With Shenoah via Zoom

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The theme of this months meeting is ‘finding the light’. Just as the spring growth is coming out of the darkness and reaching for the light in this meeting we will explore how we can shift from the areas of darkness within ourselves and bring ourselves nourishment and hope.  Whether the ‘darkness’ is difficult emotions, negative patterns or a sense that something is not as it should be we will work with the season to support a shift into a different relationship with ourselves. 

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Emerging from the dark is a natural movement for nature in the spring and there is a huge amount of power at this time of year to enable it to happen. If we see ourselves as part of nature as opposed to separate from it, our natural movement is also to emerge from the dark and move through into a different state of being. Our life experience may in some way hinder this movement but to emerge into the light is our natural movement. 

1st Journey – I am going on a journey to ask my spirits what area in my life needs to ‘find the light’ and to introduce me to a ‘spring ally’ who can support me.

2nd journey – I am going on a journey to ask my spring ally to show me a vision of myself when I am beyond (name what you were shown needed to find the light) and in the flow of life

3rd journey – Partner work
One partner calls the energy of their spring ally to them and does the work from that place. It may be singing, or rattling, or sharing what the spring ally is showing them.
‘I am merging with and sharing the energy of my spring ally to support (insert partner’s name) to be in the flow of life
Other partner opens themselves to receive the energy of the spring.
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With Shenoah & David face to face

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At this meeting we will be connecting to the Power, Vision, Love and Wisdom contained within our hearts.
Our heart contains our special strengths, sometimes called ‘medicine’ that can help us to flourish and feel more fulfilled in our lives. Connecting to the medicine within our hearts enables us to manifest and keep connected to these strengths as we move through our lives. Using journeying, dance and imagery we will explore the medicine of our heart and the power that lives there. 
Bring ten small stones (or crystals or a mix) – roughly the size of a 10p each.
You also may like to bring coloured pens and pencils to help in recording your journeys.

Part 1. Synopsis: Four mini Journeys each about 10 minutes long with no real break between them, but with a lull to briefly write/draw what was experienced. Pay attention to the landscape, colours, sounds, your feelings, who you meet and what you are told.

Participants do not come fully back between journeys but stay between the worlds to record their journeys.

Intent: I’m going on a journey to visit the current state of the four chambers of my heart.
I will say first Chamber – Journey for 10 minutes
When you hear four slow drum beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins. 

I will say Second chamber – Journey for 10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins

I will say third chamber – Journey for 10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins

I will say fourth chamber – Journey for 10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins

Then normal callback

Part 2: Draw a circle and split it into 4. assign each of the journeys with all the experiences you did above to one quarter of the circle.

Synopsis: four mini journeys 5-10 minutes each as above with a lull between each one to record the experiences.

Intent: I’m going on a journey to ask what, if anything, is limiting me in Love, Power, Wisdom and Vision in these areas of my heart.

I will say first Chamber – Journey for 5-10 minutes
When you hear four slow drum beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins. 

I will say Second chamber – Journey for 5-10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins

I will say third chamber – Journey for 5-10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 mins

I will say fourth chamber – Journey for 5-10 minutes
then four slow beats you record your experiences
drum goes to slow beat for 5 min

Part 3: Out of the 10 stones chose 4 and assign one of them to each of the quarters – mark the stones so you know which is which

Part 4: – bringing the medicine you need to bring your heat into balance. (if an area is already in balance ask for a blessing for that area)
Intention: I am going to dance the medicine of each chamber of my heart to restore its balance.
Hold the stone that is related to each area and dance with each stone in turn.

Once at home put the stones somewhere to remind you and keep you connected to the experiences.

with Shenoah online

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Trust is a fundamental element in both shamanic practices and our daily lives, as it allows for deeper connections with ourselves, others, life itself and the spiritual realm. By seeking wisdom from the spirits, we will uncover insights that can guide us in cultivating a healthier relationship with trust, enhancing our overall well-being and growth.

First Journey – Drum Journey
I am going on a journey to ask my spirits for a teaching about the true nature of trust for my life

Second Journey – Drum Journey
Going on a journey to ask my spirits where in my life is it important for me to deepen my trust to live more fully and what are my next steps

Third Journey – Partnered Healing Journey
Healing for what gets in the way of (insert partners name) trusting (insert what needs to deepen trust)

With Shenoah & David Face to Face

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The first gathering of 2025 will focus on deepening our relationship with the land, exploring ways we can honour and show our gratitude and respect for how it sustains, feeds and shelters us.

