community sacred fire and fire quest camp

22nd - 25th August 2024. Laughton

CONTACT ME TO BOOK OR TO ASK QUESTIONS

You are warmly invited to join us to deepen our relationships with the landscapes around us and within us. To celebrate community and find ways to embody our gifts and potential. To come home to ourselves, the earth, the elements and be in service to this Life.

To remember our interconnection, our capacity for right relationship, true helpfulness and responsibility, balance, reciprocity and gratitude. 

To be in healing together and work with ancient ways that help us tend our sadness, integrate our wounds and thrive. To hear and learn from those who have gone before us and weathered storms that came before these days. To experience that there is a reason that we are here at this time and it is not just to take, we can find our part to play, feel joy, aliveness, gratitude.

To share, sing, be silent, connect, sleep on the earth, cook by the fire and remember what a healthy culture that supports us and our relatives might feel like. 
 

Welcome to our 6th nature based gathering dedicated to cultural repair.

We feel honoured to be able to share this way of Life and the connection opportunities it offers.

We create an environment where we can slow down and step out of the constraints of modern life. We nurture our relationships with ourselves and others, our nature connectedness, our health. We deepen our direct experience of connection with the elements and aspects of the unseen including our ancestors and the future generations. We ask good questions, we listen. Nature and the patterns of Life become our teachers.  

Come and be part of this village experience in which we activate powerful traditional ceremonial formats that support connection, healing and transformation in ways that include the whole community.

We consciously and deliberately involve young people. 

You can be join in by being part of an overnight Sacred Fire or participate in a personal short form vision quest with fire as the altar.

We are supported by a wonderful intergenerational team. 

Ceremony teaches us how to live. It takes us beyond a human centric perspective. It can help us become truly helpful. What we carry out of our experiences and integrate into our lives can be firm anchors for living in ways that invite health, happiness and healing.  

You are welcome to bring your families and loved ones.

These gatherings are not workshops. They represent our sincere and heartfelt commitment to tend and re imagine a healthy culture that supports and regenerates ourselves and our environment. A place that can remind us of our reciprocal relationship with all of Life and builds "ropes of connection" inside and out that will sustain long into the future.

All our gifts have a place in these events and music, song, storytelling and great food are very much part of the experience. 

Please don’t feel put off if this kind of thing is new or unfamiliar for you. If you feel you don’t know something we will support you to navigate. We are all always in learning and you are warmly welcome.

For more background and practical details about the event, do read on……..

With mentoring from Sal Gencarelle and with my partner Hans Schuldheis we offer this Community Sacred Fire with the opportunity to do a personal overnight vision quest with fire. These traditions come from powerful lineages of the indigenous peoples of North America. However all people have access and relationship to fire so these practices transcend culture, tribe or specific philosophy.

Fire is at the heart of human culture, growth and transformation since the dawn of time.

In many indigenous cultures it is said that fire is the source of all knowledge. If we are seeking self discovery coming into direct relationship and communication with the elements of nature that are in themselves deeply connected will really support us. Fire is at the heart of all life.  There is the fire of our sun and the hearth fires that have warmed us since the dawn of time. We have the inner fire of our visions and dreams. Sacred fires have always been used to create ceremonial containers to support connection and transformation, enhancing connection on many levels.

A Fire ceremony can take many forms and can be activated for many purposes and typically carries an overarching dedication or purpose. This event is dedicated to Cultural Repair as it’s core intention. We can deeply enquire how we can participate in Life in a way that is really helpful, remember departed loved ones, honour our ancestors, quest and seek clarity, vision, purpose and truth, remember our relationship and our belonging with the elements, strengthen our ropes of connection to ourselves and our community, take time to be present with our real feelings, be in healing and share stories.

In times of grief fire can transform and in times of joy fire can be celebratory. Fire has been used since time immemorial to support the safe processing of grief, loss and sadness, and can form a part of ceremonies that honour and recognise our rites of passages.

It has a powerful relationship with questing, with the ancient ways that help us to seek our vision, alignment with life and personal activation.

There are many ways and formats to quest but questing with fire is particularly helpful for understanding how to tend life and the knowledge of the processes of life. This can support us anchor our understanding of our responsibilities as humans to support life to flourish in healthy ways.

