Join Initiated Voice Diviner, Aislinn Kerchaert, and the Kontomblé, the Little People of the Dagara Tribe, in this day long ritual. Our circle will be hosted and supported by Maggie Mailer, at 8 Points Studio in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Canopies of Light is dedicated to Ancestralising the Spirits of the Trees, inviting back the Spirits of Place to their ancient dwelling places, and Re-membering our holy ecology.

In this event, we come together to honor, grieve, love, bless and re-ignite the immensity of wisdom stored with in the land.


In doing so, we honor and acknowledge the ancestors of the Indigenous peoples of this land and their descendants, of the Mashpee Wampanoag and Aquinnah Nations, as well as our Healthy + Supportive Ancestors, and the stories their legacies tend. I also would love to acknowledge the Indigenous Little People in one of their ancestral names, the Makiawisug of the Mohegan Tribe, and thank them for their ever-loving guardianship and tending throughout the ages.

Our Day of Ritual includes:

• Opening Circle + Invocation

• Group Circle + Intention Sharing

• Ritual Preparation: Play, Pray + Clay Creation!

• Lunch break: *bring your own sack lunch, Snack and tea will be provided

• Adornment of the Trees Ritual

• Group Kontomblé Divination

• Closing Circle
  
  

On Arrival:

Arrival and set up will be from 10:30 am- 11 am. Circle officially begins at 11am.

On Closing:

Our goal for our official closing time is 6 pm. From 6-7pm we will have breakdown and clean up for those who are able to stay and assist. Snacks and a nourishing soup will be provided for those who wish to stay!

“Pour your love into the land”

-the Kontomblé

About the Adornment of the Trees Ritual

Imagine a beautiful forest floor, where moss and leaves blanket the earth, and snails and salamanders dwell beneath their protective cover. The roots of the trees send nourishment in all directions, providing essential nutrients to the small seedlings that have landed in this fertile ground.

The Kontomblé (the Little People of Dagara Tribe) show that many of us are like these seedlings right now, seeking cover from not only the harshness of the cool winds, but also from the harshness of the winds of unconsciousness and forgetting that we must come face to face with in the Modern World.

For sensitive souls on the planet at this time, this forest floor we grow upon is none other than the New Earth, or a New Ground that is emerging.

Lucky for us, what helps make the ecology of a forest so successful is not only the layers of moss and leaves, but also the branches outstretched high above, which form a beautiful canopy.

These forest canopies are necessary boundaries and umbrellas of protection, that ensure that only the gentlest and most nourishing forms of light can filter through to the seedlings below.

Because we humans are still “green” in our evolution of consciousness, just as the seedlings need the protection of a canopy above, we are in need of loving and gentle protection as we devote ourselves more deeply to our spiritual journey.
The space of ritual held in loving community can offer us this.

When we join the Kontomblé in Ceremony, a protective and loving canopy is formed over the seedlings that we be. The light that comes in is meant to nourish us, as the roots of the Ancestors and the Ancient ones who came before hold us and guide the way.

The Ritual consists of:

In our Tree Adornment Ritual, we will be saying thank you to two lovely emissaries of the Tree Nation, these Standing Ones. We will begin by making adornments with our hands out of clay. We will then adorn the roots of two beautiful Scots Pines with our clay creations, in honor of the Nature Spirits, inviting them to come back to their ancient dwelling chambers that exist all over the land.


We will also adorn their Hearts, which is where the trunk meets the earth, and their arms or branches, with beautiful garlands that we make, creating playful tree necklaces as a form of dignified regalia with which we will honor our forest friends and allies.


The Tree Adornment Ritual is an act of reconciliation, of giving, and of beauty-making, an act of saying thank you to our Earth Mother for providing us with nourishment and a home to live and dream in.

