MURMURATIONS
Finding our way back to being dreamt by earth. Together.
Murmurations
Apprenticing Earth | Six Month Group Mentoring Programme
Grounded in 26 years of Buddhist practice and my work as a vision quest guide, this experiential programme integrates traditional teachings and practices of wilderness rites of passage.
Whilst this programme focuses on the essential elements of rites of passage and vision quests it is designed to equip nature-loving participants and aspiring guides alike with a practical understanding of the territory.
Some incredible things about questing is that they invite a shift in consciousness, dropping out of narrating mind and into direct-sensing . Helping us sense our inter-being, inviting the mythic dimension to life and enabling a renewed sense of the sacredness of life.
And you don’t have to be into questing to connect with the practices that bring these states about.
Some might want to learn the practices and the craft in order to facilitate and some might simply want to live them. This programme is for all of you.
This earth apprenticeship offers practices for a way of living that would have been second nature to many of our ancestors. As well as instructions for those of you who wish to learn the craft of questing.
This is a slow response to the fast pace our times; a living enquiry into how we might root ourselves once more in relationship, reciprocity and reverence.
The programme beginning April is now full however I am planning to release dates for another programme that will start in the Autumn. If you are keen to join do get in touch.
We will do this through:
~ Threshold Walks, The Mirror of Nature and The Art of Mirroring Stories
~ Deep Listening practices and The Way of Council
~ Expanded Sensory Awareness | Gendlin’s Somatic practice of Focusing
~ Ways to access Nature’s Systemic Intelligence through the Imaginal
~ The Four Directions Nature Based Map of Psyche and Soulcraft
~ Embodied Animicy and Mythopoetic realms
Whilst there is plenty of information available about the 'What to do' in nature-based practices, there’s very little on the vital 'How to' engage with them experientially - which is where, I believe, the true aliveness happens. This focus is the core of the Murmurations Mentoring program.
“ Hildegard of Bingen cleverly combined two Latin words: veritas and verde - truth and green - to make one word. It’s a word that means - allatthesametime - the living intelligence of the green world and the sacredness that can be found there. It’s a path filled with soul shaping as old as First Man and First Woman”
Deep nature connection doesn’t end with increased mental and emotional wellbeing; it aims to transform your identity. It’s about shifting from an "Isolated Self" to an "Ecological Self" - a state of being profoundly rooted in relationship with everything. A Collaboration of Being if you will.
I am deeply drawn to systems-led leadership and group work as living fields of aliveness. As such, the specific content of this work emerges in relationship to each cohort rather than being fixed in advance.
In recent years, this field has increasingly been diluted through secularisation and excessive psychologising. My commitment as a guide is to protect the integrity of the work by centring its sacred, mytho-poetic, and embodied core.
While these teachings are rooted in initiatory wilderness rites, each element can also be practiced independently and adapted to a wide range of contexts and applications. In other words, one does not need to be engaged in traditional vision questing to benefit from these potent tools for connection and facilitation.
As an ordained lay Dharma practitioner of more than twenty-five years, this programme is naturally informed by my Buddhist orientation - particularly the truth of our inter-being. Through my work, I support individuals in deepening their relationship with themselves and the natural world, cultivating self-awareness, reverence for the Earth, and a felt sense of interconnectedness with all beings.
These practices change us at depth. We are grown through Earth’s Dream of us. It is this kind of shift in our perception and relational capacity that I believe is necessary to build healthy communities and meaningfully address today's social and environmental challenges.
You are who your Ancestors
sang about in their ceremonies.
You are their revolutionary prayer.
You are their sacred gift to the world.
Is this for you?
This mentorship aims to provide you with a deeper understanding and experience of profound initiations into Earth's Dreaming and a living enquiry into how we might root ourselves once more in relationship, reciprocity and reverence.
Some incredible things about questing is that they invite a shift in consciousness, dropping out of narrating mind and into direct-sensing . Helping us sense our inter-being, inviting the mythic dimension to life and enabling a renewed sense of the sacredness of life.
