retreats

Each year there are two residential retreats - in a quiet, rural environment close to Glastonbury. The venue is EarthSpirit, an award-winning centre with a huge, beautifully converted stone barn as the main meeting space.  Each retreat has a different theme, but always includes working with the voice, body and breath to develop more awareness and mastery of one's own energy field and personal presence. On the last night there's a sweat lodge, based on the Native American tradition, where we use our voices to help alter our awareness or our consciousness. These are very tender moments, full of physical beauty. You can opt in or out of the sweat lodge, or simply sit in silence around a huge open fire under a night sky.

The next date for EarthSpirit is March 14th to 18th, 2012. Each retreat begins with dinner. You can come for the weekend only, arriving for dinner on the 16th. I am continuing my theme of alchemy, this time in relation to ageing. We're doing it all the time, but such is the value invested in the smooth-skinned bloom of youth we're barely noticing the great boon of maturation - wisdom based on reflection, a broader, deeper perspective of oneself and the world, an ever-growing fund of experience, so many moments of discovery, of delight, to turn retrospectively into a personal stash of metaphorical gold. The alchemical part is not as esoteric as it sounds. Each day of the week is associated with one of the seven base metals governed by the sun, the moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye. Each of those connects to a centre in the physical body. So just to exist, and to experience the passing of time, is to be a part of the whole, unique yet only as an individual expression of the same pattern. Sacred geometry, sound, silence, very simple yoga stretches, teachings, contemplation and discussion are all part of this event in March. Later in 2012 I'll be inviting people to join me on a trip to Egypt for a deeper appreciation of the alchemical process.

Contact me if you would like more information.

 

journeys

Every now and again a place, or something at a particular place, "calls".  This could be in my imagination, so I usually do nothing for a few years. If it's for real, the call comes in lots of different ways.

White Lions
This is how I finally arrived at Sanbona in the spring of 2009. Sanbona is a private wildlife reserve in South Africa where white lions roam free. Some consider the white lions to be sacred, perhaps messengers from the gods. Their colour, which comes from a recessive gene, makes them stand out in many areas of the bush, so simply to survive and breed without natural camouflage is remarkable. White lions were first recorded in the Timbavati region of South Africa, where the light-coloured sandy riverbeds are a good colour match.

At Sanbona the hills are scattered with near-white rocks. You can look up and easily miss the white lion looking out from a high point. Two young males and two females, all born to white lions in captivity, were learning last spring (their autumn) to fend for themselves. One tawny lioness at Sanbona had allowed them to hunt with her. Her role in their naturalisation was therefore significant, but when I arrived she was recovering from surgery.

In South Africa the role of the sangoma, or shaman, is recognised. Invited to see if I could help the tawny lioness, I found a natural intimacy with both her and the white lions. They came when I called. I was scheduled to return to Sanbona in April when the Icelandic volcano blew. Two thirds of the party intending to visit the white lions did so without my company. Again there was an extraordinary intimacy. Some of us went again in November to listen to the land, to observe other mammals and their social structure, and to learn in a semi-desert landscape how abundance is possible when no one grouping dominates and humans adapt continuously to perpetual change. Lessons for our time perhaps. There will be further visits to Sanbona.  For more information contact me >