Fireside Stories



Fireside Stories 2023

Fireside Stories is part of a larger narrative that is emerging all over the world right now – where people, individuals and communities are finding ways to create new myths and stories. Stories that are needed now, that honour our true natures and Mother Earth. Stories that honour sovereignty in our own lives, our own real hopes, dreams and unique gifts that contribute to the whole. Stories that will leave a legacy of a more beautiful planet our hearts know is possible. The daytime program this year in the Common gives the opportunity to participate in this co-creation. In the magical new space, the Fireside, we are lucky to again receive and learn with wonderful elders and speakers, wisdom keepers, facilitators and artists, and each other. 

From the Sacred lands of Mexico, the Xicome Delegation of Elders and Peace Ambassadors of the Sacred Fire Council will share the Toltec teachings of Abuelo Fuego, Huehueteotl, Tatewari bringing a message of peace to UNIFY in love, through ceremony, song and dance, this is The Call of Quetzalcoatl.

We will reignite our passions, purpose and inner fires to carry back to all our everyday lives. 

We really hope to see you there! 

Wednesday

The Common Opening Ceremony 7.30-8.30pm – XICOME The Call of Quetzalcoatl ritual
This year we welcome XICOME The Call of Quetzalcoatl ritual to open the field. This unique performance is a true gift we don’t normally get to receive. It honours the tradition, rituals and legends of Mexica/Toltec, and offers a message of peace, union, and respect for our ancestral cultures. The concert ritual is infused with the presence of the Elders, the spectacular voice of Grace Terry and the electronic music of Alyosha Barreiro, weaving dances, prayers and rites, copal and the cacao, the beat of the drum, the rattle, the conch and  songs in nahuatl.  Fused with contemporary electronic sounds, it takes Glastonbury on a journey through the legend of Quetzalcóatl, the rebirthing of a new era through Song and Spirit. 

Friday

12 – 2.15pm Lighting of the Fire for the Past, for the Elders
Druid wisdom keeper Chris Park, Mexican Toltecs and elders Xicome, Victoria Sinclair and the Dharma Stars team will light the Sacred Fire which will burn from 12pm to 6pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

2.30 – 3.30pm Opening Fire and Water Ceremony with the Wisdom Keepers

Honouring the elements through song and prayer, the altar of Grandfather Fire and Grandmother Water, with waters from many sacred territories from all around the world will dance through  the Atlchinolli,  the union of the Sacred Fire and Sacred Water balancing the masculine and feminine energy. A space to connect and share gratitude. 

You are invited to bring a piece of paper with that which you wish to release, creating space for the magic of the weekend. 

3.45 – 5.45pm  Panel Discussion – Birth the New Earth – 

The Friday panel looks at working beyond the legacy of colonisation into a new time, where we can reclaim our birthright to interconnection and reciprocity with nature, our true nature and each other. For this conversation we are honoured to welcome Mac Macartney, Paul Powlesland and Guy Shrubsole from Right to Roam, Chris Park, Victoria Sinclair and Abuelo Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Kuauhtli and Michelle from Xicome.  

With an introduction from Mac Macartney, we will explore how the stories and myths of the past influence the present. Hannah will ask questions about how we can embody the change we are in and social justice. 

Hannah Kendaru will host our Fireside panel conversations, bridging the gaps between the little liberations that are happening globally into The Commons Field. She will facilitate to honour clarity, instruction and empowerment. 

Bring your burning questions!

6-6.45pm Right to Roam Campaign Talk with Guy Shrubsole, Paul Powlesland and Amy-Jane Beer
Earlier this year, the public’s right to wild camp on Dartmoor – the last place it was legal to do so in England – was snatched away from them by a wealthy landowner. But the resulting protest, co-organised by the Right to Roam campaign, was the biggest land rights demonstration in a generation – leading directly to the Labour party pledging it will pass a new Right to Roam Act if elected to government.

Whether you’re a veteran trespasser or a newbie to wild camping, come and hear how you can get involved with the Right to Roam campaign, and fight for the public’s right to access and care for nature.

Saturday  

12pm – Lighting of the Fire for the Present, for the Children with the Dharma Stars Team

2-2.30pm – The Witches & Their Flying High Lubrication – a 21st Century production with the Seed Sistas

Do you talk to plants? We certainly do and some of them literally will not shut up! Come and hang out with two super-stars of the plant world, the Solanacea SistAs. Meet the Hot and Sassy Carolina Reaper-Sol and the lunar temptress Davina Moonflower. Prepped to bend your ear about all manner of things, they are keen to tell tales of witches, shamans, medicine folk of the globe, their more ethereal practices and what it all means anyway.

