Black Cockatoo Studio

28/01/2024

THE MEDICINE IN OUR BONES, BLOOD & BREATH...

Yesterday Facebook flashed a ‘memory’ to me - of where I was 6 years ago and I saw the image of another time, another pilgrimage, and the same green mountain. Turns out it wasn’t the same, but in that moment I saw the connection - of this path I am walking today, and the one then. Six years ago I was following a hint from the ancestors, to find the earth based spirituality alive within my DNA, in the lands of England, Ireland & Scotland. This trip was partly prompted by a fear that I was participating in cultural appropriation by working with the shamanic traditions of Peru and North America and the question - why didn’t I and so many others work with the Shamanic traditions of our own heritage?

Some part of an answer came when I joined a Solstice Ceremony on the beach in Edinburgh only to find myself in ceremony with a visiting Columbian Shaman, and this following on from spending a month living at a land based community in Cornwall only to be immersed in Shamanic teachings of Lakota and Sioux lineage. I had come all this way to find the Shamanic traditions of my heritage, only to find myself once again with these lineages of North & South America. Why?

Because these traditions of earth-based wisdom, ceremony and practice from North & South America have a continuous lineage, an unbroken tradition of time-tested ways to connect with spirit, and practices of how to live healthy connected lives in human and more than human communities. The connection with the lineages from my own heritage was broken a long time before, and generally exists in much more fragmented and diluted forms. Certainly it can be remembered and recovered, and I have been on the path to do this ever since, but my sense is that as our world is changing so fast into something quite out of balance and dangerous to human & community health, many of us need to plug in as directly as we can to a powerful sense of connection & soul, to rebalance what we have lost.

So once again here I am on a pilgrimage - this time in South America, and this time of a very different shape, a pilgrimage just to live and see what happens. But as before, this is a medicine journey, and a journey of following the heart. As I continue to walk this path, I see greater and greater value in developing a personal relationship with the more subtle medicines, the ones that we can access without needing to take anything in from the outside - the ones that live in our bones, our blood and our breath - the medicines of dance, of song, of ceremony.

Our ancestors knew that we need these regular practices to take us back into connection - with the cycles of the world, with each other and with all that our life depends on. These are the seasonal festivals of every culture, those that mark the cycles of sun and moon and season. This is why I have become so fascinated with uncovering the wisdom of the cross-quarters - these Celtic festivals between the Solstice & Equinox, in what has developed into 4 retreats a year - PLENTY, THRESHOLD, COURAGE & BELONGING.

So I’m very grateful that yes - we can recover and remember the earth based spirituality alive within our own DNA. And, sometimes we need input from places that remember these ways as a living breathing culture. As the modern, industrial world impacts and often threatens these living lineages, how do we work together to keep alive what is sacred, protect what is precious and practice the ways that help us thrive as a human community in connection with all that our life depends on?

It’s perhaps not an easy question to answer, but one that I’m pretty sure we can only find together, and I know that for me, it’s the only path I want to walk and one that comes with so much beauty, as well as challenge!

So I’m super grateful that I don’t need to do it alone and that we get to do it together - thank you for you friendship, for your companionship - thank you for walking (and dancing) with me.

And in case you’re curious for what it might be like to enter into a container where we explore these practices with focus and depth - we start our next retreat PLENTY this Friday, online this time - bridging the globe and learning together. It may seem odd to dance online, but if you’re not familiar with the incredible beauty and connection available through zoom, even when we aren’t together in physical space - it’s quite magical and I’m excited to see what we discover in this format.

https://www.facebook.com/events/940487790872084

With so much love,
Caitlin

27/06/2022

Lucky us - our dance this Wednesday falls on the NEW MOON!

According to Lena from The Power Path, during this New Moon in Cancer, "It is important to nurture yourself, set good boundaries, and be around people and in environments that support and feed your soul."

I think that describes perfectly what we will be doing at Dancing Freedom on Wednesday night!

Hope to see you there :)

Much love,
Caitlin

30/09/2021

30/09/2021

03/01/2018

Happy New Year!

