With the budding of spring we gather to launch the dream-cum-reality that is The Golden Thread. We are so excited for this - its been in the pipeline for many, many years now and through the convergence of many guiding hands has finally become a reality!

We wanted to share our gratitude and our enthusiasm with you by inviting you to join us for three days at Lake Lascelles, in Hopetoun, for our first Craft, Creativity and Consciousness Camp and to celebrate the opening of The Golden Thread.

Prepare to be deeply engaged and nourished in the energies and beauty of the Mallee, and the extraordinary gift of crafting together as a community, and the designs of the deeply sacred that exist in the land and in our bodies and in the work of our hands, hearts and voices.

The camp is being put together by Bianca Patetl-Flowers and myself Shalome Lateef - you can read more about our work below.

It includes workshops/sessions in:

basic astrology
oracle card making
medicine basket painting workshop - no experience necessary
plant attunement / connection
weaving
ritual skills
fire making
poetics of place
understanding menarche and menopause
family constellations
automatic drawing
charcoal making
felting
visible mending
and potentially other things besides!

Daily activities including:

yarns by the fire, a fireside crafting and storytelling circle
awake with the sun, morning ritual greeting of the day/dawn and bird watching
dreaming into the day, morning dream sharing circle to share our dreams and influence the day’s activities
bead making station, a place to craft beads to be made into a strands to commemorate the opening
skill sharing sessions: herb lore, etc
recipe sharing and feasting
discussions on spiritual awakening / emergence / emergency

And a healing space in one of the Cow Sheds (https://www.malleebushretreat.com/rooms/rooms/2c2638c6-229a-4695-8815-42b8e52b544c) for practitioners to see clients one-on-one. Possible modalities include:

kinesiology
human design
energetic bodywork
massage
sound healing
guided visualisation
temple sleep / dreaming

We invite you to bring your unique abilities and skills and engage with us through participation, skill sharing, teaching, or healing. If you’d like to run a session or provide one-on-one appointments, please get in touch.

Cost: we have set up a 'pay what you can' system with a range of between $20 and $200. We do not want cost to be a prohibitive factor, but at the same time, we would like to cover costs and create a long-term sustainable program of camps and other activities. Any amount accumulated above and beyond the cost of running the spring camp will go into the establishment of the Centre and costs of the next camp which is scheduled for Autumn 2024.

What you will get:

access to all sessions/workshops
opportunities for one-on-one sessions in a unique environment
opportunities for skill sharing and/or teaching
opportunities for giving one-on-one sessions
involvement in morning and evening activities
opportunities to hang out with some absolutely superb humans and make lasting connections
all in an absolutely beautiful location in the Mallee of Western Victoria

Attendees are responsible for booking their own accommodation at the Mallee Bush Retreat (https://www.malleebushretreat.com/). Rooms must be booked in advance and are $30 per person, per night. Powered and unpowered campsites are available on a first in, best dressed basis. Powered sites are $20 per night by donation either via the website or a cash envelope system in the amenities block. Unpowered sites are free.

Children welcome, but must be carefully supervised around the lake.

What to bring:

all food and drinks excepting dinner Thursday evening
linen and towels if you are staying in accommodation
camping equipment if you are camping
appropriate clothing and footwear (mallee nights can be cold even if the days are warm)
craft things: yarn, needles, etc
visual diary
pens, pencils, paints, scissors, glue
collage material
drums
clothes for conscious mending
recipes
swimmers
notebook and pen
cash for one-on-one sessions

About the organisers:

Bianca Patetl Flowers is a transformational artist, oracle and seer working with the goddess to awaken humanity. She works with people to connect them with their wisdom, the deep knowing we all have within if we only knew where to look. Using the tools of creativity, trance, western esoteric traditions and plant medicine to awaken wisdom, discernment and magic she profoundly changes lives for the better.

Shalome Lateef is a beadmaker, temple dreamer and ritual master, facilitating heart-opening intimacy with the forces that make and shape the world through ritual, beadmaking and temple sleep / dream incubation, and teaching how to navigate these relationships in ways that breathe life back into dead or dark places, both within and without. Her work is founded on a deep sense of the sacredness and mystery of place, and the sacredness and mystery of the everyday.