THE CLOTH ON THE LOOM
A note from Carolyn
This is a record of many past and recent workshops for women, created and guided by me on Dartmoor, within these islands and elsewhere in the world, since 1995. As a list it would form a lengthy scroll so, instead, I offer it as a woven story, with long warp threads representing the continuity of magic and prayer unrolling through the years, and short weft threads tying in the colours and textures of these many women’s circles and gatherings. Like a weaving, this story begins at the bottom and travels up.
There is an undulating flow of sisters who have brought their courage, creativity, vision, honesty, perception, intuitive wisdom and enduring kindness into this shared work. Therefore, this litany of workshops represents a gratitude to all these women. Without their participation and enthusiasm this journey would not have unfurled in the way it has. So to you sisters, thank you for all you have brought to this wild river…
2021
BRAIDED RIVER CONFLUENCE, the Wide Kombero embraces a large company of women for a day of presentations and sharing, we witness the song of seven sisters, we learn about the lagyâno journey, we honour the pot of remembered sisters in ritual, we drum our path through the heron’s marsh in ceremony, we explore wild movement with the earth dance drummers, we sing to the soul of our mothers’ songs in concert; the next day the Small Kombero welcomes a more intimate company of returning women to share a council of voices and silence and song, with a night of ritual and pilgrimage and prayer.
2020
SALMON SISTERS CAMP, informal gathering on Dartmoor for long-returning women, we share wisdom and skills, celebration and ceremony, we make salmon leather headdresses, we dance by fire light and dawn light, we prepare for a sacred council of drums, our drums sit around the hearth inside the roundhouse, the women sit under pulsing stars outside, bearing witness to a ritual more raw, more mystical and more intense than we could ever have foreseen.
2019
BRAIDED RIVER WORKSHOP PROGRAMME begins on Dartmoor with summer and winter hearth circles for newly arriving women, gatherings for returning salmon sisters, and the introduction of an apprenticeship that journeys over thirteen months. HEARTHSTONE WORKSHOP: Heron Trail to Hearthfire, this workshop cycle in Germany is completed after three annual summer weekends, hosted by Arkuna in their beautiful rural women’s house, fifty women have travelled for three years from sacred fire to sacred initiation to sacred source, in an intense blend of mythology, song, crafted work and ceremony, including a ritual in Hohle Fels cave, home to a 40,000-year-old small carved totemic woman.
2018
PACHAMAMA PRAYER JOURNEY, following a series of evenings created to share songs, stories and food with women, to collect their prayers tied as beads into woven cloth and wild horse braid, four sisters travel to Bolivia, making a slow journey into mountains, gathering threads and weaving connections as we go, finally reaching the remote crag in the Andes where we offer a mountain ceremony and bury our prayer pouch among rocks, the archive of this pilgrimage may be seen here along with details of the women’s projects supported through it. BRAIDED RIVER CONFLUENCE, a large gathering of women on Dartmoor, with a day of presentation and group sessions and collective singing, and an evening of concerts and celebration and ceremony, the new Braided River programme is anchored into our circles for the first time. WHEN WOMEN DRUM TO THE NORTH, a journey shared by forty women to Arctic Sweden, travelling from all over Europe to create a gathering that connects our own sacred landscapes and women’s cultures to the far north, with sacred drum circles, workshops, ceremonies, songs, creative projects, travelling across snow, dipping under ice and sitting in circle with our Arctic and Sàmi sisters. WILDSONG PACK PONY PILGRIMAGE, fifty women and three pack ponies gather, with drums and songs and wild prayers, for a midsummer sacred walk across wild moors, dripping forests, peat bogs, stony tracks, rain-washed hills, breeze-kissed grasses, gentle rivers, rolling mists, old farm ruins, stone circles and eventually, after nine hours, into the warm welcome of other waiting drummers. HEARTHSTONE: Threshold to Heron Trail, a workshop created for women in Germany.
2016-17
HEARTHSTONE WORKSHOP PROGRAMME on Dartmoor places the magical tending of women’s wild and wise fires at its heart, travelling through entering, pathfinding, spellbinding, protecting and dreaming as we worked with the rituals and teachings of hearthstones, embers, flames, smoke and ashes, exploring our own stories as hearth women sat beside the sacred fires; with hearth circles for women newly arriving to this work, threshold gatherings for women travelling deeper, and trail journeys for women making a prayer pilgrimage across wild land; hearthstone workshops welcome groups of women travelling to Dartmoor from the USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Australia and Germany during this time, as well as workshops carried by Carolyn to California and the Czech/Slovak border. HEARTHSTONE: Hearthfire to Threshold, a workshop created for women in Germany.