Fire is connected to life in countless ways, without it life would not exist. So when we connect with it we are connected to all that it is connected to and all that it provides for life. Fire is an aspect of life itself that gives us access to the mind of creativity. With fire we can activate archetypal memories and layers of connectivity helping us find our own answers to our deepest questions. Sitting with fire and reflecting with it can be like sitting with a deep listening mentor, awakening knowledge and clear vision.

These ceremonies and quests are activated to support the interconnected web of creation. They are not just self serving experiences undertaken for the experience, to have a good time or for personal or individual growth.

Questing has always been about the greater context of life and are about the individual coming into relationship with the whole of life, recognising their own relationships to the collective and orientating towards their own part in being in service to that whole.

When a person approaches ceremony or quest with this level of understanding and openness it adds a potency to their experience that is not available if the purpose is solely for self. Personal openness and willingness to be in state of wanting to give to this experience of life opens access to a great level of connectivity.

We place this understanding that ceremony is for something bigger than personal aggrandisement at the forefront of our offerings. In the modern context of acquisition and hierarchical power structures we have lost the cultural patterns that help bring out peoples gifts and orientate them towards service to the whole of creation. We seek to create spaces in which cultural healing and individual healing potential can combine to place ceremony firmly in the context of supporting all of life with its myriad connections, seen, unseen, human, ancestral and way into the future.

We acknowledge that ceremony can bring what is needed to move for health and happiness to be integrated to the surface. It can feel amazing, bring insights, a sense of homecoming or a reframing of orientation to ones life. And, it can provoke things that feel far from easy to arise that need tending in order for healing to be a reality. We make sure that ongoing support is available through one to one mentoring and regular connection experiences beyond the ceremony itself to support integration.

The purpose of all ceremony lies beyond the ceremony itself. It is to find and experience internal connections and insights that can be integrated back into daily life to be able to be in Life and be in service to creation in richer ways. By following the precision and refinement of the execution of the ceremony it is possible to access a place of personal reconnection and remembering that lies beyond the form.

FIre QUest and community sacred fire - laughton

22nd - 25th August 2024

There are two ways to participate -

• As a community member supporting the Sacred Fire ceremony.

• Doing a personal overnight fire quest which is a short form vision quest.

If you are new to this we recommend you come and participate in the community Sacred Fire ceremony so you can experience this side of the process before you commit yourself to a personal quest. However if you are deeply called to quest, we will support you. Each situation is unique and we will provide mentoring to help you navigate what way of participating will best serve you at this time.

The central event is a community Sacred fire which supports the questers and is dedicated to cultural repair and the thriving of all life now and for the generations yet to come. It originates from the Odawa people of the Great Lakes region. It is a conduit for connecting to the ancestors and the future generations. You can orientate yourself more to the sacred fire part of the experience here.

The fire quest builds connection with ourselves, fire, Spirit, nature and community. It is a practical and effective way to find out more about our personal relationship and alignment with Life. This short form vision quest is supported by a community held Sacred fire. You can come as a quester or to be part of the village, sharing fire, food, song, gratitude, cultural and connection practices and the community fire ceremony.

The fire quest itself takes 24 hours, beginning at dawn on day after arrival at the camp. The quester prepares during the day and then tends their fire in a self selected place from dusk to dawn, being with the fire through its full lifecycle from conception as a spark to full fire back to embers. They return to the community fire at dawn on the following day. There is the invitation to fast from food.

These ancient formats create helpful environments in which we can build our own relationships with our purpose and meaning. We activate conditions that support healing and transformation of what might need to move in our lives. We cannot outthink our problems that have generated through our stories, traumas and grief but going into immersive experiences with connection practices can allow us to move into the subcognitive and get back into the flow of Life and spirit. We build community and relationships.

From the earliest times fire has represented a mainstay of our connective journey as humans, nourishing life, informing us how to live in a good and healthy way upon the earth and bringing knowledge and transformation.

The interactive relationship between ourselves and fire has developed over thousands of years and is multi layered. Tending our relationship to fire in healthy ways feels relevant to our lives today, where disconnection is so common and unbalanced ways of relating to the power of fire cause so much devastation to our inner and outer ecology.

