community sacred fire and fire quest camp

28th - 31st August 2025. sacred Earth land.horam. sussex.

Tending fire in a sacred way, allowing what is stuck to come back into healthy movement so we can tend life well.

Do you long to embrace peace as a reality? In ourselves and in our world?

What would it be like to embody a way of living that supports us to bequeath a culture that we can feel proud of to our children and the future generations?

How can we remember what it is to tend Life and be in healthy connection with ourselves, one another, the natural world and Spirit?

Come and be part of this experience in which we activate old ceremonial formats that support connection, healing and transformation in ways that include the whole community.

The warmest invitation to join us to become part of a collaborative intergenerational village for our 4 day camp dedicated to supporting cultural regeneration and embracing the possibility for peace, health and happiness for ourselves and all we are in relationship with.

The connection practices we use support healing of those things that disconnect us from healthy connection so we can be in a thriving relationship with all of Life and remember the gifts we have to share in our own unique ways.

The event includes teachings, nature connection, play, orientation into the ceremonies we use and time for harvest and integration afterwards. Everyone of any age is welcome.

We use a Purification Ceremony, a Community Sacred Fire Ceremony and offer the opportunity to do a Personal Fire Quest in this gathering. We close with a Gratitude ceremony.

These processes all have our personal relationship with the elements at their core.

The central community ceremony is an overnight Sacred Fire. This comes from the healing traditions of the Odawa people and has been given to us to use in a respectful way so that we might remember how to live well in these times. This is something truly helpful we can engage with together to address the stacked up griefs and traumas we live with. It has it’s roots in a powerful and historic redemptive story that we tell and reflect upon the principles it embodies as a heart beat of the camp.

For those who choose a solo experience a short form vision quest for 24 hours using fire as the altar is on offer.

It is fully catered and held at the beautifully tended land of Sacred Earth near Horam, Sussex. It is held by Jill Kettle, Hans Schuldheis and an inspiring integenerational team of helpers.

There is an expense component of £200 per adult and £50 per child that covers our basic costs. Concessions are available. Reciprocity for the ceremony is at your discretion and we will carefully explain our ethos around not charging for ceremony on your journey to booking.

Contact with this way of Life changes lives in profound and mysterious ways. Hans and I feel honoured to be able to share these cultural and connection practices and the opportunities for healing they offer. We are greatly supported by our teacher Sal Gencarelle of the Helpers mentoring society.

CONTACT ME TO BOOK OR TO ASK QUESTIONS

Mitakue Oyasin. For all I am in relationship with..

Come and remember our interconnection, our capacity for right relationship, true helpfulness and responsibility, balance, reciprocity and gratitude. 

Together let us activate ancient ways so that we might experience that there is a reason that we are here at this time and it is not just to take.

We can find our part to play, feel joy, aliveness, gratitude. Remember what a healthy culture that supports us and our relatives might feel like. 

This will be our 7th nature based gathering dedicated to cultural repair.

We create an environment where we can slow down and step out of the constraints of modern life. We nurture our relationships with ourselves and others, our nature connectedness, and Spirit. We deepen our direct experience of connection with the elements and aspects of the unseen including our ancestors and the future generations. We ask good questions, we listen. Nature, the elements, ancestors, the future ones and the patterns of Life become our teachers.  

These gatherings are not workshops. They represent our commitment to tend and re imagine a healthy culture that supports and regenerates ourselves and our environment. A place that can remind us of our reciprocal relationship with all of Life and build "ropes of connection" inside and out that will sustain long into the future.
We consciously and deliberately involve young people and elders. We seek to grow capacity around this work that can support us provide healthy initiation for young people and adults into an established community.

Ceremony teaches us how to live. It takes us beyond a human centric perspective. It can help us become truly helpful. It benefits a lot beyond ourselves. What we carry out of our experiences and integrate into our lives can be firm anchors for living in ways that invite health, happiness and healing.  

All our gifts have a place in these events and music, song, storytelling and great food are very much part of the experience. 

Please don’t feel put off if this kind of thing is new or unfamiliar for you. If you feel you don’t know something we will support you to navigate. We are all always in learning and you are warmly welcome. I invite you to read more about the context, history and opportunity of working with fire in ceremony in this article.

To summarise, there are two main ways to participate in this camp

• As a community member supporting the Sacred Fire ceremony.

• Doing a personal solo fire quest

Please read the links to get more clarity on each ceremony and help you choose. If you decide to come, please thoroughly orientate yourself through the articles above.

