Natureculture

Farewell & much love to our Co-Founder, Brittany (Britt) Laidlaw who has recently moved to her own business at Brittany Jane Laidlaw

If you are keen to learn about her work & research in eco-somatics, rewilding skills, wild woman programs and mythology, you can follow her work at Brittany Jane Laidlaw

❤️🔥

"I am leaving Natureculture in very capable hands & have full faith that it's vision of a nature-informed culture will blossom as its destined" - Britt

Heres the link to Tonight's fireside chat folks. 7:00pm to 9:15pm.

See you in there.

Darvis

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

🔥 BLACK FRIDAY OFFER + my last post 🔥

It's Britt here, one of the Co-Founders of Natureculture

And yes, you read correctly. This is my last post 😱

Well, for Natureculture that is.

For those who don't know, I recently made the very challenging decision to step away from Natureculture and step into my own solo path.

Whilst the transition has been bittersweet, I'm excited to hone my focus on eco-somatics, mythology, and my work with women, especially with Wild Woman: One, May 2024 (pssst Wild Woman: Two is just around the corner as well).

I am on the home stretch in my PhD studies as a somatic ecologist & have started to share my research in eco-somatics on various podcasts and training programs such as Somamystica as a guest speaker which I'm loving!

In 2024, I will also be continuing my work with Gunnai man and Peek Whurrung descendant, Jamie Marloo Thomas, and Wayapa which has played a huge role in my research, particularly exploring the role of dance, story, and ceremony in socio-ecological restoration.

So whilst it is the end of my time with Natureculture, it feels like the beginning of a whole new chapter.

Once my PhD is complete, my heart and mind are also set towards global reach. I intend to share this work more widely and champion this emerging field that has so much potency and potential for personal and cultural repair.

But in order to set sail towards a new horizon, one needs a new vessel...

So I'm very excited to announce the launch of my new program website for Wild Woman: One (see comments) 🎉

And serendipitously, it's just in time for Black Friday 🙌

So to both honour the closing of a chapter & the opening of a new one, I am offering 10% off the next Wild Woman program which works out to be over $200! Offer ends midnight 30th November.

Use the code BF2023 to get 10% off at my new website ❤️

Wishing you so much love & connection as we near the end of the year, and feel free to join my new page Brittany Jane Laidlaw 🔥

If I don't see you, my sincerest farewells and I leave you in the extraordinary hands of Darvis Walker who will carry the torch for Natureculture with my utmost blessings.

Stay wild,
Britt xx

I USED TO BE A PURITAN UNTIL I LEARNED THIS...

Throughout history, women have worked with plants as allies for transformation, healing & ceremony

Yet for a long time, I took a very puritan path & was dedicated to 'doing the work' without any external inputs to support the process

While I'm grateful for the sovereignty it provided, I also see how this path was primarily developing my inner masculine rather than serving my deep feminine opening

The masculine grows through challenge & develops inner leadership by doing it alone - hence why the vision quest was invented. The VQ was an initiation into manhood where boys would fast alone in the wild with nothing but themselves as a way of facing the mystery & recieving a vision

And whilst these skills are useful, as a feminine being who is stepping deeper into women's work, I felt something big was missing

Because, as I've discovered, the path of feminine transformation & healing is not the same as it is for men.

The feminine comes alive in communion with allies & by revering her body as the portal to divinity. She doesn't need to starve herself to speak with god, creation exists within her own body & it requires NOURISHMENT to thrive. More specifically, her womb holds all the vision she'll ever need if she attends to its vitality as a devotee would a temple

This is why women were the keepers of herbal wisdom. Because it was through our allyship with plants that provided purposeful medicine, we were better able to commune with Truth through our bodies

And this is why I'm incredibly grateful to announce our recent partnership with Dark Feminine Cacao for the upcoming Wild Woman: The Immersion 🔥⚡️

Loaded with magnesium, iron, zinc, copper & manganese - it's easy to see why Cacao has been strongly linked with women's ceremony. Can you think of more beneficial nutrients for womb health?

We will be serving Dark Feminine Cacao at the next immersion & infusing it with native plant allies to support the women on their journey, and they'll be offered a very special discount to purchase the product for themselves.

So if you're looking to deeper your relationship with the feminine & work with Cacao, we recommend filling your cup with this beautiful, fair trade, organic plant ally ❤️

Link to learn more in comments 👇

Wild Woman: The Immersion is officially SOLD OUT.

4 years ago, I had a vision of creating a village of women that are deeply connected to their wildness. Not the performative type of wildness, but simply the true nature of their soul that doesn't subscribe to a particular look or set of behaviours or beliefs.

I had no business plan, no sales funnel (or even experience), and no idea where it was going to lead me.

