Time flies! Imbolc, the beginning of spring, is here, and with it many beautiful snowdrops and crocuses. We marked the turning of the wheel with a ritual on Burton Dassett hills and a silent procession to the nearby Holy Well, incorporating an ancient healing ceremony and small well dressing. It was a wonderful way to mark a special day.

Our last meeting in January was a big success, with over thirty people attending the one-off venue at Sarida's house for an evening of discussion, reminiscence and meditation, featuring some of the pioneers of our current local spiritual environment - Sarida Brown (Sufis, Leamington Health Festival), Bill Heilbronn (Yoga, Kabbalah), Nuala Pinson (Healing, Yoga), and Patrick Tanner (Tibetan Buddhism). We were all fascinated by their accounts of what they dreamt into manifestation to in the 1970's - the incredibly advanced Leamington Health Festival for example, which promoted yoga, nutrition & healthy school meals (probably before Jamie Oliver was born!), natural child birth, Sufi dancing, and all kinds of alternative health therapies long before anyone else. It seems like it was a new and exciting time, and it was wonderful to get a retrospective by the very people that started the movement, and to see that they are still around, continuing the work they started decades ago!

There are some Warwick District Faiths Forum news: On Saturday 17th March, there will be a Faiths Trail in Leamington Spa, organized by WDFF, during which people are able to visit different places of worship. The day will include visits to the Hindu Temple, All Saints Church, the Well outside the library, St Peter's Church, the Buddhist Temple in Sherbourne, and Babe Ke Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) for lunch. In the afternoon, there will be a seminar in the Town Hall about the role of mothers in different religions. I will post a time-table of the event on here as soon as it becomes available.

Our next Network meeting will be on Thursday 15th February at 8 pm, and guest speaker this time will be Mandy Kasafir of Wild Soul Art & Dance, who will talk about creativity and spirituality. Mandy is an artist, dancer, Barefoot Boogie DJ and writer. Over the years, she has worked with her own creative ‘blocks’ to develop an easy, natural and soulful way of connecting with creative energy, and she will lead us through some exercises designed to help unblock buried creativity. Some of you will know Mandy from our collaborations with her on the Temple events - she DJ'd and performed at both the Beltane Temple of Sensual Delights in Birmingham last May, and the Samhain Temple of Transformation in Leamington in November. To find out more about Mandy and her art, please visit http://www.mandykasafir.com/

Please note that we have a NEW VENUE again: it is the downstairs room at KARMA, 23 Portland Street in Leamington Spa.