Have You Ever Walked a Labyrinth? Walking the Labyrinth - A Journey That Is Rooted Into Remembrance...

Wandering with purpose - I am really excited to be sharing a very beautiful and otherworldly collaboration with our dear friends over at @magical_path who are inviting us all on a Labyrinth journey and experience!! 

We are not to  mistake a labyrinth with a maze for a maze is designed to confuse and confound. Instead, a labyrinth is a circular back and forth path that leads to a centre – no dead ends or switch backs and there is only one entrance and one exit. The only decision the walker makes is whether or not to enter.

Would you like to join us on this beautiful one day workshop and experience ? 

Labyrinth’s are such liminal spaces, and as we approach all Hallowed eve, one of the most liminal times of the year we are able to consciously meet the liminal in a hands on direct way!!

Being a liminal place, and to add a labyrinth to that, you create a place where you can let go of anything within the paths of the labyrinth. Powerful, magical, liminal, cleansing and healing.

The labyrinth journey is held on the 21st October with two wonderful amazing teachers Jacqui and Darren, who will guide us and lead us deep into the Labyrinth inviting  us to unlock its wisdom!!

 An introductory  day long workshop and journey introducing you to the principles of working with this beautiful symbol.  Here in West Sussex/ Surrey 

21st October 10am - 6pm £60.00 

To book your place ( Spaces are limited to 10 ) to create a tight container to go deep to journey and transform together!
 

For the last few years as we move beyond the heart of summer, gently, slowly tipping towards Autumn, we have had this gravitational pull to get out amongst the woodland and make it home for a short while,  to listen to its stories and move deeply into a place of listening!! To cook on open fires!! To gather with friends and family, to sit together, share skills, knowledge, experience and importantly time and presence!!

Cultivating moments of learning and remembrance, to celebrate the harvest of our lives!! 

This year is feeling a little different, enriched and deeper somehow. With the arrival of our humble bell tent , and its rugs, furs and blankets, it's become a dream come true!!

Fitted with a woodstove for those chillier nights as we slowly descend into shorter days!!

On the 28th of July we are heading onto to Deer Camp in preparations for our Lammas Earth Journey and rite for the 30th, where we will be holding a humble Magical Market Place with our wonderful crafts people, to trade, exchange and sell handcrafted medicine tools, and beautiful pieces of art!!

A Rite and Picnic for our beloved Hedge School and their friends and family!! A gorgeous journey weaving corn dollies and heartfelt medicine stories!!

From the 27th until the 15th we will be at Deer Camp, gently unplugging taking a well deserved pause , dreaming and becoming and giving such thanks for all that has been!!

During this time we will be away from all our emails and social media, yet bookings can still be made directly via the website

I am anticipating and sensing a high demand for Consultations for Mid to late August/ September . So I am gently advising people to book ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

Summer camp becomes a tide and a window of time, where we are gently being pulled into focusing our energy and attention out on the land alongside the tending and harvesting of our beautiful Herbiary at The Bothy.

These experiences often fill us with wood smoke and starlight, and on our return we will be honoured to share some enriching medicine stories..

In preparation for Deer Camp I crossed a threshold moment, inspired by some wonderful folk especially Delia who is truly worth a follow Delia of The Greenwood.

Delia with her lovely family has lived now for many years in her Bell Tent!! She had mentioned the wonderful skill of canning, each Autumn her alongside friends come together at her home and woodland, and gather Cob nuts, berries and can and hunt, in preparation for the winter ahead. This beautiful podcast is worth a listen Delia shares her journey!!

One thing leads to another especially within those moments Spirit are leaning in, to guide me with a steady hand!! I came across Makeitmake a wonderful content creator that shares canning skills, she is such a humble and inspirational light!! Who has been taught traditional water bath canning techniques!! gifted by the Amish, who have been canning food for generations..

The most exciting part of this journey is that, for our camps and extended stays within the woodland we are able to now store and prepare food without refrigeration, meat becoming 1 year shelf life stable and vegetable curries, and other dishes becoming two year shelf life stable!! Not only that, the best part is so much of this can also be prepared, cooked and canned on a open fire!!

Delia's life in a Bell Tent

" As a kid, I always knew I’d end up living in the forest. I drew elaborate plans for glass houses with creeks running through them and treehouses with rope bridges. As a young adult without the skills to build these things, I got started by living in a tent. Fortunately, I fell in love with someone who shared my dream and had the skill and patience to teach me how to build. " Delia

Now for something very different

Epic Short Inspirational Stories

A very young Shane sitting tandem on a microlight flight over shell Island

As a child myself and my younger brothers were extremely blessed to have a Dad that seeked out adventure in the form of Hang Gliding!! Each Summer we would head up with a close family friend to North Wales to the beautiful coastal town of Porthmadog where the Mountains meet the sea, our dear Dad and his best friend would fly, we would either be running around the mountains or out at sea on the boat!!

Golden Summers filled with adventure and freedom, far from the hustle and bustle of the south, we grew strong and fit, was gifted such resilience and so many moments that shape you without realising how far and deep those threads and roots run..

We were gifted such life enriching experiences of flying in microlights out in boats and at times in small light aircraft!! 

All these years later I deeply appreciate the gift of those times, and how it fostered a love of adventure and the outdoors. Even now with my physical challenges, I adapt and overcome, and find other ways!! 

