ancestral portals

Ancestral Portals is a process of path-finding for those who wish to develop and enhance their own creative and spiritual path through listening deeply to their own unique callings, and finding, as Mary Oliver puts it in her poem Wild Geese, "your place in the family of things".

In Ancestral Portals One-to-One work I walk beside you as a companion, creative catalyst, and sometimes a kindly disruptor.

So what do I mean by Ancestral Portals?  I use this term to refer to a group of practices which help to align us with the land right where we are, to listen deeply to what stirs within us, and support belonging and healing across species in both familiar and new places.

For me, these practices include walking and wandering, working with plants, the power of dreams, symbols, drumming, movement and dance, relational practices of care, ritual, silence, listening with land, more-than-human kin, and natural cycles.

Over the past four decades as I have walked and wandered both in the UK, and in Aotearoa (New Zealand) these practices have supported me to awaken my own indigeneity, collaborating with the multi-species beings with whom we share this earth to re-member roots and interconnections through embodied processes of living and creating. 

Drawing on my background in arts and creative health, environmental conservation, training and practice in counselling, multiple holistic and somatic modalities, and immersion in several earth-based spiritualities, I work with de-colonisation of the self and of spiritual and creative practice, and the centering of a grounded yet fluid connection with creativity, spirituality, and land.

It seems to me that we stand at a threshold, or perhaps a crossroads.  Many are experiencing a longing for connection with the sacred; with spirituality, creativity and healing that honours and collaborates with this land upon which we live, right here, right now.

If you like what you have read so far, but need further help to think about whether this work is for you, here are some words that may help to clarify:

You may want to de-condition yourself from ways of living and being that do not serve you or the planet, and learn to listen to other ways of knowing.

You may have a longing to develop your own unique path of the heart in collaboration with the place you live with.

You may feel a sense of peace and ‘rightness’ when you are outdoors and want to explore this further as a basis for spiritual and creative practice.

You may sense something ancient stirring in you in particular places and are curious about deepening your exploration of that.

You may want to develop greater confidence in creating your own sacred practices in collaboration with land right where you are.

You may be curious about British indigenous practices that shape-shifted or went underground and are now returning.

You may be curious about the story that we have lost our connection with land and nature here in Britain, and you may sense that this story only serves to keep us disempowered.  You may sense there is another truth: that knowledge is held not only by humans, but by the earth, rocks, trees, plants, birds, animals and “invisible” realms, and are curious about learning how to listen to this.

You may sense that something is a bit “off” about following spiritual practices from other cultures without exploring how they relate to this particular land and spiritual practices here.

You may want to develop your spiritual and creative practices and materials to be more ‘green’, ethical, and sensitive to the impact on all of life.

You may be looking for help in learning how to trust your own unique creative expression and expand your view on what creativity is and what it is for.