If you are new to this we recommend you come and participate in the community Sacred Fire ceremony so you can experience this side of the process before you commit yourself to a personal quest. However if you are deeply called to quest, we will support you. Each situation is unique and we will provide mentoring to help you navigate what way of participating will best serve you at this time.

These ancient formats create helpful environments in which we can build our own relationships with our purpose and meaning. We activate conditions that support healing and transformation of what might need to move in our lives. We cannot outthink our problems that have generated through our stories, traumas and grief but going into immersive experiences with connection practices can allow us to move into the subcognitive and get back into the flow of Life and spirit. We build community and relationships.

Outline of the event

• Gathering on 28th August at 10 am promptly at Sacred Earth near Horam. Setting camp and orientations. First day is of welcome, landing and teachings. Games and nature connection. Evening of fireside and epic story.

• 29th. Ceremony day. Questers begin preparation at dawn and other community members work to prepare the Sacred Fire altar. In the afternoon we have a purification sweat lodge for all who want. In the evening we light the community sacred fire and questers go to their spots for their solo overnights.

• 30th. Dawn. Welcome back of the questers and tending down of the Community sacred fire. Big breakfast and camp rest time. In the afternoon we begin harvest and integration. Fire music and a feast in the evening to celebrate and relax together.

• 31st. Gratitude (Wopila) morning and celebration. To give thanks for what we have received. People are invited to bring small gifts to share with one another as a part of this morning. Camp is fully closed by 2pm.

There is no charge for the ceremony part of this gathering so that everyone who might want to come can come irrespective of means.

However a great deal of work goes into setting up, teaching and feeding everyone! So we ask for expenses and we welcome what you can afford to offer for the ceremonial aspect. We ask that those who are able give generously to support the sustainability of this offering and invest into the possibility of these teachings being shared for future generations.

We give a proportion of all we collect to the Pine ridge reservation in South Dakota which is our teaching source.

We hope you will join us. Lots of love,

Jill and Hans.

testimonials

“Utterly life changing. I still feel amazed how such a short time can have had such a powerful impact. Many things have shifted for me since I attended the most recent camp, in quite a short time. I really recommend this experience it is so well held and with so much love and understanding. Something happened way beyond what I can put into words”

' Jill and Hans hold the most beautiful ceremonial space I've ever had the honour of being part of. Each time I have supported their camps I leave feeling a deep sense of connection to the people, the land, and spirit that have all been present during the camps. They are also super inclusive, accommodating and will go out of their way to make sure everyone is held in a good way. As a young person I look up to the way they run ceremony ' Poppy

' Jill and Hans hold a ceremonial space which is tender, beautiful and inclusive. In doing so they are also, eloquent, clear, simple and practical about the reasons why we are doing ceremony and why we do it the way we do' - Lindsay

‘This was my first time joining Jill & Hans in ceremony and entering their commitment to creating cultural repair, even though I was there, with my tween kids, for just 24hrs it felt like I stepped out of time into a place where the hearts and presence of others became all there was in life…. Truly restoring. 

With Jill’s all welcoming guidance and deep well of wisdom I found myself not only inspired but enthused. The ceremony and sweat lodge helped me remember what is most important to me, I felt so moved by the pure humanity of it, not to mention the joy of being fed wonderful food by impassioned people…!! 

My 11 year old and my 15year old felt fully included and celebrated too, and they loved being in the woods making new friends, it brought to them a quality that I believe they long for without knowing why. Hans brought a gentle grounding presence, way he guided the fire keeper men and tended the sacred fire with such devotion, art and ability was mind blowing, ashes to ashes dust to dust….  I know this will stay with me for life and my life will be sown with deeper and deeper meaning each time I join this fire and community, thank you both and your team so much, I am profoundly grateful.”  Hannah Mae Dawson

Jill and Hans have created a truly strong, safe and exquisitely sacred container for my soul and all my parts to release and birth into. I am so deeply grateful for this beautiful space; one I treasure in my heart as it weaves it’s endless richness and mystery in the Inipi itself but then in the unfolding month ahead. It has allowed me to touch the edges of my darkness - the biting point and gateway between my personal limits and my capacity to experience it all - and cross over to trust and surrender. I am honoured to be gently learning the Lakota Way and feel such a privilege to be a part of this holy community of loving souls. Jill and Han’s co-created passion and devotion to this lineage and the incredible loving detail and heart they bring to their vision for sacred community is so inspiring and a tribe I am very thankful to be a part of.

