TRAINING TESTIMONIALS

Circlework is life-altering. It is completely outside of any experience I have ever had. It provides deep nourishment by breaking through the isolation so many of us experience. It quenches our longing for a kind of connection that is really hard to find in our society. I believe we have to experience this level of intimacy in order to fully understand what we're looking for, and to trust that it's actually available. The circle has given me the experience of true intimacy, and out of that, hope has come.

— Leanne Drumheller, Social Worker

The discipline of Circlework offers a possibility of healing that I do not find anywhere else. It informs my work as a pastor and healer, for its says a profound "YES" to the reality that diversity can be celebrated and embraced with joy, that conflict can indeed be creative, that community can be lived authentically. I believe that what we are doing is the most important contribution we can make to the world's healing.

— Jacquie Lewis, Chaplain

The greatest gift of Circlework™ is love. There is a fire of love among us that is our real teacher. It has become our growth medium, constantly expanding and palpable as we work together, grieving, crying, laughing, dancing, singing, sitting in silence. It is a constant presence, an iridescence in our shared journey.

— Anne Hudes

Circlework™ has opened up room in my life for what I want; for my priorities. Through some sweet magic, each one of us has clarified our vision of our life's work in the circle. I am realizing what I need to do, and who I really am. Each time we gather, I learn a new layer of my own depth, my impact on others, on my community, and ultimately, on my planet. We are, as a group, manifesting dreams which we have dreamed together, each in our own individual ways Each time I return to the circle, I come out more myself, and less swayed by the roller coaster of daily life. Contact with the circle is contact with my source, and it feeds me.

— Kelly Rees

The Circlework™ training process has been a blessing to my life. It has brought a new dimension of love into my life that I never knew was possible. It's not like being "in love" with a single person. It has no feeling of urgency or desperation. It's more a comfort, a feeling of safety, of truth. I feel confident it will always be there. Most of the women in the circle I don't see in the flesh on a regular basis. But their presence is in my life in a very supportive way. They are in my heart. They are "good medicine."

To be in circle is to feel a oneness with a sacred purpose. It is an experience of heartful connection with each person present, as well as with a greater presence, that which we call the spirit of the circle itself. When I leave the training, I miss being in an atmosphere/environment that has so little stress. Even the conflict and the pain there is heartfelt and endurable.

• I need the power of the circle to help me stay calm, to feel complete and confident inside, even when all hell breaks loose on the outside.
• I need the spirit of the circle to remind me that I am enough even when the child in me feels overwhelmed and unable to cope.
• I need the strength of the circle to help me grieve my losses and feel nurtured while staying present for those who need me.
• I need the love of my circle sisters to help me create the spaciousness in my life for the priestess to fully emerge.

The circle fills a need I've felt my whole life. It's something I can trust to be there for me. When I'm not with the circle in person I can trust the spirit of the circle and the circle spirit within my circle sisters. I know them as human, with human weaknesses. But I think of them as also having divine qualities that are being expressed in their lives so strongly now. It's that divinity that connects us to the circle, to ourselves, to each other. The circle is more than a path; it is my home. It is the place of safety and security for my soul. It can hold me loosely or closely depending on my need.

For many years, I have been conscious of the feeling of reluctance to surrender completely to the love of an individual person, because my need for love and to love would be far too great for any individual to bear. Now I have the circle and circle is strong enough to hold me, to love me unconditionally and to always be there for me. It's such a comfort.

— Joan Kiley

The most valuable part of Circlework™ training for me has been self-transformation. I have learned so much by being part of a circle of sixteen amazing women meeting regularly for more than two years: about the many ways one may be called to this work, about my strengths and weaknesses, about the joy and power that comes when one is loved unconditionally. I am learning what true community is, and how to let myself participate fully in it. I am learning how to be uniquely me, but at the same time, nobody special. And I am learning how to apply these lessons in the wider world.

— Geena Wilding

Within a circle devoted to spaciousness, I found that my heart can expand beyond my imagining. Within a circle of wise and beautiful women, I found my own beauty and wisdom. Within a circle of laughter, tears and faith-full honesty, I laughed, cried and spoke my truth. Disciples of the redwoods, the red-winged blackbirds, dung beetles and our own sweet body wisdom, we kept unwrapping revelations we had always known. I brought my terror of the world gone mad and found a place to begin her healing--in the center of the circle, in the heart of the Mother, in the center of my own broken heart.