“The wisdom it offers can be swift and profound and it is understood that it holds the doorway to all knowledge intended for human beings. What we do with that knowledge is of great importance at this time” (Sal Gencarelle)

Questing has always been a part of the human experience. Sitting with fire in an intentional and contemplative way is one of many ways to seek the wisdom of spirit and a way of questing that is accessible to us all. It is about our own direct relationship to spirit and the elements. There are many ways and reasons to quest. We might focus on a particular question or area in our lives, take time to reflect, offer gratitude, deepen or refine alignment and direction in life. We might focus on healing or transforming stuckness. Quests can be powerful contributors to self discovery at thresholds and rites of passage moments in our lives. At the centre of most quests lies the question of what is in our hearts at the deepest level.

Getting clear about what you really want out of the experience is something you may already know or would like to explore more as part of the preparation before going on this quest. We will support you prepare for and integrate your experience. A part of the ending of the weekend is a thanksgiving ceremony to help you to offer gratitude for the changes that you are inviting into your life and “own” your own experience more fully.

Questers need to be over 13 and be accompanied by a parent onsite if under 16. Whether you feel to quest or want to be at the community fire it is an experience rich in connection potential.

If you are questing you are welcome to invite friends or relatives to support you at the community fire. A big part of our intention with this work is to build healthy, vibrant and supportive community over time.

The format of the time is

• Gathering on the first day of the camp at 1pm in the woods in Laughton, setting camp and orientating towards the ceremony. Teachings and time for questers to get really clear about what they are questing for.

• Questers begin preparation at dawn on the following morning and prepare their quest sites that day, leaving for their overnight fire quests near dusk. There is the option for a steam off to purify and prepare in a sauna or in a simplified version of a sweat lodge. There is an option to fast from food from dawn of this quest day until dawn of the following one.

• Those holding the community fire prepare that altar and share food.

• Community members and non questers hold the sacred community fire overnight and welcome the questers back at dawn the following day.

• The return day is for integration and harvest, shared food and rest. An important part of the closure is a thanksgiving ceremony. To really own changes and shifts at a spiritual level gratitude is very important and this closing piece supports stabilising the connective energy throughout the group and the natural world. We sleep at the site on this day to support landing the experience and leaving with enough rest to be safe, and to ensure there is time to tend down the quest sites in a good way.

To book please contact me or call me to discuss your needs.

Families are welcome to join the community fire as we feel it is important for children and young people to be included in these ceremonies and ways of being. Please arrange to talk to me before you come if you are bringing young people so we can discuss how to make this work for everyone.

There is no charge for the ceremony part of this gathering, so that everyone who might want to can come irrespective of means.

However a great deal of work goes into setting up, teaching and feeding everyone! So we ask for expenses and we welcome what you can afford to offer for the ceremonial aspect. We ask that those who are able give generously to support the sustainability of this offering and invest into the possibility of these teachings being shared for future generations.

We give a proportion of all we collect to the Pine ridge reservation in South Dakota which is our teaching source.

Expenses are £160 per head for the whole experience including food. Additional donations are according to your means and may be anything from nothing to many hundreds of pounds. This can be a valuable experience and how we relate to offering for it is part of the work. Whatever your means please get in touch if you feel called to come.

CONTACT ME TO BOOK OR ASK QUESTIONS

Here is a soundbite of what some previous attendees have said about this event. 

' Jill and Hans hold the most beautiful ceremonial space I've ever had the honour of being part of. Each time I have supported their camps I leave feeling a deep sense of connection to the people, the land, and spirit that have all been present during the camps. They are also super inclusive, accommodating and will go out of their way to make sure everyone is held in a good way. As a young person I look up to the way they run ceremony ' Poppy

' Jill and Hans hold a ceremonial space which is tender, beautiful and inclusive. In doing so they are also, eloquent, clear, simple and practical about the reasons why we are doing ceremony and why we do it the way we do' - Lindsay

‘This was my first time joining Jill & Hans in ceremony and entering their commitment to creating cultural repair, even though I was there, with my tween kids, for just 24hrs it felt like I stepped out of time into a place where the hearts and presence of others became all there was in life…. Truly restoring. 

