Wild Church

Dartington Yew

One of the hopes for Open Spirit has been that it might stimulate some of us 'in offering and being involved with interspiritual services or 'future church'. So it's exciting to feel the Spirit already moving and to see the beginning of one such offering already beginning to emerge. Sam and Beth have started to reconnect with local Christian congregations and to dream up a 'Wild Church' that we hope may bring established and emerging Church together and also offer a new way of celebrating the sacred that is welcoming to all and that draws us out into the wild, in celebration of the community of all beings and the spirit of the earth.

As we enter the new Christian year today, on the first Sunday of Advent, we are looking ahead to our first event next Sunday, December 7th. Beth and I will be joining the established congregation at Dartington Church for their Sunday service at 11.15am, at which visitors are always welcome. We hope some members of the congregation will then join us and there will also be a warm welcome to people of any faith or none to come along for a 'Bring & Share' Advent Sunday Lunch in Dartington Village Hall from 1pm. Lunch will start with a natural blessing and conclude with an invitation for donations to cover costs and to raise funds for Dartington's LandWorks Project, which is a work based training scheme providing a supported route back into community for current and ex-prisoners.

After lunch, from perhaps 2.30pm we'll be exploring some Wild Church, starting with some reflections and meditation to awaken our senses, before setting off outside into the twilight for a silent walk to the ancient yew by the old church on the Dartington Estate. Any and all are welcome to join us in this celebration of the spirit of wild. We'll close with a short, simple, elemental ceremony and blessing by the yew, with the option to 'walk and talk' back to our starting point for those that wish.

We will walk whatever the weather, so do come prepared with strong shoes and good waterproofs. Some of us love the dark and will walk unlit into the gathering night, but do bring lanterns if you wish.

This event will be the first in a series of Wild Church gatherings on a similar pattern on the first Sunday of the month. We are planning a month by month pilgrimage up the River Dart towards the source... and perhaps also back down the river towards the sea. We are still building our website and Facebook page but do look out for River Dart Wild Church and we hope you come along along and join us in 'bringing Spirit back to Earth'!

Held by the Great Mother

During our first Open Spirit day, Held by the Great Mother, we took inspiration from our Palaeolithic ancestors whom it seems expressed something of their sense of the sacred through travelling deep into the dark womb of the Goddess in underground caves. Around the world there remain many examples of ancient sacred art created with natural earth pigments and charcoal on the walls of caves, some in places that lay deep underground in complete darkness.

The lighter openings of caves and rocky overhangs also offered shelter and camp sites, especially it seems by the sea and during the winter months, as food would continue to be available there for hunter gatherer people. I remember visiting a site in Scotland where the rock is still stained black by the smoke of ancient fires and where great heaps of discarded shells (shell middens) have been found and excavated by contemporary archaeologists.

Some of the earliest burial sites in Europe have been found in the UK and are also in caves, such as the so called 'Red Lady' of Paviland in South Wales. 'She' actually turned out to be a palaeolithic man (currently dated to around 32,000 BCE) who seems to have been ceremonially buried in a red dyed garment with hoops and wands of mammoth ivory and a collection of perforated periwinkle shells, perhaps a necklace or for divinatory use. (See the book 'Pagan Britain' by Bristol University professor  and historian Ronald Hutton for further reading).

Here in Devon we are blessed to have another significant ancient cave site on our doorstep, so when our Open Spirit group was looking for our first field trip, Kent's Cavern at Torquay was our obvious choice.
So a handful of us set off for Babbacombe on a lovely sunny November morning. Having gathered a little late for the first guided tour, we got off to a good start by shouting and staggering along in the darkness of the caves in search of the rest of the tour party, only to discover they were in fact all standing behind us, no doubt rather bemused by these odd women! It's fair to say that we were probably a thorn in the flesh of our tour guide with a combined tendency to break out into sacred chants, ask too many questions, get out sketchbooks and wander off the beaten track into the dark rather than being good and sticking to the well lit and well trodden paths.

We did have a wonderful time though and there is something very special about journeying into the earth in this way. The caverns themselves are very beautiful with their pillars of calcite in different forms and many still in the process of forming and so slick and shining with moisture in a way that seems both strangely molten and solid at the same time and with some of the fantastic shapes reflected in dark pools of water.

