Ancient Wisdom, Ceremony, Story, Song, Council, Ancestral Foods, Embodied Remembrance
ERYRI, NORTH WALES
23 - 28th July 2024
hiraeth
/ˈhɪərʌɪθ
Welsh / Proto-Celtic
noun
A spiritual longing for a home to which you cannot return or a yearning for a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the grief for lost place. Or the echo of ancient places from the soul’s past; our longing to belong and a sense of once belonging. It can be in the wind, the rocks, the moss; the landscapes lost.
Reclaim your indigenous roots in our embodied ancestral immersion within the animate, mythical Celtic rainforest at the foot of Yr Wyddfa.
Weaving our hearts into our ancestors’ ancient crafts, stories and rituals, we become receptive to their guidance and wisdom.
In an age of crisis and disconnect, our time together will help us remember what has been dismembered, re-vision how to live in reciprocity and reclaim our sovereign creativity.
This is a time for ancient innovation to bring deep healing to our inner and outer landscapes.
The alchemy of welsh rainforest, rushing river, mystical lake, roundhouse councils, fireside stories, foraging and ancestral foods from the hearth will reverberate through your being, bringing insight into what it means to be interrelated, and how we can become rooted ancestors for our future generations.
This is a time of profound connection, digital unplugging, deep listening and radical presence with your indigenous soul and the spirits of the land.
entailed in our time
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“Ancestral Rooted Healing gatherings are an act of restoration on behalf of all life. Veronica, and the wisdom keepers and space holders who contributed to her vision, wove us into deep relationship with The Ancestors, Earth and her beings. I experienced the mighty medicine of reconnection in an enchanted, verdant, and ceremonial place, through immersive stories, songs, ceremonies, forest and ocean food, sacred craft, and pilgrimages upon the landscape, I found myself coming home to my wild, creative, mythical self, and flowing back to an interconnectedness with life that most humans have forsaken. Upon my return to Turtle Island (North America), I can feel what others claim they see in me: I’m settled, nourished in my cells, and trusting that the way of the ancestors has been rekindled and will stay with me wherever I dwell.”
Jennifer Comeau
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“I describe this experience to other people as it feeling like I lived this whole other life, had this whole other family, whole other home. I like to think maybe in another life that we did all live like that together, not just for a week but for our lifetimes. Ancestral is so magical, connected, and restorative. It’s an authentic way of living, in harmony with people and nature. The ceremonies were extremely powerful and moving, you could feel the collective magic in the air. As if when tension is so thick you could cut the air with a knife, it was the same thing but in a totally opposite and pleasant way. It’s nourishing for the soul.”
Louis Lovegrove
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“Deep gratitude for this beautiful experience. Spending these days at the land of Cae Mabon was like stepping into a dream of how life can be if we remember our true nature and how to live in a relational way. These days gave me clarity on what I want more of in my own life, and how I want to be of service. Experiencing days living in a harmonious village, in community around the fire, in ceremony reconnecting with ancestral crafts I believe would be a healing experience for anyone. It certainly was for me.”
Robin Tåg
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"The time I spent over the Summer with Veronica and my new Rooted Healing family was a profoundly nourishing gift that moved in so many delicate and magical ways. The enchanted land that held us combined with the love, care, warmth and creativity the village made for the safest space in which to bond and soften down among the wonderful crew that were gathered there. Veronica's deep love of the earth, of song and plants, of binding, gathering and weaving people and land together impacts you deeply. My connection to the world around me has been invigorated. A profound thank you."
Sarah McCun
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“I have been lucky enough to attend 2 Rooted healing gatherings and could not recommend them enough. From the very first moments that I arrived I felt held and supported. I found myself deeply trusting of all the space holders and that feeling really helped with the building of a community with all the other guests. These experiences have been some of the most connected, creative and deeply nourishing experiences of my life. They help to remind me that I am the magic and I am the medicine.”