2015
THIRTEEN MOONS WOMEN’S FESTIVAL, a wondrous event on Dartmoor, created by over four hundred women from more than twenty-five different countries and cultures, together we make a tapestry of joyous voices, open hearts, dancing feet and creative hands, we travel around thirteen sacred lodges across the land: ancestors, dreamers, pathfinders, spellbinders, spinsters, stonekeepers, travellers, weavers and thirteen moons; within a huge dome the thirteen shaman weaver paintings sit together for the first time around their collective loom; our magnificent loom cloth is unfurled, thirteen metres long and sewn by many hands; the archive of this festival carries images and words that offer a beautiful and vibrant taste of what we share, awaken and distil during these days, it may be found here.
2014
THE SHAMAN WEAVERS cycle of workshops draws to a close with KINDLE Council of Sisters, when fifty women gather to the roundhouse fire, to share words about our shaman weaving journeys, to tie tassels and fringes onto the ends of the loom cloth we have created together over four years, to stir new visions into the cauldron. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: BROKEN, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, the last of the weavers to inhabit these ritual weekends, her work is the weaving of desert and with it the weaving of what is scattered and dissolved, the mending of what is broken and lost, the work of finding and tending and healing. A JOURNEY WITH ANCIENT SHAMAN WEAVINGS, workshops created to accompany the first exhibition of the Shaman Weavers paintings in Glastonbury, deep down into the loom, across the woven cloth, unwinding the mysteries of this vast circular loom, guided by the primordial weavers who work at the threads. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: Weaving Tundra, Ocean and Desert, a workshop created for women in Germany. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: VESSEL, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of oceans and with it the weaving of profound mysteries carried by women’s ancient drums, prayer dances, ritual songs and the primordial grandmother drum. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: SHARD, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of tundra and with it the weaving of women’s deep ancestry, winter trails, distant mother-lines, remote boundaries and the memory that waits hidden inside ancient ice.
2013
THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: LICHEN, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of wild hills and with it the weaving of freedom, unbound spaces, feral energy, unharnessed power, turning the magic, returning to source. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: DUSK, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of caverns and with it the weaving of shadows and soul journeys, initiations and intuitive voices, symbolic death and travelling with oracles. WOVEN EARTH & HALLOWED GROUND, a day workshop that unfurls a mythical journey from edge to source and out to edge again, we work with leather, ochre and flax, making prayers with our feet and weaving a road of symbols. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: Women Who Weave Wisdom into the Earth, a workshop created for women in Israel. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: Weaving Islands, Caverns and Wild Hills, a workshop created for women in Germany.
2012
THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: THORN, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of islands and with it the weaving of strong boundaries, hidden knowledge, protecting magic, secret wisdom and the sanctuary of coracle and briar. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: ANTLER, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of forests and with it the weaving of sacred stories rooted in lost clans, forgotten ancestors and remembered bones, hag and stag, the layered shadows of forest. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: COPPER, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of rivers and with it the weaving of journeys through womanhood, the mysteries of blood and moon, the changing initiations from the first blood of girl to the last blood of crone, the honouring of sisterhood. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: WEFT, workshop shared twice on Dartmoor, her work is the weaving of mountains and with it the weaving of primordial power, the rhythms of the earth and of the whole universe, the wise crafts of ancient hands, gathering what is scattered, mending what is broken. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: Weaving Mountains, Rivers and Forest, workshops created for women in Sweden and Germany. THE SHAMAN WEAVERS: Where Women Weave Wisdom into the Earth, workshops created for women in Canada, Czech Republic and Russia. HERON FLIES WEST TO THE AMBER RIVER, a ceremonial circle to honour menopause, created for women in Czech Republic.
2011
THE SHAMAN WEAVERS, a gathering on Dartmoor created for women from Russia. THIRTEEN MOONS WILDSONG CAMP, a gathering of 120 women on Dartmoor to celebrate our weaving voices, our drumming hands and our dancing feet, created by inspired and inspiring musicians and singers, with ceremonial circles and concerts, songs for ancestral mothers and sacred earth, songs for integrity and change, songs from islands and forests and mountains and tundra, refrains to loosen our hips and soothe our souls, ancient chants for weaving and waulking, laments for our tears, lullabies for our prayers, musical ditties for our laughter, rounds and roundelays for our spiralling journeys.