With Jill’s all welcoming guidance and deep well of wisdom I found myself not only inspired but enthused. The ceremony and sweat lodge helped me remember what is most important to me, I felt so moved by the pure humanity of it, not to mention the joy of being fed wonderful food by impassioned people…!! 

My 11 year old and my 15year old felt fully included and celebrated too, and they loved being in the woods making new friends, it brought to them a quality that I believe they long for without knowing why. Hans brought a gentle grounding presence, way he guided the fire keeper men and tended the sacred fire with such devotion, art and ability was mind blowing, ashes to ashes dust to dust….  I know this will stay with me for life and my life will be sown with deeper and deeper meaning each time I join this fire and community, thank you both and your team so much, I am profoundly grateful.”  Hannah Mae Dawson

Jill and Hans have created a truly strong, safe and exquisitely sacred container for my soul and all my parts to release and birth into. I am so deeply grateful for this beautiful space; one I treasure in my heart as it weaves it’s endless richness and mystery in the Inipi itself but then in the unfolding month ahead. It has allowed me to touch the edges of my darkness - the biting point and gateway between my personal limits and my capacity to experience it all - and cross over to trust and surrender. I am honoured to be gently learning the Lakota Way and feel such a privilege to be a part of this holy community of loving souls. Jill and Han’s co-created passion and devotion to this lineage and the incredible loving detail and heart they bring to their vision for sacred community is so inspiring and a tribe I am very thankful to be a part of.

Georgina from Brighton (trauma-informed psychotherapist) 

Our fire quest journey with you in the woods was wondrous. Such a nourishing and beautiful experience for us both. Tully asks me so many times about the freedom I had as a child, but I never had the intentional community that gathered for those few days. Adults that took delight in the children being there and sharing space. Witnessing held & honoured vulnerability in adulthood and a deeper insight into what it means to be truly human. The care, the food, the fire and the playful spirit in all, not just the children. Everyone was held & everyone held each other. To witness the journey of the fire so lovingly tended. The gentleness of it all, despite the challenges people were bravely facing & the unrelenting rainfall everything was welcomed and honoured. Thankyou so much for having us Michaela and Tully

TENDING THE FIRE WITHIN - DAY RITUALS

10AM - 6PM APPROX

COOTHAM WEST SUSSEX - DATES TO BE CONFIRMED

Co facilitated with Hans Schuldheis, Shiatsu practitioner and fire tender.

All welcome.

Please get in touch if you would like us to support you to arrange a Sacred Fire day for you or your community to mark a threshold or honour a loss.

These fire ceremonies are dedicated to honouring the past to connect with a healthy future. They represent an opportunity to deepen our direct relationship with fire as a means to transform grief, be in healing and ask for support. We reflect upon the teachings of the season, tending ourselves, harvesting, reflecting and offering a space for integrating what we are journeying through and what might want to be released for new life to regenerate. With all the unknowns and possibilities of the time to come this day will be an opportunity to co create a fire ceremony to offer our gratitude and grief, pray for balance, health and happiness and take steps to integrate the old and welcome new possibilities.

This process supports us to harness the learnings of this time so we might feel better equipped to be in service to Life in a good way, and fully participate in what we might be being called to in this extraordinary time. It originates from the Odawa people of the Great Lakes region.

There is no charge for ceremony. However it takes time, effort and energy to prepare these events so for those who can afford to contribute it is good and welcome, honouring the value of the experience. If money is a barrier to your attendance please come anyway.

To book please contact me.

For all our relations. Mitakue Oyasin.

RITES OF PASSAGE

When we honour our Rites of Passage we can grow to our fullest potential and harness the energy that these thresholds hold in good and life affirming ways. We can initiate ourselves into new phases of our lives and discover more about the gifts we have within to share. We can heal from experiences that may have held us back from bringing all of who we are to the world.

The acknowledgment of thresholds in life can make all the difference about how we frame our experiences.

A culture that is actively tending and understanding our natural rites of passage as human beings grows in strength, creativity and vitality. If facilities contact with the deep intelligence of the consciousness of creativity and the natural cycles of life that hold so much wisdom.

