Discover and Uncover the Golden Buddha Within

Documentary or Reality Television Series?

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In today’s society dysfunctional homes have been a major issue not just in Canada and the United States, but all around the world. This program can be easily transformed into a documentary or reality television series, this way we can reach even more youth, and educate and inspire people in other parts of the world.
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Youth who come from troubled, or toxic families, in many cases a large percentage are living in poverty. Some youth may have absolutely no resources, or any healthy caring adults around them. Hence, they are left to themselves to figure life out with a broken sense of Self, while others have endured deep scars of abuse and cruelty. This impacts a child’s belief system and directly affects their identity and personality. It takes a village to raise a child.

The Transformative Power of Ritual Theater and Sacred Arts

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When I was a young woman, for 7 years, I was a theatrical performer that juggled many talents and the skill that I mastered and loved was fire breathing. However, the magic that touched, moved, and inspired me deeply above all was when I was introduced to ritual theater and sacred arts.

Las Vegas, considered as sin city by many, is for me a place that symbolizes the pivotal point in my transformation. Retreating to the desert with an intentional community for a couple of days, for deep introspection and artistic expression is extremely powerful. Allegorically, the desert serves as an incubator where we can heat up our emotional matter (lead) to cultivate higher consciousness (gold).

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In 1999, I studied with international renown Jeff McBride, the masked magician and master illusionist, and Eugene Burger who is considered as one of the 100 most influential magicians of the 20th century. Personally, this was a crucial time for me because I was seriously contemplating suicide due to the accumulation of suffering. I was tiered of performing, traveling, and I was tired of being single for the past 7 years due to my career. In this lifestyle, I was always playing roles, wearing different masks, and ended up trapped in the mask of my own creation. I was 24 years old at that time and I have been running away, trying to forget, numb out, and distract myself from all the misery and emptiness I was left with from my childhood.

At the bottom of the barrel, deeply sad and disappointed, I was feeling abandoned, alone, invisible, unworthy, weak, afraid, depressed, and angry with myself, my parents-families, with our creators, and with life in general. In deep introspection about the purpose of my existence, I always clearly understood one thing which is—Where we come from, but I started asking myself the great questions a person does when Soul searching such as—Who am I? Why am I here? What’s my purpose on earth? Where are we all going like this? So when I attended McBride’s Magic and Mystery School, I was a mess internally. Questioning everything. I felt lost and did not know what I was going to do with my life. I was on automatic, just doing the only thing I knew as a creative artist—perform. What amazed me above all in my experience is that Jeff is one of the very few magicians that uses chaos and darkness as a theatrical beat. I discovered that there is a deep spiritual side to performing arts.
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Turns out, this was a critical point that shifted my inner reality. I was seeking to learn more about stage magic and illusion, instead I learned about real magic. You see, Jeff and Eugene did not do anything special for me, or to me. They were just routinely doing their thing teaching as they always do, but psychologically I was understanding these magic and mystery teachings from a much deeper place. The psychology and philosophies shared had multidimensional meanings and penetrated the core essence of my being. In so doing, sparked my soul back to life. When a student’s psyche and heart is ready to transform, inspiring teachers appear. As Jeff say’s “Reality is subject to change without even noticing.”

“The wound is where the Light enters.” — Rumi
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“Step into the Fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not.” — Mooji

A Brief Definition of Ritual Theater and Sacred Arts

Throughout historical time, there is concrete archaeological and anthropological evidence that ritual performances date back from Paleolithic times, and according to language and historical circumstance is—universal and speaks directly to the soul.
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Ritual performance is an inclusive term that refer to the activities of storytellers, actors, dancers, singers, musicians, and their spectators and audiences. Ritual performance refers to both secular and sacred rituals and have usually involved one or more of performance genres.

Theater, dance, and music are equivalent terms, each referring to a specific genre of performance. Theater emphasizes—narrative, dance emphasizes—movement, and music emphasizes—sound. Ritual theater may also be understood as “restored behavior,” the organized re-enactment of mythic or actual events, as well as the role-playing of religious, political, professional, familial, and social life. Click here for more about the history of sacred ritual performance.

In today’s day and age, different people will see, define, and present ritual theater and sacred arts differently. From DJ’s to live musicians, to storytellers, tribal bellydancers and circus performers, to psychedelic festival goers, all have their own perception and definition. Many performances today are usually presented in venues that are hosting a thematic promotional night and serve—alcohol. The other format is festival productions that create gatherings for fun free-spirited self-expression, some may consider these productions as sacred. Psychedelic events evidently involve the promotion of—mind altering substances.

The art of ritual theater is not about showcasing skills, or getting high with others. Sacred performance is about weaving energy intentionally, the weaving of the coherence of hearts. True ritual performance is
transformational to the psyche and heart—for oneself, for another, and for the collective-consciousness of all living beings.
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“Ritual performance can be a sacred offering infused with purpose—to ignite a Flame in the psyche and heart of the witnessing audience,
because in the end, every person’s “story” is in fact a Mirror reflection of another person’s “story.” Ritual performance is intentional active prayer that holds the power to evoke deep reflection. Touched, moved, and inspired this affects and shifts the internal reality of the participating audience. Real magic occurs when performance serves as a vehicule that can remind humanity—what unites us and what is most valuable and precious about life.”