2010
WEAVING THE LAND: Stone and Sky, a winter journey that combines the raw experience of the ancient landscape with the magical bindings of our words, stories and songs as we move around the loom of the land, we make small totems in which to catch the elements of stone and sky. CAULDRON OF CROWS, a workshop created for women in Russia and Germany. WEAVING THE LAND: Wood and Water, entering the deep spirit of the landscape, combining journeys to ancient wood and wild water with the weaving of our experiences into the words that we sing and speak as we turn our circle around the loom of the land, we make small web looms in which to catch the elements of wood and water. THE AMBER ROAD, a sacred journey into sisterhood shared in the north Hungarian countryside with women from Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Britain, exploring the wisdom of the grandmothers and the prayer of ancient land, using our creative hands to bind the bright elements of copper, amber and flame as we celebrate sun and moon, sing to the earth and dance inside a storm.
2009
CAULDRON OF CROWS, a winter retreat inside the primordial cauldron of crows to explore the profound mysteries of death and life, loss and restoration, we enter dark solitude with the dissolving woman, silent incubation with the hollowing woman, inspired renewal with the bleeding woman, and the blessing of lament with the illuminating woman, and through all of this the moon carries us around the circle road. ASHES AND EARTH: The Illuminating Woman, a blessing of light, the final weekend in this cycle of journeys, in the full brilliance of the illuminating woman we discover the ultimate gift of ashes and earth, enriched by the intricate weaving of lament and wonder we prepare a white ritual house, a ceremonial dancing ground and small looms on which to catch light, air and bright memory. ASHES AND EARTH: Raw Earth, a moment of awakening, we follow the quickening woman along the seam where death and life are knitted together, where balance exists between the winding of shrouds and the unfurling of vibrant new threads, we walk to a wild place to taste the alchemy of sacred water, we spin our magic onto willow and hazel, we sew our red journeys into handwoven cloth. ASHES AND EARTH: The Hollowing, a place of winter incubation, within the silence of the hollowing woman we create a journey of germination and renewal, we pause before the last out-breath of winter, guided by visions that wait behind our eyes, supported and nurtured by the ancient land.
2008
ASHES AND EARTH: The Cauldron of Crows, a journey into shadow with solitude, the disintegrating woman and the bearer of wounds, travelling within the primordial cauldron of crows we enter the earth along the harsh edge of winter and travel deep into the silent lands, with a personal ritual journey and the shared creation of a winter book. SAMHAIN DRUM NIGHT, around the hearth fire in the ceremonial roundhouse, with drums, songs, prayers, spells, remembrances, sacred tales, shadowy myths and earthy ritual to honour the veiled season and the bones of our ancestral mothers. THIRTEEN MOONS WOMEN’S FESTIVAL, three hundred women gather from many lands to share a journey around thirteen moons: copper, fallen crow, salmon, warriors, healers, nameless, leaping hare, drummers, weavers, granite, bone, honey and finally the many sister moons; we celebrate bright edges and deep shadows as we share wisdom, wonder, music, magic, inspiration, laughter, craft, food and sisterhood.
2007
DRUMS OF THE HEATHEN HILLS, creating drums with reindeer, red deer and wild horse skins, as sacred tools for harnessing the raw power of autumn, we walk the ancient hills to find our own drum song and bless our own drum road around the roundhouse hearth. RIVENSTONE: Song of the Harvest Drum, a day when we make and decorate small bright-moon-deerskin-dancing-drums with which to honour the abundance of the earth, we use our drums to create and share a ritual for the harvest. THE UNSEEN MOON AND THE DARKEST DRUM, a day when we use soft song, whispered mythology and quiet ritual to make small dark-moon-reindeer-skin-prayer-drums with which to honour night shadows and hidden places.
2006
INTO THE WINTER HOUSE, a day of winter ceremony, feeding the hearth fires, keeping safe the winter light, moving into hibernation where we may rest and dream and mend, with a ceremony to stir the elements of ice, flame, mist, stone and black earth into our winter cauldron. WOMEN OF THE BEAR DRUM, a deepening winter journey, a profound retreat inside the embrace of the bear drum, we enter a night vigil in the roundhouse, we deepen our connection with ancestral landscapes, we use clay and ashes and bear magic to make traditional fire oracles. WOMEN OF THE SALMON DRUM, the returning autumn journey, the salmon drum draws us into the spiralling dance of seasons and the circling rivers of life, we follow living veins of wild water to seek the salmon gifts of freedom and perseverance, we tan salmon skins to make rattles and small fish leather pouches to carry tokens of our journey of return. WOMEN OF THE HARE DRUM, the awakening summer journey, we form bright circles and dance wildly under the full moon, making moon rituals with dark blood, white salt and soft black earth, we walk lightly across the moor at night to visit ancient shrines, we make small deerskin finger drums to sound the pulsing rhythms in our veins. THE NORTHERN SISTERHOOD OF DRUMS, a workshop created for women in Russia and Germany. ARCTIC DEEP WINTER WOMEN’S RETREAT JOURNEY, we travel as thirteen women to the Arctic north of Sweden, we live in forest cabins beside a frozen lake, we retreat into silent days and nights within the frozen landscape, we learn from Arctic sisters and craftspeople, we explore our ancient northern women’s spiritual traditions, we experience dog sleds, wild reindeer and the northern lights.