We stood in a bear's den and were shown the bones of animals that had lived in the caves long ago, sometimes alongside our early human ancestors... But perhaps the most powerful moments, certainly for me (Sam) was that of all the lights being extinguished, such that we could really experience the rare and complete darkness of being underground. Later, walking into the dark caves on my own, with no sense of where I was other than the feel of the earth beneath my feet, I felt rested by the depth of this darkness and by the way it slowly sharpened my other senses to the music of dripping water and the cool tang of the air. Contemporary culture is so well lit and so visually dominant and often over stimulating - so, if you are reading this, why not close your eyes for a moment and cup your hands over them... take a few slow breaths and rest in a few moments of deep, dark stillness.

Emerging later from the caves, we walked down to the sea close to Ansty's Cove. Following recent mornings of study and meditation on local geology, with the Wood Sisters Celtic Circle, it was a particular pleasure to meet the limestone and red sandstone cliffs and find many beautiful stones on the shore. Some of our hardier members stripped off for some wild swimming and then we all gathered in a circle to create a natural altar and share a spontaneous silent communion (featuring a breaking apart of 'the small orange of Christ' in place of the more common communion wafer and spring water in the place of wine). We then headed home for hot chocolate, so all in all, it was a great day of good company and wild and wonderful explorations.

Holding Sacred Space

Day 1: Holding Self to Hold Others 

It is Sunday – our traditional day of Sabbath, which means the day of the week that people for many hundreds of years have been dedicating to spending sacred time together. Our ‘holding sacred space’ workshop is an explorative enquiry and embodied practice into how we can create sacred space for ourselves and others, and in doing so begin to develop a collaborative way of ministering.


The questions that opened our day together were…
What do you long for?
What is sacred space and how is it different from normal space?

Into the pot were placed longings for deeper relationship, for community, for a remembering and renewing of our traditional sacred space, for a rebalancing of the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine in the wider world and in one’s life, an honouring of both the light and the dark, the external and the internal...

We followed this with some musings on the responses of what sacred space means to us. The photograph above reveals some of the words and phrases that emerged in the group.

The model for holding space is one developed by Sam and is based on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. This is a model of four worlds, which when mapped onto ourselves begins at the level of Body or Physicality, and then Self or Psyche, then the Bigger Self or Stable Witness, and finally Divine Being or the All.

To hold space for others we must hold space for ourselves. Holding space for ourselves is based in the capacity to consciously inhabit these four worlds; that means being embodied, becoming aware of the self, expanding awareness to the bigger self, and having a sense of being held by ‘the All’. It is not a one way transcending ladder through each world, but rather an inclusive journey through each world, so that each one is acknowledged and present, and you are therefore able to hold space that invites all these dimensions in others.

Knowing these different worlds in ourselves, we can become better aware of what resources each dimension needs to thrive. What I need on a bodily level is different to what I need in spirit, and in fact the tangible realisation of my day was that often how I feed myself in body is in response to hunger on a deeper level for connection. It is evident to me that we live in a society transfixed on bodily needs – exemplified in the over-consumption of food, entertainment, sex, drugs, etc. This kind of feeding gives us a shallow and temporary sense of fullness. It is unable to reach the depths of hunger of our human soul – the need for true relationship, love and nourishment. In our world today, Sunday is no longer such a sacred day. The churches are emptying and the shops are full. But can shops really replace what our sacred houses provide? There is a fundamental difference between the two – shops feed only our material needs whereas sacred space has the potential to feed all.

Our sacred house for this journey is Juliette’s beautiful home in Dartington, and here on this Sunday we collaboratively created sacred space for ourselves and one another.

Articulated by one group member:
The day reminded me of contemporary accounts of Jesus' community; at a time of turbulence and great spiritual anticipation, where people gathered in small, intimate gatherings within the home, long before the great cathedrals were built and long before their revelations were to become a religion.  

The altar at the end of the weekend with additions of soil and rock, poem and tree.

The Restoration of Love

Day 1: Held by the Great Mother

Our altar at the start of the weekend

This blog post marks the first weekend of Open Spirit’s brand new and pioneering course, and it also marks my first contribution to this journal.