These two have plenty to get off their chests when it comes to the current fashion of eliminating the nightshades from the diet – they are quite bemused!

Meet the fruity Queens of the Solanaceae and learn all about how an ancient maligned herbal preparation (the witch’s flying ointment) has opened the doors to the reunification of cultivation, health and magic! Hear about some of the most infamous plants to grow on British soil in this entertaining and ever so zany performance…

2.30 – 4pm Panel Discussion – What is the role of the medicine person in this modern context?
For the introduction we are honoured to welcome Aimee Tollan and for the conversation, The Seed Sistas, Martin Coat and Abuelos Ehekamitl, Kuauhtli and Michelle Button, and Hannah Kendaru as host.

4.15- 5.15pm Right to Roam Workshop: Water, wildness and wonder: why your river needs you
The rivers of Britain are crying out for love. Join lawyer-for-nature Paul Powlesland of River Roding Trust and Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow: rivers, water and wildness for an immersive, subversive exploration of the power of flowing water, the rights of nature, river access and the Right to Roam ethos of Wild Service in its watery context. Expect hydroecology, hydrolatry, and passionate, pragmatic, activism.

5.30 – 7pm Breath and Bass in the Temple with Gold Dubs and Kerry Veitch. – Live musician, Alex Nunes and The Common’s very own Kerry Veitch (the Sacred Breath) are assisted by the Fireside’s breathwork team, come and breathe with us in the Temple! Join us for a unique experience, exploring Conscious Connected Breathwork with live music produced intentionally to combine healing tones with deep bass. We’re taking you on a journey to tap into an altered state of consciousness that can be incredibly profound, healing and bring a deep sense of connection to yourself and to others.

Sunday

12pm – The Lighting of the Fire for the Future, for the next 7 generations with the Dharma Stars Team.

2.30pm  – Fireside Stories – The Dragon and the Serpent – The Quetzalcoatl prophecy
Bringing the past, present and future together to dream in a better world.

Celtic, Toltec and Mexican wisdom-keepers share prophecies from around the world of the serpents and dragons. We will share with you the prophecies of the Celtic and Druidic significance of dragon and snake, the Quetzalcoatl prophecy and the importance of 2027, the Rainbow serpent and tantric wisdom, shamanism and indigenous science.

You will receive powerful transmissions that have never before been brought together in this format from all edges of the globe. 

Breathwork beyond the Fire
This year many people who came forward to assist the Fireside program are breathworkers. It is the time for this modality to reach more people, to help shift human consciousness and support the healing of the crises we are in, from climate to mental health. There are different opportunities, the biggest space being in the Temple on Saturday at 5.30pm. We hope you will be inspired to carry on breathwork or seek it out when you go home. It is an incredibly self empowering modality – we have all the answers inside us, we are our own authority. It helps us to remember this, to dispel old belief systems and guide us forward – our very own breath. The type of breathwork we offer here is gentle and suitable for all levels.

The Healing Fields – Breathwork with Jacqui and Tara
Days and Times tbc 

Our intentions are for you to be empowered by your own breath, your own sacred soul breath. Once found, never forgotten.

Sacred breath in the healing field
Sacred breath to open our hearts
Sacred breath to connect with truth
Sacred breath to connect with the land

Thursday 22nd June, 11.30am – 12.30pm – Humblewell
Breathing with Nature – The Sacred Breath – Kerry Veitch 

Friday 23rd June – 11.30am – 12.30pm, Humblewell
Heart Coherence Breathwork – The Sacred Breath – Kerry Veitch

Biographies (in order of the program)

Xicome

Xicome is a Song to Our Origins…A Universal Peace Movement of World Music and Healing Arts born in Mexhiko weaving webs, uniting dances, intertwining songs and opening hearts. Music reconnects us with the Divine, with our ancient memory, our origin, and our roots for an expansion in consciousness through this sacred language.

