A Crack between The Worlds: Celebrating Spring Equinox – an online event 

Join Embercombe founder Mac Macartney, poet and storyteller Tommy Crawford, and musicians Bethan Lloyd and Nigel Shaw for a special Spring Equinox event: filled with fleet-footed folktales, haunting incantations, and honeyed melodies drenched with the promise of spring.

For many of our ancestors, there was a deep understanding that the visible world was fed and sustained by another world that exists behind, beneath or within this world, only hidden from view.

It was said that what ailing in this world could be healed in the Otherworld, and equally, and remarkably, that the suffering in the Otherworld could be healed by us, in this world: through prayer-song, artful language, and the making of beauty.

And whilst it was known that communion with the Otherworld was always possible, there were moments when our love-letters could leap, like the springtime hare, more easily across the divide, to feed and nourish the beings that sing this world into being. Spring Equinox is just such a moment.

And so we welcome you to join us at dusk, as the light begins to fade and the moon starts to sweep across the sky, as we offer poems, songs, and stories to the fire, in the hope that the perfume of our words might tempt the green buds of Spring to bless us with their beauty.

Tommy Crawford

Tommy Crawford is a Poet, Storyteller, and Founder and Creative Director of the international mischief-making organisation, Dancing Fox. Combining his love for mythology, street art and improv theatre, Tommy works with artists and activists around the world to create “beautiful disruptions” — moments where the wonder of the world can flood in, and the bubbling magic that lives inside each of us can pour out. He has curated and led workshops all over the world and has performed at Into The Wild, Shambala and WOMAD festivals, amongst others, and toured his poetry across both the UK and New Zealand. Find him on Instagram @therightkindoftrouble / Twitter @theecowarrior

Bethan Lloyd

Bethan will be singing Welsh a cappella songs written in solitude and inspired by the ancestors of her native land. From Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge to living with the Pataxo indigenous tribe in Brazil, Bethan has been exploring the channeling of voice on and off stage since her childhood in Wales. Her exploration has included training as a classical singer and learning with both shamans, masters, and the ancient teachings of the natural world. Bethan teaches vocal exploration with her current project ‘Wild Voice’ and is currently studying at the Celtic Mystery School, ‘Dadeni’ in Cae Mabon, Snowdonia.

Nigel Shaw

Nigel Shaw founded Seventh Wave Music in 1985 and over forty years has produced a profound and diverse collection of recordings. His soul-filled instrumental works and his ability to infuse his music with a powerful yearning for wild nature have come to define a unique approach to sacred sound. Classic albums such as The River and Echoes of the Ancient Forest continue to be widely cherished decades after their initial release. In recent years he has composed a series of gentle albums that honour the sweet and raw ancient moorland landscape (Dartmoor Journey, Dartmoor Roundhouse, Flow) the soft beauty of night (Nocturnes) and the intricacy of the mourning journey (Requiem). He composed and recorded Dartmoor Symphony as a live orchestral project, and has created and directed musically dynamic projects with the albums Bones (a celebration and lament for ancient people and remembered land), Ancestors (inspired by songs of the indigenous people of the Siberian Arctic) and Exile (honouring the human experience of displacement). He is co-founder and performer with Bamboo Cedar Oak, a brotherhood of master flute players that includes Guillermo Martinez (USA) and Hiroki Okano (Japan). His work continues to encompass wilder strands of electronic dance music with the vintage festival band Global.