Weaving the Red Thread
This retreat will take place over the new year, but we are rebelling against the linear Gregorian calendar and the expectations of the normal 'New Year's Eve'.
We are re-imagining a more devoted and divine way to unfold into the new year. We are dreaming up a new way.
Join us to return to a more ancient and cyclical way of marking time. The Celtic calendar that is based on the beautiful magic that resides within the female body. A way that honours and mirrors the needs of our cyclical bodies.
We will ‘winter’ together as an intimate group of 13 women. As a circle of sisters over the new moon, we will harness the power of our menstrual cycle and the lunar cycle. We will remember that our bodies are our greatest teachers.
This is how we will welcome in 2025.
Under the guidance of animist artist, Tor Woven, we will each weave red threads on a loom into a beautiful and sacred womb wrap to hold us throughout our cyclical lives and as a talisman for claiming our sovereignty.
Under guidance of yoga teacher Sherin, we will move and flow and breathe and dance. You will be bathed in sublime poetry, entrancing music, earthy aromas, healing meditations, and crystal and oracle card altars.
Together, we will remember that being in circle together as women – in nothing but our whole truth – is necessary and healing.
We will remember what it feels like to return home to love.
We will remember what it feels like to truly rest in the mystical wintery natural world around us, re-sensitising ourselves to the rich, fertile and complex soil beneath our feet, to the cool sacred waters of the Hawkwood spring, the ancient woodland, and to all the be-ings amongst us.
If this calls to your body, then drop us an email to take up your place as 1 of the 13 women:
sherinshefik@gmail.com and torwoven@gmail.com
VENUE
Hawkwood is an educational charity set in a stunning Victorian building in the heart of the Cotswolds. It boasts 42 acres of bio dynamically farmed land with acres of gardens and ancient woodland to explore. It hosts a sacred well and a beautiful Woodland Meditation & Yoga Sanctuary.
The house has 28 bedrooms, with a mixture of single, twin and triple rooms, and 10 shared bath/shower rooms plus WC’s. There are two bedrooms in the house with an ensuite bathroom but all the other bedrooms feature a wash basin in the room, and guests share access to bath/shower facilities. Hand and bath towels are supplied.
Hawkwood is within one of the five valleys reaching out from Stroud - the Painswick valley - which is connected to many local and national public footpaths and within areas of outstanding natural beauty/scientific interest.
Easy on-site parking.
TESTIMONIALS
LOCATION
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Hawkwood is easily accessible.
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Address: Hawkwood, Painswick Old Road, Stroud GL6 7QW
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By Foot: Hawkwood is approximately half an hour’s walk from Stroud Centre.
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By Bicycle: Hawkwood is approximately 2 miles from Stroud Town Centre. Painswick Old Road and Wick Street are pleasant lanes to cycle along.
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By Car: From the west and north, take Exit 13 off the M5 and follow signs to Stroud centre. From the east, take Exit 15 off the M4 and follow the A419 past Cirencester to Stroud. If coming from the Oxford area, follow the A429 or B4425 off the A40 to Cirencester. Follow the A419 from Cirencester as above. From Stroud centre, follow the A46, then the Painswick Old Road (which is signposted ‘to Wick St.’).
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By Train: If coming by train, take a taxi from the Stroud train station (2 miles).
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By Plane: If coming by plane, the closest airports are Bristol, Birmingham and Heathrow. Take a bus/train from Bristol, Birmingham or Heathrow to Stroud. From Stroud train station, take a taxi to Hawkwood (2 miles).
FOOD
Good food is great medicine. And at Hawkwood, the medicine tastes delicious.
Hawkwood's food reflects their ethos: sustainable, ethical, and organic.
You will be served freshly-prepared plant-based meals using locally sourced & organic ingredients.
Their Victorian half-walled kitchen garden grows organic fruit, herbs and vegetables for the kitchen. They are also a member their tenant farmers scheme - Stroud Community Agriculture - where they collect organic seasonal vegetables on a weekly basis. All their other suppliers are as local, organic as well as ethical as possible.
All meals are home cooked and prepared daily on site by their experienced and dedicated kitchen team.
They can cater for almost all dietary requirements.
All teas (herbal and English Breakfast tea) and coffee are available throughout the day.
The all important food timetable is as follows:
– 8:30am: Breakfast
– 11am: Refreshment with homemade biscuits
– 1pm: Two course lunch
– 4pm: Refreshment with home baked cake
– 6:30pm: Two course supper