Women’s Workshops on Dartmoor

THE BRAIDED RIVER

… And beneath it all the river sang. It sang with the insistent clatter of gravel and the protesting pummel of stones and the fierce resounding resistance of boulders, all rolling forward in the water’s force. Surfing through the foam, we could hear it all. And we could also hear the dip and rise of women’s songs being threaded through the water. They sang with the gathering gravels of hope and the transforming stones of justice and the great unstoppable boulders of truth… Over and again and maybe forever we will make our river rebellion, until the solidity of water and women has changed the shape of the ocean, until the force of our songs has cleared the silt from the estuaries, until the power of our gravel and boulders has swept away the banks that contain us, then we will all ride the tides that are equal and free…

(from Rebellion at the House of Rivers, Book of Hag)

BRAIDED RIVER WORKSHOPS

Carolyn has been creating and guiding workshop journeys for women, on Dartmoor and beyond, for thirty years. Her workshops, circles and gatherings at Lower Merripit Farm are part of the tending, sustaining, protecting and sharing that have been offered since 1995 in this place of wild sanctuary. Her workshops and teachings in the wider world have woven powerful and empowering threads of sisterhood and connection between many women, and the source of the work that we share is anchored into our many experiences of sacred land and ancestral remembering. Sometimes she creates and hosts larger events for women, including the Thirteen Moons Festival and the Braided River Confluence. Most workshops take place on Dartmoor but she has also taught in Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, and the USA. Over the years, many thousands of women have participated in her workshop journeys. The residential workshop experiences are fed by all the strands of Carolyn’s creative work: words, paint, song, drum, craft, ritual and relationship with wild and ancient land.

STEPPING INTO THE RIVER

The first step into experiencing this Braided River is to start travelling with Carolyn in her online programme. With the opening of the Weavers’ Trail online programme in 2022, a new route has been created into the residential workshop journeys on Dartmoor. It is now requested that all applicants join the Daweyo Journey and travel with the trail for the minimum of 4 months prior to applying for a Dartmoor weekend workshop. This enables each sister to engage fully in preparations for the workshop and have a chance to meet other participants while travelling the trail. This also means we can dive deeper into the experience of being together on the land. Please go tor the Braided River website for more information.

THIS WILD SANCTUARY

Lower Merripit Farm is a secluded 1000-year-old farmstead located high up in heart of Dartmoor, in a quiet valley that offers wild sanctuary and a beautiful place in which to be nourished by nature, supported by sisters and inspired by ancient spirit. It is a small organic hill farm, with species-rich flower meadows, rare protected peat bog habitat and native woodland that has been planted in the last 30 years as well as some ancient grandmother trees. The land is rich in water with a network of small streams (one of which becomes a river during winter months), ponds, springs and two ancient wells. Our focus has been on protecting the diverse ecology of the land to the benefit of red deer, roe deer, badger, fox, buzzard, heron, snipe, curlew, tawny owl, water vole, salmon, otter, newt, dragonfly, the endangered marsh fritillary butterfly and many other moorland creatures. Fox hunting has been banned on this land this 1995. The farm has the care of a small herd of wild ponies grazing the open moors, and beehives which are filled with heather honey by September. The workshops are based in our large guest cottage, surrounded by 20 acres of meadows, marshes, streams, woodland and gardens. The ceremonial roundhouse, built in neolithic style with oak trees, granite stones & water reed thatch, sits within a ritual landscape of wild shrines and sacred trails.

STAYING ON THE FARM

Residential workshops take place within the main group room, the deer camp nomad tent (summer workshops), the grove tent (summer gatherings), the neolithic-style stone & thatch ceremonial roundhouse and around the wild shrines and ritual landscape of the farm. Some workshops involve walking out onto the open moor. Each weekend is supported by at least three kindling sisters, women who have had previous experience of being on the land here, who help Carolyn to tend the circle. Accommodation is in shared rooms in the farm cottage  or camping in the adjacent meadow and garden. The farm and cottage are run partly on energy sourced and stored from solar panels. Participants are encouraged to use eco-friendly washing products as the farm maintains its own reed bed sewage system; all drinking water is pumped from two spring-fed wells. Dinners and breakfasts are provided; participants bring their own lunch items. All food is vegetarian with vegan and gluten-free options (we ask participants not to bring meat or fish with them to workshop weekends). It is possible to adapt most aspects of the workshop to accommodate most health issues or physical disability so please discuss your situation with us. Unfortunately our 16th century guest cottage is built with narrow stairs and small bathrooms so wheelchair access is extremely limited, but we have been able to adapt the workshop space for a mobility walker and attendance with a designated support worker. It is worth noting that the farm is located at 1000 feet above sea level and the nights may be especially cold. We also enjoy a very wet and misty climate so participants are generally advised to bring warm clothes, waterproofs, good boots and perhaps a hot water bottle. Arrivals are generally from Friday afternoon, departures by Sunday evening. Public transport onto the moor is rare so we aim to link those using bus or train services to Exeter or other local stations, either for a taxi share or lift with another participant. The nearest airport is Exeter (45 minutes) with a wider range of international services flying into Bristol (2 hours).

GUIDING THE JOURNEYS

“I have been guiding women’s workshop journeys here at the farm since the first summer after we arrived here in 1995. Since that time a wild and wise flow of women have come to this land to share circles, ceremonies, gatherings, festivals and  workshop experiences. Together we have anchored and nurtured an unfurling prayer, tended a profound ancestral flame and grown an informal but deep sisterhood that reaches around the world. Now I am travelling my hag road and navigating the slowing pace of this seventh decade. I have significantly reduced my residential workshop offerings, choosing instead to dive deeper and work more intensively with the groups of women who come here. This is why these longer workshops are now open only to women who have already been travelling online with me along the Weavers’ Trail. However, you can still visit and share a circle with me even if you are not a Trail participant. There are single day workshops and evening circles offered here, which especially welcome women who have not had the chance to visit this wild sanctuary before. You can find details under Women’s Events & Gatherings. I hope your footsteps may arrive here sometime…” Carolyn