Residential Retreat
Fireflies Ashram, Dinnepalya, Bangalore, India
Saturday 29th June – Friday 5th July 2019
Training Intensive – Tuesday 25th June – Sunday 30th June 2019
We are lonely – We are hungry – We are beggars for home
Without knowing it we sit downcast on the highways and byways of life’s journey with the begging bowls of our hearts held out, longing and yearning for some passer by to drop the merest crumb, any morsel that will nourish and nurture our famine.
Service comes from an old terminology meaning “to feed’.
To give someone something to eat, to feed someone, is an intimate sharing ritual of giving part of yourself in some way to become part of the other.
To feed someone is to show that you care, to revive and refresh the other, to work from inside to make one stronger, to make them well, to take away the pain of hunger, of emptiness.
Trouble is that everyone is begging, and the few ones that have the crumb are terrified to give it up. And yet deep in the fire of our hearts, we make that sacrifice to reach out and give that morsel of our heart to another.
In every act of service, feeding, there is a sacrifice.
This first Bangalore Gathering at FireFlies Ashram was a journey of service to ourselves and outwards to others, that our hearts will be an offering to the those that are hungry and in that we ourselves will be fed.
Teachers
Beatrice Simmons
Beatrice lives in a Swiss mountain valley where she works in partnership with the spirits and the power of the land. She listens to find inner stillness and true essence of light that will allow us to reconnect with the origin of creativity in respect of all the teaching of life. Béatrice has been taught for many years in the Sufi spirit and tradition. Her real heart home she found in the otherworld of the ancestral spirits. She offers her Spiritual services, the Alchemy of fragrances and sound as well as the F.M. AlexanderTechnique to accompany individuals as well as teaching in groups. She offers her services in different countries and is a member of the Sagh’ic Animist Society. She has completed the ‘Teacher Training’ and ‘Medicine for the Earth’ with Sandra Ingerman. She is an initiated Ceann-Iul of the Sagh’ic Tire Dhream and an ordained Elder and Teacher of the Tradition. She is also a licensed Aoghair (Minister) and holds the marks of the Guardianship of Water and Wind and The Harvesters. Beatrice will be offering, “Dissolve into Love”
“Dissolve into Love and you will know when it calls. Respond.” Rumi
The story tells that the plaintive lament of Seanamhair Cuan, the Grandmother of the Ocean, who was above as she was below, reaches into the dark blue of eternity. Tei, the One Above moved by her song sends Fear Tintreach the Lightning into the Darkness, a rich dark infinite field of potential, from where Mother Earth is born. Some might say that with the plaintive lament and deep yearning in the First Song of Grandmother Ocean to share her Love the Lightning emerges from within herself or consider that Lightning and Ocean are a reciprocation of the cosmos, forever in a back and forth cycling. We might say a back and forth cycle of Darkness and Light.
In our journey into the innermost depth of Grandmother Ocean, we find in every tone of her Song and Breath a sparkle of Light, a sparkle of potential, and we hear the One Song of Creation deep within our own inner temple, our own inner sanctuary. Connecting with Mother Earth and all her elements she gave us when she answered the Song of the Stars we find the same potential and sparkle of Light within ourselves and everything, and we hear a whisper of the Ancient Ones: “come back, come back….”
“Let the Waters settle and you will see the Moon and the Stars mirrored in your being” Rumi
John-Luke is Presidor of the Sagh’ic Animist Society, and called by Ancestral Spirits to awaken the sleepers caught in the dreams of the world to the ancestral home. John-Luke is a Reverend Ceann-iuil and Elder Seannair of Sagh’ic Tire Dhream and sits on the Ordination Gyre and the Council of the Tradition. He is a licensed Aoghair (Minister) of the Society, as well as Signatory for the Ministry Denomination. He has a private Spirit Intervention practice and runs a series of workshops, teaching sessions, on-line training and interactive groups. He also organises workshops for men to hunt their hearts as well as facilitating the celebration of the ancient rituals of the Tradition. John-Luke, supported by gracious wisdom of others led us through the ‘Ritual of the Fetish; a sacrifice for love’,
‘‘I bind you and carry you, that have bound and carried me, let the flames free us both’’
Within us all are the fears and shadows of history those done to and those done by.