— Marcia Lovelace, Librarian, Poet

Circle is a place to grow, discover, expand and vision myself beyond the boundaries I have erected throughout my life. I expand into a bigger definition of Self. My edges move outward. I fall in love over and over again. In circle, I see my Self, in part because others see my Self, the magnificent, brilliant being I was born to be. Unconstrained by the lessons in smallness I have acquired over a lifetime. I glimpse this, feel it and expand into it, until I am actually living it. Circle provides the vision, the feeling and the support for my essential Self to emerge. And I see the Selves of others. See beyond their constrictions to their succulent, brilliant magnificence. This becomes natural and, everywhere in my life, I begin to see the essence and beauty of all beings.

I have noticed that after being in circle and returning to my life, I continually expand the layers of my life to reach the newly defined expanded edges. My Self moves into the space created within me in circle. Where I previously would have stopped, due to fear, uncertainty, pain, etc., I now move forward. Those 'stoppers' no longer inhibit me.

I notice that I show up in my life differently, without struggle or trying to make something happen. I flow into the newly defined space in my words, actions and way of being. Sometimes it surprises even me. This is the power of circle work - it appears while in circle and then shows up even more apparently in life.

As I become more of my essence, I am able to support others on their essential paths. As I focus on their essential Selves, they too glimpse their depth and beauty, and begin to move into it.

— Barbara Osterman, Executive Coach

Circlework™ grounds us in that which is greater than ourselves -- a bigger energy, a neural web, a vibration of the sacred sensed beyond what we do at the moment, which is what the circle is really about. Through this experience I am given the opportunity to develop deeply that part of my consciousness that has access to spirit and its working in this world.

Awareness of spirit is not new to me, but what is new is the intensity and the particularity of Her manifestation. When I attend, She is present for me. I have given Her abode within myself, and I recognize that without me, She cannot function. She enables me to find those elements in myself, including my greatest weaknesses, that enable me to do good in the world.

She is the spirit-of-the-circle. I delight in the bonds of our circle, the inspiration and support and protection we offer one another -- even in our separate lives. Simply remembering the circle often revives me. As a fairly solitary person, often uncomfortable in a group, this is a big turning.

As I reflect today, the greatest gift of Circlework™ is love. There is a fire of love among us that is our real teacher. It has become our growth medium, constantly expanding and palpable as we work together, grieving, crying, laughing, dancing, singing, sitting in silence. It is a constant presence, an iridescence in our shared journey. How this flame of love has grown so quickly among us -- spreading, spreading -- is a deep mystery that has to do with the yearning of our human hearts, the extraordinary mindfulness of each woman, and Jalaja's exquisite timing. I am grateful to be a part of it.

— Anne Hudes

In the circle I was given a beautiful vision of my life's work. I know it would not have happened had it not been for the spirit of the circle and its sacredness. My spirit has found it's voice and it's wings in circle. This profound experience that was so lovingly accepted and nourished by Jalaja and my sisters has brought me home to a place I knew existed, but could not find. The unconditional love and acceptance in the circle, coupled with its rituals, are catapulting me to claim all that I am capable of being and doing. I could not have asked for a greater gift than coming to know myself through such a sacred experience. Through Circlework™, an ancient wisdom is given voice and realized with truth, love, integrity, belief, and faith. As I give myself over to the circle and to spirit I take flight, I soar.

More and more, I am bringing the precious teachings and the spirit of the circle to my life. In circle, I received an incredible and beautiful connection with spirit which inspires me to bring this work into my world, the world of corporations and businesses.... I am finding a way for the women I work with to connect with their truth, as I have. I am now very clear on the work that I am meant to do, and how the spirit of the circle longs to be invited into the corporate world in which I walk.

I have spoken about circle, but I feel it would be incomplete with out noting that Jalaja's wisdom, practice, love, knowledge, intelligence, openness, intuitiveness, and constant manifestation of spirit's call allows circle the space to do what it so powerfully does. Also, the power of circle stems from the intent, love, openness, and spacious knowing with which my fellow priestesses enter into circle. The way each woman holds the space, honors the voices of others, loves their diversity, and is open to the journey.

