Root & Gather
Seasonal gatherings. Movement. Nature. Community.
ROOT & GATHER
Moving through the seasons
Root & Gather is a series of seasonal gatherings created by Emma and Gillian.
We come together at different points through the year — sometimes indoors, sometimes outside — to move, breathe, talk, listen, eat, drink cacao, make things, sit in silence and pay attention to what is happening around us.
No two gatherings are quite the same.
Because no two seasons are.
A different way to mark the year
We spend so much of our lives moving at roughly the same pace, regardless of what is happening outside.
Nature doesn't work like that.
There are times for growth and expansion. Times for abundance. Times for letting go. Times for doing very little at all.
Root & Gather grew from our shared interest in living a little closer to those rhythms.
We use the season as our starting point and build each gathering from there.
Sometimes the practice is energising. Sometimes it's quiet. We might move through yoga or Qigong, work with the breath, journal, drink cacao, gather around a fire, chant, make something with our hands or simply have a conversation that goes somewhere unexpected.
There is usually time to rest too.
And probably something good to eat.
What happens at a Root & Gather?
It depends on when you find us.
You might experience seasonal yoga and Qigong, meditation, breathwork, sound, journalling, ceremonial cacao, mantra, ritual, nature connection and plenty of conversation.
But Root & Gather isn't really about trying to fit all of those things into one afternoon.
It's about creating enough space to notice where you are.
In the season.
In your body.
And in your life.
You don't need to have practiced yoga, know anything about seasonal living or consider yourself particularly spiritual.
You can just come.
Why we keep gathering
Something happens when people come together without needing to perform, achieve or have everything figured out.
People talk.
People listen.
People laugh.
Sometimes people cry.
We learn from one another. We realise we're not the only person feeling the way we're feeling. And for a few hours, life gets to be a little less hurried.
One of the loveliest descriptions of Root & Gather came from Sarah after joining us:
“You never know quite what to expect, but you do know you will come away feeling a greater sense of peace and hopefulness, a slightly different version of yourself has been awakened.”
We couldn't really say it better ourselves.
Come and gather with us
Our gatherings move with the year, so what we're doing next will always look a little different from what came before.
Come for the movement.
Come for the season.
Come because you need a few hours away from everything.
Or just come because you're curious.
We'd love to have you there.
Emma & Gillian x
Join us in Glasgow:-
THE LAST HARVEST
An Autumn gathering at the threshold of winter, The Wee Retreat, 25th October 6-9pm, £45
By late October, the season has changed again. The abundance of Late Summer has begun to fall away. The leaves are turning and dropping, the light is retreating and the natural world is drawing its energy inward.
This is the last harvest — a time to gather what we want to keep, give thanks for what has sustained us, and begin releasing what we don't need to carry into winter.
Winter Dreaming - A New Year’s Eve Retreat
The Wee Retreat, 31st December 11am-3pm, £65
Winter Dreaming is our way of marking the quiet turning of one year into another.
An afternoon to gather in the warmth, move gently, breathe deeply and remember some of what the year has held — the people, places, moments and experiences we’d quite like to keep close.
Together we’ll share cacao, make herbal burning bundles, journal, meditate and eat homemade soup around the table, before settling under blankets for a long winter sound rest.
There’s nothing to achieve here. No resolutions to make and no need to know what comes next.
Just a little pocket of winter to make things, share food, rest, reflect and be together.
Let winter be winter.
