Deep Calls Unto Deep
A Fresh, Poetic, and Embodied Experience of the Psalms
Facilitated by Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil and Rev. David Wallace
Available via Recording
Workshop Credit Cost: 1 credit (Click Here to Purchase a Credit Package)
à la carte Price: General Public - $125.00; One Spirit Alumni - $100.00
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life.”
The Book of Psalms is a revered sacred text across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The psalms (sacred poems or songs) are cherished for their deep wisdom, beautiful poetry, and their broad exploration of the joys, sorrows, despairs, and longings at the heart of the human condition.
In this experiential workshop with guides Simon Ruth de Voil and David Wallace, you will discover and engage fresh translations of the Book of Psalms through music, song, teaching, reflective writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship.
Who this workshop is for
This workshop is not for those looking for a traditional or purely academic exploration of the Psalms. Rather, it is for all spiritual wayfarers from any (or no) spiritual orientation or tradition who are seeking a living and poetic experience.
In this workshop, you will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish your life’s journey in sacred community with our ancestors and each other.
We will invite deep conversations with small and large group sharing and join voices in song and chant. Other practices—e.g. Lectio Divina, blessing, contemplation—will be offered, and a shared web presence will give participants the opportunity to explore questions and resonant insights as the sessions progress.
What you’ll explore
How the ancient texts can help us authentically express our hearts in the modern day
Teaching on the Psalms as historical text, literature, myth, and sacred text, and hearing them anew as well – in fresh translation, as conversant to our times
Contemplative practices, such as free-flow writing, singing, and listening to the sung Psalms as a form of Lectio Divina
What you’ll experience
Register for this four-part workshop series to experience spiritual practices that strengthen, encourage, and bring new awareness and fullness to everyday life, as well as an invitation to write a short personal psalm of one's own—for example, a psalm of praise or a psalm expressing struggle.
Through this exploration, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of this ancient literature, connected with our modern life and its needs and responses. Together, we’ll receive and offer an invitation to continue your connection to psalms as an ongoing practice and embrace of the created world.
Following this workshop, you’ll be prepared to move forward with encouragement to reinvigorate your personal spiritual practice, informed by these soulful expressions.
Four Sessions | Available via Recording
Session 1 | Living Poetry: An Intimate Encounter with the Psalms
An overview of the Psalms as historical text, literature, myth, and scripture, and reframing different spiritual practices to experience a personal connection with the Psalms.
Singing the Psalms
Lectio Divina
Homework to begin practice of deepening connection
Session 2 | Psalms as Companion: Encountering Our Lives in the Psalms
Encountering the archetypal voices behind these poetic texts, thus making the embodied psalms alive in our own lives, revealing our own soul’s sighs and cries, and our capacity to praise.
Journaling as we breathe into this sense of companionship
Understanding “praise” as a spiritual practice
Session 3 | The Fullness of Life: Discovering Our Shared Humanity in Song
Exploring the Psalms’ invitation to transcend the ego and open to all aspects of our collective human experience: joy, anger, sorrow, confusion; we then can also invite healing, resolution, and change.
Lectio Divina around a song rather than a text
Journaling around open questions of our threshold barriers
Invitation to write one’s own Psalm
Session 4 | Embodying the Psalms: Serving as Anam Cara to All Beings
Engaging the Psalms as “living water” — the many invitations our psalm practice offers: daily praise; blessing of our deepest questions and doubts; engagement with the world around us as we notice more fully the beauty and mystery of creation, and our relationship to the world and to one another.
Group sharing of our composed Psalms, hearing community renewed
Blessing the whole of the complex world, and its creatures as ongoing practice.
About the Facilitators
Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil (he/they) is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, storytelling and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon provides music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.
Rev. David Wallace (he/him) recently retired as a dean and senior teacher for One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and is a faculty member of the spiritual direction program at the Rowe Center and an active officiant and spiritual director. He is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and has continued those studies as a lifelong student of the “great books” of philosophy and archetypal psychology. Rev. Wallace offers teaching and retreats at spiritual venues worldwide, and specializes in poetics, contemplative practice, and the wisdom texts of both the Eastern and Western traditions.
Where can I access the workshop?
All One Spirit workshops are hosted on Hylo - our online community platform. Workshop access will be provided via email after registration is complete. Please check your spam and/or promotions folders for your confirmation email from One Spirit. You will be guided to create a Hylo account, if you don’t already have one.