2005
ONE THOUSAND ANCIENT MOTHERS, a workshop created for women in Hungary, Holland and Sweden. INSIDE THE WINTER HOUSE: The Northern Sisterhood of Drums, journey through a cold landscape set within a council of primordial grandmothers, sourced from paintings created on Dartmoor and in the frozen north, we make pouches with materials gathered from the Arctic as we travel into deep mythology, the power of sacred drums and a women’s mystery born 25,000 years ago from ancient ice.
2004
THE PRIMORDIAL GRANDMOTHER DRUM, a workshop created for women in Hungary, Holland and Sweden. THE ROAD TO RED OCHRE WOMAN, inside the mists of samhain we trace a deepening spiral into the spirit of midwoman, explore our responsibilities as older women, unravel the threads of our journey north, slip into our old skins, move closer to the crone, challenge our boundaries of perception and courage while drawing on the untamed moors as a source of gentle darkness and wise revelation. THE WILDERNESS DAUGHTERS OF GRANDMOTHER DRUM, we explore women’s ancient drum mysteries, share drum songs and dances with the autumn elements of the moors, we make traditional Arctic paddle drums and create a ceremony to honour the spirits of wild deer. RIVENSTONE WOMEN’S MEET: Our Oldest Magic, we gather to share ancestral wisdom and express wild spirits, to nourish and celebrate women’s creative and magical energy, we make a beautiful felted cloth of dancing figures formed by the hands of eighty women, we dance the marsh labyrinth and sing to the roundhouse fire. HOW STRONG IS THE FACE OF A WOMAN’S DRUM? a pilgrimage into the cold lands of our ancestral mothers and the mysteries of the ancient Grandmother Drum, heartbeat of the raw primordial landscape, we make red deer and horse skin rattles on which to play our ritual songs.
2003
THE WOMEN’S HOUSE, a workshop created for women in Japan. WOMEN’S DRUM CAMP, the first teaching on Dartmoor of women’s traditional deer skin drums, with ceremonies to honour the skins and bless the finished drums. THE SACRED HOUSE OF WOMEN, a workshop created for women in Sweden. MIDWOMAN: The Gift of Amber, we embrace and honour the midwoman journey, explore the outer and inner dynamics of menopause, create a simple rite of passage to bring power, courage and wisdom to our understanding.
2002
WEATHERED EDGE, a raw landscape of ancient spirit women, concentrated fusions of wild energy: concealer, protector, hunter, summoner, bestower, visioner, destroyer and drummer; formed from weather, season and the hidden patterns of land, they help to shape the landscapes that we are. RIVENSTONE WOMEN’S MEET: The Ragged Megs, we meet these strange and ancient megs who dance the rhythms of the earth, the ebb and flow of weather, the enduring cycle of seasons, the magic at the edges of primordial land.
1999
THE ORACLE OF NIGHTS, binding ritual and myth, we enter a black-wrapped journey into the cave, into darkness and shadow, into underworld, through a series of encounters with five protectors: toad, crow, spider, bat and mare; a place to confront and understand our fears, then to emerge empowered.
1998
OLD SILVERHEAD, songs and initiations of womanhood, we explore the experiences that define our passage through womanhood, a journey formed around eight transitions that honour our changes through girlseed, first blood, fruitmother, spinmother, midwoman, earthcrone, stonecrone to bone.
1997
THE HERON HOUSE, a women’s ancient mystery, a place where we meet and honour our ancient foremothers and rediscover our indigenous ancestry, this house contains the memory of all we have been and all we are, the woven fabric of our wise stories and our deepest relationship with the earth.
1995
A CIRCLE OF THIRTEEN, sitting with these grandmothers we experience thirteen deep-woman archetypes, each holds a key to an aspect of our inner landscape, we uncover and absorb their mythology and wisdoms, we gather together the fragments of our own ancient memory.
