Welcome to the White Buffalo Associates (WBA) website! My name is MaryCatherine (also known as Cathy) Burgess. With the skilled assistance and patience of H. J. (Heather) Blenkinsop, who designed this website, I have worked to provide a place and space that inspires and supports collaborative ventures among kindred spirits motivated to explore and evolve visions, values and resources capable of birthing a New and Compassionate World Order that benefits all life.

The tag line for WBA, which embodies its Mission and Vision, is ‘Healing and Evolving the Anima Mundi/World Soul’. Just as each living being is energized by a Life Force that sustains it, I imagine a Life Force – a World Soul – that energizes our entire planet, universe(s) and cosmos, as we awaken to the reality of our interdependence and interrelatedness as One. Striving to heal those wounds that have blinded us to our unity with each other and with our collective Life Force, while also cultivating and evolving that Life Force Consciousness, are central to why WBA exists.

Having been raised a Vatican II Catholic with a strong mystical and social justice foundation, I was particularly drawn to cross-cultural core shamanism, which also embodies those mystical and ‘greater common good’ perspectives, particularly when partnering with Compassionate Spirits to help individuals, groups, organizations, and communities in their healing process. As a result, a mystical shamanic worldview permeates and guides all aspects of WBA work and all sections in this website.

For further information about WBA’s Founding/Name/Logo, its Mission and Vision, the Values and Principles that guide it, and some information about me, please check the ABOUT section of this website. Under ‘Founding Name and Logo’, I tell how I met the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Throughout, you’ll also see that my understanding of how work with the Anima Mundi/World Soul involves helping individuals, groups, organizations, and cultures retrieve the Spirit (energy/juice/Life Force), Purpose (individual and collective meaning, direction and unique contributions in this life), and a sense of Community needed to collectively bring forth that New and Compassionate World Order I mentioned earlier.

Indeed, if you explore the various website sections, you will find a pattern, which I see reflected in the work of many transformational leaders. That pattern begins with moving beyond a patriarchal paradigm of dominance and control into evolving and actively promoting an emerging paradigm in which small groups of people, who are energized by alignment with their Life Force, highest purpose and commitment to co-create a world that benefits all life, join networks of other kindred spirit networks to nurture and support each other across the entire ecosystem. This version of ‘Indra’s Net’ is another way of articulating how I see Spirit, Purpose, and Community interacting to heal and evolve the Anima Mundi/World Soul.

To see an overview of what WBA offers, in addition to abundant resources in the various website sections, check out WHAT WE OFFER. Similarly, because the concept of story is fundamental in our lives and work, go to the STORY section for a brief inroduction to the White Buffalo Calf Woman.

Though Spirit, Purpose, and Community overlap in a holistic way, I decided to divide those categories into three website sections – even though they intersect with each other. Under SPIRIT, I include overviews of Consciousness, Worldview, Myth, Personal Values, Theories of Development, and Self-Compassion; Spiritualty; Shamanism; and Divine Feminine and Feminist Spirituality. I also provide Selected Resources for each of these areas.

Under PURPOSE, you will find overviews of Compassion, including my work with the Charter for Compassion, the Charter’s EdNet Group, Compassionate Edinburgh initiatives, and the compassion programs I am trained to offer and facilitate; Conscious Living (Holistic Health, Healing, and Wellbeing); Conscious Grieving and Dying; the Initial Stages of the Heroine/Hero’s Journey, Dreams, Visions, Human Potential, and the Mind and Brain; and Values-Based Transformational Leadership. Again, there are Selected Resources for these areas.

The COMMUNITY section addresses the final stage of the Heroine/Hero’s Journey – becoming Social Artists and Universal Humans who share with others the fruits of their own transformational process; Co-Creating Compassionate Communities; and promoting Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability. As with the other sections, I provide Selected Resources.

Under EVENTS, you will find a listing and descriptions of past and current retreats, workshops, and/or other experiential events I have and continue to offer. The CONTACT section gives you an opportunity to contact me, if you wish.

Though I try to update this site as often as I can, sometimes I fall behind. Please have patience. Being a ‘webmaster’ without extensive ‘tech’ experience is challenging, but I’m grateful to Heather for her help, when I occasionally call upon her for guidance. 

Hope and Possibilities

During this era of unprecedented whole systems transformational change, when our personal and collective shadows are rising from the depths, we have opportunities to ‘seed this chaos’ with visions, values, and actions that reflect a worldview in which all are interrelated, interdependent, and mutually committed to co-creating a globally just society that embodies the greater good for all life on the planet.

Chaos can be daunting, but we know that order eventually will emerge. To influence the fabric of that order, all global citizens, universal humans, and social artists, who are actively midwifing this process with ‘seeds’ of compassionate justice for our planetary society, need each other’s support, encouragement, and solidarity.

May some of the ideas and resources provided in this website help all of us meet this challenge with compassion for ourselves, each other, society, and our planet. Please check the various sections, and feel free to use them, if they resonate.