Gatherings & Retreats
Riding theWind, Oct 2024
Residential Retreat & Gathering
Venue: Fireflies, Dinnepalya, Bengaluru
Dates: October 1st - 9th
Registration opening soon
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“…There is a moment when a great nothing happens, almost as if the Ancestral Stars are holding their breath, nothing stirs and nothing moves and nothing speaks; in all of everything there is a deepness of nothing….”
Wind & Horse, synonymous with strength and direction, within the Sagh’ic Tradition they also are songs of the Seanachais, the storytellers, and the Vitha, the dreamers. Both had the craft and gift to carry the other into worlds of possibility, through stories and divination.
When there is the stillness and silence of nothing, all things are possible and revealed by the Ancestral spirits.
This Retreat is a letting go into the potential and mystery of who and what we have forgotten. In a riding of Gaoth and Epona, the two horse spirits, we will catch or be caught by the circling winds, in trance, dance, ceremony and community, perhaps to touch that which we believe is out of our reach.
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As always this will not be a retreat from, rather a running to.
A gathering to remember that wonder and union, within ourselves, and with the world around us.
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Residential Retreat & Gathering
Venue: Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bangalore
Dates: 25 September - 6 October, 2023 ​
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The Armoured Heart Retreat, was an intrepid adventure of heroes and heroines, seeking out the ghosts of armouring, and the armour of love and choice, and finding the path back to the spirit of our heart’s true nature.
“Hidden deep inside the heart of everyone and thing is the passionate fire of creation. This fire sings the song of life, of wonder, of union with all the flames of all the songs. The flames of this fire dance in response to all the song, inviting others to sing and dance. Such is the passionate heart. It is the armour of fear that oppresses this passionate flame.”
Residential Retreat & Gathering
Venue: Fireflies Ashram, Dinnepalya, Bangalore, India
Dates: 24 - 29 September, 2022 ​
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Hidden deep inside the heart of everyone and thing is the passionate fire of creation. This fire sings the song of life, of wonder, of union with all the flames of all the songs. The flames of this fire dance in response to all the song, inviting others to sing and dance. Such is the passionate heart.
The world we live in and share is full and beset with distractions and fears. In this the heart forgets...
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Forgets its song
Forgets its dance
And the fire dims.
Without the song, the heart cannot be heard or hear.
Without the dance, the heart cannot be seen or see.
We become invisible in an invisible world.
‘The Forgetful Heart’ was a retreat and gathering to ‘remember’.
Not a retreat from, rather a running to.
Gathering to remember that wonder and union.
Learning, ceremonies, crafting and of course, singing and dancing with each other, and most of all remembering who we truly are.
The retreat was a huge success and we are grateful for it's happening and gathering. Visit the event page for some beautiful videos from the retreat.
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Sacrifice in Service 2019
Residential Retreat
Venue: Fireflies Ashram, Dinnepalya, Bangalore, India
29 June – 5 July 2019
Training Intensive for students: 25 June – 30 June 2019
Our first Bangalore Gathering, with the teachers of the Wolven Path Tradition, at Fireflies Ashram, was a journey of service to ourselves and outwards to others, that our hearts will be an offering to those that are hungry, and in that we ourselves will be fed. We are lonely – we are hungry – we are searching and longing for home.
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Without knowing it we sit downcast on the highways and byways of life’s journey with the begging bowls of our hearts held out, longing and yearning for some passerby to drop the merest crumb, any morsel that will nourish and nurture our famine.
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The word "service" comes from an old terminology meaning “to feed’. To give someone something to eat, to feed someone, is an intimate sharing ritual of giving part of yourself in some way to become part of the other.
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To feed someone is to show that you care, to revive and refresh the other, to work from inside to make one stronger, to make them well, to take away the pain of hunger, of emptiness. Trouble is that everyone is begging, and the few ones that have the crumb are terrified to give it up. And yet deep in the fire of our hearts, we make that sacrifice to reach out and give that morsel of our heart to another.
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It was a gathering of sacred teachings and story, deepening our intimate relationship with The Ancestors through ceremony, ritual, song, dance and celebration.
Gearnuiga Retreat 2018
Residential Retreat
Venue: Fireflies Ashram, Dinnepalya, Bangalore, India
23 – 26 September 2018
Learning by experiencing, and deepening the basics, a retreat to celebrate the spirit of fire and passion in a new community.
"From the time when the Great Grandmother Ocean sang to the One Above, and that Song was answered by Song, the concept of Song and Soul have been as One. This singing is an eternal Song, it is the Great Song of the Universe, Mora-oa Creon."
In this retreat we gathered together under the guidance of Elders John-Luke Edwards and Béatrice Simmons to share our work and learn by watching and experiencing. It was an opportunity for students and pathfinders to apply what they have learned and experienced.
