A festival crowd at golden hour with hands in the air

Home/Gatherings

The land, before there is land.

Three kinds of gathering, held by the circle on borrowed ground. They are how you meet Spiritual Land first, and their surplus is how the ground gets bought.

Andrius Šimkus via Pexels

The festival

A few days, a few hundred people, all ten pillars at once.

A gathering with a stage built into the land, a sound temple, a children’s village that is the centre and not the corner, ceremonies at dawn and fire at night. It is the loudest thing we will do and the one most people will meet first. It pays for a large part of the ground, and it is also the proof: if the ten pillars can hold for four days in a field, they can hold for good.

People seated in a circle at an outdoor retreat with tipis behind them

Retreats

A week, a small group, one pillar deep.

Sound and silence. Ecology and building. Ceremony and integration. Movement and voice. A children-and-parents week. Retreats are how the land earns through the year rather than in one weekend, and how the people who will hold the land learn to hold it. They happen wherever the circle can borrow ground, until the ground is ours.

A fire dancer spinning flames in the dark

Ceremonies

A night, a season, a moment marked.

Fire at the solstice. Cacao at dawn. A sound ceremony in a borrowed forest. A ceremony for someone who has died, or someone who has been born. Ceremonies are small, frequent and held by people the circle trusts. They keep the circle warm between the larger gatherings and they are where the land’s rituals will come from.

Where the money goes

Gatherings pay for the ground.

Nothing on this website is for sale. The gatherings are where money enters, and this is what happens to it.

Costs first. Every gathering pays its own way: land hire, crew, food, safety, the people who hold ceremony and play music.
Surplus to the land fund. What is left goes into a fund with one purpose: to buy and hold the land. It cannot be spent on anything else.
Open accounts. The circle sees the numbers. Not a summary: the numbers.
No investor with a say. Money that gives someone control over the land is refused. Patience is cheaper than that.

Questions

When is the first Spiritual Land festival?

There is no date yet and none will be published until it is certain. The first gatherings will be announced to the circle first, by email. Join the circle to hear.

Where will the gatherings happen before there is land?

On borrowed ground: land offered by people in the circle, or rented from places that share the values. Each gathering is also a rehearsal for the land.

How do the gatherings pay for the land?

Tickets and retreat fees cover the costs of the gathering; whatever is left goes into a fund that exists only to buy and hold the land. The accounts are open to the circle.

Can I hold a retreat or ceremony as part of Spiritual Land?

Yes, if you are trained and experienced and willing to be known by the circle first. Apply on the co-create page. The first step is always to come and take part.

Are the gatherings family-friendly?

They are family-first. Children are designed in from the start: their own village, their own circle, adults who are vetted. Every gathering has real quiet hours so small ones can sleep.

Hear first

The first gathering is announced to the circle, by letter.

Before any public post, before any ticket page. That is the whole point of the circle.