Through regarding these moments with respect and finding ways to honour them individuals are supported to actualise themselves and see beyond self serving ends and consumerism to become truly helpful members of community. Building a healthy relationship to the thresholds of life creates resilience to respond with love in action to the challenges we face locally and globally. True eldership is fostered.

There is a complex and beautiful relationship between ceremony and rites of passage. Rites of passage are happening whether we acknowledge them or not.

There is a momentum of energy at each threshold moment we pass through, puberty, grief, menarche, marriage, menopause and more. We are primed at these moments to take on board messages about what our society expects from us. We are hard wired to imprint off these times our meaning and worth. If they are ignored, underwhelming or wounding we may carry those messages deep into ourselves and live out of the narratives they offer us. In a healthy system each moment gives us a chance to heal, learn, grow and find out about our unique way of being in service to life and all of this creation.

For many of us when we passed through thresholds, such as puberty, there was nothing around us to support us to acknowledge it was an important threshold. What a waste of energy, what a missing of the mark! The possibility to harness powerful life energy that these phases bring us is lost or misdirected.

What I have seen from many years working with birth is that each threshold creates a pattern that can be life affirming or disconnective. When we arrive at the next threshold the echo of the one before sings into the space and is re energised. So if we go through one well we are set for the next one to support growth and build on the connections we have established. We can go deeper into growth. If left untended we can find ourselves in a repeat of a dynamic that restricts us. The threshold is helping us seek resolution. It can and often will reaffirm the narrative, showing us our stuff and offering us an opportunity to come into healing with the pattern we have been living. To redress previous imbalance. To move stuck ness. To grow. It is a doorway. We can either reinforce a disconnective story or work with the powerful potential for change that each threshold brings us and heal things that have often been held for generations. This capacity threshold moments have to support our own healing and that for our ancestors and our future generations is such a gift and resource. Let us learn together to acknowledge this in good ways. Ceremony is one way we may honour that to support the integration of our experiences in a good and healthy way. It doesn’t matter when we come to this work. We can go back and tend previous thresholds that have been unmet, and free ourselves from old stories.

I would be honoured to journey with you to explore how you can find ways to meaningfully mark the transitions in your and your families life. Drawing on my experience with ceremony and tending to the inner life we can co create events, small or large, that meet your needs. I am also available to offer mentoring to privately and quietly explore what might be arising for you around your own experiences with rites of passage, acknowledged or not.

The fire ceremony and opportunity to quest is one pre existing format that we offer that can be very helpful for addressing these needs.

Please get in touch for the next drum birthing day. Bespoke sessions available or you can join the next group.

gift vouchers available

A day-long ceremony during which you will be guided through making your drum with care and with love. Your intentions for your drum and for your life are held with respect and encouragement. I teach as I have been taught, with reverence for our guides, teachers and ancestors, dedicating our work to our personal healing and for all our relations. We call forth support from spirit to oversee us. We explore how to listen to the hides of the deer and the wood of the hoops for the medicine they bring us.

I invite reflection upon what arises within ourselves and the environment during the course of the process, as it is all useful information that we can use to develop and deepen awareness of our own stories and how we do the creation process in our lives. This often has a relationship with our own birth stories. I encourage and guide enquiry into this theme for self healing and growth. There is time for circle and reflection as part of the drum birthing days. There is no pressure to participate in anything that does not resonate with you.

Price £250 including all materials to make a 16 inch drum, deerskin and ash hoops and delicious vegetarian lunch and cake. It is a long process so set aside the whole day, 9.30am until approx 6pm. Costs vary for one to one work.

To book please contact me.

‘this is more than a workshop. Jill supported us with real connection and guidance to look deeply at what our vision and purpose might be. She wove so many teachings through the day and as an experience of process and healing it went well beyond anything I could have imagined. I love my drum and look forward to using it for many years to come.’ anna.

‘My drum is waiting and drying in a draughty cupboard in my office about a metre away from me it has ivy around it as it was made under the ivy moon. Not many days now, I am so excited. I loved that the day was spiritual and relaxed with deep, moving ceremony especially to start. The first drumming resonated with my soul and moved me to tears. The whole day was gorgeous physically and timely spacious.  Your expertise and physical strength in the final stages of tying the drum were invaluable, I could not have done it on my own. I would recommend drum birthing to everyone. It is not just a practical workshop but a deep awakening of tribal resonance.’

