We’ll be back in February with our next Newsletter.

Happy gratitude season! Remember to love Gaia. We are part and we are whole.

Check out the new international Work that Reconnects website. It is beautiful and is the culmination of the contributions of many facilitators around the world. Join us in the Gaia Speaking local collective to be a part of this growing network, instrumental for our times.

Coming up….

As an introduction to the True Nature SoulQuest please read Rachael’s invitation hereunder. Book your space at https://tinyurl.com/4j2rs7n5 or message rachaelmillson@gmail.com

“This Sunday 3 December at the Center in Noordhoek I will be hosting an afternoon workshop Living your Soul’s Purpose.

It stands alone as an intro to this topic, but is also a taster for my longer True Nature SoulQuest journey that starts in January 2024. If you are feeling called to this longer soul journey but want to experience a little of what it may entail, please join me!! And if you choose to continue to the SoulQuest, your first month’s payment will be reduced by the cost of this workshop.

Here below are the details of this workshop. Even if you are not considering the longer journey, this is a deeply moving workshop to take part in.” – Rachael Millson

Are you looking for a deeper relationship with Self, one that feels more aligned with your inner truth?

Do you want to move beyond limiting beliefs and conditioned responses and step into your full creational power?

In your heart’s longing do you know a more beautiful world is possible, and long to contribute more meaningfully in your own unique way?

Date: Sunday 3 December
Time. 2pm – 6pm R400
Location: The Center, Noordhoek

True Nature SoulQuest

beginning 21st January 2024 with Rachael Millson

Collectively in our world, we are in the midst of deep transformation -the ‘Great Turning’. Within this many of us are hearing the call for more depth and meaning in our lives, and long to contribute their unique gifts to this transformation. This 6-month SoulQuest journey is an invitation to uncover and embody your authentic truth and Soul’s purpose. Through deep nature immersion and soul encounter practices, you will come into alignment with the inner wisdom of Soul, ultimately deepening your intimacy with life itself. From this place you will learn to offer what is truly yours to bring in service of humanity and the New Earth.
The True Nature SoulQuest is a 6-month Soul Purpose Discovery journey, offering 1 x full day in person session per month, 1 x online check-in per month, self-directed nature-based soul encounter practices, reading, recorded practices and a sunrise to sunset solo nature immersion.
Read more information here on our website on this blog article published by Rachael

Announcing Animas Valley Institute Programmes for 2024 in the Western Cape!

In Winter 2023 Rachael Millson helped to run the very first Animas Valley programmes ever to have taken place on African soil in 2 incredible wild locations. It was deeply transformative and life-changing work for those who came. Many described how the programmes completely shifted their relationship and perspective of nature towards an experience of true belonging; how they left with a stronger and more aligned feeling of ‘wholeness’; and an intensified connection to their Soul’s story.

‘I feel deeply inclined to continue with this work. It feels like it is … a part of my life’s calling. In some sense, it is the most important thing….’

Read the 2023 testimonials here

On March 9 – 13 2024, Brian Stafford will return and we will be running The Way of Council and the Art of Mirroring in the beautiful Cederberg Mountains.

And on March 13- 17 2024 they will be offering another Soulcraft Intensive in the ancient forested lands of Bodhi Khaya, near Stanford.

Thanks to the generous support of Animas Valley Institute sponsors they are able to offer this programme for R8250 and R9500 respectively (early bird price – book by 15 January), which is less than 50% of the price of Animas Valley programmes in any other country.

Coming up…

Dear Friends, join us at Silvermine on 11th November! We shall meet at a picnic site around 9:30 under the trees close to the dam parking (directions below). We’ll bring some song sheets with some of our favourites but this is a co-creation so please bring your tunes too! We’ll connect with this treasured wild space, and with each other, have a picnic and go to the dam for a swim if you like. This will be our last Gaia gathering this year, we hope to see you!
Kids and friends all welcome. It’s free but you will pay the conservation fee at the entrance: Adults, R40; children R20; (free entrance for WILD Card holders). Come early to avoid queues. Contact Rachael (0618646799), Joanna (0834165572) or gaiaspeaking@gmail.com

Directions> Walk down the path that is to the left before the boardwalk and after you cross the river turn left, we will be at the first picnic site, very close to the turn off. Please bring a picnic blanket and vegetarian picnic to share, shaker or instrument and your swim and sun gear.

