Episode 112: Becoming Crew | Into the Dark
Now, I don’t know about you, but if you ever get to this time of year as the year end looms and you are sort of crawling towards the end of it.
If there even is an end.
I’m crawling somewhere right now towards the compost heap into the darkness.
And then suddenly before you know it - it’s a new year and the talk is of goals and resolutions and what you’re going to do and how to be productive and relevant and successful.
I’ve always struggled with that.
And now in this moment and in these times.
I’m unsure how we can possibly know any of this with the current unraveling state of everything that once seemed certain in our world.
You also may have noticed that we’re heading into darker times.
What grief worker, Francis Weller calls ‘the long dark’, as well as winter being upon us.
I wonder if you’ve ever stepped more intentionally into this darker time with curiosity ?
To consider what might emerge by exploring this slower, more liminal, mysterious time of darkness with greater attention and intention.
What might we find in the dark?
In the last few years we’ve been convening a crew through our action learning collective towards the end of January in an intentional exploration of this darker, slower time.
It’s an offering we call into the dark.
A slow, gentle, emergent, winter learning journey.
It begins on the evening of the 20th of January 2026 for five weeks, and this will be the fourth year we have hosted this experience.
It’s an invitation to actively reject the urge of modernity to accelerate into productivity and growth as the year begins, the exhausted delusion of eternal progress, guided by lists of goals plucked from our frazzled minds and the algorithmic feeds that whip us along.
Instead, rooting deeper into our bodies, into the places we call home in winter’s slower liminal space.
Sitting with the uncertainty, letting go of what is no longer serving us, fermenting the not knowing.
Learning to listen to a wider web of life, connecting with the wisdom of the more than human crew aboard Spaceship Earth, the ones who still trust in ancient rhythms.
“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark.
Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is travelled by dark feet and dark wings.”
Wendell Berry
Into the dark is to enter a container for five weeks, which invites us to co-create our intentionality, our orientation for the year ahead, if you like.
It’s a deeper, gentle, experiential journey.
Creating space for connection, contemplation, and creative practice, exploring parts of ourselves and this Earth, and ways of knowing that modernity doesn’t allow us to attend to.
It unfolds over three consecutive weeks and peaks with a threshold walk, a self-paced, powerful ancient practice and ritual on land near you.
With a follow-up incorporation session a week later, a time where we might plant vital seeds for our journey ahead as the light begins to return.
Into the dark, is guided by myself, Ally Kingston, and Mark Sears.
Full details and how to register via this link
“When was the last time you visited the darkness?
The Into the Dark wintering crew cracked me open and led me to unexpected places. I emerged feeling more connected and braver than I’ve felt for a long time.”
Siobhann, Into the Dark 2025
Everyone is welcome.
We’ve had participants from all over Spaceship Earth in previous crews.
There are price points that should speak to everyone, young and old, comfortable and skint.
I hope you might join us.