Myself and my younger brothers out at sea

This last week I had a beautiful conversation with one of my dear clients in the States that was telling me about her daughter's friend that at the age 20 gained her Pilot's licence!! At 23 she had bought her first plane, a 1952 C35 Beechcraft Bonanza. Stevie was inspired  in becoming a pilot after seeing a picture on Instagram of someone with a small plane when she was in high school.

I love stories like that, it's so inspiring, her love of vintage aircraft re -sparked my own love of vintage sailboats!! And how we can shape our dreams with hard work and dedication.. During Lockdown of 2020 - 2021 as permitted, myself and Dad lovingly restored a 1954 Mirror Dinghy, known formerly as Hunky Dory, yet fondly now renamed Marianne!!

At the time I was so keen to learn to sail, just before the pandemic we visited the Earls Court boat show, after purchasing the " Mirror " an all wooden sailing dinghy.

The pandemic threw courses and training to one side, and up in the air, no pun intended!! We had visited a beautiful local sail club, who own a lovely lake and run Dinghy Cruising Camping weekends down on the south coast and the Solent!! Dinghy Cruising and camping feels like another act of rebellion and resistance.. right up my street.. 

So now with some dates in the diary ( with courses back up and running) for training and a little refresher for Dad who had sailed across the Atlantic not in a Dinghy I must add, ha ha , and a beautiful vintage boat to move onto the lake I am beyond excited..

Remaining teachable is the key, I am excited to learn to sail and do my navigation and radio ratings and most of all to camp out on the boat all in time to come!!

Summers are fleeting and as I have said before , Just how many Summers do we have left!! 

So a huge heartfelt thank you to Stevie for such inspiration It was so cool to follow you flying over so many beautiful landmarks all the way to Oshkosh and Kelleys Island. What makes your story so compelling to me is how you blend a sense of adventure and freedom with your respect for accuracy and precision as you fly.

As a Dad, I  deeply commend you for living your best life and sailing right past notions of limitations and barriers at 165 knots.  

...................................................................................................

I will leave you all with a beautiful video of Stevie flying to Oshkosh and our humble little Dinghy restoration, one last thought, you do not need to be defined by your circumstances and in my case your disability..

Don't let your dreams just be dreams.

The world continues to rupture, break, fracture and crack open!!

Yet I am feeling so very grateful for the incredible people in my world, for the moments, good and bad, joyful and painful, I am humbled to bare witness to your lives, your journey and to the many moments that have been shared, many of which have been over Skype, around a fire, sat on a log or around a table!!

Blessed precious and importantly treasured moments, that are like a living, breathing anchor, rooting and nourishing our lives!! After all we are the sum of our lives and experiences!! Are we not?

We can often tell a lot about a person!! By the company they keep?

I am beyond blessed to be surrounded by the most kind, generous, courageous, spirited folk , who are so generous in sharing there, time, skills, knowledge and wisdom, many of which live within the fringes, the edges and the spaces between!!

Yet are deeply convicted in crafting a world forged from tenderness, who embody such radical truth, radical compassion alongside radical responsibility.

And joy is an act of resistance!
 

 Beyond The Hedge - Hedge School News

We are now fast approaching our Lammas Portal within our humble hedge school teachings and traditions, a time that we traditionally focus our attention out onto the land, Deer Camp and harvesting our beautiful herbiary at the Bothy!! Making preparations for Autumn and Winter!!

These experiences often fill us with wood smoke and starlight, and on our return we will be honoured to share some enriching medicine stories..

In the meantime we will be opening the Lammas Portal in the coming days!! In preparation of The Medicine stories we have gathered from Deer Camp late Summer!!

If you have a Medicine Story you would like to share, gathered from the Summer do please email it into info@shanegadd.com

Hedge School Dates for your diary

July 30th- Lammas - Loaf Fest - Magic Marketplace and Picnic. Beyond The Woodland Gate!!

Lammas is the first harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance; At Lammas the Goddess is in Her aspect as Grain Mother, Ceres the Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen,  represents the ripe corn of this year’s harvest and  the seed which drops back deep into the dark earth, hidden throughout the winter, to reappear in the spring as new growth.

So as the grain harvest is gathered in, there is food to feed the community through the winter and within that harvest is the seed of next year’s rebirth, regeneration and harvest.

 The Grain Mother is ripe and full; heavily pregnant she carries the seed of the new year’s Sun God within her. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and evokes the fullness and fulfilment of the present harvest, holding at its heart the seed of all future harvests.

We are going to gently share the skill of weaving a corn dolly for everyone to craft,  take home to their altars ,fire places!! As we weave,  we will invite you to weave in intentions for the coming year!!  We will bless the land and our lives by gifting a loaf to the Landwights,  and a story or two around the fire.

Not forgetting our annual Magical Market place and Picnic, please bring a plate and a bottle to share, a humble fair of handcrafted goods and wares to buy, sell trade and exchange.... Feel free to bring a friend or two to this wonderful celebration.. Please car share...

Booking via the Midsummer Portal - Events - Booking Essential For all our community crafts people do bring along your wares!!

Magical Crafts and Medicine Tools - Lammas Celebration..

Video - Is my Spirit Guide myself (inside of me) or is my Spirit Guide someone else (outside of me)?

Beautiful Artwork by Sheila Rose

Labyrinth Journey - Immersion Experience 

Gift Vouchers - Looking for something different and special to gift How about gifting a voucher for a Consultation or one of our Immersive Experiences!!

More often than not, you’re not choosing a gift for just any random person. You are thinking of buying something special for someone you love and care about.

Life Doctoring with Jo

Life Doctoring with Shane

G E T  I N  T O U C H

info@shanegadd.com