Natasha Lythgoe - The Art of ReWilding

Gosh, it’s about time I made some posts about what the hell I’m going to get up to - and am getting up to when I’m not here.

Firstly this is me, just now, trying to make a selfie on a very blustery day in a caravan park in the north of Scotland - where each day seems to be a three season event.

Secondly I’m just coming to the end guiding the fourth cohort of my Murmurations - Six Month Earth Apprenticeship.

It’s a six month mentoring programme to gain experience, confidence, clarity and depth in working with traditional teachings and practices of wilderness rites of passage.

This programme has been the culmination of a decade of my apprenticing to Annie Bloom who was a lead guide in Animas Valley Institute for twenty odd years.

It’s also informed by my Buddhist practice of 26 years, my somatic practice of Gene Gendlin’s Focusing method and my training in something called generative trance with Stephen Gilligan.

For many years as a Buddhist, receiving guidance and feedback from more experienced meditators has been pivotal in keeping my practice alive, refined and diving for the depths.

The same holds true for the crafts outlined in my Programme Overview (see website) for which I received guidance - for the most part - from Annie.

When we practice alongside other and receive thoughtful feedback, it brings confidence, clarity and depth to our work.
Learning within community and this repetitious experiential approach are at the heart of Murmurations.

In the coming weeks I’ll be posting more about this programme, vision quests and my last Buddhist retreat at Rivendell!

As this is what’s coming up over the last months of summer bleeding into autumn.

My website - the art of rewilding dot com
Is looking fresh and clean but no less wordy 😉 plus I’ve been writing some articles that explore this work at depth. Take a peak.

warmly, Natasha also known by my Buddhist name Nagadipa

Hi, it’s me.
My resistance to marketing is at an all lifetime high, and yet I managed to write a thoughtful newsletter.

It includes links to my latest article on Creativity and Animism (I have in fact been writing much more these days). The first of three articles on Animism and my work.

Plus musings on where Buddhist practice might meet Vision Questing | Wilderness Vigils.

The link is below in the comments.

Blessings on a day where stress about local elections are high for UK folks.

This image and quote sums up one of the most precious gifts of participating in a wilderness vigil also known as vision quest.

The Art of Rewilding’s upcoming Vision Quest- with some places available (so far we are all men) - is going to be in Scotland at the end of August | beginning of September.

If you’d like an informal chat with my co-guide or myself don’t hesitate to reach out.

We offer a sliding scale rate to accommodate a variety of incomes and two bursary places.

Sent from walking the local fields listening with glee to northern lapwings who I am told are also called peewits…

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With both words and image, I couldn’t have said this any more succinctly. Though I may have changed the word watch to sense...

If you’ve visited my website you’ll know that being succinct is not my way 😉

With thanks to for inviting us to guide this quest.

Thanks to for these words and an artist who I will name in the comments for this incredible spring vitality.

Last year the Eshwege Institut asked Werner and I to guide their International Vision Quest at Findhorn.

We had a wonderful inter-generational community spanning from 20 to nearly 70!

Hopefully you can see the joy, and play and depth of our time together in these photos.

We are coming back this August so if you know any folks who might want to join please do pass on our details which are in the comments below.

love from me

- a gorgeous quote from one of my heroes, Stephen Buhner
Hildegard of Bingen cleverly combined two Latin words: veritas and verde - truth and green - to make one word. It’s a word that means - allatthesametime - the living intelligence of the green world and the sacredness that can be found there. It’s a path filled with soul shaping as old as First Man and First Woman.