Please see the Wisdom Keepers web page for more details and Xicome’s full program. 

www.xicome.org
https://www.facebook.com/Xicome
IG #Xicomefestival
Youtube: Xicome Festival

Victoria Sinclair Padma Khandro

Victoria Sinclair is a Worldwide respected consciousness innovator having facilitated community trainings and events for over 25 years.   She is well known as a cultural bridge-maker in her integral work with a broad range of recognised ingenious elders and teachers in S. America, Europe, M.East and Australia. Her impressive training background includes; Transpersonal Psychology, Epigenetics, Trauma work, Pranayama, Plant medicines, De-colonisation and Quantum, Consciousness and ancestral practices. She is also a plant communicator and Master-Teacher of Sekhem Healing,the Serpent Codes & Temple Arts.  Victoria’s dedication to healing communities has initiated various ground-breaking programs and she is also a student of Khentrul Rinpoche Rime Kalachakra Master.   She is co-founder of www.dharmastars.org
Personal website

Chris Park 

Chris Park lives on an organic farm in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire. His work is wide and varied, from arts and craft, ancient technologies, experimental archaeology and educational projects to eco-building, professional storytelling, folk music and raising the awareness of the heritage of beekeeping. Check out his ancient and aged website. He is also a skep beekeeper, skep-maker, apitherapy student and a practicing Druid. Looking to the past to look to the future. Through lockdowns he has been working with friends on a podcast about all things bee. Find him on instagram along with beautiful photos of bees, wildlife and more, @chrischarlespark.

Dharma Stars 

Dharma Stars is a collective of holistic practitioners who care passionately about Natural Law, High Principles and Planetary Service.  We aspire to weave together Ancient and novel knowledge systems and several of us are keen students and practitioners of Kalachakra Tantra – the Tantra of World Peace.  We are committed to helping students to find their Highest Path and are working on deep training programmes to overcome trauma and expand multidimensional awareness and ethics.   We are steadily preparing for a Higher timeline and for deep humanitarian endeavour to transform our communities.

Christian Platts

Since 2013 Christian has worked with and been initiated by traditional wisdom keepers, indigenous people with native plant medicines from the South Americas, Africa, Egypt, Australia and Europe. He is a trained sound healer, space holder, incorporating shamanic tools in his work. He is an Internal Family Systems psychotherapist specialising in trauma. He is a shamanic breathwork facilitator, Sekhem energy healer and myofascial release practitioner and teacher.

Madalena Banha

Madalena has been on a deep energy medicine healing journey since 2018 and has been initiated into Reiki and Sekhem lineages, being a Sekhem L2 practitioner.

She’s trained in Permaculture, Plant Alchemy, Energetic Hygiene, Divination, Brainspotting, Multidimensional Spaceholing and is a trauma-informed practitioner.

Her connection with plants has deepened over the years, working closely with them since 2019 and has been initiated into sacred master plant teachers, including Tobacco.

She’s been working in pioneer and visionary projects, and intergenerationally for over 5 years, being a co-founder of Dharma STARS. Madalena is a bridge between the youth and the elders.

Maaike de Haan

Maaike is an art therapist and holistic practitioner with a background in higher education and energy medicine, devoting her life to studying and working within the Healing Arts. She’s a Dharma STARS co-founder, course contributor and senior practitioner on the platform.

Maaike weaves a fusion of modalities, anchoring her natural intuitive and empathic gifts in psychotherapeutic training and initiations into ancient wisdom and energy medicine systems, resulting in a grounded holistic, trauma-informed approach.

Maaike is a Reiki [Usui/ Tibetan] and Sekhem Master/ Teacher, specialising in deep energetic clearings of people and spaces. She’s a trained Spaceholder and has been initiated into working with plant teachers/allies such as Blue Lotus, Tobacco and Sananga by Padma Khandro Victoria Sinclair.

www.dharmastars.org

 

Hannah Kendaru

Hannah Kendaru is an Indonesian-British Breathwork Practitioner and Breathwork Trainer with 8 years of experience rooted in embodied social justice and decolonial healing.

She approaches intergenerational, historical, institutional, and personal trauma through an embodied lens, implementing specific breathwork techniques, the conscious-connected breath, and embodiment to bring us back into the deep remembrance of what love, liberation, and justice means.

She uses the breath to remember our connection to the earth, to our lineages and ancestors—decolonising and indigenising our “civilised” minds, bodies, and spirits.

www.inspire-breathwork.org 

Mac Macartney

Mac Macartney is a writer, an eco-peace activist, and an international speaker. He is the founder of Embercombe, a centre located in the UK that seeks to inspire and empower people to live in close relationship with nature and co-create a regenerative, flourishing future for all species.