Check out the new international Work that Reconnects website. It is beautiful and is the culmination of the contributions of many facilitators around the world.

Join us in the Gaia Speaking collective locally to be a part of this growing network, instrumental for our times. Find out about options for training if you are personally called to incorporate the Work that Reconnects wisdom in your own facilitation here in South Africa.

True Nature SoulQuest

beginning 21st January 2024 with Rachael Millson

NEW: Good GRIEF! Truth Ritual & Gathering

Truth Rituals for our Times…

We are living in challenging times where many of us feel the burden, grief and anxiety of the irreversible loss of eco-systems, degradation of soils, loss of wild places, pollution of fresh water and irreversible climate change. Here in South Africa, these feelings of grief and anxiety, present themselves on top of extreme societal ‘complex trauma’, a traumatic history that for many remains unprocessed and unresolved. All of this can feel extremely distressing and overwhelming.

It’s no surprise it feels this way. To feel the grief of what is happening in our world is a sign of our love for this Earth and a deep felt-sense of how our culture separates us from nature, each other and even the truest version of ourselves.

It is through honouring this grief and holding it in community that we will find our way back to a place of true belonging, true authentic connection, and renewed hope.

Join us on Sunday 22nd October from 9 to 11.30am for our first ritual of the Good GRIEF! series, at a very special sacred site – All Seeing Pyramid Rock, Blackhill. Meeting point is at the car park near the top (Sunvalley side) of the Glencairn Expressway and we will all move towards the site together.

This truth ritual is called The Cairn of Mourning, where we have the opportunity to speak the truth and express our despair, anger, fear, sorrow and emptiness, solidly held within the container of The Work that Reconnects.

For more information and bookings please contact us on 061 864 6799 or gaiaspeaking@gmail.com. Recommended donation: R200 – R300

“We are capable of suffering with our world, and that is the true meaning of compassion. It enables us to recognize our profound interconnectedness with all beings.” – Joanna Macy

Sacred Music and Dance Festival – 27 to 29th Oct

Gaia Speaking shall be offering two Songs That Reconnect circles at this sacred festival. Please find out more on the below link, where you will also find some inviting videos.

https://fb.me/e/4q5Xm5aMP

The festival is organised by Harold Epstein and Anja Gerbers and was also beautifully held in McGregor last year. The Temenos Retreat Centre is a jewel in itself. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and move and sing with like-minded souls in the bright landscapes of Little Karoo, only 2 hours from Cape Town.

Please book your accommodation ahead of time as it is finite in the village and let the organisers know if you have any questions or need any assistance. (Harold
072 8365142)

Ceremonies to Celebrate the Wheel of the Year

We honour the importance of Ceremonies that mark the turning of the wheel of the year, remembering our connection to the eco-spiritual world.

We turn to our Ancestors who consecrated ‘Ostara‘ , and to all sentient beings we share these seasons with today on our blessed Earth.

We enter into Spring when the day equals again the night. This Equinox is a time to celebrate the fertility, creativity and diversity of Life on Earth, and be open to receive the callings and the gifts in ourselves we can offer to this season of Rebirth. Gaia around us here is returning to her envigorating greenness and the sun is returning to the high skies. Flowers are budding, birds are fluttering, and the whole of nature is singing as we celebrate the Spring Goddess Eostre.

Our ceremonies are also a celebration of the knowledge that our lives, like nature, are cyclical. Nothing is permanent, yet all we do, be and pray is meaningful and powerful in these times of the Great Turning. Each season of our own lives is a new opportunity to better play the part in the dance of Life that we are here to embody.

This event organised by Rachael Millson and Joanna Tomkins will be a ceremonial gathering including collective rituals such as a facilitated drum journey, a facilitated free dance, flow writing, song circles, etc. Each “Ceremonies to Celebrate the Wheel of the Year” event by Gaia Speaking is specially designed to be a cleansing and aligning rite of passage for you into the next season, inviting you into presence, and encouraging personal release and intention and collective ubuntu.

Exchange: R250 pp (children over 12 welcome upon request) – Early Bird until 15th Sep R200 pp on Quicket https://qkt.io/ostaraequinox
Or contact us with a message on Whatsapp to +27618646799 or on email to gaiaspeaking@gmail.com for any further information