Dear Friends

At Embercombe the raucous bellowing of new life heralds the arrival of another spring. Seeds of all kinds germinating, emerging and pushing their way through the wet cloak of winter to explore the limits of potential. All life navigating towards the promise of another day and yet another day. Here for a while and then nudged aside to make way for the new.  On the 20 March, a small group of us gathered in the stone circle at Embercombe to greet the rising sun and celebrate the Equinox, mid-point between the winter and summer Solstices. Gathering to acknowledge our place in the family of all things and reaffirm our commitment to actions that will bring us into greater alignment with the pledge of the Children’s Fire.

Change is endemic in the world and always has been and yet there are times when it becomes more obvious and more disruptive. Embercombe continues its change journey. It is emergent. I do not doubt that in time we will become more adept, confident, and joyful. Raucous, like the riot of this current spring.

On a very personal level, this year has been one of birth and new life. My wife, Wandia, and I welcomed our son Cai Jambali Macartney into the world in February. Alongside this, my friend, colleague and business manager, Rosa Martin, undertook the complex task of re-branding and re-launching my professional work as a speaker, writer and coach. With the draft of my new book complete, it seems a rush of new life is upon us!

Warm good wishes

New podcast: SHED HEAD

SHED HEAD is my new podcast series, a way of having some leisurely time in conversation with you.
 

It came at an unusual time. The day we arrived was the day after the US Election results. And, quite unsurprisingly, we were all in a bit of shock and sorrow. Especially our American teams. But, actually, being in the middle of nowhere, with extremely limited connection to the outside world, was a blessing in disguise.

Our way of thinking at Futerra is “Imagine better. Make it happen.” and what a year we’ve had to imagine better for! The nature of our job is sustainability, finding ways to help our countries, our people, our world to thrive and be the very best it can be. It’s huge, important thinking.

Guest Blog by Sophie Young; Artist, Writer & Mother of two

Two winters ago, a fortuitous moment crossed my path whilst reading online. I saw a post for family camp called Grow the Grown Ups. Something enticed me and curiously I opened the link. Avidly reading through, the six days outlined and all they encompassed sounded incredible and I presumed it must be in the States. My experience until then finding face-to-face resources akin to how I parented had been quite narrow and, for years, I felt I had trodden a somewhat lonely road in choosing to parent in a more conscious and connected way. I was therefore almost in disbelief and completely overjoyed to learn that it was actually being held in the UK in late spring and, just in these few small paragraphs, I knew instantly the camp was for us.

Continue reading here...

By Tove – Facilitator on, The Facilitator’s Path: Holding Space, Making Change

2016 was a year that many of us were happy to leave behind. We saw reproductive rights being challenged, refugees being met with a glaring absence of support from our governments and the election of a man who models so much of what many of us spend our lives trying to dismantle. But in times like these, we need to support and strengthen each other, and constantly find new ways to create the change we want to see in the world. As a contribution to this, I created the facilitation training The Facilitator’s Path: Holding Space, Making Change together with the Catalyst facilitators Ben and Kanada last summer. As we reach the end of this programme, I would like to take the opportunity to share reflections, insights and cast a glance forward to the rest of 2017.

Embercombe Experience Weekends
14th - 16th April |  20th - 21st May 2017
A community weekend to share your enthusiasm, expertise, or simply a willing pair of hands. Over a weekend of working on the land, cooking, eating and sharing, we create a community of people who nourish the place and each other. Find out more here.


The Journey
14th - 19th May | 6th - 11th August 2017
Do you hear the call to re-connect with how sacred and beautiful life is? Do you have a deep desire to answer the call of the world, to make a powerful contribution that is aligned with your gifts, passion and experience? Join us on our 5 day residential self-leadership course for people of all ages, social groups and experience.
Find out more here.


Natural Beekeeping
12th May - 14th May
Suitable for beginners and those unfamiliar with natural beekeeping practises. Whatever your level of experience this course will give you the confidence to build and manage your own top-bar hive following the principles of natural beekeeping.
Find out more here.


Creative Practice Training
19th May - 21st May 
Creative Practice is a 2-day experiential training in group facilitation and community building using the arts. For anyone working with or facilitating groups of both adults and young people. It also empowers people with strong curiosity who simply yearn to unleash their neglected creative spirit to fulfil their potential.
Find out more here.


Grow the Grown Ups
28th May - 2nd June 2017
“Grow the Grown Ups” gives parents practical and emotional support to understand how to navigate family life – how to find a balance between everyone’s needs, and how to skillfully grow, so that they can parent their children from a wise responsible adult place.
Find out more here.


Catalyst
2nd - 7th April  | 2nd - 7th July | 3rd - 8th September 2017
This generation of young people are becoming adults at a time when it’s probably never been so challenging, and so full of opportunity. Catalyst is a 5-day residential course for 18-25 year olds to develop their authentic leadership and change-making skills.
Find out more here.


Speaking Out
7th - 9th September 2017
Do you wish to communicate with impact and authenticity? What stops you? Join us for this exploration and to learn a new way of ‘speaking out’.
Find out more here.


The Descent
3rd - 9th September 2017
Do you long to be in the right place, at the right time, for all time? The follow-on programme from The Journey is the Descent, a plunge into the mysterious wild. Leaving the nurturing safety of Embercombe, we journey into the dream-world and walk ancients paths that reach inwards and outwards.
Find out more here.


Embercombe Circles - London Hub
March 18th, April 29th & 13th May 2017  2-4pm
The Circles are a chance to meet up with fellow ‘Embercombers’ or to introduce a friend to what Embercombe is all about. The April Beltane circle will be held in Hamstead Heath.
Find out more here.

Straggler's Exodus

And so they came.

Over the brow of the Haldon

and down into the hallowed valley,

or ‘combe’

With their knitwear and their outdoor gear

and their over-sized military surplus,

with their singsong voices and their proto-ethical choices,

and with their handcrafts that fetishise times gone past -

appropriated reference to the phallus of the pagan staff -

and saponified lavender for laundry or bath

All this they laid down by the hearth of the Children’s Fire -

its mantra gone viral;

recited by heart -

and there they delighted in tales of Twin Trails,

and in pales of glamperous pampering,

and in deluges of delusional nature worshipping

And when they had whittled their last and all edges were wholly truthed -

self-parented,

self-appointed chiefs of the peace

(and of this brief piece)

and of tending to notional,

civilisational grief -

Now that indigenous essence

was religious in presence

Now that the self had come home to itself

and the self had gone selflessly,

thoroughly feral -

They gathered together in concertina,

with Fiona and Tina,

mooching about clique-ily amid mutually appreciative weeping,

smug elder parsons of pastoral pasture:

as you go past its the one with the sheep in -

And they unburdened themselves of their lightened shadow bags,

bidding farewell to the Ember-womb’s umbilicus,

and waiving hello to activitus courageous,

casting off into the river of life

in a peagreen wheelbarrow dinghy fuelled by slipstreams of broad beans

and rowed by the oars of immemorial ancestors

And, do you know?

I was amongst them.

How it hurt to wash the scent of wood-smoke from my matted hair

But I am,

at least -
for now at least -
Awake.