Celebrant Retreat

Celebrant-Retreat Theme

The theme of our Spring retreat is The Creative Fire.

Our celebrant retreat offers love, luxury, gentleness, and time to relax. A heart-filled healing haven where you have the space to return to your creative self. This gorgeous getaway, in a creative environment designed for celebrants, will give you the space to explore and experiment in a safe and supportive way. A consciously curated space to honour your creative spirit, each day you’ll have a chance to embrace a sense of wonder, play and joy.

Creativity is manifestation: we are bringing something, that didn’t exist before, into being. During this retreat, you’ll learn to listen out for your creative voice and connect with your inner artist. We offer a gently structured and nurturing environment for you to ‘play’.
You will come away understanding and being able to implement the five corners of The Creative Fire and the three elements to sustain this through your professional (and personal) life.

Apart from our structured sessions, there’ll also be time and space for resting, walks in nature, or taking part in crafting a druid’s besom or coffin-blessing brush, rustic vow-renewal booklet and gift cards for clients, and more.

 

When?
5pm Friday, 27th March to 10am Monday, 30th March 2026
We keep our not-for-profit celebrant retreats deliberately small (max. 10) so you can get to know other attendees and enjoy a relaxed environment.

 

Where?
Held at Glassonby Hall, Eden Valley in Cumbria
This lavishly restored five-star 15th Century Cumbrian Longhouse of Baronial splendour offers a peaceful retreat set amid rolling Cumbrian fells and farmland. When you arrive, you step into the vaulted main hall, with vast stone hearth, arrowslit windows and iron chandeliers. Don’t be surprised if you sense the medieval revelry of yesteryear. We eat in the flagstone dining hall for more formal meals and gather in the Aga-warmed large kitchen for breakfast and lunch. This peaceful retreat is a cocoon from the world with its beamed living room and deep windows with views over the Cumbrian hills. Deep sofas and a grand woodstove offer just the place to sit back and relax. Let yourself be enchanted by the Hall’s contemporary opulence layered over medieval majesty.

 

Celebrant Investment
£555
Includes

• your own double bedroom for three nights in 5* luxury accommodation
• all sessions and materials with our carefully chosen tutors
• a nourishing vegetarian menu created by our private chef.

£444 (non-residential)

Includes

• all meals
• all workshops
• all materials

Booking Form
To receive a booking form, email: veronikarobinson(at)hotmail.com

Tutors

• a gilder
• an internationally renowned potter
• a calligrapher
• creativity coach
• novelist and celebrant with 30 years experience
• a comedy writer to help you infuse humour and playfulness into your celebrancy

 

VERONIKA ROBINSON
Veronika will open the retreat with a workshop exploring The Five Cornerstones of Creativity, and how we can use the elements of nature in the creative process. Veronika is a celebrant (across all rites of passage) with 30 years of experience and has learned how to lean into her intuition and bring creativity to her ceremonies. She’s co-tutor, along with her husband Paul, at their boutique celebrant training school: Heart-led Ceremonies Celebrant Training.

 

 

MARTIN AND SIOBHAN MILES MOORE
Siobhan and Martin are the husband and wife behind the multi award-winning Miles-Moore Ceramics. Their work can be found in public and private collections all over the world, as well as in world-class restaurants and bars.

 

By the time Martin graduated from UCLAN in 1989, he had developed a fascination with sacred and ritual vessels. His final degree show featured Coptic and Ginger Jar forms amongst others. It is only in more recent years he has felt able to embrace sacred communion and Tea Ceremony vessels.

Siobhan ‘s work is an exploration of perspective and the importance of understanding our own place in the world. Her elemental work incorporates gilding with precious and semi-precious metals to add greater light and contrast.

 

HANDBUILDING A QUAICH
Martin will begin the workshop with a demonstration, throwing a few key Chawan forms and explaining their importance within The Japanese Tea Ceremony. You are then invited to contemplate a range of natural materials.
You will be shown how these can be used to mark make and enhance a clay form.
Then you will be given some time to experiment and play with some clay, learning how it feels and forms, how it bends and breaks.
Key Task – you are then invited to apply your new knowledge and experience into hand building a simple, unique quaich form. You will be provided with all the materials and techniques needed to achieve this.

Martin and Siobhan will then take your work away, slowly dry it, then fire it to 1000 degrees, glaze it like the sample shown, then fire it to 1300 degrees.
Your finished work can then be returned to you by post (£10 extra) or collected from Veronika or Siobhan at a later date.

CREATING A GILDED GROUNDING STONE
Siobhan will begin the workshop with a brief overview of the history and background of this ancient and endangered art form.
You are then invited to select two stones that speak to you from our responsibly sourced collection.

After a briefing and opportunities to understand the various materials on offer you will gild your first stone. This stone will be to practice techniques and approaches.

When it comes to your second stone you are invited to gild this stone as an active meditation. Imbuing all the power and the energy of the meditation into your work on the stone. Once both stones are complete we will then seal and protect them, leaving them to dry in the daylight before adding them into your ceremonial tool kits.

Copper, Silver and Gold Alloys are included in your fees, Gold leaf and platinum leaf are available for an additional £10 charge.


CLAIRE GOULD, CALLIGRAPHER

Immerse yourself in a creative calligraphy workshop with Claire. The art of calligraphy shapes words into beautiful pieces of art. The practice is mindful and creative: as you get to know your calligraphy pen you’ll enjoy the swooshing of your pen, the novelty of a dippy ink pot and the simple repetition of shaping letters.

Calligraphy used to be a prerequisite for being a bank manager. The days of calligraphy being dull are long gone! Now it’s a way to combine heartfelt words with joy and colour, to experiment and play with inks and papers, and to enjoy slow writing. Focus on the words of a lovely quote as your nib bends in and out of letters. Create flowers and leaves with magical, shimmering inks and delicate, careful brush strokes.

A relaxed and therapeutic 2.5 hour workshop learning a modern script through tracing letter shapes and mindful repetition. You’ll take home a project of your own, a motivational calligraphy quote to inspire and bring joy.


KATE BRUNDRETT, ARTIST & CREATIVITY COACH
Kate Brundrett, an artist, illustrator and leadership coach, will lead an experiential afternoon workshop on Finding Your Essence.

 

PAUL ROBINSON, COMEDY WRITER


INFUSE YOUR WRITING WITH HUMOUR – HOW TO THINK IT! HOW TO PRESENT IT!
Paul’s sense of humour was spotted by a teacher when he was five (Paul, not the teacher!) and he’s seen the funny side of life ever since. Amongst other things, he’s won a radio award for “World’s Best Afternoon Show”; he was a writer and feature artist on the television variety show “Saturday Live” in New Zealand; and he’s the author of the successful book “You Must Be Joking!”. Paul’s comedy career includes writing parodies, being a popular compère, mimic and ventriloquist. (Don’t ask him how he does that, because he’ll probably say “Sit on my knee and I’ll show you”!)