This offers a deeply personal journey of connection and remembering our true nature.
These are practices I treasure for living my life in the everyday. I don’t want to separate out the secular and the sacred, the humdrum and awe. I want to find a way to see both at the same time. It’s a big ask, I know.
For those seeking professional development:
This programme is designed for anyone looking to start or deepen their experience leading nature-based groups. Before teaching comes the craft. Here, you will learn experiential practices and the craft, which will in turn enable you to bring these deeper nature connection practices to your clients, colleagues, and communities, allowing you to integrate this work into your existing professional modalities.
I want to emphasise that each taught element stands on it’s own - is a world unto itself - and can be explored independent of the overarching frame of rites of passage.
It is also of benefit to those wishing to offer any type of wilderness solo or initiatory experience, and looking for a deeper dive into the modalities needed for this kind of guiding.
Some images from programmes I’ve guided over the last decade. More images and testimonials click here.
Each Month Includes:
2 x 150 minute group mentoring sessions held by myself
Ongoing peer support via WhatsApp
Password protected page with access to recordings
In Addition there will be:
4 x Peer-Led Conversation Cafes: these unfacilitated spaces are for you to use as you need, to digest our group process and support group connection
1 x 120-minute Council: a session in council and have your process witnessed within community as well as build fellowship with other mentees
1 x In-Person Fireside Gathering at the beginning of the programme in Epsom, Surrey. This is totally optional as geography may hinder some from attending.
1 x 1-2-1 Coaching Session with Natasha
1 x Seawhite A5 Concertina Sketchbook for tracking your journey over the six months
A 24 hour Wilderness Vigil:
Some of my previous cohorts requested that I guide as 5/6 day programme with a 24 hour solo. I am happy to offer this opportunity to future cohorts - as an optional extra.
The Process:
This is not a pre-recorded course. We meet live on Zoom for each teaching & mentoring session, gathering together to learn & practice.
Even though all meetings are recorded, you will get more out of the course if you can prioritise meeting with us live.
We will gather as an intimate group. It’s required that videos are left on during the sessions. You can adjust distance and the position of the screen if needed.
When:
Zoom Gatherings will be:
Alternate Thurdays evenings
17:00 - 19:30 (UK)
Spring 2026 Dates
Group Mentoring Sessions
Thursday 9th April 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 23rd April 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 7th May 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 21st May 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 4th June 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 18th June 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 2nd July 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 16th July 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 30th July 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 13th August 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 20th August 17:00 - 19:30 UK
Thursday 10th September 17:00 - 19.30 UK
Conversation Cafe Dates (optional)
Thursday 30th April 17:00 - 18:00 UK
Thursday 11th June 17:00 - 18:00 UK
Thursday 23rd July 17:00 - 18:00 UK
Thursday 27th Aug 17:00 - 18:00 UK
Way of Council Meeting with a Guest Way of Council Trainer and Facilitator
Past Facilitators have included Zara Wald from The Scandinavian Shamanic Centre and Dave Bingham from True Circles
In Person Gathering (in Findhorn or in London)
An opportunity to meet in the flesh and connect informally around a fire together.
This is totally optional as geography may hinder some from attending.
We will look for a date once the programme starts.
Please note that this is not a complete vision quest guide training programme. It goes without saying that in order to co-guide vision quests one needs to have been guided through at least one quest by an experienced guide and incorporated the change that flowed from it. Alongside this, the North Shield trainings, the in-the-field safety elements and assisting opportunities which are all essential elements in professional guide trainings are not offered here. I have facilitated two Womens cohorts, one Mens cohort and a mixed cohort.
The programme for 2026 is now full.
HOW TO APPLY
Places are limited to 8 - 10 people per cohort.
Please contact me to register your interest. Please include what monthly fee you would like to pay.
Upon application I’ll send you an email arranging a brief chat on the phone to ensure this programme is a good match for you.
PRICES
I’ve spent my entire life avoiding working for the 'big money' so that I could help ordinary people with few resources to access excellent programmes.