About the Kontomblé +
Group Divination

The Kontomblé are the little people of the Dagara Tribe in Burkina Faso. Their tradition and ways were brought to the West by Elder Malidoma Somé. The Little People are known by many names across many cultures. Recognized as leprechauns, fairies, gnomes, menehune, and more- their medicine and its message are universal in nature. They have always been a part of this world, and now, more than ever- they are wanting to reconnect with humanity to guide us through the transformational times we are in!

Often, the Kontomblé speak on behalf of all nations of little people. Messages from these little relatives often come through in the form of poetry, playful riddles, and in the magic of 3’s. Their mother tongue is a language as old as earth, and it brings healing to both body and spirit.

In a Group Divination, the Kontomblé bring messages for the group as a whole, and then receive 3 questions at the end of their transmission. They also offer healings and activations to the group, utilizing song and elemental ritual.

To learn more about the Kontomblé and Voice Divination, please visit this page.

Join us!

Attendance:

The standard rate for the full day is $250.
This price makes sure all costs of the event are covered.
 
For those in need of equitable pricing due to financial hardship, the Partial Scholarship rate is $150. There a reserved number available on a first come, first serve basis.
 
For those who can give more, your contribution will help make it possible for more scholarship spaces to be provided. For this purpose, we have two options to provide Community Support at a rate of $300 or $350.

*No one turned away for lack of funds, email aislinn@singswithtrees.com for further assistance.

We Ask that you Bring the following
Ritual Supplies:

For Your Comfort + Nourishment:

• Please wear comfortable clothes that you are okay with getting messy in (as we will be working with clay) 

• There are backjacks and a few chairs in the space, if you prefer different seating, please bring a yoga mat and/or cushion to sit on and be comfortable 

• Water bottle

• Sack Lunch  *Snacks and Tea will be provided 
  

For the Ritual:

• Coins, seashells, beads and trinkets for clay creations, feathers, stones, elemental offerings

For the Shrine:

• Wild water

• A boquet of Flowers

• Food offerings for your Well Ancestors

• a Beeswax or non-scented, non-perfumed candle in a glass holder

*These are all invitations, not hard and fast rules. More details will be included in the sign up. If you cannot bring all of the supplies that’s OK. An important piece of the ritual is about what we can create in coming together.

Message from Aislinn:

I grew up on the East Coast, and was a Boston-born, Connecticut-reared young misfit who loved poetry, film, art and nature. As much as I loved Nature, I never really knew the land until I myself had gone through the initiations that my soul awaited.

I have fond memories of growing up in Arlington, Massachusetts, and playing by a giant boulder near my kindergarten school. I like to think now that perhaps some part of me knew that there were Nature Spirits who dwelled in that boulder. Maybe that’s even why it became a prime location for a grade school, because who knows better about the preservation of the heart of Innocence, than the Spirits of Nature?  

As a teen, I would bike through the forests behind my elementary school, now in Connecticut, practicing “jumps” off of the rocks and boulders that emerged from the soil. One thing is true, the East Coast has some rocky ecology. 

In the Dagara Cosmology, stones, bones and minerals hold memory. The mountains are the keepers of this memory, and house the story-lines (or more commonly known as ley lines) for the rest of the ecology.

What is evident to me now is that the land here has a story to tell, and it is a deep one. The ancients and first people who tended this land knew this, and knew how to honor the holy through the practice of ritual and listening. 

After completing my Kontomblé Initiation with Elder Malidoma Somé in 2018, I spent some time staying with my parents at their home in Connecticut. All of a sudden, the trees who I had grown up with from age 9-18 started talking to me. The truth is, they had been talking to me all along, I just couldn’t hear them yet! 

In their backyard there is a beautiful birch tree, which holds a special place in our hearts, and also in our Celtic lineage, where Birch represents the first of the ogham wheel, or sacred system of divination. I choose this foot of this tree as my offering place and left many gifts to these friends I had known all my life but never more deeply acknowledged.

As I went into quiet listening with the trees that I had known for so many years, they transmitted to me a powerful vision.

They showed me how many of their roots were still intertwined with the roots of their ancient ancestor trees who had been harvested, decimated, and cut down when the colonial settlers first arrived.

