Seasons of the Sacred: Summer solstice
Join us for a workshop and celebratory gathering exploring sacred time and place. With guest teacher Tiokasin Ghosthorse, we will spend time interweaving community, stories and enjoying a seasonal meal of summer's first harvests. [Full details below, please note this is a one day event, repeating on two dates.]
This event is now sold out!
Join us for the summer edition of our Seasons of the Sacred series. In partnership with Advaya Initiative and Omved Gardens.
Taking place in the beautiful setting of Omved Gardens on the weekend of the summer solstice, this event will repeat on two days: Saturday 22nd, as well as Sunday 23rd June, both from 4:00pm – 8:30pm.
Summer Solstice: The Great Circle
Completion / Sundance / Midsummer / Full bloom / Light / Unification / Rejoice / Attainment / Fire / Extravagance / Intensity / Dreaming / First harvest / Abundance / Return of the dark
Summer Solstice, or midsummer, is an ancient solar holiday and time of celebration throughout human history, around the world. Countless stories, myths and traditions tell of the spiritual and physical significance of this moment in time when the sun has reached its peak. The circle is complete. A time of rejoicing in the first harvests, delighting in the abundance of light and life in its full extravagance, and giving thanks for the sun, our ‘great circle in the sky’!
This intimate afternoon to evening gathering will offer a shared experience of sacred time and place; we will enjoy a specially curated meal of summer’s first harvests, interspersed with the rituals of teaching, conversation and practice.
With each element, the journey as a whole will be tied to the exploration of three stories relating to the summer solstice and our theme, ‘The Great Circle’.
We will be joined by friend and guest teacher native Lakota (Sioux) Tiokasin Ghosthorse who will share teaching and the music of the traditional Lakota cedar flute.
In this challenging time of decline and transition, Seasons of the Sacred offers an experiential exploration of how we can step back into the ancient yet newly emerging story of the earth as interconnected and sacred. In the spirit of community and celebration, we invite you to join us for this joyful gathering and sow some seeds for the regeneration of our relationship to the natural world.
Full details about Seasons of the Sacred below.
Please note that we have a number of bursary spaces available. Please email amrita@stethelburgas.org to apply.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse
Tiokasin Ghosthorse is from the Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) Nation of South Dakota. He is the host of First Voices Indigenous Radio on Pacific Radio. Tiokasin has been described as a ‘spiritual agitator, natural rights organiser, Indigenous thinking process educator and a community activator’. He recently received a Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize 2016 from the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. He is currently a Nominee for a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship 2018 and a National Native American Hall of Fame Nominee 2018. Tiokasin was also awarded New York City’s Peacemaker of the Year in 2013.
Tiokasin has a long history of indigenous rights activism and advocacy. He spoke, as a teenager, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Ever since his UN work, he has been actively educating people who live on Turtle Island (North America) and overseas about the importance of living with each other and with Mother Earth.
Tiokasin is also a master musician and one of the greatest exponents of the ancient cedar Lakota flute and plays traditional and contemporary music using both Indigenous and European instruments. He has been a major figure in preserving and reviving the cedar wood flute tradition and performs worldwide.
Seasons of the Sacred food philosophy is:
- Simple but beautiful
- A celebration of the current season: a seasonal feast, cherishing the diversity in colours, flavours, textures, shapes, and scents.
- Prepared with care and compassion
- Nourishing and healthy for body, mind and soul
- Sourced from local producers and farmers including foraged or surplus food
…..and obviously, delicious!
The menu is mainly seasonal, local and plant-based but not gluten-free or dairy free.
Please email amrita@stethelburgas.org if you have any specific dietary requirements and we will do our best to cater for you!
Amrita Bhohi
Amrita leads the Spiritual Ecology Programme at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. She teaches and facilitates public workshops and events sharing the spiritual ecology curriculum. She holds an MA in Ecological Economics from Schumacher College and is a Fellow of St Paul’s Institute and the College for Real Farming and Food Culture.
Vilma Luostarinen
Vilma is a London-based artist and food experience designer. She creates menus, meals, installations and workshops that explore how food and eating can form dialogues between the human and natural world, and nurture more imaginative, caring and sustainable ways of coexistence. Vilma is interested in the psychological and spiritual dimensions of sustainable development.
She holds a masters degree in Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins. Vilma has previously worked with National Trust, V&A, Wellcome Collection, and London Design Festival amongst others.
Ruby and Christabel Reed
Ruby & Christabel co-founded Advaya Initiative. Advaya is an educational and experiential social change platform that explores solutions to the interconnected crises of ecological collapse, consumerism and mental health. They are organisers, facilitators as well as yoga teachers interested in the intersections between ecology, healing and social transformation.
With thanks to: food collaborator Josefin Vargö
About Seasons of the Sacred
Seasons of the Sacred is a four-part series of seasonal gatherings, bringing people together for a celebration of our living Earth through a journey into the four seasons. Each evening flows around an intimate and uniquely curated seasonal meal, interspersed with simple practices, discussion prompts, and teachings from guest speakers. Each experience as a whole is tied together through the telling and exploration of three stories, inviting us to connect deeply with our Earth and the primal inner and outer wisdom that each season brings.
Seasons of the Sacred offers a shared experience of sacred time and place, where we:
Imagine and practice what it would be like to step back into the primal rhythms of soil and soul, to nourish and be nourished by the earth once more. We begin with the simple rituals of food, conversation and community.
Rejoice and revere the moments of first blossoms, plums turning yellow, when the north winds blow the leaves from the trees, seeds are sown into the dark earth, and the birdsong returns after a long winter. To become intimate with our land; the beauty, abundance, sorrows and dreams of the place where we abide.
Explore the ancient and emergent: listen to what we can learn from traditions that still inhabit this connection, still hold this wisdom. Uncover the meaning in our own lives, and root a practice in our own experience, time and place.
Embrace both the light and the dark of our present time of ecological crisis, as shown to us by the seasons of the natural world, and ask how we can be of service to the regeneration of our culture and earth.
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“My friend and I absolutely loved it and were both deeply moved by the love and care that had clearly gone into the whole event, the incredible food, the inspiring speakers and the conversations we ended up having at our table. – Spring participant
In the spectrum between despair at the state of things and commitment to action, I personally went through a journey, and a renewed/deepened commitment being the feeling I left with.” – Spring participant
“Thank you so much for organising this event, it was a powerful and inspiring atmospheric spring evening! – Spring participant
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