After many hours spent this summer in Sam’s garden discussing the work I was developing for my holistic science dissertation, I am now entering into the work that Sam has been developing for the past 30 years, work that she calls holistic spirit. The movement from holistic science to holistic spirit is evidently a fluid one, and actually if I am honest holistic spirit has been what I’ve been studying all along! Really, there is not much difference. Both are explorations into the nature of being human, of being animal, and of being creatures of the universe.

What does the word ‘holistic’ mean? The word finds its root in the Greek word holos, meaning whole. Its most dominant usage has been in the context of holistic medicine or holistic therapy, which examine the whole of the person rather than dividing the person into separate parts. In the context of science, holistic means to utilise our whole selves in the scientific enquiry, exemplified by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who used direct perception and imagination to come into relationship with his study subjects and therefore encounter his study subject in their wholeness. So, what does holistic mean in the context of spirituality? What does it mean to practice holistic spirit? What does a holistic spirituality look like? Following on from a thought of one group member, I will leave these as open questions with no answers and carry the question marks with me as I journey through the year.

What I do know is that when I read the vision of Open Spirit, it felt like a meeting of words on paper with unspoken and unknown words in me. There was such a deep understanding and a deep connection, I could barely contain my excitement. When the day finally came to begin our explorations into holistic spirit, I found myself a little overwhelmed. On the invitation to introduce myself to the group and to say a little about what my intentions were with this course, the bigness of what all of it meant to me felt like a wordless ocean, ebbing and flowing through every cell. The words that came out did not do justice but they were to do with developing an embodied spirituality authentic to my own native traditions. Basically it’s about returning home; to myself, to community and to the Earth.

We began our journey of the day by placing our human story in the context of the wider story of the Universe, and arrived in human form as hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherers we became, first through a trance telling from Sam, and secondly through our own meanderings, foragings and beings. Here is an account of group member Kengo’s experience with the curious eyes and inquisitive hands of a hunter-gatherer…

I got up and went outside, towards the explosive reds of a maple with the sun behind. For this exercise, we were to spend one hour alone, in silence, in the spirit of our innate hunter-gatherer, lead only by that which most draws us in. Amongst the dazzle of five-pointed leaves, I came across a small wind chime held by the alert figure of a robin. His handsome red chest crafted from stained glass, fluidly mixing with the buff and brown of his plumage. So much care to capture his essence, how the wire frame turned into his spindly, poised legs. 

Kengo's sketches

I continued to saunter around the garden and noticed an earthen figure of a hare looking up at me from between two flower pots. Its eyes were of a steely glaze, ears pulled back with a look of wild determination. What was it that was drawing me to these objects? It struck me when continuing my journey into the dark corner of the garden. Hanging shamelessly upside down from a string was the figure of a bat, wings outstretched, revealing its little rodent body. I chuckled to myself. It was made from plastic, a cheap child's toy with visible mould lines, but unmistakably bat-like nevertheless.

Whoever made this, probably a Chinaman, had taken the time to look, as I have, and notice what makes a bat, a bat. As had the creator of the robin and the hare. I stepped back and realised the placement of the figures; the robin high up in the maple tree, the hare, hiding between the flower pots and the bat in the dark corner of the garden. I was moved by this sensitivity, how we as humans, create figures that give us joy inspired by the beings we share our world with and then we even place them where they would feel most at home.

Before this day, I had been feeling unusually black in my heart, mourning the catastrophic damage that we are causing to our planet. Trivial as it may first seem, in this hour I touched a glimmer of hope, amongst all the madness, of an aspect of the human spirit that if fully embraced, could just save us all.

I end with deep gratitude for this first step in our journey into the restoration of love, and with a poem from group member Abigail and a tree from Juliette…

Child of the Earth

Art piece created by Juliette

Heart beats blood
swallowing death
swallowing terror
listening to the stories
she can  barely speak
I can barely listen to

She trails her violation
an endless ghost of extinction
in this insane world

horror upon horror
human cruelty
and the pull to love
and the need to trust

myopic repetition
ruthless suppression
no voice for the raped
no justice in death

only in the lightening of the edges of clouds
and the shimmering of insects
and the climb of the rose
only in the steady, persistent joy at waking to the sun,
knowing warmth loves us into being
can we know we are of the earth and made by the stars

Holistic Spirit

Invitations for the new Open Spirit Courses are going out today!

