Guardians Worldwide and Wild in Washington present

LEARNING with THE SEASONS

a journey into human and forest health

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A transformational online course

+ forest camp in Sussex Downs National Park

Forest well-being and mental health | Forestry work Seasonal ceremonies and festivities | Healing

COST

Online course £75

Including Discord sessions, materials and recordings

Three week online course

May 3 - 18

Spring camp

May 20, 21 and 22

Autumn camp

October 14, 15, 16

Camp: £220 per season

Including 3 meals per day/ not inclusive of tent

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THE TEAM

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Sharon Blackie

Award winning author

Nic Salazar Sutil

Director Guardians Worldwide

Mahesh Mahapati

Ayurveda medicine expert

Wild in Washington

Forest guardians

Course timetable | online sessions

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The course will be held on the Discord platform and all sessions are delivered via Zoom. The course is made up of 6 online sessions + 2 participant led sessions to be arranged on Week 2. You will also receive video recordings of 10 one-hour live sessions to be held during the forest camp in South Downs National Park, which you can watch in your own time: 3 sessions on Movement harmony, a session on Ayurveda medicine, three sessions on medicinal plants and seasonal eating, and 3 sessions on forestry.

Session 1 Tuesday May 3 5:00-6:30pm British Summer Time BST (via Zoom)

Learning with the Seasons: health, healing and holism with Nicolas Salazar Sutil

Session 2 Wednesday May 4, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)

The Seasonal Forest, with Lee Walther and Nicolas Salazar Sutil

Session 3 Tuesday May 10, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)

Understanding Seasonal Plants and Fungi: cycles, changes and rhythms, with Emma Beard and Sarah Whitford

Session 4 Wednesday May 11, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)

Group led session: Meditation and Concentration

Session 5 Tuesday May 17 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)

Food, Nurture and Subsistence: Indigenous understanding of seasons, with Mahesh Mathapati

Session 6 Wednesday May 18 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)

Festivity and Ceremony: the importance of honouring and celebrating seasons in the Celtic tradition, with Sharon Blackie

Pete Seeger

To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

Turn, turn, turn

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What will you learn in this course?

Affective ecology i.e. ecology understood through senses, thought, feeling & interpersonal human-forest relations

Woodland stewardship and forestry

Seasonal eating and seasonal foods

Seasonal flora and fauna

Ayurvedic Seasonal medicine

Movement Harmony and Colour Therapy (Laban)

Seasonal festivities, song and storytelling

ABOUT THE CAMP

LOCATION

COURSE TIMETABLE

CAMP ACTIVITIES

OUR APPROACH

TEACHERS

WHAT TO BRING

About the camp: Old Beards Wood, Fittleworth

The course will be taught from a hearth campsite at Old Beards Wood. Old Beards Wood is a seven acre mixed forest owned by National Trust ranger Lee Walther and forest school practitioner Emma Beard.

The camp is nestled in the ancient Greensand Ridge, in Sussex Downs National Park, in the country of the Weald. Old Beards is less than one hour's drive from Brighton and an hour and a half from London. The woods are surrounded by farmland and National Park protected areas.

The surrounding country is full of story and ancient human land use. Many flora and fauna thrive here.

Location

Old Beards Wood

Fittleworth

Pulborough

R20 1HS

Nearest rail station: Pulburough

About Learning with the Seasons

The health of forests and humans are entwined.

In this unique course and camp, we explore the importance of the turning seasons for our understanding of health and wellbeing. We learn how to change and transform our way of living by paying close attention to the cycles and rhythms of the seasonal land,

Seasons teach us how to live in harmony with the natural and ever-changing world. Learning with the seasons is a process of personal and communal transformation that will enliven your understanding of forest and human health. You will better understanding the rhythms of eating and fasting, work and rest, life and death.

Would you like to be a guardian of the seasons, and learn to protect our forest?

Camp Activities

The campsite will include a main hearth and group area with table and chairs protected by a parachute tent. You must bring your own tent and sleeping bag. Please tell us of any food allergies. No dogs are allowed.

Woodland stewardship with Lee
Laban Movement workshops with Nic
Ayurveda medicine workshop with Mahesh
Storytelling and Sensory journey with Emma

Walk in the extraordinary Wynkcoombe Arboretum containing 600 species of rare trees from around the world
Medicinal plants and seasonal eating with Sarah

How we learn

with the senses

We want to tune our senses to connect with other forest beings, in order to open our understanding to the natural and manmade changes affecting Old Beards woodland.

along the ages

We want to share time in the forest with people from across different ages, young and old, aligning the forest's seasons with the seasons of human life.

over time

We wish to connect with a particular place-- Old Beards Wood-- over different seasons, in order to understand the forest over a long period of time.

with poetry

We want to celebrate seasons with song, movement and story, drawing on memory and lore in order to connect with the seasonal land.

Sharon is an award-winning writer and internationally recognised author and teacher whose work sits at the interface of psychology, mythology and ecology. Her work is underpinned by the old myths and folk traditions of her native Britain and Ireland.

Emma Beard is a forest school expert, director of Wild in Washington, a trainee tracker and storyteller.

Lee Walther is a ranger, forester, and land expert working for the National Trust, also co-director of Wild in Washington.

Mahesh grew up as a tribal in Tamil Nadu, India. He trained in Ayurveda Medicine in a remote forest in India. He is currently a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.