The Twin Trail – Walking the pathway of reciprocity 

The Twin Trail speaks to the necessity of deepening spiritually while also vigorously bringing your gifts to the world – twined together like rope, the in-breath and the out-breath wrapped around each other – soft, strong, resilient.

With Mac Macartney, Tugba Kirhan, Saskia von Diest and Stephan Harding

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” 

from Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot

The Twin Trail is a new offering and an important thread in the weave that currently comprises Embercombe’s programmes, namely The Journey and The Hearth. The Journey leads you to a pledge that will guide your onward path. The Hearth takes you close to the beating heart of belonging. The Twin Trail connects you with yourself, your gifts and how you bring them out into the world.

Is this for you?

The Twin Trail programme is for you if you would like to learn ‘how’ to find deeper connection with yourself, the natural world, and others. You will discover more deeply and embody more completely that which you already know. The Twin Trail programme seeks to take you to a place of no return – a place where you experience the joyful, embodied knowing of deep connection and belonging for all time. A place where separation dissolves, and a confident, resourced, resilient ‘you’ experiences and never loses a true sense of right person, right time, right action.

You do not need to be physically fit but one of the modules of this programme involves moorland walking, intermittent fasting and camping/sleeping outdoors. Please contact us at support@embercombe.org if you have any concerns.

What you can expect

The Twin Trail involves 4 modules held over an eight-month period:

Module 1: Online

Module 1 is held online. You are assigned a coach who offers you a process by which you can map the terrain you will be traversing. You gain an in-depth understanding of where you are and the thresholds that beckon.

Module 2: Dartmoor

Module 2 takes place close by a beautiful riverside location in Dartmoor National Park. You are guided into the mysterious, liminal world of human/nature dialogue and learn ways in which you can listen, converse, and be supported by the more than human world.

Mid phase review: Wednesday, 13 September, Online

Module 3:  Embercombe

Module 3 takes place at Embercombe. It explores, challenges, and unravels how you can bring your gifts to the world. It answers the question ‘How do I reciprocate, show up, and contribute? What is mine to give?’

Module 4: Online

Module 4 is held online. You work with your coach to take stock, and explore/learn how and what you have learned can be embodied in everyday life. 

Key information:

DATES:

• First module: 25 May 7-9 pm, Online
• Second module:  Sunday, 9 July – Saturday, 15 July, Dartmoor
• Mid-phase review: 13 September 7-9 pm, Online
• Third module: Thursday 16 November – Sunday 19 November, Embercombe
• Fourth module: 12 December  7-9 pm, Online 

ACCOMODATION:
We will be camping in module 2. Accommodation is at Embercombe in shared or single occupancy or camping (bring your own tent) 

FEE:
£1,554 –  Regular ticket
£1,914 – Supporter ticket

The price includes two 1:1 coaching sessions. 

Embercombe – Your Stay

Accommodation

You will stay in one of our beautiful yurt villages. Each yurt is furnished with comfortable beds and gas heaters. Both yurt villages have a compost toilets and running water. Full bathroom facilities with hot showers are available in the main building.

Catering

All your meals are included. Organic, vegetarian food is lovingly prepared on site using produce from the Embercombe garden wherever possible. Special diets are adeptly catered for. Please indicate if you require this on your booking form.

Other activities

• Deep time walk
• Ecofluency
• Self-led online/in-person meetings

Facilitators

Mac Macartney – Lead Creator and Facilitator

Mac Macartney is a writer, speaker, leadership consultant, eco/peace advocate, and spiritual journeyman. He has explored many paths, some unwisely, some with discernment, all with enthusiasm, vigour, and persistence. As a young child, he fell deeply in love with nature and since that time has endeavoured to listen to the guiding dreams, visions, and experiences that have landed in his outstretched arms. In their different ways all have invited him to do whatever he can to shift our world for the better. Mac moves between, learns from, and contributes to, many diverse and contrasting spheres of society – an enriching, stimulating, and often, deeply troubling pathway. Over a period of twenty years he was mentored and coached by a group of Native American teachers. During this training and ever since he has attempted to bring two worlds together – an ancient worldview that emphasises relationship, interdependence and reverence for life, with the huge challenges and equally huge opportunities of the 21st Century. You can find out more about Mac’s work here.

Tugba Kirhan

Tugba first came to Embercombe in 2018 as a participant on The Journey and has supported the core team in various capacities since that time. Having deepened her relationship with the land and Embercombe’s ethos, she now facilitates on  programmes including The Journey and The Hearth.  With a background in the humanitarian sector, Tugba is a project manager, facilitator, coach, and breathwork & embodiment practitioner. As a native of rural Anatolia (Turkey), where East meets West, bridging is in her nature. Named after the tree of life, Tugba is motivated every day by the coming together of humans and all beings.  Tugba leads with her heart, brings her warmth and sensitivity to all spaces she inhabits, and inspires others who also feel that there must be another way of living a better life. 

Dr Saskia von Diest

Saskia is the founder of Ecofluency, as well as consultant, educator, researcher and activist in the field of Nature communication. She has been communicating with various forms of Nature for the last 10 years. Most of that she also spent in academic research on the use of intuitive and interspecies communication being used in agriculture, as part of two postdoctoral fellowships, at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and at Coventry University, UK. In 2021, she founded Ecofluency, to consult, teach, and facilitate Nature communication, and promote other voices in this field. She has 14 years of experience in teaching and facilitating through various forms and in many countries. Her passion is creating opportunities for others to have their own experience of communicating with more-than-human Nature, and for people to develop that for their own and the collective benefit.  Read more about her work here.

Visiting Facilitators

Dr Stephan Harding

Stephan coordinated and lectured on the college’s MSc Holistic Science for nearly two decades, teaching on the core models of the programme, as well as on several short courses at the College.  He was born in Venezuela in 1953, and came to England at the age of six. In 1990 Stephan was one of the founding members of Schumacher College where he worked closely with James Lovelock, with whom he maintained a long-lasting friendship and scientific collaboration.  They were jointly appointed as founding chair holders of the Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo.  At Schumacher College Stephan has taught alongside many of the world’s leading ecological thinkers and activists, including Arne Naess, Fritjof Capra, Brian Goodwin, Vandana Shiva, David Abram, James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis.