The Call of the Wild for Women
8 - 11 August 2024
Nestled in the foothills of Devon’s Blackdown Hills
Guided by Natasha Lythgoe supported by Ali Wates
Blending old wisdoms with contemporary culture;
coming home to your true nature
We will gather as a community of women, draw on the wisdom of our matrilineal lineage and connect to the wild, both within us and around us. The earth, her elements, seasons and cycles will be our map of wholeness and our mirror as we explore body, soul/psyche, mind, and mystery.
You may already be familiar with the Celtic wheel of the year: the four solar festivals, the equinoxes and solstices, combined with the cross-quarter festivals Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. These are observed by practising pagans, including Druids and Wiccans, witches of all sorts, and by very many people who simply have an interest in connecting with nature and old ways of being.
The seasonal wheels I am most familiar with, from my wilderness training, map the Body in the south, Soul/Psyche in the west, Heart-Mind in the north, and Mystery in the east.
Coming home to your true nature and
sensing your belonging to the world
These maps, deeply woven with nature’s cycles and our own natural cycles, are known as the Four Directions Medicine Wheel and the Nature Based Map of Psyche. Their teachings of nature within us, and around us, contain sacred paths and ceremonies which were once the life-blood of our ancestors and communities. Various forms of these ancient, cyclical, seasonal teachings have been used pan culturally by peoples to navigate what it means to be humans deeply connected to the wild.
They show us paths that enable healing, whole-ing and transformation - how to align with our true nature and embody the gifts we carry so that we can live as powerful, healing influences in our communities.
My personal journey with these ancient medicine wheel teachings has taken quite some time to evolve. It was only when I bought my personal ways of navigating life, my trust of what the body knows, and faith in connecting with wisdom though direct experience, that they came fully alive.
Re-enchantment of the World is Possible
Over the course of four days, I will guide an embodied and experiential journey around the medicine wheel. Courting nature, coming into deeper intimacy within us and around us, unearthing wisdom for these times - to enter into women’s community in this way is to also cultivate relationship with the divine feminine within you.
Courting A deeper Intimacy with Life
This retreat includes:
1 x preparation live zoom gathering and
1 x group integration zoom gathering
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Over the course of each day we will court our inner and outer nature, alternating time in circle together with nature-based embodiment practices emphasising the different directions of the medicine wheel, connecting with the mythic dimension of our own lives.
There will optional morning meditation and yoga, with plenty of time throughout our days for resting, digesting and dips in the natural pool.
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Spending time in nature immersed in awe-inspiring landscapes re-humanises us. Nature supports rest, opening up to a bigger perspective, and reconnect us with what matters most.
At its core, this work is about relatedness, how to cultivate healing and belonging by weaving yourself into deeper intimacy with life.
Exploring both our inner nature and outer nature, the binding thread of my work aspires to collude with wild medicine; awakening your true nature, connecting you with your innate wisdom and bringing you home to your inner compass, a compass aligned with your heart.
Later this year I’m thrilled to be able to offer our first Winter Retreat for Women in Scandinavia. To stay up to date with my Women’s Events please sign up to my newsletter.
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We feel extremely lucky to be able to welcome you to a regenerative project that reconnects humans to nature.
Tending a regenerative permaculture eco-retreat paradise, Heart Seed Forest Garden is a stunning 4-acre forest garden, nestled in the foothills of Devon’s Blackdown Hills.
Ten years ago the owners began transforming a tired horse paddock into the now thriving living landscape filled with many hundred edible and useful plants, a natural swimming pond, outdoor living rooms and warm microclimates.
We have our very own terraced dining area and lounge which includes mini amphitheatre heated from within by an outdoor thermal mass rocket stove. With access to a fully equipped kitchen, hot solar showers and an outdoor hot tub. Nothing I write here will prepare you for this cherished and thriving land. It is a rare gem!
Sleeping Arrangements
Tents can be pitched in one of the many beautiful glades, or within the forest garden itself.
There is a dedicated field should you wish to bring a camper van to sleep in.
If camping is not for you there are plenty of B&B’s nearby (at your own extra cost).
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This predominantly educational project creates hope for future generations, to show what practical possibilities are out there in terms of reversing soil erosion and land restoration, eco construction, local food security and bioregional life-ways.
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Our group size is limited to 10 participants to ensure an intimate experience.
Pricing:
Standard Rate £595
Concession Price £495
For further financial help do contact us for partial bursary places.
Fees include all guiding, facilitation, accommodation, hearty breakfasts and a welcome meal on Friday evening.
Building a sense of Community
For several years we have been inviting participants to pair up, and bring ingredients to prepare one meal during the retreat. We find this supports and deepens a sense of community. The nearest town, five miles away, has food shops where you can buy the ingredients for this meal on the arrival day if need be. All food will be vegan/vegetarian.
Photographs of our venue aboveIf you have any question and would prefer to speak with us before booking contact Natasha here.
One of our greatest fears is to eat the wildness of the world.
Our mothers intuitively understood something essential: the green is poisonous to civilisation. If we eat the wild, it begins to work inside us, altering us, changing us.
Soon, if we eat too much, we will no longer fit the suit that has been made for us. Our hair will begin to grow long and ragged. Our gait and how we hold our body will change. A wild light begins to gleam in our eyes. Our words start to sound strange, nonlinear, emotional. Unpractical. Poetic.
Once we have tasted this wildness, we begin to hunger for a food long denied us, and the more we eat of it the more we will awaken. It is no wonder that we are taught to close off our senses to Nature. Through these channels, the green paws of Nature enter into us, climb over us, search within us, find all our hiding places, burst us open, and blind the intellectual eye with hanging tendrils of green.
— Stephen Buhner
Your Guides:
Natasha Lythgoe supported by Ali Wates
I’m Natasha, also known by my Buddhist name Nagadipa which means light in the depths - this name was given to me as a mirror of my own essence and as life teaching. I guide individuals and groups through transformative nature-based experiences. With over twenty years of experience leading programmes I have been moved and honoured to witness countless stories; listening and attending to what has purchase on folks’ hearts. The way I work weaves together nature-based rites of passage which support life transitions in nature, somatic practices that understand the wisdom of the body, myth-making and the guiding of sacred soul journeys for women. 
I'm looking forward to supporting this women's retreat and meeting you all. I took part in a medicine wheel retreat, followed by a vision quest with Natasha and Werner, and this has been part of a slowly building relationship with nature based practices. My other hats include working as a clinical psychologist in the NHS, mainly working with complex trauma; although I ascribe to the mantra that "retreats will not be psychologised" (this was part of a longer discussion on the vision quest) I recently completed a two-year Vajrasati yoga teacher training in Brighton, and enjoy working with embodied approaches to wellbeing, and, just being.