Our fire quest journey with you in the woods was wondrous. Such a nourishing and beautiful experience for us both. Tully asks me so many times about the freedom I had as a child, but I never had the intentional community that gathered for those few days. Adults that took delight in the children being there and sharing space. Witnessing held & honoured vulnerability in adulthood and a deeper insight into what it means to be truly human. The care, the food, the fire and the playful spirit in all, not just the children. Everyone was held & everyone held each other. To witness the journey of the fire so lovingly tended. The gentleness of it all, despite the challenges people were bravely facing & the unrelenting rainfall everything was welcomed and honoured. Thankyou so much for having us Michaela and Tully

RITES OF PASSAGE

When we honour our Rites of Passage we can grow to our fullest potential and harness the energy that these thresholds hold in good and life affirming ways. We can initiate ourselves into new phases of our lives and discover more about the gifts we have within to share. We can heal from experiences that may have held us back from bringing all of who we are to the world.

The acknowledgment of thresholds in life can make all the difference about how we frame our experiences.

A culture that is actively tending and understanding our natural rites of passage as human beings grows in strength, creativity and vitality. If facilities contact with the deep intelligence of the consciousness of creativity and the natural cycles of life that hold so much wisdom.

Through regarding these moments with respect and finding ways to honour them individuals are supported to actualise themselves and see beyond self serving ends and consumerism to become truly helpful members of community. Building a healthy relationship to the thresholds of life creates resilience to respond with love in action to the challenges we face locally and globally. True eldership is fostered.

There is a complex and beautiful relationship between ceremony and rites of passage. Rites of passage are happening whether we acknowledge them or not.

There is a momentum of energy at each threshold moment we pass through, puberty, grief, menarche, marriage, menopause and more. We are primed at these moments to take on board messages about what our society expects from us. We are hard wired to imprint off these times our meaning and worth. If they are ignored, underwhelming or wounding we may carry those messages deep into ourselves and live out of the narratives they offer us. In a healthy system each moment gives us a chance to heal, learn, grow and find out about our unique way of being in service to life and all of this creation.

For many of us when we passed through thresholds, such as puberty, there was nothing around us to support us to acknowledge it was an important threshold. What a waste of energy, what a missing of the mark! The possibility to harness powerful life energy that these phases bring us is lost or misdirected.

What I have seen from many years working with birth is that each threshold creates a pattern that can be life affirming or disconnective. When we arrive at the next threshold the echo of the one before sings into the space and is re energised. So if we go through one well we are set for the next one to support growth and build on the connections we have established. We can go deeper into growth. If left untended we can find ourselves in a repeat of a dynamic that restricts us. The threshold is helping us seek resolution. It can and often will reaffirm the narrative, showing us our stuff and offering us an opportunity to come into healing with the pattern we have been living. To redress previous imbalance. To move stuck ness. To grow. It is a doorway. We can either reinforce a disconnective story or work with the powerful potential for change that each threshold brings us and heal things that have often been held for generations. This capacity threshold moments have to support our own healing and that for our ancestors and our future generations is such a gift and resource. Let us learn together to acknowledge this in good ways. Ceremony is one way we may honour that to support the integration of our experiences in a good and healthy way. It doesn’t matter when we come to this work. We can go back and tend previous thresholds that have been unmet, and free ourselves from old stories.

I would be honoured to journey with you to explore how you can find ways to meaningfully mark the transitions in your and your families life. Drawing on my experience with ceremony and tending to the inner life we can co create events, small or large, that meet your needs. I am also available to offer mentoring to privately and quietly explore what might be arising for you around your own experiences with rites of passage, acknowledged or not.

The fire ceremony and opportunity to quest is one pre existing format that we offer that can be very helpful for addressing these needs.

drum birthing day

25th january 2025

brighton

gift vouchers available

A day-long ceremony during which you will be guided through making your drum with care and with love. Your intentions for your drum and for your life are held with respect and encouragement. I teach as I have been taught, with reverence for our guides, teachers and ancestors, dedicating our work to our personal healing and for all our relations. We call forth support from spirit to oversee us. We explore how to listen to the hides of the deer and the wood of the hoops for the medicine they bring us.

I invite reflection upon what arises within ourselves and the environment during the course of the process, as it is all useful information that we can use to develop and deepen awareness of our own stories and how we do the creation process in our lives. This often has a relationship with our own birth stories. I encourage and guide enquiry into this theme for self healing and growth. There is time for circle and reflection as part of the drum birthing days. There is no pressure to participate in anything that does not resonate with you.

