MURMURATIONS

An Earth Apprenticship - to gain experience, confidence, clarity and depth in working with traditional teachings and practices of wilderness rites of passage.

Finding our way back to being dreamt by earth. Together.

October 2026 - April 2027

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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.

This programme focuses on the essential elements of rites of passage and is designed to equip nature-loving participants and/or aspiring guides with a practical and soulful understanding of the territory.

Among the many gifts of this work is its invitation to a shift in consciousness - dropping out of the narrating mind and into direct sensing, helping us sense our inter-being, bringing the mythic dimension to life and enabling a renewed sense of the sacredness of life.

Steeped in community and time outdoors 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 who wish to learn the craft of wilderness rites and vision quests. While rooted in initiatory wilderness rites, each element of these teachings can stand on its own and be adapted to many contexts. Whether you want to guide vision quests, refine your facilitation skills, or simply bring these practices and crafts into your daily life, this programme is for you.

It's relatively easy to take a workshop, pick up some fashionable vocabulary, and start using it. It's another thing altogether to embody that language through lived practice.

This programme is a slow response to the fast pace of our times: a living enquiry into how we might root ourselves in these practices, and once more in relationship, reciprocity and reverence.

listening as nature | grounded in embodied wisdom

Let's talk about the programme

Programme Overview

  • Informed by Gendlin’s Focusing Method, Embodied Animism offers specific somatic practices that bring to the foreground our felt experience in relationship with the more-than-human world, opening us to the numinous. These practices bring us into a fuller experience of the world as animate, whilst also surfacing reflections such as: how can animistic approaches inform and inspire rights-of-nature.

  • Attune and develop abilities to listen to the seen and unseen voices of land, sea and sky. We cultivate this awareness by slowing down, coming into presence, and connecting more deeply with ourselves and with one another. These deep listening practices are closely linked to our animacy work - learning to listen to nature in a variety of ways, whether we are out in a trysting place or offering a call and listening for the response.

  • Crossing the thresholds into the Mirror of Nature involves a shift in perception associated with what is often described as Deep Imagination. In these living currents of the imaginal, nature’s systemic intelligence may reveal itself through resonance, image, symbol, and patterned relationships, rather than through sensory perception alone.

    Various aspects of this deep imaginal realm have been described across philosophical, psychological, and therapeutic traditions by thinkers such as Henri Corbin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Tyson Yunkaporta, Gene Gendlin and, Stephen Harrod-Buhner.

  • While threshold walks and story mirroring may seem simple on the outside, the inner experience is far more complex, and the art of mirroring stories carries layers and nuance. Learning these crafts takes time and practice; through repetition and supervision, we learn how to ground our and each others experiences, and follow the threads.

  • Call and Response sits at the heart of all ritual - it is one of the core aspects we explore. We look at three distinct approaches to nature-based ceremony, and learn how to create rituals that feel authentic and congruent with what is most alive in us.

  • One aspect of opening to the mythic dimension is to share myths or folktale in the oral storytelling way, inviting the story to move through us as a living presence. As images take root we connect with and track what has begun to stir - ‘what wants to be known’ - both personally and collectively.

  • Council is a space beyond hierarchy and evaluation. It is a sharing circle where we speak to show up and listen to understand. It is not about being right, nor about answering, but about being present.

    In Council, there are qualities of connection that we often lack in everyday life: honest, respectful communication and a common field of listening. Council is not just a structure, it’s an attitude.

Whilst there is an abundance of information on what to do in nature-based practices, guidance on how to engage with them experientially is far harder to find.

For many years as a Buddhist, receiving guidance and feedback from more experienced meditators has been pivotal in keeping my practice alive, refined, and deep. The same holds true for the crafts outlined above. When we practice alongside others and receive thoughtful feedback, it brings confidence, clarity, and depth to our work.

This experiential approach is at the heart of the how-to, and it is the core focus of the Murmurations Mentoring programme.

Testimonials from past participants

  • “ In a world that often feels fragmented and disconnected, Murmurations offered me a much-needed sanctuary of reconnection. Natasha has a rare capacity for deep, authentic and embodied presence, and an intuitive way of sensing what stirs beneath your surface. She speaks directly to your heart, offering truths that may challenge but always serve your deepest growth. Her way of holding space weaves gentle compassion and fierce courage. There is no way of hiding from yourself. “

    - Jez Green

  • “ I had the privilege of learning Focusing skills and other ecosomatic practices, during a nature based rites of passage mentorship with Natasha Lythgoe, and the experience was truly transformative. Natasha embodies a rare blend of deep presence, intuitive guidance, and a profound understanding of the inner landscape. Her teaching style is both gentle and precise—she creates a safe, attuned space where the body’s wisdom can emerge naturally. Through her guidance, I developed a more profound connection with my inner knowing, learning to trust and navigate the subtleties of felt experience with greater clarity. “

    - Marta Czajkowska

  • “ Murmurations is a journey into the wildness of the body (human and earth body) and the wildness of the soul. Into those parts of ourselves we have become estranged and disconnected from, due to the trappings of the modern world, at a time when we (humans) couldn't be more lost. This is a journey back to the earth: it's awe and aliveness, dreams and myth, heart and spirit, with all of the beauty and discomfort that brings. It is a way to hold and embrace rites of passage work in an embodied and steady way, so the transformation they bring - often of mythic proportions - can be met, and most importantly, integrated. “

    - Kate Avery

  • “ Natasha carries the depth and the vastness of the territory in such an incredible way: every session is an adventure and a deep dive into the unseen. Where you can start to feel as if you can see in the dark, and accompany all that wants to be known - bringing gifts for each of us and our own uniqueness, as well as a way forward to serve the wider communities (human and more-than-human) we are deeply connected to and so desperately need to come back into relationship with. “

    - Chloe Dyson

  • “ Natasha’s ability to hold space with warmth and deep listening made all the difference. She doesn’t just teach Focusing, she embodies it, making the learning experience not just intellectual but deeply experiential and integrated. If you have the chance to learn from her, I highly recommend it. Thank you, Natasha, for your wisdom and presence. “

  • Natasha’s Murmurations programme becomes an invitation to step into a more in tuned with life-body-heart-soul way of being with the whole world. Of course it’s always a choice to accept or not accept to take the journey.