We’ll engage in our annual Wassailing ceremony to bless the fruit trees in Vauxhall Park, a beloved tradition filled with song, cider-soaked toast, and joy, ensuring a bountiful harvest ahead. Join us in this spirit of celebration and reciprocity!
We will visiting the park during the meeting so please come prepared for whatever the weather may offer.

This meeting was inspired by the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer and her book ‘The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World’

First Journey – drum journey – free style journey, acted out suggested
I am going on a Journey to meet a nature spirit to ask for a teaching about reciprocity and how you can I embody, restorative reciprocity in the coming year.

When the journey was completed everyone wrote their reciprocity on a piece of ribbon that was tied onto the Wassailing Hat.

2nd activity – Wassailing Ceremony – blessing the fruit trees in Vauxhall Park
You had to be there but there was the wearing of the wassailing hat with ribbons flowing from it, singing, rattling, blessings, waking up the trees and putting cider soaked toast in the branches, nuts for the squirrels and apple juice and warm mulled cider for us to drink. The song we used was Who Will Stand.
“Who will stand, who will stand for the bees and the trees and the spirits and the land?
We will stand, we will stand for the bees and the trees and the spirits and the land!”

The ribbons with the reciprocities written on them will be tied onto the branches of the apple tree in Shenoah and David’s garden.

3rd activity – Partner work
Asking the spirits for a blessing for your partner for the reciprocity they will be offering in the coming year.
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with Shenoah Taylor via Zoom

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Join us for a magical year-end gathering where we’ll delve into the profound meaning of giving and receiving, culminating in a special spiritual gift to guide us through the winter months. 🎁🙏🏼

Our annual winter feast will feature a journey to the LODG altar room, filled with singing, dancing, and ceremony to celebrate our community. Feel free to don your shiniest holiday attire to enhance the festive spirit! 🎉✨ 

1st Journey – drum journey
Going on a journey to ask my spirits for a teaching about the true essence of giving and receiving and what can I offer the spirits to thank them for their support

2nd activity – Celebration Singing and Dancing to Sweet Surrender – tune can be found by searching Rainbow Spirit Oregon on YouTube.
The Song
1st line – I am opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love light of the one
2nd line – I am opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love light of the one
3rd line – I am opening, opening
4th line – I am opening, opening
The Dance 
first line – As go in raise hands as if gathering up, As walk out lower hands as if giving thanks
second line – As go in raise hands as if gathering up, As walk out lower hands as if giving thanks
3rd and 4th lines – freestyle movement opening to the luminous love light

3rd journey – in pairs
I am going on a journey to ask my spirits for a spiritual gift to support (insert partners name) through the winter months.
gift can be an image, or a song, or rattle. Ask spirits how to deliver it.

4th Journey – freestyle or acted out drum journey
Journey to the lodg altar room to take part in the winter feast and to receive a gift to support me through the winter and leave something for someone else

Many years ago a seidr ceremony asked how members of a shamanic group could keep connected. One of the answers was to hold Winter Feasts. Since that time there have been annual winter feasts in different shamanic groups. Before lockdown we used to meet in person and everyone brought food to share so it was an actual feast. Since lockdown it happens online and it is a time for celebrating the group, each other and the spirits. 🙏🏼
 
The lodg altar room is a place in the spirit world we all journey to.  In the spirit of the season giving and receiving is encouraged when there, as well as enjoying the party.🎈 It has to be said the experiences of the virtual winter feasts in the lodg altar room are sometimes a bit more raucous than they ever were in person 😊 😅

Face to face on 9th – run by Shenoah and David face to face
Zoom on 10th – run by Shenoah on Zoom

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We have run an annual Seidr day as part of LODG since 1998 to introduce people to the wonderful practice of seidr and to support those already working with it to deepen their practice. There will be two opportunities this year, a face to face meeting on the Saturday and a Zoom meeting on the Sunday. 