After months of conversations, planning, writing and preparation it feels deeply meaningful to send out invitations, dates and details and then wait and watch as the mysterious spiritual alchemy of a group coming together unfolds.

I experience all spiritual community as emerging mysteriously from the deep stream of life. My role initially seems to be a kind of quiet listening... to hopes and longings, needs and questions... both within myself and others until a certain kind of purpose or beginning starts to crystallise.

After quiet conception, there's a gestational growth spurt of active organisational work, as basic structures, from course outlines to venue, start to take form and move towards a new birth.This early stage isn't possible without some parenting and support, such that already 'two or more are gathered' like a seed crystal holding the blueprint for a community to build on.

So I'd like to acknowledge the encouragement and enthusiasm of Beth Thomas, who will be assisting me in offering these new courses. I've been privileged to supervise Beth as she writes her dissertation for an MSc at Schumacher College, in which she is making her own exploration of the fourfold way of knowing so central to my own understanding and experience of holistic spirit. I'd also like to honour the generosity of Juliette Rich who has offered to be our host in her newly refurbished and beautiful period home and garden in central Dartington (picture above). A loved and lovely home base is such a helpful vessel and holding for group work.

I'm also deeply grateful to soul friends Helen, Jan, Karen, Debbie and others who have shared their hopes and longings and encouraged me to share my own and create this new beginning. Everything emerges out of relationship, with the Source and with each other. Thank you.

Quest 2014

The third and final of our Open Spirit resurrection appearances, took place in the Wood Sisters Red Tent at Quest in late July where Open Spirit hosted a full day programme on Sunday 27th of July with a theme of Welcoming the Sabbath Bride.

Our Quest weekend had started on Thursday as members of all the Living Spirit groups, Wood Sisters and friends got together to transport, raise and decorate the Red Tent as a sanctuary space for Quest Festival. It was a real pleasure to bring all these different people together, including men and women across several generations (from mid teens to great grandmothers) and create community together for the weekend.

Intergenerational Red Tent Raising!

Sam started the morning with a moving meditation on being held by the Great Mother. It was a great blessing to start the day with about 30 women gathered together in stillness. Open Spirits Juliette and Hilda then held open sanctuary space, while outside the Red Tent Katie kindly 'womaned' the stall and welcome desk.

The entrance to the Red Tent and Welcome Area

After elevenses, Sam's workshop on the Divine Feminine transported us back to the Biblical times of the Matriarch Sarah through a trance telling of her story which rooted back into Ancient Mesopotamian culture and religion, portraying Sarah as a priestess of Ur. (Based on the book, Sarah the Priestess, written from her doctoral research by Savina Teubal). For some participants this gave a whole new perspective and connection with the Hebrew Bible and the matriarchal roots of Judaism and Christianity.

More open sanctuary followed, held this time by Totnes Vicar Debbie Parsons and artist and writer, Helen Sands, with soulful harp and singing from musician and thanatologist, Abigail Robinson. After lunch our final workshop was given by Ian and Gail Adams of Beloved Life who introduced us to several female mystics from throughout the ages, from a Desert Mother to contemporary poet Mary Oliver. Quotes, reflections and original poems from Ian's new book Unfurling were woven together beautifully with time for quiet, sharing and a simple ritual.

Heaven and Earth...light shines from the roof wheel to beside the altar

The day and the weekend concluded with a collaborative ceremony co-ordinated by Debbie, Helen and Sam. We gathered through silence and song and then named some of the aspects of the Divine feminine & masculine which had been invoked during the day... Nanna and Ningal, Inanna and Dumuzi, Asherah and Yahveh, Mary and Jesus... and engaged with the following words from Clarissa Pinkola Estes & the Bible, illustrated with a simple mime

From 'Untie the Strong Woman' (Blessed Mother's Love for the Wild Soul)

'The Mother I most often carry with me everywhere is the Woodsister La Nuestra Señora,
Our Lady of Guadalupe, she whose mantle is fashioned of moss from the north side of trees at sunset, she who has star shards caught in her wild silver hair.Her gown is soft, coarse-woven cloth with the thorns and weed seeds and petals of wild roses caught in it.
She has dirty hands from growing things earthy, and from her day and night work alongside her hard-working sons and daughters, their children, their elders, all.'

