Cae Mabon

eco retreat centre, Snowdonia

Banana Boomerangs

Cousin Mark (well, second cousin) is the only one of my Aussie relatives who’s stayed and worked at Cae Mabon. He’s a traveller and adventurer (like I once was) and here describes his time working on a banana plantation in northern Queensland. As a child, I was genuinely concerned about bananas, or more so, slipping on one. It seemed to be a large problem out there in the world, much like drowning in quicksand or disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. As I grew older I realise

Community Conversation for Post-Election Blues

I did something I’d not done before on Election Day. Aberconwy is a marginal seat between the Tories and Labour. So I went down to the Llandudno Labour Club and, for a tokenistic three hours, helped ‘get the vote out’ for Emily Owen, the 25-year-old Labour candidate. She was there handing out red clipboards with maps, highlighted streets and addresses of people who’d said, during canvassing, they might vote Labour. We had to knock on their doors and ask if they’d voted yet –

Merlin Goes to the Toxteth Day of the Dead

Merlin Goes to the Toxteth Day of the Dead

The Liverpool Arts Labbers are a bunch of amazing artists and performers. Wacky and full of heart they make extraordinary things happen. They were on the Cerne to CERN pilgrimage and planted a magnolia tree in Jung’s garden. In November they were the last group of the year staying at Cae Mabon. They were a buzzing hive of creativity preparing for the Toxteth Day of the Dead (TDOTD), due on 23rd November. What, you may ask, is that? The TDOTD has a long and complex backstory,

It's a perfect mountain (but don't go there!)

I’d been circling Yr Aran mountain a long time. I first noticed it years ago from the Rhyd Ddu path en route up Snowdon. Then it was a steep detour from the main attraction. Later, when visiting Capel Garmon burial chamber in the east, I looked west and saw a distinct, peaked mountain beckoning me. It wasn’t Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) but its deputy, Yr Aran, its hand in the air saying ‘this way’! Recently I’ve been gazing up Yr Aran’s long sloping flanks from Dinas Emrys, ‘the Fort

The Poetry of Working Parties

Working parties are some of my favourite times of year. Even though they’re hard work for me – I’m host, project manager, materials fetcher, food gatherer, singer and storyteller – they’re warm and friendly occasions, usually a good mix of old hands and newcomers, and stuff gets done. Cae Mabon receives an infusion of transformational love and energy. That’s why it’s as beautiful and magical as it is. So many people have helped. This end of season working party in late Octobe

XR Update

This was first sent out in the newsletter in October 2019. Angharad and I were in London at the beginning of last week participating in the XR Autumn Uprising. On Monday she led a ceremony at Traitor’s Gate, Tower of London, to remember and honour the numberless unnamed downtrodden and oppressed who’d suffered at the hands of takers, enslavers, abusers and rapers. In my case this included the Druids, slaughtered by the Romans on Anglesey, and the world’s Indigenous Peoples wh

Goddess Obsessed?

This was first sent out in the Lammas newsletter, August 2019. If you’ve been to Cae Mabon you’ll have seen the sylph-like figure of the ‘faerie queen’ carved into an oak by the river. You may also have found Modron, the Great Mother, lying asleep and pregnant above the Treehouse. Peter, faerie queen sculptor, also makes small hand-held wooden goddess figurines inspired by ancient examples. And just last week he carved a beautiful Great Mother from yew as a vessel to contain

I'd forgotten I was Merlin once...

This was first sent out in the newsletter for Midwinter 2018. Strange how some things can completely slip from your memory. More than twenty years ago I was invited to contribute as a scriptwriter to an Irish-American TV co-production called ‘The Legends of the Isles’. They wanted storytellers to write lively versions of some of the most renowned legendary tales of Britain. Somehow I got asked. There were to be seventeen programmes in all covering a wide range of subjects, fr

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