Helen Turner
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“This one of the most amazing experiences I ever had. Veronica has a unique and beautiful way of constructing a retreat which not only opens the soul but creates a powerful, loving and sharing space. This will not be the last of her retreats I shall go on.”
Gini Holden
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”The gathering was a rich tapestry of invitations to open, connect, remember – the ceremonial spaces so beautifully crafted and held. The programme of offerings was carefully prepared yet perceptively fluid, adapting with the mood of each moment. I felt safe and open knowing that I was in the hands of those that deeply respect and honour the traditions and practices being shared. I am so grateful for this sacred and intimate journey with myself, with the group, with the land on which we rested.”
Julia Goodlife
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“A deep remembrance of ancient rituals and practices we’ve lost throughout the way. Well, we didn’t really loose them, deep inside of ourselves we still know. Eyes sparkling around the fire, your inner child making a jump of enthusiasm, curiosity and excitement while at the same time feeling a deep sense of relaxation, a deep sense of pleasure. A feeling of coming home. Thank you. This retreat was simply a realm of total bliss. A portal of deep healing, remembering and home coming.”
Moika Nkwocha-Nweze
You’ve arrived. Croeso.
Welcome to the roundhouse of your ancestors…
In an old Oak forest, parted by a rushing river, moments away from the mountain lake and at the foot of Eryri (Snowdon), is the award-winning community masterpiece, Cae Mabon. At its heart is a thatched Celtic Roundhouse, home to many convivial evenings of fireside story and song. Circling this hub-hearth is a family of seven earthly dwellings made from strawbales, cedar logs, cob, stone, thatch, turf, timber and hempcrete. There are composting loos, washrooms, a thatched (hot) shower hut and a luxurious fire-heated hot tub nestled into the bank of the river. Beautiful sculptures, carvings and driftwood-framed bridges will ignite your imagination as you explore these magical, liminal lands.
“Jaw-droppingly beautiful” … “a fairy-tale village” … “a verdant retreat from the crazy world" … Professor Tom Woolley declared Cae Mabon the “number one natural building project in the UK”… John Thackeray wrote, “Sites such as Cae Mabon are like the region's antibodies, playing a vital role in healing the crippling disconnection within Western culture between body, soul, spirit, and place.” Philip Car-Gomm, the Chief Druid of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, says that Cae Mabon is the most druid-like place he knows anywhere in the world.
village tenders
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Veronica Stanwell
Ceremony
As a healing + creative arts facilitator, Veronica weaves her love for soma, psyche, land and song into life-long service to our reconnection. From wild Welsh lands, her deep enquiry into indigenous traditions of the Americas and Mother Europe guides her fascination with the fabric of life and our belonging within it. With over a decade of facilitation experience + an MSc in Consciousness + Transpersonal Psychology (Alef Trust), and as founder of Rooted Healing + hosting the podcast, Veronica’s joy for ancient ways is apparent and contagious.
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Lawrence Joye
Sustenance
Lawrence, supported by Lou, Ben, Tom and others, brings ancestral nourishment with the deepest integrity, heart(h)-care and locality. You can expect fresh, local clam stew with ethically foraged seaweed, ancient grain porridge, other delicious animal proteins sourced with the deepest care for ethics and nourishment within a few miles radius, and vegetables from a nearby permaculture farm, accompanied by fermented foraged delights and hand-harvested sea salt. As a founding member of YES&: Conscious Living and co-founder of The Kingly Stag, Lawrence also runs events that celebrate ancient practices. He lives onsite with his family at Cae Mabon and brings a loving, gentle father spirit to our village.
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Eric Maddern
Story
Eric is a true bard, beloved elder + the founder of Cae Mabon. He’s an Australian-born world traveller with Aboriginal roots and Welsh connections. He is a professional storyteller, and has told tales at historic sites around Britain and co-led courses for storytellers. His most recent book, ‘Snowdonia Folktales’ breaths new life into the mythic landscapes of some of Britain’s most ancient stories reserved in The Mabinogion, rooted in the landscapes we will dwell in for this special time together. Eric enchants with his local mythopoetic knowledge, folk musicianship and worldly indigenous insights.