Over a period of twenty years Mac was mentored by a group of indigenous elders. During this training and ever since, he has attempted to bring two worlds together – an ancient world-view that emphasises relationship, interdependence, and reverence for life with the significant challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Mac is the creator and mentor of a group called Kith & Kin. The purpose of Kith & Kin is to deepen connection with our own land, rediscover our songs, dances, and ceremonies, and bravely bring our gifts forward for the benefit of all.

Mac is the author of two books, the most recent being The Children’s Fire, heart song of a people. He has delivered four compelling TEDx talks.

www.macmacartney.com
www.embercombe.org

Right To Roamers
Bio coming soon
https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/

Guy Shrubsole

Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and author. His most recent book The Lost Rainforests of Britain (William Collins, 2022) explores the amazing temperate rainforests that still survive in corners of our country, whilst his first book Who Owns England? (2019) was an expose of the 1% who own half the land in England. Guy has previously worked for Friends of the Earth and Rewilding Britain, and helped co-found the Right to Roam campaign in 2020.

Dr Amy-Jane Beer

Dr Amy-Jane Beer is a biologist, naturalist, writer and campaigner for nature and access to it. She is a columnist for British Wildlife, Country Diarist for The Guardian, and her most recent book, The Flow: rivers, water and wildness, explores themes of nature and connection. She is a member of the core organising team of Right to Roam.

Paul Powlesland

Paul Powlesland is a barrister and founder of Lawyers for Nature, which aims to transform the relationship between law, lawyers and nature. He acts to protects trees and rivers in the courts and campaigns for the Rights of Nature. He lives on a boat on the River Roding in East London, and set up the River Roding Trust, through which he carries out hands-on restoration and protection of the river. He is an activist with Right to Roam, focusing particularly on the relationship between land access and nature guardianship.

Seed Sistas 

Kaz Goodweather and Fiona Heckels are the Seed SistAs. Clinical herbalists of over 20 years with a love and interest in the so-called witching herbs of old. They are passionately potty about plants and total herbal drama queens, enjoying dressing up as plants, creating fun and enlivening online content and playing with all manner of potions. Allowing the plants to guide them to ever more ridiculous productions, they pass on knowledge about how to learn about the plants that grow around you and to empower yourself to use them as simple remedies in the home.  They have featured on many podcasts from Eat weeds to a radio 4 production about witchcraft.  They regularly speak at events – psychedelic, herbal and magic conferences around the world – USA, Australia, Czech Rebublic, Switzerland, UK and countless others. 

The Seed Sistas run a community interest company, Sensory Solutions Herbal Evolution, that focuses on planting and supporting community herb gardens and creating empowered, resilient communities that care for their local green spaces.

Aimee Tollan 

Aimee is a Co-Executive Director at Breaking Convention, a charity that holds Europe’s largest conference on psychedelic research. She has previously been the Director of Screening at The Synthesis Institute. She holds a BSc in Anthropology from the Univ. of Kent and an MSc in Psychology from The Univ of Greenwich. She has previously conducted research on drug policy reform and the cannabis induced altered state of consciousness.

Instagram

Twitter

Twitter

Martin Coat 

Martin Coat is a Creative Director whose work focuses on theatre, spectacle and storytelling for large scale live events. He is best known for his previous role as the Theatrical Director for the 70,000 capacity, five day, immersive festival Boomtown Fair. Pioneering the theatrical and narrative elements that define the event’s unique reputation and unrivalled experience.

In 2022 he moved on to become the experience designer for the world’s first “Amazement Park” – ‘Wake the Tiger’ – A fully immersive and interactive art exhibition that delves deep into the psychedelic experience.

Alongside my creative endeavours I have over the last 20 years been an intrepid psychedelic explorer. During this time I have accumulated a set of interconnected experiences under the guidance of DMT, Ayahuasca, Mescaline, LSD, Psilocybin and Bufo. It is a journey that has culminated in the  receiving of a unique and powerful ability regarding cosmic consciousness.

It is my belief that the current renaissance we are witnessing in the field of psychedelics not only changes dramatically how we view and treat mental health conditions but could also be an important catalyst for uncovering our dormant potential, revealing our true nature and impacting the next stages of human evolution. 

Kerry Veitch – The Sacred Breath

Kerry has been the co-producer of the Common since its birth over a decade ago. 