I need to make a modest living. Please do consider paying what is within your financial reach and a fair price for my commitment to small group sizes and my expertise.
I offer this programme at three prices - all prices include VAT
6 x Monthly Payments of
£150 or £200 or £250
Total Cost for the three tiers:
£900 - £1200 - £1500
If you’d love to join and can’t afford the lowest rate please get in touch.
You can choose to pay a one off payment upfront or monthly payments over the six month period payable 1st of each month
Once you have been offered a place a £200 non-refundable deposit will confirm your spot. This will be deducted from the total cost.
Cancellation Policy:
Your deposit is non-refundable.
There will be no refunds for cancellations
after the mentorship programme begins.
" If you have a chance to work with Natasha seize it. She is a rare gift of quiet determination, deep compassion and authentic wisdom."
- Doug StewartMUSINGS BEHIND THE SCENES OF MURMURATIONS:
WHAT I BRING TO THIS WORK
“You are a Jack of all trades and a master of what binds them”
Through facilitating my Murmurations Mentoring programme for the last three cohorts I’ve experienced a surprisingly natural synthesis of my backgrounds in somatics, wilderness guiding, a decade of tracking my own mytho-poetic threads and my Buddhist practice. The first three areas were already blending together well but the Buddhist part has been a bit late to the synthesising party and slower to integrate. Besides its natural fit with presence and interconnection I’ve been realising there’s more specific buddhist practices that are supportive for vision questing.
By bridging these territories, the purpose is to help people go deeper into their own experience. Hopefully, this brings greater depth and nuance to engaging with the traditional practices that have been central to ancestral human nature throughout history.
Clearly connecting with nature through myth and ritual, forest and fire, with the earth as our bed and the stars as our blanket is not of my own making. Our ancestors lived as kin amongst kin for vast swathes of time. But as modern beings bought up in a materialistic world view it takes ‘a something’ to experientially recover an attitude or way of being that perceives the natural world as deeply alive.
Tuning in… listening in for the conversation between 'life-ing as me' and 'life-ing as natural world' - a conversation imbued with embodied wisdom from goat-speak, rock-speak, horizon-speak, snake-speak and more. Entering into this great participation, a soulful practice of reciprocity, of following our soul-threads, listening to the wild tongues from within and all around…
With Murmurations I offer an unfolding process that is about the individuals in the group and their specific unfolding journeys - it is personal and participatory by nature.
Like many, I have a certain amount of zoom fatigue but I have realised that if my presence counts in the group then this isn’t an issue for me. This is why I keep my group numbers so small. It is deliberate - not for my bank balance - but for the intimacy and involvement factor.
THE AREAS I WILL DRAW ON AND MY PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THIS
My own training in this specialised area includes apprenticeships with Annie Bloom (former lead guide of Animas Valley Institute) since 2016 and also with Werner Pilz (guides trainer at Eschwege) since 2019. This builds upon my training, experience and assisting for the School of Lost Borders prior to 2022.
As the popularity of vision quests, rites of passage, and wilderness vigils have grown in recent years, so have my concerns regarding the lack of regulation for these professions in the UK and US. This situation raises serious questions about standards and client safety.
At the same time, I've noticed a trend - echoed by some of my colleagues - of the work being diluted through secularisation and excessive psychologising. My own commitment as a guide is to preserve the integrity of the practice, focusing in on its sacred, mytho-poetic, and embodied core.
The way I guide aims to create a profound shift in our sense of identity, transforming it from one that is isolated to one that is deeply rooted in relationship; from Isolated Self to Ecological Self. This is the deeper end of Nature Connection.
My modalities include Generative Coaching, 26 years of meditation, Buddhist practice and Dharma teaching, trauma-informed therapy, Gendlin’s somatic process called Focusing, and wilderness guiding. I am also a core member of the UK Wilderness guides council.
In addition to traditional ways of facilitating nature-based-rites of passage programmes I ensure the way I run my programmes are embodied, trauma-aware, do not overly psychologise the process at the expense of experiences of self transcendence, and emphasise integration.
Photos of our ‘24 Cohort