'Any human being needing comfort, vision, guidance, or strength is heard by the Immaculate Heart.....And thus, Blessed Mother arrives immediately with veils flying, to place us under her mantle for protection, to give us that one thing the world often longs for so :
the warmth of the mother's compassionate touch.'

'...and we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Source of all Being are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to the other.For this comes from the Source who is spirit.'
(2 Corinthians. 3:18) 

Then we shared a collaborative ceremony of passing on the veil or mantle of priest'hood' and taking it in turns to give and receive blessing, closing with a final circle of hebrew song and shared prayers of thanksgiving which made a beautiful conclusion to our time in the Red Tent. Deep thanks to all who worked so hard throughout the day to offer a warm welcome, inspiration, creativity and sanctuary.

Holy Week

Following our Open Spirit presence at the Wood Sisters Winter Festival, another small step in this resurrection process was taken during Holy Week. Inspired by Mary Magdalene and Maundy Thursday, I and soul friend, Helen Sands, invited a group to join us for a collaborative ceremony at my home during Holy Week.

Helen had found encouragement in Clarissa Pinkola Este's book 'Untie the Strong Woman' and we both drew inspiration from Cynthia Bourgeault's writing on restoring the sacrament of anointing. So within our afternoon we wove together bible passages from John's Gospel, of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, with some beautiful original poetry written by Helen.

Our vessel for the afternoon was drawn from the collaborative communion pattern that we have used in many Living Spirit groups over the years. So we began to gather together physically in Dartington and gathered ourselves inwardly and drew together spiritually as a group by lighting a central candle and settling into some silent meditation.

Moving on to engage with some sacred teaching, I offered some thoughts on the meaning of this spiritual season, drawing upon pagan reflections on the Spring Equinox, Jewish teachings about Pesach/Passover and the Christian inspiration of Holy Week. It was a blessing to have members of all these spiritual traditions within the group, who added their own insights and experience, such that this was very much a sharing of collaborative wisdom.

Helen then added her reflections on the Gospel passages with her poetry and passed around some beautiful images including a carved detail of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and paintings of Mary at the foot of the Cross by Giotto and others.

Much as I'd love to include all of Helen's writing, I'll share just the shortest piece here:

At the Foot of the Cross

My sisters sit like ancient stones around his slumped body, ancient, eternal, as if in memory they have mourned every death since the beginning of time. Rooted they sit, wailing, weaving the cloth of keening into his shroud.

Mary his mother embraces his head, his shoulders. The weight of him is in her lap. She will never let him go from her gaze, her embrace.

I sit at his feet. I hold them, one in each hand. Stone cold. Shocking. Both feet broken, pierced through by nails, bloody and torn. Never to tread the earth again.
Rocking gently to and fro, all I can do is hold them. From my heart the oil will come to anoint him. I have nothing else. From my heart, this tide of pain and of my tears. Anointing.

After a space for everyone to contribute their own responses, thoughts, feelings and experience, we moved on to share our own washing and anointing ceremony. The group formed in pairs and each pair found their own sacred space either in the house or outside in the garden. Then we quietly took it in turns to wash and dry each others feet and then anoint them with fragrant oil, including the option of spikenard oil (or nard) as mentioned in the Bible.

This was a very deep experience of communion, of a sacred giving and receiving that really felt touched by both a very personal and a transpersonal love. It felt especially meaningful to meet in such a sensual and embodied way and for this to be happening within the greater holding of nature, beneath the sun and the trees, on the good earth in the garden.