Price £310 including all materials to make a 16 inch drum, deerskin and ash hoops and delicious vegetarian lunch and cake. It is a long process so set aside the whole day, 9.30am until approx 6pm. Costs vary for one to one work.

To book please contact me.

‘this is more than a workshop. Jill supported us with real connection and guidance to look deeply at what our vision and purpose might be. She wove so many teachings through the day and as an experience of process and healing it went well beyond anything I could have imagined. I love my drum and look forward to using it for many years to come.’ anna.

‘My drum is waiting and drying in a draughty cupboard in my office about a metre away from me it has ivy around it as it was made under the ivy moon. Not many days now, I am so excited. I loved that the day was spiritual and relaxed with deep, moving ceremony especially to start. The first drumming resonated with my soul and moved me to tears. The whole day was gorgeous physically and timely spacious.  Your expertise and physical strength in the final stages of tying the drum were invaluable, I could not have done it on my own. I would recommend drum birthing to everyone. It is not just a practical workshop but a deep awakening of tribal resonance.’

Yvonne.

MOONTIME

THE BLEEDING PHASE OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

NAMED SUCH BECAUSE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LUNAR CYCLE AND THE WATERS OF THE BODY AND OF THE EARTH.

THE TIDES AND THE PATTERNS OF EBB AND FLOW, PROLIFERATION AND BREAKING DOWN ARE A PART OF EVERY ASPECT OF THE LIVING WORLD.

I share every word that follows with the greatest respect for the wisdom and experiences you as a reader may have with this theme. We all have much to learn from each other if we go on the journey of re membering our innate relationships with the cycles of life and the consciousness of creativity that they express.

I share these reflections and invitations to enquiry recognising that gender identity is fluid and this has always been the case in indigenous cultures. We tend this discussion of Moontime with respect for all points of view. We acknowledge being female bodied gives specific experiences of life that come with a womb and menstrual cycle.

For more detail you can read articles on the blog, explore the linked resources (section- Women’s mysteries) or come and join an in person event where we can explore and unpack this topic with time and personal connection. 

MOONTIME SHARING DAY FOR MEN AND WOMEN

9TH JULY 23 - BRIGHTON 1- 6PM

WITH JILL KETTLE AND HANS SCHULDHEIS.

A WARM INVITATION TO COME TOGETHER TO TEND THE CYCLES OF THE FEMININE AND EXPLORE THE CEREMONY OF MOONTIME.

We will look at the whole of the menstrual cycle. We will explore how that pattern plays out in nature, inner life, and the life phases of people and how the menstruating years fit inside the bigger picture of a woman’s life.

We will focus on the Moontime phase of the cycle, the part where breakdown, composting and renewal is at it’s peak. We will look at the gifts and qualities of this phase and how we might orientate ourselves towards supporting and honouring it as men and women alike. How can we all relate to and work with the Moontime practically and in the moment? What does this look like, beyond a concept?

Our objective is to honour Moontime teachings from a few perspectives and come together as men and women to explore how we can integrate this knowledge and understanding into our lives and communities in good and healthy ways so that we can best serve life. We will look at what ceremony is and how we can learn from it and explore the differences between internal and external ceremonial formats.

The day will be a mixture of teaching and discussion.

For men our hope is that exploring the Moontime may help you to feel better resourced to honour and support the women in your life and deepen your internal relationship to the flow of energy through the cycles of creativity for your own nurturance.

This sharing space is open for all. However one of the motivations for holding this day is because Hans and I work with some ceremonial formats that have protocols around how the Moontime and the external ceremony relate to each other. We extend particular invite to those who have been working with us in ceremony and want to deepen understanding of the importance and impact of the energy of the moon and how to honour and work with it well.

Tending this topic feels like an integral part of cultural repair. By exploring our inner lives and nature and the patterns of the outer natural world we collectively learn and reclaim the patterns of a healthy culture that are part of the deep history of humanity.

For men and women.

By suggested donation £50, concessions available.

For booking and questions please contact me here

We are aware of the complexities and highly charged feelings that can surround this topic and we open this discussion in the spirit of enquiry and service to life to ask questions and reflect on what is true for each of us. We fully recognise our own apprenticeship and ongoing learning journey with these themes.

DEEPER REFLECTIONS ON THE TOPIC OF MOONTIME -

I AM GATHERING REFLECTIONS, ARTICLES, ART AND POEMS TO EXPLORE OUR RELATIONSHIP AND EXPERIENCES OF MOONTIME AND OUR CYCLES.

