Samhain: Going Underground
7:00pm Friday – 4:00 pm Sunday
Samhain (Halloween) stands within the threshold of the dark part of the year. In the indigenous tradition, this is the time of in-gathering and recollection. It marks the end of absorption in the outer, momentary present, the beginning of the time of inner journeying, of re-connection with ancestral voices, and the awakening of the voices of prophecy. In the wood, it is the time when the energy of the trees withdraws below ground, the time when next year’s seeds lie dormant. In Tantra, it is time to move inward, to go deeper, finding in our core energy the fuel for personal transformation.
There is no better place to go deeply into this energy than Wild Ways, situated deep in the ancient Shropshire countryside,with a magical 90-acre wood, a river a large running through it, abundant wildlife, and a beautiful Centre, which includes a traditional straw-built temple in which to conduct the traditional Celtic ritual version of the Day of the Dead — in which we remember our ancestors, calling on their help as guides through the Dark.
At this time, we teach the fundamental principles of tantra, learning to experience ourselves as human energy-forms surrounded by the elemental natural energies of the wood and its non-human creatures. Our tools are a blend of meditation, dance, breathing, voice work, bodywork, massage, the creative therapies and the classic rituals of western tantra. In all of our work we also connect with the wood, expanding our awareness to absorb its healing energy, listen to its wisdom, and learn to dance our human, sexual dance embraced by its otherness.