Guided by the spirits of nature, a willing and loving sacrificial victim comes to unburden us. This intense and cathartic ceremony of construction and destruction provides the opportunity to be free from the bindings of history.
And with the Fire Guardians, he led the Fire Ceremony, which brought us into harmony with the fire that resides in our hearts and the hearts of each other.
Diya Naidu & Dipankar Panth
Diya and Dipankar are the first group of Indian Apprentices to be Initiated as Ceann-Iuil; Pathfinders of the Sagh’ic Animist Tradition. They presented the Evening Ceremony “Weaving with the elements – a journey of self within the world.” in which we were invited to work with the elements, and bring into physical form, their message to us in the moment, through art, though dance, through colour, song and movement, fragrance, taste and space, weaving together, being their sacred threads to create and share a part of the sacred tapestry of creation with each other and the land. We felt the power of surrender and support, and learn about the sacrifice a thread makes in the holy weave it creates and is created by, a sacrifice that helps it become more than just a thread, but a beautiful infinite tapestry of love.
Linda Harper & Karen Thies
Linda & Karen celebrated the Evening Ceremony “Song of the Rain”, with songs, drums, dance, guided journey and group interaction. Karen and Linda told the tale of a beloved Sagh’ic Saga. With guided journeys, music, song and beautiful prose, Karen and Linda guided us to find our Song. All of the Sagh’ic Sagas are timeless and always relevant to the here and now. The story of the “Song of the Rain” has it all: drama, fires, storms, hero Gods and tricksters. Most of all, it is a call for us to open our hearts to a new beautiful song and to send it out into the world.
Nooshin Sayed
(“…..outward projections of an inward traveller…..”) Nooshin’s interests are in music, films and photography, and is a freelance photographer. He loves to explore curiosities in nature and share these experiences with the world. His wish is to journey into the unknown and bring back values, which will aid him in being a better version of himself and follow the path of heart. Sharing his imagery he hopes to invite others onto that journey. Nooshin will be respectfully recording the Retreat & Gathering with his photographic skills.
From Nooshin’s beautiful work, this visual record was created…..
Keerthi Palisetti
Keerthi’s presence at this gathering is a sign of her desire to be a hollow bone for Sound and Love. She will be offering experiences with sound with the intention of bringing a sense of slowing down to experience rest in an embodied way. She will bring us on a journey following sacred sound into a world of deep and true listening, into resonance with subtle vibrations of Life within and without. In the Wolven Path Tradition the story is told of the One Great Song, Moea-oa-Creon; the Song, of the Great Grandmother Ocean, Seanamhair Cuan, the Song of her Yearning and Love to the One Above, the Song that was answered by Song , that Great Song that permeates the whole of creation, the Song of Creation. Everything is the same holy Song and at the same time everything sings the Song. We will listen to the One Great Song, connecting to our Soul Song singing to us.
Keerthi is an explorer of self with a special love for trees. She belongs to an ancient clan of weavers “Pattusali” and is committed to working towards integration and peace within herself. Her seeking led her to Béatrice. The journeys she went on with Béatrice’s guidance opened up worlds of imagination, love and gratitude in her heart. A few moons later, she came in touch with the work of Svaram from Auroville. The sound beings, the humans and the instruments left her feeling inspired. She has been initiated into the work of healing with sounds by Aurelio, the founder of Svaram and is offering one-on-one sessions and group journeys at “Just Be Holistic Studio” in Bangalore.
Christine Colling
Christine is an initiated Ceann-luil a Licensed Minister and an Elder within the Sagh’ic Animist Society. She holds the marks of service for Water, Fire, Wind and the Harvesters and leads the women’s Harvester Tribal guardianship. Christine is a signatory for the Sagh’ic Animist Society Ministry. She resides in British Columbia, Canada.
