Menspedition 

Snowdonia, Cae Mabon 

Tues 3rd to Sunday 8th May
£295 / £59 per night Inc Accom & Food
 

*** This is a co-created gathering, offering a container and loose program for men to facilitate and offer that which is emerging and current. Please share ideas and input into the schedule for the community to vote upon if you'd like to contribute - you can view the program before paying for your space - everything is welcome, nothing is expected ***

LINKS: Join the Whatsapp // Join the Newsletter //  Join Zoom call Tuesday 1st @ 9.30PM 

THE LAND

Cae Mabon is an exquisite space at the foothills of the Snowdonia Mountains, on the edge of a lake, with a Celtic Roundhouse at its heart, home to many convivial evenings of fireside story and song. Circling this hub-hearth is a family of seven elegant dwellings including a geodome, a Mongolian yurt, an Iranian shavan, cob cottages, two roundhouses, a straw bale hogan, a cedar cabin, a thatched shower hut with river water heated by a wood stove, a “loo with a view”, a sweat lodge and a wood-burning cedar hot tub.

THE CLIMB

We'll be climbing Snowdon mountain in northern Wales - the highest point in England and Wales at 1,085 metre (3,560 feet) and Named after the Welsh phrase for Snowdonia — literally, the Land of the Eagle. With options to climb both the ‘easy’ route, or ‘Crib Goch' - described as a "knife-edged" arête and one of the best scrambling points in the country. It's a 6-8 Hour hike and requires reasonable fitness levels. If you're not up to the hike for whatever reason, you'll be able to stay at Cae Mabon for the day, and chill in the hot-tub, or swim in the lake!

THE PROGRAMME

Menspedition Programmes are co-created. We create a container and some key activities such as a Sweatlodge, Cacao Ceremony, Song Circles, The Hike, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Morning Morning Sādhanā.

The rest is up to the collective. Please put forward any ideas in the ‘Activities’ section of Dandelion for the community to vote on. You can see the current programme before booking your place.

THE INTENTION

A pilgrimage, A rites of passage, a journey both onward and inward, and a crusade into the depths and magnificence of our collective and individual masculinity. 

A space to truly galvanise what it really means to be a man, to question the masculine persona that modern western society projects onto us and embeds so deeply into our psyche, and our personal situations and circumstances have further perpetuated, to reconsider how we treat one another, how we treat women and how we treat ourselves.

To love and nurture our inner child that was taught to be tough and told to swallow their emotions - to ‘man up’ and ‘grow some balls’. To explore the masculine archetypes and how they manifest in our individual lives, not as an attempt be a perfect man, but to take a pure quality, and use it as an ideal to follow.

Learning to be in touch with one's emotions can change lives, and the way men are traditionally taught to hold them in can be connected to an avalanche of unhealthy outcomes. In a society that traditionally views masculine traits as strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness, there is no greater gift than the space and opportunity to call in the opposite, and to rather embrace the compassionate, sensitive, supportive, empathetic, tender part that resides deep within all of us, but that we are often afraid to connect with.

The current socio-political landscape is attempting to rewrite masculinity, to step away from the tyrannical patriarchy and to honour the feminine, as women lead a new stage of evolution: the shift from achievement to self-actualisation.

Are men and boys just the victims of cultural brainwashing into misogyny and aggression, requiring reeducation into the ‘right’ beliefs? Or are these problems more deep-seated, and created by the myriad insecurities and contradictions of men’s lives under gender inequality? The problem with a crusade against toxic masculinity is that in targeting culture as the enemy, it risks overlooking the real-life conditions and forces that sustain culture.

Our culture is lacking a rites of passage, a ritual that marks the change in status from boyhood to manhood, from girlhood to womanhood, or a process that marks a major milestone or change in a person’s life. They exist in cultures around the world, but In the UK today, a rites of passage has been belittled to drinking too much on your 18th birthday or losing your virginity, with no real lessons, no growth, no real catalyst for change. We need to reintegrate these rituals in western culture, to provide a sacred space, to evoke sense of renewal and belonging, a connection with our past, and to help us make sense of change by overcoming fears.

HOW TO JOIN

Please enter your name, email address & add a photo/avatar below.

Then please do the following:

• Book & pay for your accommodation & food
• Propose an activity, workshop, jam session, or other activities via the Timetables tab
• Vote/Approve Activities you like the sound of in the Timetables tab
• Sign up for a least one cooking & one washing up shift via the Rotas tab
• Start a thread/discussion or ask a question via the Teams > General tab

Join the Whatsapp  // Join the Newsletter //  Join Zoom call Tuesday 1st @ 9.30PM