If we look beneath the surface of this tree of ritual performance, what do we see as the root? Shamanism.
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As mentioned above, since the dawn of time, ritual is intimately connected to the sacred Fires of ancient times when tribes gathered in circle every night. At its very core, ritual is pagan-based, hence Shamanic. Shamanism goes far beyond 40,000 years and derives from all cultural traditions across the globe. Pagan cultures’ worship earth, nature, the elements, animals, and the heavens. Pagan belief honors mystery and divinity which includes star-people, gods and goddesses, angels and nature spirits. Communication with other-worldly beings, spirits from the afterlife, and animal and plant spirits are the domain of the shaman.
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Shamanic culture is all about the healing arts, they were technicians of ecstasy, teachers, and transmitted wisdom. Shamanism addresses body, mind, soul, and collective spirit matters. The root source of what we today call—holistic alternative energy healing modalities.

We Inspire a Deeper Connection with Nature

Annual Drum, Dance, Chant and Prayer Sacred Arts Ritual Theater Festival

“Those who have walked through the Fire, leave sparks of light everywhere they go.” — Unknown

SPARK is similar to the model seen in this video. SPARK is a substance-free intentional community focused on creating interactive group meditative experiences out in nature. The annual festival is a transformational 4 day camping sacred arts event focused on community building, creative flow, storytelling, service, reverence, deep introspection, nourishment, and transformation.

Youth who are residents in YPS semi-closed centers rarely get out, and residents in closed centers never get out. Personally, I know this as fact. Improvement is needed. Center’s have strict policies, designed that way for good reasons, however one of my greatest lessons learned is that environment is health. Nature is healing. Everyone needs to spend more time with nature, the greatest healer. All we need is to allow mother nature’s magic to unfold.

“Forged in the heat of Flames and the warmth of coals, we who have been kissed by dawn at sunrise and have felt the tingle of lead turning to gold can no more go back to our old ways of being than can wine turn back into grapes.” — Abbi Spinner McBride

SoundWave Yoga invites YPS to consider this proposal, which is to give their residents, those who have experienced our program, the opportunity to come join our artistic intentional community to share and soak up all the good vibrations we collectively emit. I am confident that this experience will also deeply move and inspire the group of educators who will accompany the group to supervise. YPS will surely judge that 4 days and 3 sleepovers is too long. Consider 2 days and 1 sleep over. I am asking YPS to step outside the box of conventional thinking and policies. I look forward to opening dialogue with the head directors in order to discuss about our program, and this repeated annual outing permission request.

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“If you feel you grew up in a family with toxicity, make it your legacy to break the family legacy. Your new motto is: the pain stops here!” — Karen Salmansohn
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“Forgiveness doesn’t happen in our heads, but in our hearts. It unfolds when we extract the wisdom and gifts from even our darkest experiences and emotions.” — Debbie Ford

WHY Youth Protection Services? Because of My Childhood Story

“Ritual is routine infused with mindfulness. It is habit made holy.” — Kent Nerburn

Simply said, no details needed, I was born from unaware dysfunctional parents and families on both sides. My single mother and I, were forced to see a social worker for 7 years and I ended up under Youth Protection Services myself after running away twice. At age 12, I was brought to a semi-closed center in Laval, Ste-Domitille, and ended up staying there for 2 years. This opened my eyes, I realized that my family dynamics and suffering was nothing compared to what other children have experienced.

I am returning to my roots to give back and pay it forward by working in collaboration with YPS because all children who suffer from neglect, or any form of abuse, deserve and need to understand, and know, with unshakable confidence that “Out of darkness comes bright light.” Youth need to feel safe, cared for, seen and heard. They need guidance, positive stimulation and encouragement. They also need creative artistic self-expression, inspiring and uplifitng rolemodels, and the magic of the Fire cirlce.
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We all heard the saying “What does not kill you, makes you stronger.”
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My decision to work with YPS to coach, empower and uplift the children they protect, is a tribute to honor Sylvie Viau. A 16 year old girl with whom I co-lived with in my center group and who slept right next to me in our dormitory. Her family story was dark and revolting, she was a victim of sexual exploitation and she suffered incredibly. The reason I have never forgotten about her is because, in addition to her sharing with me her traumatic family experiences—she also ended up being executed in the backyard of our center.

Sylvie Viau, 1975-1991

Red Moon Magic – Sexual Alchemy in Action – When Communities Gather

*Trigger Warning* A film by Eve Ensler, founder of the Vagina Monologues, and Tony Stroebel, the film’s purpose is to put an end to violence against women and children across the globe. Sabrina felt drawn to take part in this global movement and contribute to the international One Billion Rising Dance Flashmob campaign by sparking an event in Montreal.

On February 14, Valentine’s Day “V-Day” Montreal is rising up in support to stop all forms of violence against women and children worldwide. This is La Presse’s brief news report on the event.
Sabrina Steczko, former host of Red Tent Movement Gatherings, one of the co-organizers of Montreal’s 2013 One Billion Rising Flashmob.

Anthem song “Break the Chain” aims to raise awareness around the world about V-Day’s fastest escalating global campaign. The One Billion Rising campaign began as a Call to Action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion—this adds up to more than ONE Billion Women and Girls.—On 14 February 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities and women and men across the world will come together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

“Rising Up” is a response back to “Break-the-Chain”, the anthem song for the OBR International Dance Flashmob campaign. Sabrina was inspired to spark this collective musical creation to give women she know—a meaninful way to weave the coherence of their hearts together. She started writing lyrics and a few days later called her friend Rad Crasto from Ohm Music to talk about partnership in this song production. Sabrina then approached 14 women friends worldwide (Las Vegas, Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montreal and India) to partake in this collective song project—a tribute to put an end to all forms of violence against women and children worldwide.