Seidr is a nordic shamanic tradition that uses the staff, the song and the seat as key elements. It is a freer yet focussed and power filled way of working that offers a different experience than journeying with the drum or rattle. Being able to sing in tune is not required, it is the power our intention carries not how it sounds that is important. 

The face to face meeting on Saturday will take place at the Wheatsheaf Hall. The Sunday meeting will take place on Zoom and will have a different community ritual than the Saturday. 

1st Journey – singing self on journey with staff
Going on a Journey to meet the spirit of my staff to ask how we can work together
If you have not worked with a staff before or do not have a seidr teacher go with one of your known helpers.

2nd journey in pairs – Blessing
The client sings the seidr worker on the journey at the start and back at the end of the journey then swap. Recipient decides what they want a blessing for.
Going on a journey to ask for a blessing

3rd journey – Community Seidr, both days we did the same intention – Sending power to the COP29 Wisdom Keeper Delegation
Face to Face Seidr – Participants sang 3 seidr workers who were sitting on the seidrhjel to gather the healing power from the spirits and deliver it to the Wisdom Keepers. When the work was done the seidr workers took personal questions
Zoom Seidr – Community Seidr – All participants perceived themselves standing around the world tree with their staffs touching it and singing. They sent power to the world tree so it could be delivered to the COP29 Wisdom Keeper Delegation.

With Shenoah Taylor via Zoom

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We receive many insights, teachings, and healing from the spirits, but how do we collect, remember and put into use the teachings / guidance / help / information received in our Journeys in a way that is easily accessible? 

At this meeting we will explore different ways of keeping the essence of the teachings we receive alive to help integrate them into our lives.

Ways that were shared to remember journeys and teachings

• Write them up – highlight the points of power / at the bottom write the main teachings from the journey and how to integrate into your life
• If write it up on a computer – can search for words when looking for something
• Each season look back over the journeys to see if there are any ‘red threads’
• Do a drawing – one page the journey, the opposite page images to help remember
• If drawing on separate its of paper ensure you put the date, intention and teaching on the back
• Download a photo or image onto your phone so you see it
• Set a timer to ‘remember’ the teaching
• Write a Poem that encapsulates the teaching
• Put a photo or post it note on your fridge
• Jewellery that helps to remember the helper or teaching
• Walking journey to find an object
• Ordinary reality things – when drinking water / having a shower / each time the wind touches you
• Can ask on any journey – for a way to keep connected to the teachings
• Can ask for a daily practice
• Do journeys with a journey buddy – they are great for seeing patters and if any teachings are being repeated
• Do a ‘story board’ with pictures and writing
• create ‘flash cards’ with words or sentences that the spirits have given you on your journeys
• Ask for a song
• Wear colours that come up in your journeys
• Ask for a daily practice to keep you connected
• Ask on the journey how to remember to do the practice

1st Journey – drum journey
Going on a journey to ask my spirits what is it important for me to pay attention to in this season
When on the journey pay attention to the colours, images, feelings.
When you get back – create an image to help you remember the points of power. It does not have to be amazing artistically, just get the feel / colours / help you remember the teachings

2nd Journey – drum journey
I am going on a journey to ask my spirits for help to reconnect when I am disconnected and for a song of reconnection
The song can be a tone, it can have words, may not be a song but be words

3rd Journey – Acted out journey
If you have had a journey recently, or not so recently, and were told to pay attention to something and you are finding it hard you can do this journey.
I am going on a Journey to ask my spirits for a daily practice to help keep me connected to (insert what you were told to pay attention to)

If you have not had one do the following journey
I am going on a Journey to ask my spirits for a daily practice to help keep me connected to what it is important for me to pay attention to this season

With Shenoah and David Face to Face

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the Autumn Equinox is on 22nd September, a point in space halfway between the summer and winter solstices.  It’s a time of preparing for the coming winter, putting supplies aside (physically and mentally) and asking for help as the longer nights draw in. Many Spiritual traditions give thanks for the harvest and celebrate this time of plenty, we will be celebrating the harvest within our own life as well as natures harvest and asking how to prepare for the coming season. For part of the day we will working with the spirits of nature in Vauxhall Park. 

For part of this meeting we will be working in nature in Vauxhall Park which is a few minutes walk from Wheatsheaf Hall. 

