What to expect from Welcoming Darkness Ritual Events?

**Event 1: Ancestors, on the 1st November, has now filled up, however if there are cancellations I am forming a waiting list so please email if you'd like to be added to this. Event 2: Dancing with Darkness & Shadow still has some places remaining!**

Join in circle space for two themed ritually-held transformative events to welcome in the darker time of year. You may just attend one, or both events. Find connection, discover magic & folklore grounded in the Northern lands; and immerse yourself in a sensory and somatic adventure of movement, stillness and togetherness. Bring whatever you wish to move through, dance with or shake out! All are welcome, diversity is celebrated!

Todfellows Hall, pictured above is a central, accessible (ground floor & step-free access) venue, with small kitchen, toilet and accessible toilet, and space to store belongings outside of the main hall. 5 minutes walk from the train & bus stations, close to several car parks. The hall will be warm, seasonally decorated and laid out with yoga mats provided, and with low-lighting with fairy lights, tea lights and lamps.

As your Facilitator, I bring my experience as a trained Animist Ritualist, Ceremonialist (formerly as Roots & Resonance) & Eco-therapist and integrate this with my counselling training and experience of working with trauma and nervous system regulation; plus my love of folklore, the arts and plants/herbs/foraging. You can expect elements of the below in both of these rituals:

• Participatory responsible ritual frameworks: I share the essentials of how to open, close and hold a powerful and 'aware' container for transformation and reverence, or celebration and healing. You are welcome to assist in this process, bringing your creativity and presence!

• Guided meditation, journeying & visualisation techniques to gently alter consciousness and bring discovery or insight - these may be accompanied by sound in the form of a live drum beat, gentle brainwave-altering music or rattle.

• Otherworld Journey / shamanic journeying / inner journeying or 'trance' states: these will form a part of both events, in different ways, for you to explore what you feel drawn to when adjusting to altered or trance consciousness. The second event will incorporate an opportunity for a full introductory-level otherworld journey, guided by live drum beat.

• A co-created Altar or central point for placing any personal items linked to our themes, or 'power objects' you would like to bring, or decoration items to personalise the space. There will be more of a focus on this for our Ancestors theme.

• Seasonal folklore elements, poetry and music/sound

• Somatic techniques for grounding, warming the body and stress release

• Intuitive and sensory herbalism: a shared warming infusion of a 'themed' seasonal plant companion, for each ritual event. The ingredients and any known contraindications will be shared with you in advance. These will be culinary, safe plants - nothing toxic or illegal!

• The peak of both rituals will be 45 minutes of a 'blindfolded shadow dance' - to a curated playlist. This will be gently guided for you to adjust to the blindfold and 'inner darkness', and you will have a yoga mat - your own 'area' to stay in during the dance - or if you prefer, a chair. This is an invitation to move as wildly, or be as still, as your body needs. For example you are very welcome to lie down and journey with the music. I will make sure no one wanders out of their space - and gently guide you back if so.

• Options for integration time before we close space together - either in small-group sharing, or to breakout into a solo area to journal, sketch or simply rest.

• A small group welcoming diversity, honouring respectful communication and confidentiality to enable deeper healing process, optional verbal sharing of experiences, and community-creation.

• For those who sign up, there will be a 'how to prepare' and 'self care' guidance email, alongside options for further integration, and discounted one-to-one sessions with myself afterwards, if needed. This work can bring up deep themes and transformation.

See below for more about our two main themes for these rituals. There is no expected way for you to understand or engage with the themes. A simple intention to be open to the experience and what may arise in the moment is enough. But for some, setting an intention in the days ahead of participation, and understanding more about how these themes could bring healing or insight into their lives, is helpful. See my prompts below.

Ritual 1: Ancestors & Ancestral Reverence

In this ritual space, you are called to bring with you your relationship to the Ancestors. Or perhaps as a result of your curiosity to enter this space; you will discover or deepen your existing relationship to Ancestry. Some suggestions for engagement may include:

• Remembering loved ones, or those recently passed, and dedicating this time to them and their memory (bringing special relics if you wish to add to our Altar, however not photographs - this will be explained in your 'welcome' and preparation email). There will be a self-care note on this prior to the event, stating how this space can and cannot support recent bereavement or more traumatic circumstances.

• Honouring beloved Teachers or 'Ancestors of Spirit' - those we have been influenced and supported by e.g. poets, artists, activists, musicians, spiritual teachers, mentors, elders, specific groups of people...

• Honouring our wider ecological relationships - extinct or threatened species, animal companions, cherished places.

• At Samhain, the time of this ritual event, we can honour the unseen and see 'who' or what arises during our dance!

Most global spiritual and cultural traditions incorporate practices and even festivals for honouring our dead, and remembering our ancestors. The 1st of November is a potent and auspicious time to remember our dead, to tend to gravesides, to share stories of loved ones and of time gone-by. The veil is said be thinner between the lands of the living and the dead! Traditionally, people would feast & light fires at this time. Which links to modern day Halloween.

You may be familiar with the Christian Festivals of All Saints Day & All Souls Day. There is also Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico - Day of the Dead, and the Loy Krathong festival in Thailand and Diwali - the Festival of Light in India; all of which fall around November with similar themes around darkness & light, gratitude, and honouring ancestors or local spirits or deities.

In the Northern European pre-christian tradition, the 31st October-1st November is the time of the ancient pagan festival Samhain (loosely translated to mean' summer's end'). Beltane, the 1st of May, is the polar-opposite of this - the old way of marking summer's beginning. This seasonal festival will influence some of the energy of our first ritual together; but you are invited to bring your own personal relationship with Autumn, or any traditions that resonate with you or your heritage. All are welcome.

Ritual 2: Shadows & Dancing with Darkness

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”– Carl Jung

This ritual has a wild edge to it, and welcomes yours! Like the curious, clever and occasionally devious crow; one figure who may guide us into ceremony - you are invited to embrace the dark with openness, and if it calls to you - wild abandon! Or to express what needs to be felt before Winter's invitation to pause, rest, reflect.

This ritual asks are you ready to go deep, behind the blindfold - as you are invited to face the unseen, the hidden? To befriend the darkness and illuminate what calls to you now? A journalling prompt will be sent in your sign-up email, to help you access your intention if you wish, and some self-care guidance, prior to this ritual. You will also be guided via live drumming on an 'otherworld (shamanic) journey' to met a protective animal companion, who will support your experience and deliver a message...

Some themes that Shadows & Dancing with Darkness may invite:

• What do you need this Winter, how can you be at home in Darkness?

• Hidden aspects of self that are longing for expression or discovery - what part of you will you bring to the dance?

• Releasing fear, shame, or inner stories that lead to negative patterns or lack of authenticity - what's ready to go, or be welcomed in?

• What trickster, wild beast, or mythical being would you like to embody in the movement/dance? Feel free to bring some feathers, horns, a mask...play, have fun, darkness does not need to be heavy! Many winter traditions invite masquerade, revelry and trickery. I will curate some of the playlist to inspire this!

• What are you seeing in our collective world that feels taboo, heavy or too big to carry alone?

• Is your ritual a homage to grief, an expression of withheld emotion, or an invocation for peace and freedom?

Reservation and Payment

Contact Sarah Fay directly to register your interest - and with any questions or sensory/access needs I may need to be aware of - and I will send you the payment details. Places are secured by bank transfer only. Cost: £30 per event. Early-Crow price of £54.00 for both, 10% reduction, if you book by 1st October!

I look forward to welcoming you into Circle.