Earth Initiation
The greater part of the soul lies outside the body
– James Hillman
We used to 'know' our belonging in our bones. As a culture we have grown away from intimacy with the more-than-human world, yet it waits for us. This initiatory journey is an invitation to remember what we deeply belong to, what we have always belonged to.
For much of our story as a people, the wider natural word has long been respected as a necessary partner in initiatory journeys or rites of passage. The land offers itself as mirror, as ally, as fertile container in which to draw close to the roots of our life, to what is important and what so easily can be forgotten in the fullness of contemporary life.
This journey will be divided into the three classic phases of a passage rite: Preparation, Threshold and Incorporation.
Family Wild Camp
The Family Wild Camp has welcomed new and returning families alike for the past 5 years, to share adventures in the inspiring grounds of Anam Cara and the surrounding woods. Come and experience nature’s wild wonder and ancient awesomeness together as community!
Weaving an adventure of experiential learning and deep nature connection through wild games and play, alongside focused sessions of wild-crafting, animal tracking, foraging, wild swimming and storytelling, the Family Wild Camp is nature-culture in the making!
https://www.anamcara.org/view_information.php?id=117&start_date=20190725§ion=1
Meeting the Wild
This is a two-week retreat with an emphasis on consciously inhabiting and engaging with the wild landscape which surrounds the Ecodharma Centre. It brings meditation and earth-based practices into relationship with each other through wilderness immersion, culminating with a 3- day solo period in the wild.
Day Workshops
A range of half-day workshops exploring our relationship with wildness, sense of place and seasonality through experiential practices including wild-crafting, creative writing and contemplative practices.
Shamanic Journeying and Natural Cordage
@ Anam Cara, July 2019
A morning workshop with adults and toddlers exploring the wild landscapes of our imagination, and the wild-craft skills of making natural cordage. The physical acts of stripping the willow, removing the bark and twisting strands into cordage offers an embodied way into meeting the plant, as our hands begin to remember these ancestral skills; twisting, listening and sharing in the growth of community.
Wild Marks and Eco-poetics
@ Ecodharma, June, 2019
An afternoon workshop exploring eco-poetic approaches to text. Beginning with wild mark-making and the gathering of textual responses from the land, then leading into free-writing exercises, before using these as ‘maps’, or stimulus for crafting a poem.