Yvonne.

MOONTIME

THE BLEEDING PHASE OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

NAMED SUCH BECAUSE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LUNAR CYCLE AND THE WATERS OF THE BODY AND OF THE EARTH.

THE TIDES AND THE PATTERNS OF EBB AND FLOW, PROLIFERATION AND BREAKING DOWN ARE A PART OF EVERY ASPECT OF THE LIVING WORLD.

I share every word that follows with the greatest respect for the wisdom and experiences you as a reader may have with this theme. We all have much to learn from each other if we go on the journey of re membering our innate relationships with the cycles of life and the consciousness of creativity that they express.

I share these reflections and invitations to enquiry recognising that gender identity is fluid and this has always been the case in indigenous cultures. We tend this discussion of Moontime with respect for all points of view. We acknowledge being female bodied gives specific experiences of life that come with a womb and menstrual cycle.

For more detail you can read articles on the blog, explore the linked resources (section- Women’s mysteries) or come and join an in person event where we can explore and unpack this topic with time and personal connection. 

MOONTIME SHARING DAY FOR MEN AND WOMEN

9TH JULY 23 - BRIGHTON 1- 6PM

WITH JILL KETTLE AND HANS SCHULDHEIS.

A WARM INVITATION TO COME TOGETHER TO TEND THE CYCLES OF THE FEMININE AND EXPLORE THE CEREMONY OF MOONTIME.

We will look at the whole of the menstrual cycle. We will explore how that pattern plays out in nature, inner life, and the life phases of people and how the menstruating years fit inside the bigger picture of a woman’s life.

We will focus on the Moontime phase of the cycle, the part where breakdown, composting and renewal is at it’s peak. We will look at the gifts and qualities of this phase and how we might orientate ourselves towards supporting and honouring it as men and women alike. How can we all relate to and work with the Moontime practically and in the moment? What does this look like, beyond a concept?

Our objective is to honour Moontime teachings from a few perspectives and come together as men and women to explore how we can integrate this knowledge and understanding into our lives and communities in good and healthy ways so that we can best serve life. We will look at what ceremony is and how we can learn from it and explore the differences between internal and external ceremonial formats.

The day will be a mixture of teaching and discussion.

For men our hope is that exploring the Moontime may help you to feel better resourced to honour and support the women in your life and deepen your internal relationship to the flow of energy through the cycles of creativity for your own nurturance.

This sharing space is open for all. However one of the motivations for holding this day is because Hans and I work with some ceremonial formats that have protocols around how the Moontime and the external ceremony relate to each other. We extend particular invite to those who have been working with us in ceremony and want to deepen understanding of the importance and impact of the energy of the moon and how to honour and work with it well.

Tending this topic feels like an integral part of cultural repair. By exploring our inner lives and nature and the patterns of the outer natural world we collectively learn and reclaim the patterns of a healthy culture that are part of the deep history of humanity.

For men and women.

By suggested donation £50, concessions available.

For booking and questions please contact me here

We are aware of the complexities and highly charged feelings that can surround this topic and we open this discussion in the spirit of enquiry and service to life to ask questions and reflect on what is true for each of us. We fully recognise our own apprenticeship and ongoing learning journey with these themes.

DEEPER REFLECTIONS ON THE TOPIC OF MOONTIME -

I AM GATHERING REFLECTIONS, ARTICLES, ART AND POEMS TO EXPLORE OUR RELATIONSHIP AND EXPERIENCES OF MOONTIME AND OUR CYCLES.

PLEASE SEE THis LINK if you would like to contribute. YOU CAN READ ARTICLES IN THE BLOG.

A WARM INVITE TO READ THIS POST ABOUT WORKING WITH YOUR MOONTIME IF YOU ARE NEW TO THESE IDEAS AND WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE.

You can listen to me being interviewed about the womens blood mysteries in this connections matters podcast.

Over the last years there has been an exponential increase in interest towards tending the menstrual cycle and the bleeding phase of that (Moontime). There is greater recognition of its fundamental importance for women’s health mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually and how that connects to wider relationships and society.