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Ben Stopford
Flora
Ben is a facilitator, gardener + gatherer living onsite, offering the creation of wild-culture gardens + the pollination of foraging for food, medicine and connection to place. He holds a PGDip in Sustainable Food + Natural Resources and his group work stems from 'The Work That Reconnects' and contemporary Rites of Passage. He facilitates programmes in Deep Ecology/Bioregionalism, foraging, wild-cultured gardening and initiation ceremonies all guided by a deep-rooted, nature-based philosophy. You can listen to Ben on our podcast.
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Tom Otter
Hearth
Tom is a passionate ancestral + adventure outdoors guide and founder of Nomad Wales, leading meaningful adventures and creating offerings to explore skills, craftsmanship and native ancient culture whilst reflecting on personal challenges and aspirations in the form of a nomadic learning experience in the beautiful landscape of Eryri. Tom regularly takes himself off into nature for vision quests and holds deep respect for rites of passage, co-founding The Kingly Stag from this passion. Tom’s relationship with the hearth is full of wisdom and reverence, which will bless us for both ceremony and nourishment during our time together.
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Sophie
Harp
Originally from Scotland, Sophie is a harpist who will be bringing the gift of her magical musicianship, whose liminal notes melody an ancient remembering, dreaming and visioning. Her unique harp and artistry creates a soundscape that draws listeners into an otherworldly trans, acting as a bridge to the worlds the bards know well. Awen. For our ancestors, this music was sacred, playful, essential. Our intimate setting will create a lucid memory of harp-magic, forever reverberating through your being.
“These grandmothers and grandfathers set the ancient medicine of Welsh bluestone upon my aching heart. Their chants danced like the flickering light of Tuscan cave-fires. Their joyous laughter echoed on and on like Baltic waves against Scandinavian shores. They blew worlds through my mind like windswept snow over Alpine mountain crests. They showed to me the vast and beautiful world of Indigenous Europe. This precious world can scarcely be found in any literature, but lives quietly within us like a dream we can’t quite remember.”
— Lyla June (read)
our exchange
Our exchange for this gathering is sustained on a sliding scale rooted in economic justice, enabling folk to access services at various price levels to accommodate diverse circumstances. For this to work, we rely on the principles of accountability, respect for complexity and honesty. As Alexis Cuningfolk says, “Community thrives when accountability is a central value, because that is where trust grows and depth work can be done. Teachers deserve to get paid and students deserve classes which recognize the multiple realities of economic access and privilege that exist”. Here’s her full resource to understand this more deeply.
All dwellings are shared with 1 to 4 others and will be allocated on a first booked-first choice basis, so book early to choose the prime spots! We can arrange a private for a higher fee (please enquire). We require a £600 deposit, or a £250 deposit if with a payment plan (more on payment plans below).
Once you have booked, please tell us a little about yourself.
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Subsidised £950
Book with a £250 deposit and pay the rest with an interest-free payment plan (that needs to complete before our retreat). Eg. 7 months = £93 per month (via standing order).
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Standard £1,100
Book with a £400 deposit and pay the rest 1 month before our time together. Or pay the rest with an interest-free payment plan (that needs to complete before our retreat). Eg. 7 months = £100 per month (via standing order).
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Supporter £1,250
We thank you wholeheartedly for contributing to economic justice. Book with a £600 deposit and pay the rest 1 month before our time together. Or pay the rest via payment plan if needed.
On the last day, you can hike up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) or a slightly lower mountain for your own private ritual with other keen folk from our Ancestral village.
All accommodation is simple and well loved with shared compost loos and a riverside hot-shower washroom. If booking within a month prior, we ask for the full amount unless agreed otherwise. Please read our terms and conditions before booking.
questions?