I was really lucky to have some beautiful river, forest and dancing time for the transition - where I revisited some old wounds around isolation, connection and self-worth and was met and held by a beautifully supportive community of love and acceptance, and FUN and CELEBRATION! I'm feeling so grateful for all that life brings and have emerged full of love and possibility - I know this year is going to be a good one - better than we can imagine - beyond our wildest dreams - as we expand into the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible and have the courage to embrace all aspects of being human in ourselves and each other - divine & ridiculous.

Sending blessings of love, joy, peace, acceptance, abundance, nourishment, fun, community, adventure and yumminess for your year dear ones

25/09/2017

Coming to Sydney October 19!

18/09/2017

A little insight into the creative process for my most recent creative work - setting the space for Adam Barley's Evolution workshop in Sydney last weekend - an evolving altar over 3 days.

The work spoke to me about cycles of energy - birth, death, chaos and the void and the endless cycle and flow of life evolving through creative forms, and the beauty of those forms in harmonious relationship with each other and as part of a whole.

On day one, we had energy and life flowing in and out of the void, spiralling in, spiralling out. On day two, living creatures began to emerge from the void and the cycle continued to evolve and change. When I was building the final evolution for day three I saw the way that the natural forms and the man made forms began to blend together and I felt that we as humans are just another perfectly imperfect part of that evolution. As I was laying out beautiful big pieces of crumpled packing paper, there on the floor was a crumpled tissue that someone had discarded during the workshop that day. I saw how these forms matched perfectly and suddenly the tissue box was included as a part of the cycle, as the branches of the tree became the paper, and the paper became the tissue and the tissue became our tears.

I saw then that the creativity that we bring forward into the world including all of our feelings and struggles with being human is just another way of life expressing and learning about itself through the creative process - through our bodies, through our tears, through our laughter, through our dance, through our art and through our relationships and the connections and spaces between each other and between all forms of life on earth and beyond.

I felt such gratitude and tenderness for the exquisite beauty of all the myriad forms of life and the joy and wonder of being witness and participant in this unfolding process.

What an honour to be able to bring this creation into the world and share it.

Thankyou.
With love, Caitlin

22/01/2017

"Honouring Mother Earth and the Divine Feminine through the Wise Women Traditions" What a beautiful gathering of so many amazing women sharing their wisdom, it was an honour to be a part of this event - offering a sacred altar and a sacred dance - the first of many Wise Women Gatherings in Australia I hope! Much love and thanks to Steph and Bec for epic organising and bringing us all together.

05/12/2016

Wow, so happy to read this.
Hope for humanity and for clean water for the next 7 generations.

Big love and gratitude for those who continue to stand at Standing Rock.

The "historic" decision comes as thousands of protesters gather on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

03/12/2016

Standing Rock by Trevor Hall, released 31 August 2016 "Standing Rock" Lyrics To the east and west To the north and south Warrior Warrior Gather every tribe Mama needs you now Warrior Warrior Suits are moving in just to get their dollar Treaties being broken no respect or honor Listen close my friend...

08/10/2016

Excited and nervous as I prepare to leave for Mexico tomorrow morning to pray and dance and sing in a women's ceremony known as Las Danza De Luna - Moon Dance.

I'm feeling the medicines of this coming through in my life, into the creation of the altar for Kate Shela's workshop last weekend and into our dance this evening.

Intense times, beautiful times.

Grateful to be opening the door to meet this way of praying - with the dance, with the drum, with the earth, in community. I'm dancing to bring myself into greater alignment with the heartbeat of the earth, and as a prayer for the heartbeat of humanity to beat in rhythm with the heartbeat of all life.

Thankyou to all who support me on this path, I carry you with me.

Blessings,
Caitlin

07/10/2016

What an honour to create this sacred portal for the R-Evolution workshop with Kate Shela in Sydney last weekend.

Thankyou to Tara Williams for birthing the first R-Evolution drum in the UK and to the awesomely inspiring Kate Shela for the invitation to carry that vision into another expression. Deep thanks to Velan, Devani & Adya for weaving this prayer with me, and to Michelle for making it all possible. Huge gratitude to Jane Elworthy for creating this drum many years ago and connecting me with it to bring it forward to be played by and in community as a reactivation of it's original purpose.

Big big love to everyone who came to dance & share

07/10/2016