I have just arrived home from the Buddhafield Festival, and what a lovely few days it was.

While I was there, I co-led three workshops on Buddhism and Deep Ecology with Sanghasiha, a fellow Triratna Order Member. We have been leading workshops together for a few years now, and it continues to be a joyful and enriching collaboration.

If you would like to join us, we’ll be offering another workshop at the London Buddhist Centre on Sunday 6 December 2026 (10am to 5pm).

The festival also coincided with a quiet personal anniversary. On Friday, it had been five years since I received the name Guhyasakhi during my private ordination. The name means they who have the mystery as a friend, and I found myself reflecting with gratitude on the aspiration and transformative power that this name continues to hold for me.

Each workshop was based on the stages of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects. Because there are four stages and we had three workshops, we structured the series so that the first session explored Gratitude and Honouring Our Pain for the World, the second focused on Seeing with New Eyes, and the third on Going Forth.

Sanghasiha led the first half of each session, introducing aspects of Buddhism and its connections with Deep Ecology, the creative work of Arne Naess – through moving talks, engaging activities, poetry and ritual.

In the second half, I led a drum journey. During the drumming, participants were invited to imaginatively travel to the Lower World to meet an ally in animal form—whether mammal or bird—and to bring a question connected with the particular stage of the Work That Reconnects we had been exploring.

I find it profoundly rewarding to share this work with others, and the responses throughout the festival were heartening. It would be impossible to describe all of the journeys people experienced each session was well attended, with even more people joining us on the final day. Those who chose to share their experiences spoke of receiving remarkable insight and guidance through their encounters with these imaginal realms.

I would like to offer my gratitude to the allies, to the spirits of the land, and to all the seen and unseen presences and processes that inspired, guided and supported us. Through this work we can awaken and deepening our relationship with the more-than-human world. While this is a mysterious process, it is one that brings healing, wisdom and insight into our lives, and for which I am deeply grateful.

To everyone who participated, thank you for your openness and wholehearted engagement with these ancient practices. May the wisdom of the extraordinary beings that were encountered continue to bless and guide your path.

And finally, I offer thanks to the spirits, the ancestors, and all the conditions that support, inspire and guide us as we each meet the challenges and opportunities at this time of the Great Turning.