We are a North Carolina Piedmont-based 508c(c)1(a) non-profit religious organization working and dancing at the intersection of spirituality, ecology and culture. We curate events and ceremonies that celebrate embodiment, honor the earth and build community. Our guiding star is midwifing metamorphosis: stewarding transformation, healing and reconnection at personal and collective levels. The practical heart of what we do includes dance services, seasonal ritual observances, healing and rites of passage work.
HS currently stewards an urban space, The Flowjo, in downtown Carrboro focused on embodied practices for all ages (closed during COVID) as well as a rural location in Silk Hope, NC for elemental ritual, earth reconnection, ancestral healing, ritual dances, personal retreats, sacred transitions and natural burials.
More about us
Summer Solstice
CEREMONY
Water Babies Shrine
ECSTATIC
DANCE
SANCTUARY
at Heartward Sanctuary
Saturday, June 19
5pm until
We are dancers in this ancient, cyclical, life-generating choreography of the earth and the Sun. We are the Earth dancing her praise for her beloved.
For nearly one full revolution, we've gathered in community in the open-air to honor this exquisite love story. Even amidst this pandemic, we've celebrated this dynamic relationship through prayer, song, dance, play and elemental ritual attuned to the earth's rhythms. In doing this, we've also deepened into relationship with this place and the spirits of the land who are generously hosting us.
On June 19, we'll circle in community to honor this celestial circumambulation and celebrate Summer Solstice.
In The Ancestral Grove
From the Japanese word mizuko, water babies are known as those who die on their journey to life inside the water of the womb due to miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth.
Without names or rituals for this passage, our culture often forces this experience into hiding which can lead to shame, unprocessed grief and lack of closure. In spite of this cultural deficit and continual disregard for women's autonomy, we have consecrated a shrine on the edge of the Ancestral Grove to offer sacred space to honor this passage. We welcome women and womb-havers of any age, race, faith to engage with this space in service of healing.
Open-Air & Virtual Community Dances
A continuation from The Flowjo's decade of Ecstatic Dance ritual, we now gather at Heartward Sanctuary for Open-air Dances (and other rituals) and also by Zoom. We will continue holding down the hearth fire this way throughout
Winter
In person, indoor dancing
in the works
next Ceremony TBA
in the virtual temple
Dance has traditionally been a way to honor and connect with the earth, sun and lunar cycles, our other-than-human kin and the ancestors. Music and dance have been essential ways of grieving, celebration and healing.
This virtual ceremony is for dancers who desire a ritualized communal container for grief expression in these transformative times. We can weave our home cocoons to tend our shared sorrow and access sacred support.
The Ancestral Grove
Green burial ground
The Ancestral Grove at Heartward Sanctuary is a natural cemetery in Silk Hope, NC. The burial ground aspires to be a place for people of diverse ancestries, faiths and means to return to the earth in sacred and environmentally nourishing ways. We are also dedicated to reclaiming ancestral practices for tending this sacred transition, for honoring the ancestors of the land, blood and lineage.
Coming soon...
Acupuncture, ancestral healing, spiritual readings (divination), herbal consultations, mentorship, custom personal ritual support and death doula work are available.
You can also schedule a site visit to walk the grounds, visit the Ancestral Grove, consult about natural burial options or work with one of the shrines.
