the great return
How we work with the land matters.
To slow down, to create space for observation, interaction and celebration changes how we relate to and work with Nature and each other.
To listen to the land and to ourselves within it gives us the space we need to hear a different song, a new story, of being and becoming together.
For we are not separate from the land, from Nature, from Earth. And we are allowed to remember that.
my story
I came to the world of guided ceremony in my mid-twenties through women's circles marking full moons and the solar and fire festivals of the Celtic calendar. After a year of being led, I found myself standing around the fire as guide-ess. A full-circle moment of reciprocity and alchemy. I still hold those spaces for those within my community.
During this time, I had begun to feel there was something missing, something intangible, from my own approach to rewilding and Nature Recovery, something that honoured and celebrated and held space for a deepening of relationship between humans and our co-inhabitants of Earth. Something I wanted to share. I tried to incorporate it into my active work with the land, but I always found myself forgetting, reverting to doing as I have always done. Which I began to realise was fine; for my modern mind, re-establishing inherent deep relationship is a slow process that requires intentionality. Perhaps, I wondered, it was enough to bless the land as a whole once I had finished, intentionally and with reverence, rather than trying to remember to bless each tree as I planted it. Perhaps it was enough to ask permission before I began, than to ask each branch as I pruned it away.
I realised then, that the thread of the celebrations marking the turning of the year could be woven into my active work with the land and shared beyond my own immediate community.
the Opening ceremony
The first time that I was invited to lead ritual and ceremony following this call was the annual Wassail at Lower Sharpham Farm in Devon. Wassailing is an old West Country tradition held in deepest winter. It is a celebration of the Apple trees, honouring their abundance, their spirit, their gifts and in return blessing them and making as much noise as possible to wake them from their slumber through the dark months of the year and to scare any malevolent spirits from their branches. This festivity is an abundance of joy, of noise and a guide towards our old ways of reciprocity with the land. A belief that we had a responsibility not just towards to ecological health of the land, but also it's spiritual health. And that if we took good care of both, the land would take good care of us in return. We gathered in the old orchard at the farm, the group of school children eager to bang their metal bowls with their metal spoons and whoop at the top of their voices. We sang and blessed using the old words and gave the trees the gifts of apple juice and bread. As I stood as guardian of the orchard, holding gently the responsibility of reverence, I felt the inspiration spark to reimagine more ways in which we can collectively reconnect to, follow and celebrate the abundance of the Earth and all the ways we are helping Her restore.
Beithe rewilding ceremonies...
I offer carefully crafted ceremonies, rituals and guided celebrations that honour and celebrate the reciprocity and collaboration between Earth and her human communities that is represented by the land. Whether those that echo and reflect the old traditions, such as the Wassail, or new ones dreamed up through collaboration. I draw on wisdom offered from many sources, from the ways of our indigenous Celtic ancestors, from the folk traditions of Britain and Ireland, from modern Earth-based spirituality, from my own lived experience and that of my community. And of course from the land herself.
Do you have a milestone in your land-based project you wish to celebrate or ritualise? A beginning, a middle or an end? Is there a season or a transformation you wish to mark through ceremony? Or are you just looking for an excuse to feast and dance barefoot on the Earth?
Get in touch to discuss what we can co-create!