Our afternoon concluded as we joined back together in a circle to share our reflections on the ceremony and to bless each other through singing together and pray that blessings would flow through us into our families, communities and the world. In the spirit of death and rebirth, slavery and freedom, loss and love and the re-balancing the masculine and feminine that had woven through the afternoon, we sang Down to the River to Pray, which was first published in 'Slave Songs of the United States' in 1867 with the following lines:

As I went down in de valley to pray,
Studying about dat good old way,
When you shall wear de starry crown,
Good Lord, show me de way.
O sister let's go down,
let's go down, let's go down,
O sister, let's go down,
Down in de valley to pray.

Our version, following this inspiration, went on to include brothers, mothers, fathers and more...and the day ended in a final agape feast of tea and home made cake. With heartfelt thanks to all who joined us.

Festival Sanctuary

We had a wonderful time at the Wood Sisters Winter Festival!
As joint festival co-ordinator it was also a very full time... but after months of admin it felt very special to finally focus on my own creative offering for the day and set up the sanctuary with my friend, Miriam, in a beautiful space at the South Devon Steiner School.

There are many magic moments and also challenging ones during a festival, especially when one is holding the overall event, holding a venue within it and offering sessions within both the wider event and the venue - it's a great opportunity to be big and also to let go at moments and receive and be held by others and to feel held oneself by something bigger still.

Here is a glimpse of some personal highlights:

One: There's a quiet moment in creating sanctuary space; after a lot of heavy lifting and moving furniture, a great draping of cloths and distribution of everything from flowers and candles, to paper and wax crayons. There's a Sabbath moment of completed creation, after the candles are lit and before everyone arrives, a moment to step back and see that it's good and to sink into silence and an opening of the heart which prays wordlessly that this may be a sanctuary for all that enter here, a place of peace, of authenticity, of healing, of spirit.

Sanctuary

Two: Walking away, letting go and leaving Miriam to welcome the first Sanctuary visitors - that's a good gesture to begin the day... to co-create and then let go and let be. Feeling deep gratitude...
Walking in then to the Opening Ceremony and being swept into the dance of winter into spring, of Cailleach and Bride. I'm mesmerised by the giant puppets as they dance together around the central altar with its circles of candles, greenery, snowdrops and a small spring pool - as Sue and I speak the words of an ancient story and invite all present to place their wishes and blessings in the central pool.

Bride blesses the Spring

Three: After the ceremony I join as a participant in Ian and Gail's exploration of the spirituality of Imbolc and Candlemas. What a blessing it is to receive their reflections and Ian's poetry, to feel held and guided in meditation and have someone else watch the time and the group dynamics during an invitation to share with my neighbour, so all I have to do is share and listen - bliss!

Gail on her Green Throne

Four: I come back into stillness and peace in the Sanctuary with gentle lyre music playing. Then into the rhythm of a day of guiding meditation, trance telling and holding collaborative ceremony. Mostly the space is very full and there's beauty and depth but not necessarily silence! Heavy duty colouring, whispering children, background strands of music, voices and laughter are all woven into sacred space.

Five: For me there's always interesting moments in holding sanctuary... how to make sure children are free to light prayer candles while not setting themselves or anyone or anything else alight. How to pitch the words of a guided meditation over an enthusiasm toddler settling in for a long stint of using a hole punch, on a wooden table, for her prayer card. How to simply be deeply present as people come and go and weep and sleep and are hurt and angry and full of joy and love and...

Six: Magic moments as other artists and priests come in to offer stories, music and more. I get to sit back and watch children entranced as Iwan and friend transport us to other places and times... and I am washing along with everyone else by Abigail's beautiful harp music during ceremony and inspired by Debbie's steady voice and words during our shared trance telling.

Abigail

Seven : The day draws to a close and the open sanctuary time is finished. I'm back in the silence after a day of creation, with the candles burning in the evening darkness now and it's good to feel the fulness of all the living and sharing that's unfolded here and to feel that fulness of the heart that wordlessly gives thanks and wishes blessings upon all at the Festival and beyond...

Miriam's Goddess sculpture on the Sanctuary Altar

And at the last I return to receiving, joining the audience for Carolyn Hillyer's soul stirring music and words. I'm travelling with her in imagination to the Far North and joining in the passion of songs to herd the reindeer. Then there's a final moment as Sue, Victoria and I step forward into the dark, mysterious space beyond the light pool of performance, to thank all the artists and volunteers and visitors, all those hundreds of people that have gathered with us to co-create this incredible day.