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We learnt to guide lamenters on a journey to find their Animal Guide, and how to embody the Animal Guide.
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We always listen to the One Great Song, and deepen the unified concept that the Song is also a sacrament of relationship in that everything is the same holy (whole) Song that is sung and at the same time everything sings the Song. We are the Song and we are singing the Song, our Soul Song. The work of Soul Resonance guides us to learn to listen and to help to tune in with the origin and Harmony of the One Great Song.
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We celebrate and give thanks in rituals and ceremonies. One of them was a Fire Walk.
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We remember that we have been sent to be in joy of this amazing journey of our Soul Song of Creation, Love and Completeness.
We worked with and for each other in Love, Gratitude and Respect.
Healing the Feminine Within Ourselves 2018
Residential Retreat
Venue: Infinite Souls Artists' Retreat, Bangalore
29 March – 2 April 2018
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“The lamps are different, but the light is the same.” - Rumi
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We are told by the Ancestral Elders that they saw that the spirit of All was One gender, complete and whole in the moment of Creation. And as the Ocean below and the sky above reflect each other in communion, we can also say that the male and female energy flowing through us comes from the same truth allowing communion to happen, providing the polarities necessary, a friction to allow the Wheel of Life to turn. When humans forgot the One Great Song, the Soul Song of Creation they started to define themselves through separating personalities, which they confirmed and anchored in myths and stories which they believed they were.
Elder Béatrice Simmons-Heiz followed originally a call of invitation to India, originated by the call of Mother Earth and the wounded Feminine. In her spirit journeys she knew that she was called to work on the forgiving and healing balance within ourselves. In this retreat we explored the world within each of us, the stories we get identified with and how we become strangers to ourselves. We worked for each other and addressed the healing of the feminine in ourselves to rediscover the way back to balance which we originally have been given.
We sung a ceremony into being, a ceremony that we are, the Song of communion to return to Oneness, beyond individuality, beyond beliefs and differences, nourishing each other by interweaving the flows in harmony, listening to the Great Song of the Ocean calling all Water back, the Song of the Earth calling her children back to the One Forest. It was a ceremony of Forgiveness reflected in the Song of our Grandmother Ocean, a Song of Healing Forgiveness.
Deepening the Journey 2017
Residential Retreat
Venue: Swarga, Sakleshpur
27 - 30 November 2017
“Believe in Love’s infinite journey, for it is your own, for you are Love.” - Rumi
A residential three-night retreat with Elder Béatrice Simmons-Heiz for existing students to deepen their journeys as pathfinders and spirit workers. We gathered to strengthen our journeying skills, create sacred art, and work for each other and the land.
We created ceremony honouring the fertility and nourishment that Mother Earth offers us with unconditional love, to learn how to live and offer ourselves in every moment to be part of the sacred ceremony that is always unfolding. We listened to the land and our own hearts and the call of the One Song that echoes through them to learn how to be of service on our journeys back home and to the Great Forest.
Dreaming Our World Into Being 2017
Residential Retreat
Venue: Swarga, Sakleshpur
31 March – 5 April 2017
“As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears” - Rumi
A five-night residential retreat with Elder Béatrice Simmons-Heiz for existing students to deepen their practice in nature. We gathered together to deepen our relationship with our inner guides, our inner intuition, our inner voices for transformation and remembering of the Self on this journey.
We have been sent on this amazing journey of our Soul Song of Creation, Completeness, and Love. We can return to the land of our souls and tell our true inner stories and visions; we can return to balance.
We worked and journeyed for each other and addressed the balance of male and female in ourselves. We explored what it means to walk the path of the Shaman in our lives, the meaning of the Walker in Between.
Women's Retreat 2016
Residential Retreat
Venue: Swarga, Sakleshpur
28 – 31 October 2016
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“Love is the souls’ light. The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night. It is your light that lights the worlds. Darkness is your candle.” - Rumi
A residential three-night retreat with Elder Béatrice Simmons-Heiz answering a call from the community. We journeyed to the inner meaning of Deepavali/Diwali. We journeyed to understand the communion of dark and light in ourselves, to receive the light in the dark to give birth to the light. If we follow the magic of inner and outer light, we find the doors within ourselves to a sanctuary, where we may meet the innermost presence as it lives in everything, and so our prayers can be truly complete.
In old traditions, celebrations and songs of surrender, the goddess of darkness was asked to bring us the sun. In rituals we exchanged presents. Presents brought, represented the sacredness of the sun and light. We give and we receive, we touch and we are touched, the words “thank you” and “please” become One. We celebrate newborn Light.
In journeys we created ceremonies; we worked for each other to find support in understanding how to serve the healing, communion and community within ourselves, and the greater community around us as women. May we women walk in beauty and remembrance, celebrating Life and Breath in every moment, in ceremony and community.