'To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root'

Samhain marks the end and beginning of the Celtic New Year, when we gather our final harvest before descending into the darkness of Winter. At this threshold we are invited to dance with the mystery of life, death and rebirth and remember those who have walked this way before us.

Cultivating an intimate and reciprocol relationship between the living and the dead, the seen and unseen, is what enables the Great River to keep on flowing. With our prayers, songs, stories, tears and offerings we feed the Ancestral Altar and create a home for the Sacred to dwell in our hearts. 

Through the container of ceremony, woven with story, pilgrimage, crafting and ritual, The Ancestral Altar will reconnect you with the sacred bones within you and the lineage of earth you come from. Held within the ancient lands of Dartmoor, Dumnonia, we will be unravelling the thread of a story of bones, weaving words with the landscape that capture the essence of a time past and awaken forgotten memory.

Our bones carry the wisdom of the ancients, the tales of our ancestors, and the unshakeable knowing that we are woven with all life, made of earth, returning to earth. When we tend to the bones, we are taking care of the earth of us - of our human and more-than-human kin that have made compost for our life to grow. 

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Our time together will be spent listening to the wild land and waters, crafting soulful rituals and making offerings that honour our ancestors and give thanks to the more-than-human world. As the veil thins during the Samhain tide, we will explore ways to communicate with the spirit realm and shift modes of perception to become more attuned to the subtle and numinous.

Our ceremony will include an evening of vigil; singing over the bones and welcoming the return of the Callieach - Ancient Grandmother of mountain, stone, cave and cliff, who knows how to endure the desolate places our souls meet in the depths of Winter. To connect with the Wild Spirit of the land and flesh out the ancient bones, this ceremony will include journeying with sacred Bramble medicine. 

To ground our prayers we will make a pilgrimage to a wild landscape at the heart of Dumnonia, to hold council with ancient stones and offer up the blessings from The Ancestral Altar to the wild ancestral spirits of the land.

Once returned from our pilgrimage, we will enjoy a seasonal feast and time in the sauna and hot tub before gathering round the fire for stories and songs, to ground and nourish before returning home the next morning.