bellow)
Introduction and practice of Yoga of Touch (see bellow)
Periods of silence
Spaciousness
Main Practices:
TANDAVA
Non-linear movement practice
Often depicted in the traditional iconography of northern India, Kashmir and Tibet, Tandava is an extremely slow, mystical dance and non-linear movement practice.
Through its refrain from intentions, one can create an expansion of the body into space, an experience of absence of limits that leads to a non-dual awareness and absorption of the Self-undistinguished from the Cosmos, the Void, the Dark.
The seemingly empty space around us becomes our dance partner as we slowly allow the waves of life to move our body and merge with the universe around us as a mystical union of totality.
This hybrid practice connects body, heart and spirit as one and is designed to remember our infinite free and unconditioned nature.
“When I first received Laura’s transmission of Tandava I felt like I finally had a part of me receive what it was looking for, a deeper layer of intimacy, without even knowing it or how to attain or find it.”
– Kaya, Wanaka, New Zealand
YOGA OF TOUCH
Kashmiri massage
When one becomes Tandava, its touch carries spirit and devotion and seals it into matter. Touch becomes a spiritual practice and a form of refined art.
Yoga of Touch is a form of non-dual meditative touch that unites masculine, feminine, inner child, spirit and matter.
Through loving attention, presence and unintentional touch a space of trust is created in which deep allowing and letting go is possible.
This ritual of presence beyond time, space and duality, allows an inner meditative journey and can lift giver and receiver, that ultimately become one, into unknown levels of consciousness.
This spaciousness and intentionlessness nourishes our core and deep need for unconditional acceptance and love, in which our body carries its eternal remembrance.
This devotion turns touch into art.
“This retreat has touched me in much deeper places than I expected it to. This journey was a powerful immersion into what it means to let life move you and letting go of control. What I thought would be just a meditative state and bodywork practice to add to my inventory turned out to be a teaching that translates immediately to my everyday life and has vibrated since in the way I’m approaching living in synchronization of what is happening around me.
I’d personally recommend this workshop to anyone who wants to journey into the mysteries of life in themselves, and is ready to get touched intimately in their soul, in a way that I have never experienced before and was actually looking for, without knowing it.”
– Kaya Levin, Wanaka, NZ
Meet your guides
LAURA DEVA
Laura has been a mystic over life times. Her devotion to formlessness has made her from a very young age grieve a quality of purity in singularity, encapsulating in her heart a secret and long misunderstood longing for death as liberation from forms.
As a surreptitious devotee of Thanatos, she was faced with multiple experiences of radical disruptions followed by times of profound dissolution, which made her acquire a unique breadth of wisdom.
Developing an intimate relationship with core aloneness, Laura learned to take refuge in an inner world of emptiness as an escape from the erratic human experience.
What made her inadequate to a world that is in constant denial of a fundamental dark truth, made her simultaneously uniquely suited to see beyond forms with clarity and compassion enabling breaches for core emergence in others.
When she was first introduced to the practices of Tandava and of Yoga of touch, she recognised instantly the refined quality revealed through them as being her core, making her land and rest at ‘home’. She was extremely moved to find practices that could translate her most precious and guarded place of aloneness that would help bridge, expose, invite and guide others into wordless singularity.
Laura has been supporting groups through transformation for a decade. She is dedicated to collective change and genuinly cares about the emergence of a new civilization based on freedom from conditioning and awakening of human’s hearts.
Laura is a living dark seed that serves the emergence of the Temples that hold emptiness at the centre.
She is part of the teaching faculty at Highden Temple and at The International School of Temple Arts (ISTA).
She also offers online courses, online mentorships and local (Geneva, Switzerland) in person events and psychology practice.
“Laura’s ability to speak the dark truth and then laugh like a child in the same sentence is a gift. The freedom she has in her body is inspiring”
- Karl, Melbourne, AU
“Laura is a powerful transmitter of the quality of approaching life as it emerges. Her embodied wisdom of what she teaches is what allowed this experience to run so profoundly while she held space listening to the group and in a feminine/masculine integrated way leading us with care and professionalism.”
- Kaya Levin, Wanaka, NZ
“I’m so grateful to have learnt from a true master of the art of devotion to the mystery”
– Rebecca, Melbourne, AU
EUGENE HEDLUND
Eugene Hedlund, certified 5 Rhythms teacher and founder of the School of Tribal Tantra has taught transformational esoteric arts globally since 2008.
This Path is a stable integration of Kashmiri Shaivism, European Shamanism, Ritual Magick, Conscious Movement, Spiritual Artistry and Quantum Science. These esoteric sciences are seamlessly integrated in a holistic embodied approach to support each person’s conscious participation in their evolutionary path.
About our venue:
Our journey will be at a luxury Villa in Couvet in the district of Val-de-Travers, Switzerland where in addition to the group work in the great room, we will enjoy the exceptional amenities of a 20-foot indoor heated swimming pool, gym, playground, spa area with a sauna, and steam bath. View some photos of our space below.
Details will only be given once the registration payment has been done.
Investment & registration
1050 CHF. 945 CHF.
• EARLY BIRDS: 945 CHF (Until December 1st)
• REGULAR PRICE: 1050 CHF
Which includes a shared room, full board and all course materials. Some rooms are with shared Queen Beds, so if you are joining with a partner or preferred roommates, do let us know at registration.
Cancellation policy:
The fees for this journey are non refundable and non transferable.