This connects with a broader conversation about how the menstrual cycle fits into the wider cycles of a woman’s life and the journey she takes as she steps into her bleeding years, moves through them birthing children or projects in the world and ends her journey of cycling through the process of menopause entering a new phase of her life, growth and spiritual connectivity.

The whole of the menstrual cycle has wisdom and potency. It offers different points of view constantly. Often it is thought of as just the bleeding time, but from each phase of the cycle we can harvest, learn and deepen our relationship to ourselves, one another, nature and spirit.

We can choose to build our own relationship to our Moontime and cycles and discover what that means for us individually and collectively. In our personal and shared journeys we can find guidance from within and from the vast intelligence of the web of life, re membering aspects of ourselves that may be critical for our potential to find balance inwardly and outwardly at this time.

All life is born of woman. Women are mysterious, connected and in close relationship to the great mystery of Life.  The incredible potential to bring together spirit and physicality in the womb and to tend and nurture the life that is birthed exists within us. Whether we have babies or not we are capable of nourishing this creation and manifesting in so many ways. Through these innate gifts women are connected to Life and the process of creation in ways that deserve acknowledgment and tending.

There are different perspectives through which to view the menstrual cycle and its capacity to be a gateway to wisdom, healing and cultural repair. There are many modern writers who draw on ancient knowings and their inspiration and experiences to create hugely helpful resources. 

I am informed in my work and practice by an earth based North American spiritual lineage. I value the precision and refinement of understanding it holds. Women’s teachings (or healthy cultural patterns in general) have not faired well through times of colonisation and genocide in any land. I am certain that historically we had our own healthy patterns in Europe and our journey right now is about relearning how to do life well. Through working with a lineage that predates patriarchal distortion and genocide I have reconnected with one of the most powerful spirit given ceremonies, the Moontime. Shifting viewpoint has given me access to what is already happening within me from a fresh perspective. It has allowed me to experience and value my cycles in a radically different way to the narratives my society laid out for me. This experience has been very connective and opened me up to truths and patterns I feel are universal and cross cultural, extending beyond one point of view or tradition.

Through this lineage lens Moontime is seen as a very powerful ceremony that is deeply respected. All true ceremony is concerned with gateways between this reality and the unseen aspects of life. It is there to teach us how to live.

The Moontime ceremony is one of purification, for ourselves and for all the things we are in connection with. For our environment, family and community.

If ceremony teaches how to live what is happening here and what can we learn?

Many ceremonies are spirit given in that people have gone deep into prayer or connection and found patterns of practice that support connection and help access or facilitate changes or shifts in awareness. There is typically an altar, a configuration of elements that form the focus of the ceremony and are interacted with. However the Moontime stands apart from these kinds of ceremonial formats. It is innate and generated internally. Women are naturally initiated into their bleeding times and go through initiation after initiation as they cycle through their years. This culminates in menopause which is it’s own rite of passage with a strong purpose. 

In this understanding the woman herself is the altar. She is capable of having a very strong experience.

Moontime is the power of nature itself, pure, with no manipulation. Ceremonies created and orchestrated by even deeply connected individuals are still manipulations at some level, interactions with nature or spirit to create affect. Moontime is wholly and utterly an expression of the flow of life and the bleeding part a particular aspect of that.

To be in health the cycle of life goes through phases of growth and proliferation and dissolution and breaking down of material form. This flow is needed for life to be healthy, even though a part of it is composting and decay. It is destruction, breakdown or resting phase that is necessary for life. This composting serves life. It has so much to teach us.

All humans need to cleanse and purify, to clear away what no longer serves life and renew ourselves, seek or discover our deeper knowings. Historically men had external ceremonies to support them to find connection, vision, purpose and healing. In most traditional earth based contexts the women had less need for these outward forms because they lived in intimate relationship with their internal ceremonies of Moontime, birth, breastfeeding and intuitive capabilities.

Times are different now for most people in a modern context. We have largely forgotten these ways. As women maybe we need those external ceremonial forms more now, but we can also remember what we have within us. Internal or external the ceremonies take us to the same place of finding out about our own connections.

