Healing Retreat this September

On the 4th September, a team of ten of us are going to be running a week’s healing retreat in Hertfordshire. You don’t have to be an OBOD member to participate, and there are still some places left.  Here are the details:

4-10 Sept 2011

Imagine spending a week once a year attending to your body and its needs: eating a healthy cleansing diet, exercising your body with swimming, Qigong and Tai Chi, participating in Druid healing ceremonies, having massage and saunas, and daily meditations – all in a beautiful setting close to Nature.

If this appeals to you, we would like to invite you to the Order’s first Natural Healing Retreat in September this year. Set amongst 17 acres of beautiful woodland near St.Albans in Hertfordshire, the grounds of the Sun-Folk Society and Spielplatz will provide a peaceful setting for this week of deep relaxation designed to help you open to the healing powers of Nature and your own body.

There will be guided meditations and one-to-one sessions, while practitioners in a range of healing modalities such as deep-tissue massage, aromatherapy, herbalism, cranio-sacral osteopathy, Qigong and Tai Chi will offer individual or group sessions.  A carefully designed detox diet will be available, and there will be many opportunities for deep rest, exercise and spiritual practice.

Life can be stressful and sometimes we need to take the time to remove ourselves from daily responsibilities and habits, and discover new and healthy ways of nurturing the body, mind and spirit. By working to restore our health, we will hope to transform our relationship to the body, to the self and to the food we eat.

Sun-Folk with its ancient oaks, green lawns, sauna and splash pool is a naturist paradise and a perfect setting in which to enjoy a life-changing experience. We will enjoy the full use of the resort with two large yurts to provide sleeping accommodation and workshop space. In addition, members may camp, bring their own caravan or campervan or book accommodation in a nearby hotel.

Spielplatz adjoins Sunfolk, and is the Utopian naturist resort where Nuinn used to retreat regularly, and we have arranged access to this resort too for participants, so that we can walk in the grounds which include the tallest birch trees in England, and use their large outdoor heated pool and other facilities, such as tennis and badminton courts.

Spend a week in this beautiful place surrounded by Nature, learning to listen to your body and develop skills which will help you stay in tune with its needs. Meditation helps develop self-awareness, compassion and unconditional love for ourselves and others; and an informed and healthy relationship to the food we eat can be energising and healing. A poor body image can be the cause of real distress and inhibit the possibility of discovering our wild free soul-self. Whether you are a naturist or not you are welcome to join us for the week, which will be clothing-optional. This means there is absolutely no obligation for you to be either dressed or undressed. You are totally free in this respect, and the Retreat will provide a safe, respectful and sacred place in which, if you wish, you can let go of any damaging and limiting feelings about your own body and gain a sense of real freedom to be who you truly are.

Have fun, feel supported in your journey, play in the pool, walk in the woods, share stories by the fire, eat good food…relax and enjoy this very special place of healing.

All activities will be optional. A 1-3 day brown rice or juice mono-fast will be available if wanted. The detox diet will be varied and delicious and will be caffeine, sugar, meat, dairy, wheat and alcohol free. The healers will present themselves and their work on the first day and participants will be free to book individual sessions scheduled each afternoon. This retreat is ideal for those wanting to restore their sense of well-being, recharge after a period of stress, or change life-style habits such as smoking.

The retreat will be held near to one of the most significant centres in the history of magic in England – St.Albans (See references in The Book of English Magic for details). Philip will give a brief talk about this, and participants might like to visit the town and surrounding area before, during or after the retreat. We will also be a walk away from Butterfly World – a 27 acre site designed in the shape of a giant butterfly’s head.

For more information and booking details see www.druidhealingretreats.co.uk