PLEASE SEE THis LINK if you would like to contribute. YOU CAN READ ARTICLES IN THE BLOG.

A WARM INVITE TO READ THIS POST ABOUT WORKING WITH YOUR MOONTIME IF YOU ARE NEW TO THESE IDEAS AND WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE.

You can listen to me being interviewed about the womens blood mysteries in this connections matters podcast.

Over the last years there has been an exponential increase in interest towards tending the menstrual cycle and the bleeding phase of that (Moontime). There is greater recognition of its fundamental importance for women’s health mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually and how that connects to wider relationships and society.

This connects with a broader conversation about how the menstrual cycle fits into the wider cycles of a woman’s life and the journey she takes as she steps into her bleeding years, moves through them birthing children or projects in the world and ends her journey of cycling through the process of menopause entering a new phase of her life, growth and spiritual connectivity.

The whole of the menstrual cycle has wisdom and potency. It offers different points of view constantly. Often it is thought of as just the bleeding time, but from each phase of the cycle we can harvest, learn and deepen our relationship to ourselves, one another, nature and spirit.

We can choose to build our own relationship to our Moontime and cycles and discover what that means for us individually and collectively. In our personal and shared journeys we can find guidance from within and from the vast intelligence of the web of life, re membering aspects of ourselves that may be critical for our potential to find balance inwardly and outwardly at this time.

All life is born of woman. Women are mysterious, connected and in close relationship to the great mystery of Life.  The incredible potential to bring together spirit and physicality in the womb and to tend and nurture the life that is birthed exists within us. Whether we have babies or not we are capable of nourishing this creation and manifesting in so many ways. Through these innate gifts women are connected to Life and the process of creation in ways that deserve acknowledgment and tending.

There are different perspectives through which to view the menstrual cycle and its capacity to be a gateway to wisdom, healing and cultural repair. There are many modern writers who draw on ancient knowings and their inspiration and experiences to create hugely helpful resources. 

I am informed in my work and practice by an earth based North American spiritual lineage. I value the precision and refinement of understanding it holds. Women’s teachings (or healthy cultural patterns in general) have not faired well through times of colonisation and genocide in any land. I am certain that historically we had our own healthy patterns in Europe and our journey right now is about relearning how to do life well. Through working with a lineage that predates patriarchal distortion and genocide I have reconnected with one of the most powerful spirit given ceremonies, the Moontime. Shifting viewpoint has given me access to what is already happening within me from a fresh perspective. It has allowed me to experience and value my cycles in a radically different way to the narratives my society laid out for me. This experience has been very connective and opened me up to truths and patterns I feel are universal and cross cultural, extending beyond one point of view or tradition.

Through this lineage lens Moontime is seen as a very powerful ceremony that is deeply respected. All true ceremony is concerned with gateways between this reality and the unseen aspects of life. It is there to teach us how to live.

The Moontime ceremony is one of purification, for ourselves and for all the things we are in connection with. For our environment, family and community.

If ceremony teaches how to live what is happening here and what can we learn?

Many ceremonies are spirit given in that people have gone deep into prayer or connection and found patterns of practice that support connection and help access or facilitate changes or shifts in awareness. There is typically an altar, a configuration of elements that form the focus of the ceremony and are interacted with. However the Moontime stands apart from these kinds of ceremonial formats. It is innate and generated internally. Women are naturally initiated into their bleeding times and go through initiation after initiation as they cycle through their years. This culminates in menopause which is it’s own rite of passage with a strong purpose. 

In this understanding the woman herself is the altar. She is capable of having a very strong experience.

Moontime is the power of nature itself, pure, with no manipulation. Ceremonies created and orchestrated by even deeply connected individuals are still manipulations at some level, interactions with nature or spirit to create affect. Moontime is wholly and utterly an expression of the flow of life and the bleeding part a particular aspect of that.

To be in health the cycle of life goes through phases of growth and proliferation and dissolution and breaking down of material form. This flow is needed for life to be healthy, even though a part of it is composting and decay. It is destruction, breakdown or resting phase that is necessary for life. This composting serves life. It has so much to teach us.

All humans need to cleanse and purify, to clear away what no longer serves life and renew ourselves, seek or discover our deeper knowings. Historically men had external ceremonies to support them to find connection, vision, purpose and healing. In most traditional earth based contexts the women had less need for these outward forms because they lived in intimate relationship with their internal ceremonies of Moontime, birth, breastfeeding and intuitive capabilities.

