Hi there,

Are you feeling the arrival of Autumn? Within a few weeks life has slowed down and got way cosier as the shifting season swoops in. 

It's giving me some time to reflect on where I would like to put my energy over the next few months. 

Writing poetry has definitely become more of a priority and I'd love to share this poem ‘All of me’ I wrote at our last retreat.  I feel as though it captures something of the alchemy and magic that happens in these spaces.  Scroll to bottom to read it and please tell me what you think or what it moves in you. 

I'll also be prioritising feeding the inspiration that will resource my creative practice. I often find inspiration in my connection with the natural world (more on that next week 😉) but I also find myth, ritual and story to be an incredible source of influence. 

Connecting with myth and ritual for me is also about connecting with our ancestors and the stories that have been passed through cultures and civilisations, especially the women's wisdom traditions that have existed and we are reconnecting with and rediscovering. This is something that Gabriela will be sharing in our upcoming series When Women Were the Shamans. Read below to find out more. 

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When Women Were The Shamans

Gabriela Guiterrez, scholar, practitioner and teacher of ancient wisdom, focuses on the revival of ancient wisdom traditions in Europe and the Middle East and in this series she shares the knowledge she has gathered on women's wisdom traditions in ancient Europe. 

There's an option to purchase tickets to all three events and get a discount if you book before the first event this Thursday.
 

She will explore the roles, activities, beliefs and practices of ancient women from Europe from approximately 60,000 - 1500 BC, who were once the intermediaries between the people and the gods. Their roles were considered essential in the maintenance of harmony, both social and ecological, and by uncovering their wisdom, we may be able to contribute to restoring balance in our own world during these troubled times.

P1: In the Caves of Palaeolithic Spain & France

Thursday 5th October

It’s not easy to imagine the world our forebears inhabited. Because western scholarship on prehistory is highly steeped in notions of primitivism, the modern mind is still very much conditioned to see this period in human history as rudimentary and unsophisticated. This lecture will address the bias against prehistoric culture, which is essentially the worldview that held the Feminine Principle at its heart. Gabriela will explore the world’s first religion - shamanism - its roots in the caves of western Europe, and the notion that the first shamans were women.

P2:  In the Neolithic Settlements of Old Europe

Thursday 2nd November

The Mother-Goddess and the Regenerative Principle were at the core of the religious beliefs and customs of the Neolithic era in Eastern Europe. This region of the world knew no war for almost two thousand years. Here we will explore the work of archaeomythologist Marija Gimbutas, and her theory that the world’s first civilisation predates Mesopotamia and can be found in the Balkan Peninsula of Eastern Europe. This lecture will trace the move from oral to literate culture, from a Mother-Doddess to a single male godhead, and from a society that was peaceful, earth-centric and life affirming, to the beginnings of the patriarchal era defined by conquest, a ruling elite and war. 

P3: In the Mystery Cults of Pre-Hellenic Greece

Thursday 7th December

This lecture will explore the practices of the priestesshoods of pre-Hellenic Greece, notably their initiation rites, trance states, dreamwork and dream incubation temples, the oracular arts and the notion of ritualized myths. This will offer a deeper understanding of women’s religious experience in what was to become one of the primary influences of the modern western mind. We will hone in on one of these priestesshoods - known as the Melissae - a title that means “bee” and that the Ancient Greek scholars recorded as having been used to denote priestesses of the Mother-Goddess.
 

This series will be part lecture, part experiential practice exploring the worldview, teachings and practices of these ancient women  Join the first event here. 

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I love this photo from our summer retreat and how it captures the feeling behind this poem. 

ALL OF ME by Alana Bloom 

All of me is here
Alive
Whole
Breathing
Beating the drum
Announcing that 
I am. 
I will not shrink from all of me
I will create a home
Where all of me is welcome
Where all of me flourishes.
All of me is needed now
There is no time 
To forget the banished ones 
All of me 
Is the medicine 
For this world
For these times. 
And when I leave some of me behind
The moment shrinks away 
asking why?
Why do you diminish
How truly extraordinary 
All of you is.
All of me is where I return to now.
All of me is what I trust.
When the way becomes heavy
I call all of me home
Forward
Into life.
All of me is life. 
Life is in all parts of me.
There is nothing to fear anymore
For each corner of my being
Has some wild gift
Waiting to be discovered.
All of you is awaiting all of me. 
I promise that this is what I will give
To my life
To this earth
All of me. 
 

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Love Alana 
Co-founder of True Nature