1st journey
Going on a Journey to give thanks and ask what in my life is ready to be harvested

Go to Vauxhall Park to do Walking Journeys in nature
2nd Journey – walking journey
Walking journey to ask what does the autumn equinox mean for me and how, if at all should I mark or celebrate it?
3rd Journey – walking journey
walking journey to ask what are the gifts of autumn for me. (and find an object to keep me connected to the gifts and what I am harvesting from the first journey)

Back at the venue put all the objects round around the altar

4th Journey – acted out
What is it important for me to pay attention to in the coming season

To finish – stand around the altar and with the song and rattle ask the spirits to charge the items on the alter with the resources needed to support people in the coming season

With Shenoah via Zoom

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Embracing the healing energies and wisdom of crystals invites us into a sacred partnership with these natural entities, fostering a profound connection that enriches our spiritual practices and everyday lives. As we explore their unique energies and qualities, we can harness their healing and calming presence to enhance our well-being, facilitate personal growth, and deepen our shamanic work, ultimately aligning ourselves with the ancient power and knowledge that crystals embody.

You are invited to bring your own crystals to work with to this meeting. If you do not have physical crystals we will work with their essence in the spirit world.

1st Journey – Journeying to the sound of crystal bowls
Going on a journey to meet the energy of the crystal beings and understand what their presence offers world

• See which of your crystals wants to work with you for this journey. If you do not have a physical crystal you can ask one to present itself to you when you start the journey. It will be representing all the crystal beings as opposed to only itself as an individual crystal.
• Hold the crystal – or close eyes and see one arise in minds eye and perceive yourself holding it. Feel it’s energy, soften and expand your own energy, ask for your boundaries and the boundaries of the crystal to soften
• meet the energy and spirit of the crystal, how does it see itself and the place of crystals in the world
• Ask if the crystal has an opinion about the ethics of how they are collected / mined

2nd journey – 20 mins drum journeys
Going on a journey to ask how to work with, care for and honour my crystals 

• Can work with one or more of your crystals one by one. take each one in your hand, open to its energy what are its gifts / is there something specific it can support with, is it for you or can it be dedicated to help others, what specific Wisdom does it carry?
• ask how you can work together
• Ask how you can honour and care for it

Journey 3 partner work 
intention: I am asking this crystal to offer  …. Insert partners name … the help they need at this time

• The may be a blessing, or healing or energy, or information. The spirits will decide.
• Sit opposite your partner. The receiver softens and opens to the energy of the crystal.
• The person doing the work holds the crystal in front of you and towards your partner – as an offering and to make a connection. You can continue to hold it or put it down in front of the screen.  May be more than one that wants to offer support at this time. If you do not have a physical crystal ask one to manifest in the journey. 
• Call your spirits
• Ask the crystal for the healing your partner needs at this time – can use your rattle, may say what you are seeing, energetically, or may have a song or sound that is sung through the crystal and to your partner. The crystal magnifies the power that arrives with your parter

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with Shenoah & David face to face

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Mandalas are used in many spiritual traditions to represent wholeness, transformation and to focus attention and power. We will tap into the healing energy of the spirits of nature in Kensington Gardens, using the ancient symbolism of the mandala to channel our intentions and manifest positive change. By creating our own personal mandalas, we will foster a sense of wholeness and balance inviting transformation and renewal in our lives. 

Our annual outdoor summer meeting will be held Kensington Gardens in the centre of London.  We meet under a grove of trees which gives protection from the sun and light showers, we have an alternative sheltered place to work if it is very wet. We will be having a picnic so please bring food to share.  There will also be a give away so you are welcome to bring anything shamanically or spiritually focussed that is ready to be passed on. Everything will be put on a blanket for others in the group to take. If anything you bring is not taken you will need to take it home with you. 

1st Journey
I am going on a walking journey to find a place of power to ask what in my life my mandala should bring attention and to

2nd Journey
I am going on a walking journey to gather what I need to create my mandala to bring power and attention to …. (Insert what your mandala is focussing on)

Break for second sitting of picnic

3rd Journey – Create the mandala
David and shenoah create the centre, each person creates theirs around the centre
Connect with spirits, be betwixt and between the worlds
Create it with intention, singing the power in, placing everything in connection with the sprit, can use the rattle to re-connect / bring power to it.