— Bobbie Goheen, Executive Coach

I came to Circlework™ with a lifetime, perhaps lifetimes of distrust of groups, with fear of being rejected, different, too strong, too weak, too much or not enough to be accepted, to belong. I also came with hopes and expectations of some magical new experience which might heal these ancient wounds. What I've found is transformation in a slow and steady form. The circle is a vessel which is safe and strong and vast enough to hold our fears, our secrets, our darkness and our joy. We are all changing, growing and falling deeply in love.

My most recent experience of the Circle was really like a homecoming, not to any place where I have been before in conscious memory, but there was a sense of welcome and deepening familiarity and even deeper love which met me in our gathering. I am grateful past words to have found my way within the circle. Grateful to my sweet sisters, to dear, beloved Jalaja, and to the deeper wisdom which reveals itself to us in Circles.

— Virginia Logan

Using language to convey the impact of Circlework™ upon my life is akin to my struggle and inability to define the sacred. Simply put: Circlework™ has changed my life. It has woken me into my very core and it has healed my very core being. My gratitude for this gift is immeasurable.

One day I found myself at Hollyhock for Jalaja's Hunger for Ecstasy workshop. I resisted going and had a million excuses, yet I somehow obeyed the call of Spirit. I didn't even read the blurb on the workshop, I'd never heard of Jalaja, or Circlework™. It was the photo of Jalaja that drew me and somehow I knew I would be safe with her. So I went. And my life changed. My life changed because Jalaja and the women in the circle showed me how to open my heart just wide enough to let Spirit pierce through . Over those transformative five days, I owned myself as connected to Spirit; as good enough for Spirit; as a child to Spirit. The light of the Circle penetrated into my body, cleaning away the darkness, infusing me with love and reconnecting me with my innate holiness. I realized that the light within me had never fully gone out. It was buried underneath years of trauma, grief and anger. Circlework™ released me and gave me the courage and the strength to face my own hurts. Now, over time, it has given me the courage to face the hurts of our world, bringing the sacred and the teachings of the circle into everything I do.

Through Circlework™ I have healed the sacred feminine within. Through my time in the circle, I have come to embrace my sexuality and sensuousness as divine, powerful, and beautifully tender. Circlework has healed me so deeply.

Circlework™ has given me the energy and ability to hold sacred space in all aspects of my life. In my work with families and children in crisis I have witnessed and experienced the profound impact that comes from working with people in a sacred way. On many occasions I have felt that by holding the people I work with in reverence and sacredness I am now able to help them to heal more fully. Over a period of two years, I have moved from a position of general denial and contempt of Spirit to a place where I have offered my life and my life's work to the sacred. Circlework™ has been my path, and in this path I will continue. 

— Leanne Drumheller, Social Worker

Community, Communion, Compassion, Communication....four interconnected values. Circlework™ evolves out of the raw material of real lives, real women, real pain, joy, dreams, visions, hopes, fears, temptations. Rage danced into clear choices, delicious love stories, sacred memories, food prepared with skill and appreciation and received with gratitude and wetted appetites...

Circlework™ transforms the glimmer of possibility into realized changes in attitude, breath and breadth of wisdom. It transforms answers into questions and questions into longings, desires, passion. Circlework™ breeds intimacy, intimacy with spirit, intimacy with self, with sisters, with the environment, intimacy with stillness that reawakens the senses. Circlework™ is healing me, others, our world.

I thank my sisters for being the community that gives me a sense of being at home in the world, for opening your hearts and souls in ways that invite me to open mine, for listening and asking to be listened to until we are clear about belonging to one and other as passionate companions on this journey through life, and for practicing so many forms of communication that encourage me to learn to express more of myself than I knew existed.......and know more about you than I ever dreamed you would share. I love you! Jalaja, thank you for inviting me to join this circle of women committed to learning the practice of Circlework™. You and the circle are teaching me to love in ways that nourish my spirit and set me free to be in the world in love.

— Anne Waasdorp, Pastor