Cae Mabon Creation Myth

I stumbled upon Cae Mabon when I was looking for somewhere else. I fell in love with the place but couldn't afford to buy it, so had to let go. Later, at the end of a meditation retreat, I had a very strong vision of what I could do there. So I went back to find that someone else had already bought it. Then I really had to let go.

But a year later I discovered, again by chance, that it was up for sale once more. I still had no money, no job and no accounts, but I did have a strong vision and determination. I managed to raise the mortgage.

The day before signing the contract I went to look at it from across the lake. It was a grey damp day in June. I'd come from living in Alice Springs, Central Australia, where the sun always shines! What the hell was I doing?

That evening I went to a singing group run by a friend. Someone had brought a song for us to sing. It went: ?Sleep, sleep tonight, and may your dreams be realised. And when the thunder cloud, passes rain, oh let it rain, rain down on me.?

By the time we'd sung that over and over I didn't mind about the rain. I knew my dream was about to be realised.

The next day I signed the contract with a clear heart. The day after I bumped into some friends and told them what I'd done.

?Do you know what it was yesterday?? one asked.

?No,? I said.

?Midsummer?s Day.?

Now, nearly 17 years later, much of the dream has been realised. Not that I knew how it would be. All I had were a few hopes and hunches, vague ideas about what was possible. Rather than impose a blueprint I wanted to allow things to evolve organically. It sounds corny but I wanted the place to tell me what to do.

The presence of forest, river, mountain and lake is very strong. The elements are everywhere. I wanted to listen to their promptings and to the people who came here, each with their own passion and perception. Ideas seem to arise when their time is right. Some possibilities are glimpsed years before they can be brought to fruition. Others flash in and are made flesh that day.

It?s been good to feel that it doesn?t all have to be done in one year or even ten. There?s time - a lifetime, several generations perhaps - for the full potential of the place to be realised.

It?s been important for me to create works of beauty, not the ostentatious beauty of the wealthy but the humble beauty of the simple and natural. The structures are what?s known these days as ?low-impact?.

They are mostly made from timber, stone, reed, straw, grass, lime and clay. They blend in with their surroundings. They are special places to be. Not only that, many of them echo dwellings lived in by people in far away times and places.

There is a sense in which they honour our ancestors - tribal, Celtic, peasant - whilst at the same time being very much of the now. The Roundhouse is not part of a theme park about how life used to be. It is a living contemporary building, capable of being used in many exciting ways in keeping with our ?post-modern? times.

I often think the two main gifts of Cae Mabon are ?healing? and ?inspiration?. In many ways it doesn?t matter what ?workshop? or ?event? you do here. The ever-present earth and river, forest and fire will heal and inspire you.

Some might wish to label that a pagan approach. But I prefer to think of Cae Mabon as a place that can hold and nourish many spiritualities. Yes we have Pagan and Shamanic groups come, but we also have Christian, Zen and Taoist groups, and others who just want to write or dance or sing or get married or celebrate a birthday or simply reflect deeply about their lives.

One thing that is common to many groups is the creative use of ritual and ceremony. It seems that for many the old religious rituals do not serve any more. But they cannot dispense with ceremony entirely.

The impulse to ritual - the symbolic use of words and actions to intensify experience, to create meaning and to dignify the individual - is deep. In a place like this it is possible to devise rituals that pay homage to ancestors, that honour Nature, that appreciate beauty, that draw on traditions, that reflect the life stories and dreams of the people involved.

Ultimately such practices connect us to the bigger picture. And here the bigger picture is also about the Earth and how we can live more harmoniously and sustainably with each other and leave a better place for the generations to come. A good place to start is composting your crap!"