Sparrow Kemp
Sparrow is a recently Initiated Ceann-luil Pathfinder. Sparrow lives on the side of a beautiful little mountain on Canada and is an activist for the earth and for water in very practical ways. Sparrow holds the mark of an Earth Stander in service to the community and to Mother earth. She keeps mason bee lodges and educates her local community about pollinators.
Joseph Abbot
Joe is an initiated Ceann-IuL Pathfinder of the Sagh’ic Tradition and Minister with Sagh’ic. Has been a teacher at past Canadian conferences. He has traveled in the USA, Canada, the Mediterranean and South America during his Naval Service as a Hospital Corpsman. He has worked as a Nurse and Medical Scientist and has seen first-hand the devastation that PTSD has caused to both first responders, military as well as those who feel marginalized due to personal trauma. He has had a strong connection to the ocean, mountains and forest since birth and uses this connection in his work with others. He currently resides in South West Washington in Westport, USA.
Christine and Sparrow offered the “Honey Roads”, a ceremony created by Elder Jeff Stockton. The Honey Roads is a moment of change, a new way of being. When the ceremony was created, in journey the bees sang………
“Re-build and do your best. Eat the sweetness first for there is always best shared. Remind each other of the sweetness when you forget and can only see the destruction.”
This community ceremony was an invocation of memory; a remembering that we all live our lives here on the Honey Roads, and that every action matters.
Together we sought forgiveness, remembrance, and community in the Honey Roads Ceremony.
Joe & Christine also co-facilitated the “Water Ceremony” with Béatrice Simmons.
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” Rumi
“We are all Water droplets
We are from the Ocean
Within each of us is the Ocean
Everything we do, everything begins and ends with Water
The Ocean of Water connects us all
We are the rain
Caught up from the Ocean by the Wind of the mind
Condensed by the passion of the heart
And we return as rain falling upon the Ocean
Each act, each word, each feeling, each touch
A raindrop that falls into the eternal Ocean.”
John-Luke
This was a ceremony of dance, song and sound, journey, joy and forgiveness. We followed the droplet of Water and journey through resistance within us to surrender and sacrifice in service. We listened to the Sagas of the Sagh’ic, we listened to the One Great Song, Mora-oa-Creon, of Grandmother Ocean Seanamhair Cuan, and we experienced and expressed the passion of the Creation Story. By honouring the Water we honoured the Moon, by honouring the Moon, we honoured the Water. We honour the Spirit of Water and remember that we are Water, we are the Song, we are Love, and we are the entire Ocean in a drop. We stepped into the reflection of the Moon carried by the Waters, we experienced the reflection and the connection within and without, and we remembered that we are never alone, a fearless moment to look at our own reflection in the Water in the question: “who am I?”
We were joined by Arun Reetha of Skink tattoos, who worked with the movement of ancestral grace through some of the participants to create sacred tattoos as memories and rites of passage.
The Gathering was a full 5 day/6 evening residential retreat,
Which began with the Initiation Ceremony of the Gearnuiga Apprentices and culminated in a community Fire Ceremony.
Each day;
- began with Morning Meditation to welcome the day, followed by breakfast
- followed by The Ritual of the Fetish; a sacrifice of love, with a break for tea
- after lunch was be a Spirit teaching by one the teachers
- after tea was a communal evening ceremony
- after dinner we finished our day with an evening meditation ceremony
RETREAT PROGRAMME
Training Integration
4 day/5 evening Tuesday 25th June (lunch) – Sunday 30th June (breakfast)
Preceding the Retreat was a 4 day training intensive for Sagh’ic Students, led by Beatrice & John-Luke, in which students will deepen and integrate their appreciation, understanding and skills of Sagh’ic Animist Healing Ceremony.
Training Intensive & Integration Programme
Sagh'ic Tire Dhream 