They showed that the Spirit bodies of these Ancient Standing Ones had the potential to be reconnected, or re-architectured by inviting them back to the land. 

Many nature spirits and little people used to dwell in these lands, and were driven away when the waves of colonialism hit, only a few centuries ago. Relative to all of existence, this is not that much time. And relative to a Trees’ existence, it is really only one or two generations! The Trees and the beings who once dwelled in them and with them are asking to be Ancestralized, which means- invited back, in Spirit form, to support the land in the regeneration of Ancient Ancestral Medicines, and the evolution of consciousness. 

The recent lunar and solar eclipses have activated an important ley line that runs along the East Coast. The time for ritual is ripe, the Kontomblé show. The East coast holds one of the most important ancient grid lines on the planet, and it is ready for a new level of awakening. In preparation for this revival, the guardians and friends of Nature are being called forward!

By coming together in ritual, to grieve, to pray, to play, and to adorn the Trees, we also adorn the holy body of the Mother. As we invite back the spirits of Nature to join us in the land once again, we also invite back a part of ourselves, and our own lineages. 

Meeting the Kontomblé can be a beautiful reunion. It is often one where we feel an ancient part of ourselves is returning once again. Many of us know these Little People and Nature Spirits on a Soul level. And in turn, they know us deeply, and sometimes even better than we know ourselves! They are ready to begin creating with us once again! And so, if this sparks a light within your heart, I invite you to join us for Canopies of Light: a Kontomblé Ritual.

With a Heart of Devotion,

Aislinn

Meet Your Facilitator

Aislinn Kerchaert is an Initiated Kontomblé Voice Diviner, Artist, Poet, and Healer.

She has a background as a Reiki Master, an Access Bars Facilitator, and in The Language of Being, Trauma Informed Practices and Divination. She is a proud member of The Exchange: The Institue for Equity Centered Coaching. Her Spiritual Practices as a Leader and Teacher, as well as a Human and Friend, are rooted in Animism, Equality, Ancestral Medicine, and her years of walking the Red Road with her beloved of many years. She is greatly guided by the teachings of the Kontomblé who have been her mentors and teachers for many years. Her work with Spirit, Ancestral Healing, and Energy Medicine has reached an international community over the past five years. She currently offers private Kontomblé Voice Divinations, One on one Mentoring, as well as online group courses and programs on Earth-Based Ritual, Elemental Healing and Ancestral Medicines.

To learn more, please visit the Meet Aislinn page.

Maggie Mailer is an artist whose work explores overlaps between landscape and inner states of being.

Her work engages painting as a terrain in which the creative process, and the impact of human activity on the actual landscape, walk and talk together. Recent works include This is Not a Picnic, a roving installation under the umbrella of Picnic Pavilion at The 58th International Venice Biennale, in which Mailer experimented with situating an unstretched painting as a picnic cloth within the cityscape of Venice, challenging the standard context for viewing artwork. Previous projects include founding The Storefront Artist Project, an ephemeral Artist Residency program in Pittsfield Massachusetts which ran from 2002 - 2012 and presented artists at work in real time as a continual public performance. The project is credited with jumpstarting the revival of the city of Pittsfield, and has been used as a model for the regeneration of other cities across the country. 

Mailer has created illustrations for the books, Lara’s First Christmas, by Alice O’Howell, and, In a Pickle, by Martinko, whose animated version won the Silver Award for both Best Animated Short, and Best Children’s Short, at the Independent Shorts Awards in November 2020.

Mailer’s work is represented by Ober Gallery in Kent, CT, and Gut Gallery in Dallas, Texas. She has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, A.R.T. Grant. Her work has been featured in Art New England, with cover stories in The Boston Globe, and The Los Angeles Times.

Born in 1971 in New York, Mailer studied Architecture and Fine Arts and received a BA in English Literature from Columbia University in 1993.

You can learn more about Maggie and 8 points studio here.