In the belly

Living Spirit continues to grow and thrive through the Wood Sisters and the Tree of Life School... while the rebirth of Open Spirit remains in a gestational phase,  'in the belly'.

But as this small school of the soul grows inwardly, it is starting now to have more of a form again and some new year hopes and intentions are being seeded and starting to put down roots, ready for some early Spring shoots to emerge at Imbolc/Candlemas and beyond. It's first shoot will be a Christian presence at the Wood Sisters Winter Festival, followed by a Holy Week celebration and a day programme of workshops, meditation and a collaborative communion in the Wood Sisters Red Tent at Quest Festival in July. To start with, here are some notes from the upcoming Winter Festival Programme, introducing some of the themes of Imbolc and Candlemas:

At Imbolc and Candlemas we are half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and enjoying the snow drops and earliest signs of Spring. Bride or Brigid, the goddess associated with Imbolc (subsequently the Christian St Bridget), inspired poetry, bards and blacksmiths and presided over healing springs and wells, among her many other qualities. She was later characterised as the midwife or wet nurse to the baby Jesus. Candlemas is a time to bless all the candles to be used in the coming year and to celebrate women as Mary returned to the temple after her 40 day absence following the birth of her baby. Christians tell the story of Anna and Simeon who welcomed the baby Jesus and his parents to the Temple at this time. Imbolc celebrated the first milk of the season as baby lambs were born. It may translate as “in the belly” – life is stirring but Spring has not yet fully arrived.

Open Spirit will be part of the Winter Festival at the South Devon Steiner School on Saturday February 1st. I, Sam, am joint festival co-ordinator with Sue Charman, my dear friend and sister founder of the Wood Sisters. We have put together a wonderful programme for the day and this year have added dance workshops and healing to our usual rich mix of myth and storytelling, talks, poetry and music, meditation and ceremony, crafts and delicious organic food. The Wood Sisters Red Tent, which we created in 2012 with the funds raised from the last Winter Festival, will be our Box Office for the day and a roaring fire and warm welcome await you there.

On the day, I'll be hosting the Sanctuary which has a full day programme of its own, starting with lyre music and meditation and moving on to include meditative storytelling and simple ceremony. There will also be times for silent sanctuary and space for writing prayers, lighting candles and just being.

As an Open Spirit at the Winter Festival, I am especially delighted to be joined by Christian friends and fellow/sister priests Debbie Parsons and Ian Adams. Debbie is a priest in the Church of England and works in the the Totnes Team. She has recently founded Sacred Space, an opportunity for people to encounter God through alternative worship. She will be joining me in the Sanctuary at 5pm for an hour of meditative storytelling moving from an ancient pre-christian celtic story of Bride and the Cailleach for Imbolc, through to the Christian story of the Biblical characters, Simeon, Anna and Mary, associated with Candlemas.

Bride and the Cailleach in both story and giant puppet form will also be opening the Festival in the Greenwood Hall at 9.30am, followed by Anglican Priest Ian Adams and his wife Gail, creators together of the Beloved Life Project. Here are their details from the Winter Festival website artists page:

A theme common to the mid-winter festivals of both Imbolc and Candlemas is the possibility of something new being formed as yet unseen, ‘in the belly’ of the earth and ‘in the belly’ of the person.

With a spacious mix of insight, stillness and spiritual practice, we hope that this session may enable you to further deepen your own patterns of spiritual practice, enabling the new thing to be formed ‘in the belly, as yet unseen’, and so to bring goodness to the world.

Gail is a life-coach, mentor and retreat-leader working with insights from thinkers and practitioners in human possibility and becoming: she runs the see:change project
www.about.me/gail.adams

Ian is a poet, photographer, artist and priest, creator of Morning Bell, director of StillPoint, author of ‘Cave Refectory Road: monastic rhythms for contemporary living’ and ‘Running Over rocks: spiritual practices to transform tough times’ (Canterbury Press)
www.about.me/ianadams

For more details about the Wood Sisters Winter Festival, please visit our website

http://www.woodsisterswinterfestival.co.uk/