AWAKEN is Illuman’s annual men’s gathering, happening this September 14–17 at Shrine Mont, a retreat center in the foothills of the Allegheny mountains in northwestern Virginia. This year we will be guided into our spiritual explorations there by several special guests, including indigenous leader and spiritual teacher Doug Good Feather, Illuman founder Father Richard Rohr, and this year’s Poet-in-Residence Chelan Harkin.

Doug Good Feather is the founder, Executive Director, and Spiritual Advisor at Lakota Way Healing Center in Denver, Colorado. An artist, writer, veteran, and teacher, Doug is from Standing Rock Lakota Sioux Nation, a member of the Hunkpapa tribe, and a descendant of Chief Sitting Bull, born and raised in the traditional indigenous ways of his elders. Good Feather is the spiritual leader of Spirit Horse Nation, which is a human rights and environmental protection organization. His book is Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World. Doug will be guiding us throughout the weekend in teachings and practices inspired by the spirituality of America’s indigenous first nation peoples.

 

Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher who bears witness to the deep wisdom of Christian mysticism and traditions of action and contemplation. Founder of both the Center for Action and Contemplation and Illuman, Father Richard teaches how God’s grace guides us to our birthright as beings made of Divine Love. He is the author of numerous books, including The Universal Christ, Adam’s Return, and From Wild Man to Wise Man. While Father Richard’s health prevents him from being with us in person, he has pre-recorded an interview with Illuman men that we will be sharing during the weekend.

 

 

Chelan Harkin will be our 2023 Poet-in-Residence. Inspired poetry has been flowing through Chelan Harkin for years and she now has two published collections, Let Us Dance and Susceptible to the Light. Her poetry is mystical and transformational and has sometimes been compared to Rumi, Hafiz, and Rilke. In her poetry and in her life, Chelan continually invites the fumbling, suffering parts of our human nature along with our divinity to meet for tea in the heart, have a great laugh, celebrate our sacred grief, and share a big hug. Her poetry inspires redefinition of God as a force of profound love and intimacy that embraces our wholeness and encourages our gifts to blossom.