It was the perfect example of following the thread of truth inside me without any guarantees. It called for my devotional SERVICE to soul without my ego necessarily 'getting something' in return. In fact, I practically made ZERO money on the first 2-3 immersions but I was utterly dedicated to providing an incredibly transformative experience for the women who attended. I was in it for the long term

I'm not advocating for 'the material-free devotee' archetype here, I'm simply acknowledging what was required for MY journey to ensure it was coming from the right place.

It truly asked for my FAITH and TRUST in the laws of reciprocity. She wanted to make sure I was the right person for the job and that I was willing to do whatever it took to be responsible for the task I was given.

Now, 4 years on (minus 1.5 years lost to lockdowns) the current immersion has sold out quicker than ever before, I have a paid team of 3 women (Caitlin, Katelyn & Charlotte) plus 9 volunteers, various local product sponsors such as SuperFeast, Byron Bush Food, Shemana, Dark Feminine Cacao, plus more in development, and an every-growing alumni community of women who are returning to offer their medicine & give back ❤️

The immersion has also provided me with a comfortable income to support me for the rest of the year while I work on launching my online courses & completing my PhD.

And with that, I just want to take a moment to CELEBRATE this unbelievable journey that continues to sculpt me in ways I couldn't have imagined. It's been my biggest teacher and my biggest healer.

And yet it really just feels like the beginning.

As of 2024, we will be offering Wild Woman BI-ANNUALLY with the next one happening in May 2024.

Me & my team are also excited to launch LEVEL 2 in July next year as well as a Wild Mother/Daughter program.

Never in a million years did I think I would be leading deep feminine work with women. For so many years, I subtly hated women based on my wounding. It's women who had broken my heart the most in my life. But that's the funny thing about soul. The greatest medicine you have to offer in the world emerges from the hole you've personally crawled out of. It's a trickster like that - good coyote mentoring right there!

And now, I can see that it's 100% what I'm here for and one of the biggest paths of service that I have to offer.

If you're keen to surf the rising wave with us, reach out with your email & we can send you more info about upcoming experiences.

Britt xx
Co-Founder of NatureCulture

📜 A PERSONAL LETTER FROM THE WILD WOMAN BEFORE YOU 📜

This letter was written (without request from me) from Brooke Saide, one of the previous participants of Wild Woman: The Immersion.

Except the letter wasn't written to me.

It was written to you ❤️

Or as Brooke shares, for the "gloriously wild, unnerved and maybe second-guessing woman."

This isn't just another manufactured testimonial.

It's a genuine wolf howl.

The women are gathering and remembering.

And Brooke offers you a rare, long-form invitation in her own words.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

"To the woman considering this work,

It’s been a few long months since my time on the immersion and even in wanting to write words about the experience, I haven’t been able to. I’ve been wondering if I was waiting for something in particular; an event or a sign that would mark the completion of the experience. And then today it hit me, it won’t ever be ‘over’. Whilst the 10 days of the actual experience have been closed out, it’s like I haven’t ever left that space or sense of embodiment. The one of inevitable support and unfolding of the natural world around me, the essence of sisterhood, the knowing of myself and my wild edges.

I wasn’t entirely sure why I signed up to the experience to begin with. I spent a lot of time looking into Britt and the program to make sure I hadn’t dudded myself and thought ‘well, she’s doing a PhD so she must be legit’. But as soon as I landed at the gate of camp with ALL my stuff and one of the midwives wrapped me in a hug and welcomed me...I knew this was it.

The way the program unravels is as exposing and confronting as it is eloquent and nurturing. If you’ve ever been stuck in a big storm that rattles the whole house, and then ends on dusk with the animals and plants reappearing alongside the smell of the fresh cleansed air, that’s almost what it’s like. It is an absolute craft. A tapestry of ancient learnings, deeply embedded inner knowingness and collective understanding that is given to you drop by drop, before you look at it all and go ‘Holy s**t, why haven’t I seen it like that before!’

If you’re lucky, there will be a lot of cackling around campfires deep into the night and warm sisters that carry buckets of water for you to bathe your weary soul in. Not to mention, woman after woman who will share stories with you, sing with you and play or joke with you that knits you so purely into a community of which you’ve never experienced before. What’s different about this experience is how you take it all in. You won’t leave with pages and pages of notes. In fact, I urge you don’t. But you will leave with a rewiring of your DNA, a shift in your cells that will inevitably find you in so many moments after you leave. It’s wisdom every one of your cells already knows but hasn’t ever been given the chance to remember. Until now.

If you have felt the call up to this point to go on this experience, there’s nothing left. You’re ready! My only word of advice is to lean in, let go. Britt, Caitlin and the team will take it from here. Nature has you, the women have you, your soul has you and so do your ancestors. So jump. Also, don’t take all those toiletries. You don’t need them. Trust me!