She is also a breathwork facilitator and teacher and loves to collaborate with other breathworkers, artists and producers to create unique and powerful healing experiences. She is delighted this 2023 to be leading a breathwork session in the Temple combining her passions of the breath and bass, with Alex, aka Gold Dubs. She loves sharing the healing power of the breath with others, by holding retreats, weekly online group sessions, 1:1 sessions, and especially warm water rebirthing.

Kerry also co-founded and is the festival director of the UK’s first Breathwork Festival which is an annual event celebrating all kinds of breathwork. Kerry’s very grounded nature holds a very safe space for breather(s), holding them in their highest potential and being committed to the unfolding of each person’s own journey which of course is guided perfectly by our breath.

Connect: kerryveitch@thesacredbreath.co.uk
https://www.thesacredbreath.co.uk/

Instagram handle: sacred.breath
FB @thesacredbreath.co.uk

Alex – Gold Dubs

Alex 3:33 professional producer and DJ has a long standing career in the music industry. He has toured the world, worked with A-list international artists and released chart topping music on top-tier record labels. Fuelled by a spiritual awakening and a call to channel his energy into helping other souls heal and ascend. It Is through this calling he embarked on his breath work journey to birth Breathe and Bass with Kerry Veitch.

Jacqui Storm 

Jacqui is a facilitator and teacher of breathwork. She loves working with the breath as it empowers and enables anyone to get in touch with a deeper aspect of themselves, their true nature and their connections to other people. She also feels that a very important aspect of this work is that it helps us to connect to Mother Nature. She works one on one at a beautiful studio in Norton St Philip near Bath and delivers group online sessions for young people, and at festivals.

She also currently produces the ‘Ancient Futures’ area at Boomtown Festival. 

https://www.lifesbreath.com/

Tara Gretton 

Tara is the Founder of Solution Revolution and co-founder of Breathing Solutions .Tara fell in love with the Solution Focused Approach in 2002. Tara is on a mission to share the magic and  deep care of the solution focused approach with schools, children, young people and their families. Tara feels passionately about young people’s voices being truly heard and for them to be experts for their own lives in the present and future. 

Tara has had an interest in Breathwork for over 10 years both personally and within her therapeutic work. Tara works alongside breathworker Jacqui Storm to invite the power of the breath into people’s everyday lives.

www.solutionrevolution.co.uk

 

Alejandra Cuesta Mora

Alejandra Cuesta, director and founder of ExpressArte London.

International cultural promoter with extensive experience in marketing, massive event management and community projects in Mexico and the United Kingdom for more than 20 consecutive years.

She has been part of The Common team since 2011, introducing Latino bands and DJs into the Festival since then; graffiti artists, filmmakers and impressive and unique projects such as the Voladores de Papantla’s ritual which opened the Glastonbury festival in front of thousands of people and the media, achieving one of the most impressive moments for this international ritual in history.

The focus now has been to take advantage of this very important platform to expand awareness through the Guardians of Ancestral Wisdom, abuelos and spiritual leaders of indigenous communities with the intention of transmitting their profound knowledge to the world.

This year, for the second time, together with The Common, another of her proposals projects is invited to the opening of both The Common area and the festival with our guests: XICOME, THE CALL OF QUETZALCOATL, a Universal Peace Movement of World Music and Healing Arts born in Mexico.

Felipe Viveros

Felipe will again be hosting the Fireside Stories this year in the Common. Felipe is a British-Chilean multi-media artist, independent researcher and strategist. Felipe’s work focuses on the intersection of art, on-line organising, digital storytelling and systems change. He helped to co-found Culture Hack Labs in 2018 and now works for them as an independent advisor on projects around the world from Mexico to Manchester, UK. He is a co-founder of Choose Earth, and contributed to the development of Cura daTerra, an initiative to centre the voices of Indigenous women. He has served as the European representative of the GNH Centre Bhutan, the board Chair of /The Rules and at the Sacred Head Waters Initiative and is a member of the UN Harmony with Nature initiative.

Kath Veitch 

Kath is a mama, a writer and a breathworker. 

Kath worked for many years producing and co-creating programs and platforms for young people to be empowered to express and evolve their stories, through the arts. For the last decade she has been a mum. It has been the steepest learning curve and deepest healing journey, finding her son to be her greatest teacher. In this time she found the breath to be her trusted ally, and a powerful tool to evolve her own story, finding her own voice and creative expression.  

Her intention is to serve Mother Earth and all her children, using the gifts and tools she’s been given. She is very excited this year to be producing, curating and co creating Fireside Stories. 

BreatheOurWord, Frome, Somerset

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