Launching our second spiral of HedgeSchool. Running from June 01- June 19
“Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances, apprentice
yourself to yourself, begin to welcome back
all you sent away, be a new annunciation,
find the words you always wanted to say
and stand at the door of the day
and be hospitable, even to the stranger in you”
Dear Friends
As we continue to navigate these uncertain times I have found myself wondering about our primal human need for safety, care, connection and belonging. How can we find shelter in our lives in the midst of these troubling times? What are the routes to real belonging when we find ourselves far apart.
When I visit the ancient, limestone landscape of the Burren on the West coast of Ireland I often make a pilgrimage to Coleman’s cave. This is a place of belonging for me and when I am physically distanced I visit in my imagination and sometimes my dreams carry me there. David Whyte’s poem ‘Coleman’s Bed’ also takes me there and reminds me to ‘apprentice myself to myself’.
Our HedgeSchool experiment at The Trailblazery is also an apprenticeship of sorts. We have been busy harvesting and separating the grain from the husk. Our inaugural HedgeSchool spiral was an initiation - a rich and inspiring rite of passage that brought an extraordinary circle of great humans together for 2 weeks during lockdown. It was a creative experiment that exceeded our wildest dreams.
We hosted over 120 people from Ireland, Iceland, France, Holland, Greece, Sweden, Canada, USA, Mexico, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Our participants range from teenagers to cocooners and come from all walks of life. Your feedback was so encouraging we decided to evolve our current model and develop a new model which includes deeper connection practices and experiential learning skills to help us navigate the future as it emerges.
“I don’t know what I would have done while cocooning if I hadn’t discovered the Hedge School. I found so much stimulation but more importantly I found a tribe of people searching and probing into the depths of who we are and how we are living our lives. And that’s just the participants! The guides invited us to follow them into the great ‘Beyond’. I truly believe the Universe has sent Covid to us to wake us up. Thank you The Trailblazery for this nourishing ‘soul food’..”
HedgeSchool is a collective learning experience that weaves human connection with conversation, storytelling, art, music, poetry and reflection. This is a place where we can ask big questions that inspire us to nudge our human capacity forward. HedgeSchool is also an immersive learning experience where we can develop our innate potentiality, increase our capacity for wellbeing and explore living from the inside out.
Together, we explore the spirit of our times via the intersection of culture with community, conscious evolution, creativity, ecology, education, systems thinking, wellbeing and our shared wisdom traditions. While we are rooted in Ireland we are tapping into a universal human need for authentic connection and belonging in our world right now. We are committed to exploring a shared future that orients around our innate heart-centered values of courage, compassion and care. HedgeSchool is a homecoming to our wild and untamed selves so that together, we can root before we rise…
The Golden threads
We are curious about the golden threads that bind us together. In ancient times, the golden thread became the symbol of knowledge that is born of personal experience and is free from institutional conditioning. It is the guiding light that guides us throughout our lives experience and is always ancient yet always new. The ancient symbol of the labyrinth, being both the spiral and the circle wrapped into one, has long since represented wholeness. As we travel through the labyrinths in our lives, this archetypal strands of golden thread can help us to connect us to our true selves, to each other, and to home
Spiral 2
Our next spiral will feature inspiration guides from Ireland and around the world to open up pathways and perspectives of inquiry. We will also be guided through a series of meaning making processes with Maria Scordialos (Greece) and Vanessa Reid (Canada) co-founders of The Living Wholeness Institute and AoHAthina.
Meet Your Guides
⤕ Marian Dunlea | Jungian analyst, Author and Somatics Practitioner
⤕ Maria Scordialos | Greek Activist. Systems Theorist. Pattern Recogniser
⤕ Vanessa Reid| Canadian Artist , Writer, Social Innovator, Process worker, and Participatory leader
⤕ Padraig Kirwan | Author. Senior Lecturer in the Literature of the Americas,
⤕ LeAnn Howe | Poet, fiction writer, filmmaker, playwright and member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
⤕ James O’ Dea| Irish-born activist, author and educator, Former president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the lead faculty for the Shift Network’s Peace Ambassador Training.
Investment
We believe that HedgeSchool should be available for people from all walks of life especially in the current climate so we have created a range of sliding scale payment options and scholarships for anyone who needs support. Advance booking is recommended, as spaces will be limited. We appreciate your support in these times so please pay what ever feels appropriate to your circumstances. Thank you for walking this path with us.
It feels appropriate to share this as we navigate this threshold together
Blessings to you all.
We look forward to blazing bright trails with you in the near future.
Stay safe
until soon
Kathy xo