Times are different now for most people in a modern context. We have largely forgotten these ways. As women maybe we need those external ceremonial forms more now, but we can also remember what we have within us. Internal or external the ceremonies take us to the same place of finding out about our own connections.

The Moontime invites us go into an internal process. To dive deep into the mystery. Women in their Moontime are more sensitive, open, porous, in a state of heightened connectivity, cleansing and renewal.  They are able to be in strong prayer. Another way of expressing this is communication, the capacity to express inner need and longing into the web of life and be open to the responses. They are in an internal purification process. They may be connected or have insights into important things that need to be brought into manifestation or be guided to knowings or understanding that supports themselves and their communities. 

A traditional understanding is that a woman in her Moontime is also processing the things that need to be moved for the collective, not just her own personal material.

Imagine a reality where all women were truly supported to carry this role for themselves and for the health, happiness and balance of all people, beings, land and the unseen aspects of life. Imagine a world in which we could really support the function of the moontime to be a part of the means to process the untended grief, wounding and pain that clogs the arteries of our modern world. Imagine the relief in the lives of those who are already doing this work but out of conscious awareness, the women of our world now who already support the movement of this stuckness. I believe so much ill health, depression and overwhelm in women is as a result of the unacknowledged processing that the Moontime naturally supports.

Moontime is a hugely potent female contribution to culture. I deeply believe our capacity to reframe how we hold this, acknowledge this and support men and women to really understand what is happening can be a powerful momentum for healing at this time. Women will cycle and bleed whether we acknowledge it or not. When it is not valued as important or purposeful but inconvenient, shameful or unimportant it perpetuates wounding, ill health and disconnection on so many levels. From this viewpoint we cannot access the potential it has to move what needs to be moved in a good way. To embrace this possibility takes acknowledgment, honouring and recognition of our value and connectedness. The fullest potential of the gifts of Moontime are accessed by woman’s willingness to surrender and deeply connect to her body wisdom.

All kinds of things can come up when we start to tend things that have been ignored or devalued for a long time including relief, wonder, grief, clunkiness and anger. We have been living in a power over paradigm for so long that grief may come for what hasn't been possible or what has been lost or harmed through not honouring the relevance and magnificence of the feminine. Many people have internalised that power over paradigm and live with self critical voices that deny our value or the importance of our cyclical nature. Working consciously with Moontime for men and women alike offers a roadmap and one pathway for healing for ourselves and all our relationships.

Some of the ceremonies we work with have specific protocols for the Moontime which we will explain fully in the appropriate contexts. Our hope is this writing offers a context for why we hold it in the ways we do. It is very common for a woman seeking to attend external ceremony to come into her Moontime as this is the most connected state she can be in. We would like to support your experience of this in a good way.

Moontime is a beautiful thing and a topic for men and women alike, to grow in our understanding, to give ourselves permission to tend Life in these ways, to grow in health and happiness.

We invite a deep exploration of moontime in our work and gatherings and offer support and mentoring for working with your Moontime as a powerful ceremony one to one as well.

A MALE PERSPECTIVE ON MOONTIME - HANS SCHULDHEIS

As a man I feel that in a healthy culture men and women worked and lived together to hold balance and healthy relationships between each other, all living and non living beings. Only women are able to give birth. At the time of pregnancy, birthing and postnatally it is the role of the man to nurture and protect the woman. That is something that most people are still able to understand and support in our modern culture. When it comes to the moontime I feel we have lost that sense of value and the crucial role it holds to regulate, balance and inform society of healthy living. Through working with indigenous lineages I have regained and remembered a deep sense of what it might have been like in a fully connected earth based culture, as a man holding responsibility to nurture and protect women to be able to fully embrace the moontime as they bleed for themselves and their community, purging and cleansing impurities and imbalances and re emerging with desperately needed advice and instruction for us men on how to right the wrongs.

Nowadays our role might be to hold space to allow women to rediscover and experiment with this potential. To inspire and encourage them about how much we need and value this as men.

To conclude I share this quote and podcast from Pat Macabe. I feel it speaks eloquently to the challenges we face as we seek to find healthy ways to live at a time when we have been conditioned by disconnective narratives about masculine and feminine. This feels central to the topic and discussion around Moontime. I hope you enjoy if you choose to listen.

“You think you know what the masculine is, but you don’t. All you know is how they behave in a power over paradigm…… we think we know what it is to be human, but we don’t. All we know is how a human being behaves in a power-over paradigm. But what could a human being be in another paradigm?

Pat McCabe