    It has offered me a light on myself, a warmth of community and a guide with eyes in the heart who is the Queen Tear Licker!

    - Kathleen Olsen

  • “ I’m still not quite sure what to say, but I feel the need to say something about our spiral last night. Again I feel the session opened me up, and began to prise a new door ajar. To let a new light both in, and out. Where the words are hard to find and express, and are clumsy and tentative. And where the feelings are complicated… but where the feelings are everything. Inviting me to ‘say hello’ to all of those. To welcome them along with the contradictions and tensions. And the love. Most of all the love. Like most of the sessions and practices - I feel like it’s just the start - but I wanted to share how honoured I feel to have been experiencing this gift of learning and unlearning with you all. “

    - Ben Davies

  • “ What made this journey so exceptional was Natasha’s profound understanding of both inner and outer landscapes and how they mirror and inform each other, guiding us toward wholeness. I loved that we never felt stuck in a rigid program. Everything flowed and shifted based on what was happening for us as a group, yet always with a clear sense of purpose and intention.

    I would say that this is a space for anyone yearning to awaken the wild, wise parts of themselves that modern life has lulled to sleep. “

  • “ One of Natasha’s gifts is her ability to synthesise a great deal of information from different cultural settings and teachers into a clear overview, and then to break this down into an easily digestible “how-to” of practice. In my practice of making threshold walks, I am a beneficiary of Natasha’s teaching and clarity. ”

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 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 absolutely fixed in advance.

In recent years, some facilitators have framed wilderness rites in purely secular and psychological terms - an approach that dilutes its deeper dimensions. My commitment as a guide is to protect the integrity of the work by centring its sacred, mythopoetic and embodied core.

As an ordained lay Dharma practitioner of more than twenty-five years this programme is naturally informed by my Buddhist orientation. I support individuals in deepening their relationship with themselves and to the natural world - cultivating self-awareness, reverence for earth, and a living sense of connection 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 for building healthy communities and meaningfully addressing 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.

Spending time with the land in this way invites a shift in consciousness, dropping out of narrating mind and into direct-sensing. This helps 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 of our true nature.

These are practices I treasure for living my everyday life. I don't want to separate the secular from the sacred, the humdrum from the awe - I want to hold 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.

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 London or Moray. This is totally optional as geography may hinder some from attending.

  • 2 x 1-2-1 Coaching Sessions with Natasha

  • 1 x A5 Concertina Sketchbook for tracking your journey

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)


Photos of our ‘24 ‘25 & ‘26 Cohorts

Some images from programmes I’ve guided over the last decade. More images and testimonials click here.

Late Autumn 2026 Dates

Group Mentoring Sessions

Thursday 15th October 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 29th October 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 12th November 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 19th November 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 3rd December 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 17th December 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 7th January 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 21st January 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 18th February 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 4th March 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Thursday 18th March 17:00 - 19:30 UK

TBC Final Session will be held on:

25th March or Thursday 1st April 17:00 - 19:30 UK

Conversation Cafe Dates (optional)

Thursday 26th November 17:00 - 18:00 UK

Thursday 10th December 17:00 - 18:00 UK

Thursday 28th January 17:00 - 18:00 UK

Thursday 11th March 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.
APPLY FOR MURMURATIONS

I have facilitated three Womens cohorts, one Mens cohort and a mixed cohort.

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.

HOW TO APPLY

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 Stewart

MUSINGS BEHIND THE SCENES OF MURMURATIONS:
WHAT I BRING TO THIS WORK

Our ancestors lived as kin amongst kin for vast swathes of time - connecting with nature through myth and ritual, forest and fire, with the earth as our bed and the stars as our blanket. As modern people bought up within 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…

“You are a Jack of all trades and a master of what binds them”, someone once said to me, so I’ll describe a little of the binding/blending/synthesis (take your pick).

This Murmurations Mentoring programme synthesises my background in somatics, wilderness guiding, the tracking of mytho-poetic threads and my Buddhist practice. When I first started facilitating this programme the first three areas were already fairly blended while the Buddhist dimension was a bit late to the party and took longer to find its place. Besides its natural fit with presence and interconnection I’ve come to see how deeply certain Buddhist practices support the vision questing journey.

By bridging these territories, people have the possibility to go deeper into their own experience of what is offered and invited through wilderness rites of passage. This brings greater depth and nuance to engaging with these traditional practices that have been central to our ancestral human nature.

This is an unfolding process - it is just as much about the individuals in the group and their specific unfolding journeys as it is about the ‘content’. 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 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 (guide 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 and global 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.

“ Don’t turn your back on the everyday ingenious capacity of the Holy in Nature to pump her brilliant wind of miracles, beauty, and unexpected turns of fate into the vagrant promiscuous flapping mind-bellows of civilization which is always trying to forge some clever shackles of cynicism, dead purity, and depression in order to handcuff you to the bedpost of your assumed destiny.”
— Martin Prechtel
“ 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”
— Stephen Buhner on Viriditas