~ Emergent Response-Abilities ~ – 25th to 28th July
Inspired by last year’s conversations and today’s context, our theme this year is Emergent Response-Abilities:
As our climate continues to change and social injustices widen, the needs of our world require a profound expansion of our minds’ eye. For those charting the edges, the question of collective responsibility calls for our attention.
What emerges if we reinvision ‘responsibility’ as our ability to respond? What are our response-abilities to each other and the whole living world? How does response-ability need to be nourished in order for it to flourish?
This year’s gathering invites us to lean into this theme, as we support one another in all our fears and passions. We’ll take time to treat the gathering as a unique space for diverse responses to global injustice to be heard, held, and honoured.
But we’re not smoothing over the edges. We’re co-creating a mycelial network of community that can flex and vibrate with all the energies and tensions that arise without judgement. We’re building our capacity to be with each other, and to process our uncertainty and our hope.
~ Programme ~
Each gathering is unique, but our organic social order tends to include some recurring features:
The Social Dreaming Matrix
This is the sharing dreams within the community in an often rich and powerful morning session. Dreams are received not as personal possessions but as collective resources, including messages from the land, for understanding the forces at play in the present moment. We have worked with social dreaming every year, and it has become increasingly central to the event. Whatever has emerged in your dreaming is welcome. We have found the other-than-human and more-than-human crowding into the shared dreams – animals, birds, fishes, trees, plants, insects – all generously sharing their wisdom with us. This year the matrix will be facilitated by Leonie Guest and Jayne Johnson.
Sitting in Council
A formal circular space for sharing our experiences, based on turn-taking, holding space, and non-judgemental listening. We honour the ancient tradition of the Talking Stick, and will actively support ways for quieter voices to express themselves.
Therapeutic Process
Powerful emotions can emerge, and are an intrinsic part of our time together. There are many ways to support each other: in the circle, during workshops, informally, or in private.
Home groups
At the beginning of the gathering we will all form small groups to offer a support base over the three days. This creates an opportunity for support and sharing in a manageable space which can be useful for everyone, particularly for newcomers. The home group is a more intimate space in which to work with the theme of the gathering and any other arising needs.
Patchwork
We invite offers of workshops to emerge in response to what arises at the gathering. There is usually an introductory ‘What is ecopsychology?’ session for those who would like it.
Play
The location is on the banks of the river Teme and every day there is opportunity to go wild swimming. There are lots of informal spaces to hang out, relax alone or socialise with friends old and new. In the evening there is a bar and fireside conviviality. There will be an open mic session, round the Green and Away community fire, so please bring your instruments, poems, songs and stories! On Saturday night there will be a Ceilidh dance. We are very excited by the return of local band Ringerike who had us jigging and weaving last year. You can get a flavor of their impact in this video.
Elders and Artists
This year we have invited a resident elder Jayne Johnson, artist Hanien Conradie, and poet Helen Moore to nourish and support the process of the community.
Please get your tickets here – Edge of the Wild 2024 Tickets
With gratitude for the use of the magnificent spiral image above to Sam Brown Art – www.ceruleansam.com
