A summaryPLEASE NOTE TIMES ARE 10.30-4.30PM
These Journey Days are about nourishment and inspiration for humans, held deep in the woods and with nature and spirit as our guide.
We will do this by coming together in a compassionate, caring community: sitting in a circle, listening attentively, walking with nature, connecting with the seasons, the elementals and honouring the spirit of the place. These days can help you build ways of connecting and being, so that you can embody practices that will help both you and our wider community to flourish and thrive.
The Four Shields work that stands behind the work of the School of Lost Borders - and others - will support what we do. Steven Foster and Meredith Little's book "The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature" is a great source. Both Jenny and Jane have worked with Meredith Little.
To become flourishing beings perhaps we need these four things:
- The first, to be fully in our own circles - to know ourselves in a grounded and compassionate way, to know our joys and wounds. To know how to spend time alone, to be reflective, and not to get lost in the depths of our psyche.
- Second, to be in relationship with other humans, to listen deeply and witness others' stories. To be in community, in good times and in through hard places. This helps us move beyond our own selves and draws something from us and at the same time it feeds another.
- Third, to find ways to listen and attend to the beings that are not humans, the more-than-human - the creatures, plants, rocks, wind, sun and all the others, whom are our kin.
- Fourth, to welcome and honour spirit, God, Goddess, nature - whatever you call the being(s) that moves through all things, that is greater-than-us. Each Journey day links with the seasons and festivals of the time.
So these days are about bringing those four things together, and adding another magical ingredient. You!
Imbolc Journey Day 2023
Sunday 5th February
Timings 10.30am- 4.30pm
At Young Wood near Taunton.
Clearing, by Martha Postlethwaite
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worth of rescue.
This poem sums up the period between Midwinter and Imbolc which falls around the end of January. The time of Imbolc is when the energy starts to stir and awaken in our inner and outer landscapes. Until then we are still dreaming and waiting in the clearing for the first pure unfettered impulses to start to emerge. At Imbolc we start to tease out these impulses, begin new creations, craft new words, deeds and promises for the following year in service of ourselves our land and our people.
It is a potent time to be with others and make pledges to ourselves witnessed by a supportive circle of fellow seekers of a spirit led life, with the spirit of nature as our guide, and with reciprocity as part of our story. We will honour this time and mark new beginnings, move our bodies, spend some solo time with nature/land/spirit and offer what gifts we have to the community and the land.
We will evoke and attune with the energies of the time, of the cusp between North and East Shields discovering gifts that can come from knowing ourselves here. To do this we will touch lightly on all the other shields, so that all are safe and ready for what learning and experience needs to emerge.
Hot soup provide by us, bring something to share.
Led by Jenny Archard, Jane Embleton and the land itself
Cost: Min £55 (for those on lower incomes) Max £70 (for those on higher incomes)
Maximum of 10 spaces
