Training Seminar August 22-27th 2022
We are excited to welcome Meredith Little from the School of Lost Borders to Young Wood. This Training Seminar is especially for those who are new to their work, who want to bring deep nature-connection work into the world and are feeling courageous enough to lead their own work around Rites of Passage and Initiation.
One of our Directors, Jenny Archard , has trained with Meredith on many occasions including during the Month-Long training with the School of Lost Borders in the Inyo mountains of California. Neroche Woodlanders work is rooted in a deep relationship with the land, and to maintain and carry out this work we need to be initiated, responsible, caring adults. To work with families, children and young people as we do here in the woods, we need to have done our own work. Jenny leads Vision Fasts and other Initiation work through Woodland Journeys.
Exploring what it means to be an Initiated Adult is part of our work and journey. If it is part of yours, then do join this event.
One of our Directors, Jenny Archard , has trained with Meredith on many occasions including during the Month-Long training with the School of Lost Borders in the Inyo mountains of California. Neroche Woodlanders work is rooted in a deep relationship with the land, and to maintain and carry out this work we need to be initiated, responsible, caring adults. To work with families, children and young people as we do here in the woods, we need to have done our own work. Jenny leads Vision Fasts and other Initiation work through Woodland Journeys.
Exploring what it means to be an Initiated Adult is part of our work and journey. If it is part of yours, then do join this event.
What is Dark Nature?
Of all the shields of human nature, the dark or fall (autumn) shield can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening. It calls on us continually to risk everything, to let go of what has come before, to step over the edge, to go where life is lived inwardly in the mansions of feeling, dream, and memory. The dark shield is the threshold of initiation, where what is unimportant falls away, where we change or we become victims of our ways. The time we spend in the dark shield determines our behaviour, our character, our destiny, and is largely responsible for our ability to love and those we choose to love.
Throughout life we are being initiated by our natural life cycles, as well as those times of crisis, loss and trauma. These times set us on the path once again of the “hero’s journey” toward further growth and maturation … unless we become caught in the Underworld. The tools of our west shield are essential for successfully navigating these times. During this week we will experientially move around the 4 directions of our west shield, exploring those aspects of our nature necessary to move successfully through these life changes, bringing balance and health back into our own lives, as well as our families and the communities we live in.
Listen to Meredith speak here
Throughout life we are being initiated by our natural life cycles, as well as those times of crisis, loss and trauma. These times set us on the path once again of the “hero’s journey” toward further growth and maturation … unless we become caught in the Underworld. The tools of our west shield are essential for successfully navigating these times. During this week we will experientially move around the 4 directions of our west shield, exploring those aspects of our nature necessary to move successfully through these life changes, bringing balance and health back into our own lives, as well as our families and the communities we live in.
Listen to Meredith speak here
The Form
This will be a six-day seminar, beginning mid-day of the first day (22nd) and ending mid-day of the 6th day (27th). We will sit in council each morning; every afternoon you will go alone without food or shelter into the surrounding land to experience this aspect of our nature as body, psyche, mind, and spirit; and in the late afternoons and evenings, we will listen to and learn from the stories brought back. Meredith will be assisted by Sue Sully, supported by Jenny Archard and Jane Embleton.
Programme Details
You will need to be arrive around midday on Monday 22nd, have lunch and set up your camp. Be ready to start at 2pm. We finish at midday on Sat 27th.
A simple, filling vegetarian lunch is included for the first five days including the 22nd (not the day you leave). Please let us know any dietary needs or allergies on your booking form and we will do our best to accommodate everyone. There will be a range of teas and coffee provided. Bring anything you need/can’t do without/snacks. Hot water for drinks will be boiled on the campfire/stoves during breaks if needed. You are responsible for other meals outside of catered lunches.
Wild camping is available on site at an extra £5/per person per night. There are composting loos, a washing area and an equipped outdoor, covered camp kitchen with shared gas and wood cooking stoves. There is one mains water tap at basecamp. Please include this fee in your final booking. (This goes directly to Woodlanders to support site maintenance & woodland management work). Small tents and hammocks are ideal for woodland wild camping. These woods are home to badger, deer, fox, squirrel and many others. There are ticks to contend with in the summer, and other biting things, so come prepared.
Otherwise, accommodation can be found in local pubs or B&Bs and bigger hotels in Taunton, about 15 minutes’ drive away. There are two pubs within 5 minutes’ drive of the woods for evenings, or a long evening walk. Closest rail/bus link is Taunton.
A simple, filling vegetarian lunch is included for the first five days including the 22nd (not the day you leave). Please let us know any dietary needs or allergies on your booking form and we will do our best to accommodate everyone. There will be a range of teas and coffee provided. Bring anything you need/can’t do without/snacks. Hot water for drinks will be boiled on the campfire/stoves during breaks if needed. You are responsible for other meals outside of catered lunches.
Wild camping is available on site at an extra £5/per person per night. There are composting loos, a washing area and an equipped outdoor, covered camp kitchen with shared gas and wood cooking stoves. There is one mains water tap at basecamp. Please include this fee in your final booking. (This goes directly to Woodlanders to support site maintenance & woodland management work). Small tents and hammocks are ideal for woodland wild camping. These woods are home to badger, deer, fox, squirrel and many others. There are ticks to contend with in the summer, and other biting things, so come prepared.
Otherwise, accommodation can be found in local pubs or B&Bs and bigger hotels in Taunton, about 15 minutes’ drive away. There are two pubs within 5 minutes’ drive of the woods for evenings, or a long evening walk. Closest rail/bus link is Taunton.
Bookings and Fees
As Meredith’s courses are a rare occurrence in the UK, we wish to make spaces available to those who are working with those less advantaged or who wish to step onto that path, especially people ‘young’ in this work and just starting out. We especially want to enable those who may not usually be able to afford or attend trainings like this so there is a scale of fees. Any surplus generated from the training will go to support Woodlander’s work with local young people.
Before you book, we ask that you email to tell us a) what you hope to get from this training and b) what groups, people or places you may be working with as a result. We will then give you the online booking code. Email: [email protected]
Full Cost £720
Discounted/Early Bird Ticket £600 (Limited places)
Low Cost £510 (Limited places)
Bursary £420 (Only two places)
NB Camping is £5/ night in the woods, and funds go directly to the woodland, to help with site management costs.
Terms and Conditions for Camps and Courses are here.
If you have questions before you book please email [email protected]
