In the beginning
Sacred Groves and Pathways was formed in early 2008. Jane had previously run her own company, Sacred Ventures, which had been taking people on spiritual holidays to a variety of locations for over ten years. However, she had taken a break away to concentrate on developing her interest in alternative healing and therapies. Gary at this point was in the middle of trying to pursue his lifelong interest in archaeology and prehistory. A meeting at a conference led to further discussions about the need to try and ‘connect’ people to sites and landscapes. It was not long before this idea germinated into the venture that Sacred Groves and Pathways is today.
What’s in a name?
I guess one of the key questions faced by anybody setting up a company, organisation or even putting a name to a website, is what is it going to be called? It was a similar situation for ourselves in setting this venture. Does the name reflect ourselves? What we are looking to deliver? And most importantly, does it engage with others?
Sacred Groves and Pathways the name we finally decided upon had its roots (pardon the pun!) in our shared interests of sacred landscapes. We have a keen interest in individual sites and monuments, specifically those of the prehistoric period but it is the sense of place that they form that really captures us. The ability to try and see and imagine what these monuments’ creators saw and felt. And through this to try and allow people the time and space to become engaged with these sacred and ancient places.
One sacred landscape in particular tends to takes pride of place for providing that feeling of what the landscape may have been like following the last Ice Age, when a ‘wildwood’ of lime, oak and hazel would have covered the land. That landscape is Avebury. As people travelled through this thick woodland, a pattern of defined pathways would have been formed and here and there, maybe in an area cleared by a tree-throw, groups would meet together – a sacred grove. It’s tempting to think that Avebury’s snaking Avenues may have harked back to a time when there was a specific ‘path’ you needed to take to navigate through the dense greenwood. And were the variety of henges and circles which were built at Avebury in some way a method of emulating the sacred groves from an even earlier period? We know that monuments such as the Sanctuary and the West Kennet Palisades intriguingly didn’t follow the evolving path of building in stone but often reverted back to using timber. In the case of the Sanctuary on a very frequent cycle and on a colossal scale for the Palisades. Was this a commemoration of an earlier place?
Today almost all of the original sacred groves and pathways have vanished. But when we spend time in some of these special landscapes, it is not hard to imagine a sylvan setting. One of sacred groves and the pathways the ancestors used to encounter them.
Gary
After a career spent working in the magazine publishing industry, Gary began to pursue a lifelong interest in archaeology and prehistoric landscapes in particular. He is currently involved in the running of one of the UK’s largest independent archaeological research projects.
Jane
Jane has previously run her own company specialising in spiritual holidays and retreats, both in the UK and overseas. She is a fully qualified practitioner in a range of alternative therapies and healings, including reiki, reflexology, meditation, crystal healings and holistic massage.