The Moontime invites us go into an internal process. To dive deep into the mystery. Women in their Moontime are more sensitive, open, porous, in a state of heightened connectivity, cleansing and renewal.  They are able to be in strong prayer. Another way of expressing this is communication, the capacity to express inner need and longing into the web of life and be open to the responses. They are in an internal purification process. They may be connected or have insights into important things that need to be brought into manifestation or be guided to knowings or understanding that supports themselves and their communities. 

A traditional understanding is that a woman in her Moontime is also processing the things that need to be moved for the collective, not just her own personal material.

Imagine a reality where all women were truly supported to carry this role for themselves and for the health, happiness and balance of all people, beings, land and the unseen aspects of life. Imagine a world in which we could really support the function of the moontime to be a part of the means to process the untended grief, wounding and pain that clogs the arteries of our modern world. Imagine the relief in the lives of those who are already doing this work but out of conscious awareness, the women of our world now who already support the movement of this stuckness. I believe so much ill health, depression and overwhelm in women is as a result of the unacknowledged processing that the Moontime naturally supports.

Moontime is a hugely potent female contribution to culture. I deeply believe our capacity to reframe how we hold this, acknowledge this and support men and women to really understand what is happening can be a powerful momentum for healing at this time. Women will cycle and bleed whether we acknowledge it or not. When it is not valued as important or purposeful but inconvenient, shameful or unimportant it perpetuates wounding, ill health and disconnection on so many levels. From this viewpoint we cannot access the potential it has to move what needs to be moved in a good way. To embrace this possibility takes acknowledgment, honouring and recognition of our value and connectedness. The fullest potential of the gifts of Moontime are accessed by woman’s willingness to surrender and deeply connect to her body wisdom.

All kinds of things can come up when we start to tend things that have been ignored or devalued for a long time including relief, wonder, grief, clunkiness and anger. We have been living in a power over paradigm for so long that grief may come for what hasn't been possible or what has been lost or harmed through not honouring the relevance and magnificence of the feminine. Many people have internalised that power over paradigm and live with self critical voices that deny our value or the importance of our cyclical nature. Working consciously with Moontime for men and women alike offers a roadmap and one pathway for healing for ourselves and all our relationships.

Some of the ceremonies we work with have specific protocols for the Moontime which we will explain fully in the appropriate contexts. Our hope is this writing offers a context for why we hold it in the ways we do. It is very common for a woman seeking to attend external ceremony to come into her Moontime as this is the most connected state she can be in. We would like to support your experience of this in a good way.

Moontime is a beautiful thing and a topic for men and women alike, to grow in our understanding, to give ourselves permission to tend Life in these ways, to grow in health and happiness.

We invite a deep exploration of moontime in our work and gatherings and offer support and mentoring for working with your Moontime as a powerful ceremony one to one as well.

A MALE PERSPECTIVE ON MOONTIME - HANS SCHULDHEIS

As a man I feel that in a healthy culture men and women worked and lived together to hold balance and healthy relationships between each other, all living and non living beings. Only women are able to give birth. At the time of pregnancy, birthing and postnatally it is the role of the man to nurture and protect the woman. That is something that most people are still able to understand and support in our modern culture. When it comes to the moontime I feel we have lost that sense of value and the crucial role it holds to regulate, balance and inform society of healthy living. Through working with indigenous lineages I have regained and remembered a deep sense of what it might have been like in a fully connected earth based culture, as a man holding responsibility to nurture and protect women to be able to fully embrace the moontime as they bleed for themselves and their community, purging and cleansing impurities and imbalances and re emerging with desperately needed advice and instruction for us men on how to right the wrongs.

Nowadays our role might be to hold space to allow women to rediscover and experiment with this potential. To inspire and encourage them about how much we need and value this as men.

To conclude I share this quote and podcast from Pat Macabe. I feel it speaks eloquently to the challenges we face as we seek to find healthy ways to live at a time when we have been conditioned by disconnective narratives about masculine and feminine. This feels central to the topic and discussion around Moontime. I hope you enjoy if you choose to listen.

“You think you know what the masculine is, but you don’t. All you know is how they behave in a power over paradigm…… we think we know what it is to be human, but we don’t. All we know is how a human being behaves in a power-over paradigm. But what could a human being be in another paradigm?

Pat McCabe