“The Great Sacred Motherland of Europe is still alive and breathing and waiting for her children to come home! She is waiting for us to ask her for songs so that we may sing to her once again. She is waiting for us to scratch past the surface of time, into the B.C. period when our languages were thriving and our dancing feet kissed the face of the Earth. She is waiting. She is waiting for us to remember who we are.”
— Lyla June (read)
timings and logistics
Please arrive at 2pm on Tuesday, the 23rd July. Our closing ceremony will finish at 11am on Sunday, the 28th July.
Most folk are driving or taking public transport. The closest train station is Bangor (if you book ahead, there are wonderfully cheap advanced direct train tickets from London, for example). If flying in, folk have chosen Manchester airport in the past, but check London airports for cheaper tickets. We will make a WhatsApp group for you to arrange lift shares. Hopefully you can arrange a lift from the station, or share a taxi if needed. We will provide a full packing list (think all weathers, off-grid, total digital unplugging).
a tender note
Dear wonderer,
In a time of recurrent fascism, we want to be clear that this is about us all reclaiming a deep relationship with the land and not an ownership of it.
My personal background is one of wild Welsh lands in Pembrokeshire, growing up with many folkloric practices around me as we farmed with mostly traditional methods, foraged some food and medicine from the land and took part in festivities of Welsh folk heritage. During my interview with Alistaire McIntosh, who grew up “with one foot on an apparently dying indigenous world and the other hard down on the accelerator of progress”, and learning about the indigenous Kildans' island evacuation only 90 years ago in Northern Scotland, it became blatantly clear to me that our indigenous threads are still so alive here in Britain, waiting for us to revive them.
Westerners have been starving for indigenous wisdom in this renaissance of psychedelics and non-religious spirituality, seeking experiences far and wide, so this is also about coming home - finding that same connection in Britain (or Europe), a place so in need of our love and regenerative care. It is also for people whose ancestry is rooted in Europe, but whose lives are elsewhere, as connecting with our lineage and blood-land is a powerful healing practice.
This is also a gathering for people with other ancestry and/or from other lands, to come and weave songs and stories from other lineages and to explore ways to be in kinship with the land - a primordial level of kinship that descends recent cultural adaptations. The notion of lineage is not about more division, but to find ways to cultivate a sense of belonging - through understanding our ancestors and the land in ways we've not been taught at school or in modern society. It is to celebrate our shared innate, ancient wisdom.
It's about being together as a village. So that we remember we can. These are the grounds for gentle, yet magnificent innovation. You’re welcome here, you’re needed.
With heart,
Veronica x
Founder of Rooted Healing
tending the land
Proceeds from every booking go towards sponsoring biodiversity with The Future Forest Company, including the protection of ancient woodland, wildflower meadows and wetland regeneration, whilst supporting endangered species inhabiting them.
glimpses from last time
We hope to carry a new focus each year, so that folk can return to our ancestral village if desired, and so that our exploration of ancient ways remains cyclical and curious. Ancestral 2023 focussed on the ancient sacred craft of drum making, rattle making, natural wool spinning and the cultivation of foraged dyes for our spun yarns. We were blessed with the wisdom keepers and ancestral craftswomen Dorrie Joy and Nereida Olives, who carry this work with profound passion and reverence. The drum making process was much more thorough than usual workshops - with soaking skins in the river, cutting our own pieces and lacing and birthing the drums into being with a slowness and stillness in the meeting of the materials and elements for such land-soul alchemy. Not only did these drum births nurture the ground of our being, they are also heirlooms for many generations to come. The rattles were made with river stones and we took them to our water ceremony to bring forth the songs the river gives. Nereida guided us through the slow, nurturing process of spinning and dyeing our own wool found on the land during our pilgrimage, singing songs and telling stories along the way. This work invited conversations about relationship with warmth, fabric, and a forgotten belonging that’s made through wearing the landscapes.