You, my glorious wild, unnerved and maybe second-guessing woman. This is it. The permission slip you didn’t know you needed and the gift that will permeate itself into your life as a marker of all that you’ve been through up to this point and all you’re still to bring to the world as a freedom-finding, unhidden and celebrated being.

I won’t ever have all the words, even though there’s quite a few here. Every time I look back on the experience another moment comes up and reminds me of how special and significant it was. I will be indebted for life to Britt, Caitlin, the midwives and every wild woman that joined me on this experience. But like I said, it’s not even done. The 10 days was the beginning of a path I didn’t even see coming. And I am utterly stoked to play on with this experience called life as a wild, soulful and raw as f**k woman. So tag, you’re it!”

Brooke x
2022/23 Wild Woman Alumni

🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

This work, this movement goes far beyond me as a person. I've simply served the truth of my own soul & that's sparked fire in the hearts of women so they can remember for themselves.

It's not about 'empowering' women, it's an invitation for women to reinhabit their own power that has been there all along.

Purpose/soul is not something you build or do, it's encoded into who you already are 🔥

And once it's ignited, nurtured and expressed, it's our nature to share it with others.

That is the real movement - women innately & sovereignly embodying their own creative power without looking to an external authority or group.

This letter from Brooke is an incredible example of that.

So for the gloriously wild, unnerved and potentially second-guessing woman - this is addressed to you ❤️

I'm definitely not crying 😭 lol

👉 3 spots remaining for Wild Woman: The Immersion this Spring

Early Bird closes Saturday 8th July at midnight

🔥 FLASH SALE 🔥

To honour and celebrate the sacredness of motherhood and the earth that breathes life into us all, we are offering a special discount for Wild Woman: The Immersion this Spring 🌿

This offer welcomes mamas with babes in arms (2 and under) and all women who wish to reconnect with our great Earth Mother.

Use the code EARTHMAMA at the checkout and receive $333 off! 😍

Limited offer ends at midnight on Monday 15th May

Share with all the mamas & wild women you know - it's time to gather as sisters ❤️

👉 More info & bookings: https://natureculture.samcart.com/products/wildwoman2023

We are wired for stories and storytelling.⁠

Stories are our most ancient way of learning, and the stories we hear and experience not only influence the way we see and engage with the world but also the physicality of our brain.⁠

⁠Stories exercise the parts of our brain that are essential for imagination, empathy building, and creativity.

A good story can transport us into another world where we are relaxed & open to new information and ideas.

It is why we find ourselves captivated by the mythological journey each word takes us a step toward. Every character, object, location, and event speaking deeply to our mind's natural tendency for meaning-making through symbols.⁠

⁠In short, stories shape us 📚

From our belief system to our relationships. From our moral ethics to our cultural identity.⁠

⁠And I believe our hunger for stories is the reason why we have an epidemic of Netflix & gaming addiction. Because we crave the tales that give us meaning in our lives.⁠

It’s also why we need to be discerningly aware of what stories we are consistently absorbing & what narratives we are investing our energy in 🤔

I stopped watching most apocalyptic movies & tv series for this reason because I became hyper-aware of what image of the future was forming in my mind. And that’s not a future I wanted to invest my precious creative life-force into.

So what’s the alternative? 🤷‍♀️

What stories can we call upon in these times of uncertainty that reveal deep wisdom for traversing the mystery?

And how do we become the authors of our wonderous future again, rather than inheriting tales of the Wasteland?

This Wednesday, 10th May at 7pm Britt from NatureCulture and Nathan Meola (Bear Heart) invite you to an evening of loom and lore where we share two stories that emerge from the theme ‘Weaving the Worlds’

Bring your cuppa, light a candle & join us as we enter the magic of storytelling 🔥📖

👉 Full details & booking link here: https://natureculture.samcart.com/products/weavingtheworlds/

A free alternative to the Konjac Sponge trend 🪸
⁠
I found this beauty on the beach a while back & it's been an amazing addition to my body care routine. Its natural fibers make it the perfect texture for a good exfoliant without being too harsh on the skin.⁠

But the awesomeness doesn't stop there...
⁠
Sea sponges are one of the most versatile natural resources and they have been used for over 2000 years by cultures all over the world.⁠
⁠
The softer varieties can be used for cleaning, bathing, baby care, cosmetic application, and even as a washable menstrual care product. They are naturally antibacterial, non-toxic, and hypoallergenic.⁠
⁠
Plus unlike artificial products, they are 100% biodegradable. Just stick them in the compost or in your garden to get the benefit of all those wonderful sea minerals.⁠
⁠
It really is the ultimate natural beauty tool.⁠

It's no wonder that people are now flocking to Konjac sponges as the trendy new facial care routine...

But why pay $12 when you can build relationship with your local ecology & harvest your own?!

Just make sure you check for little critters who may be living inside & take with respect to the local ecology.
⁠
🐚 Have you used a sponge before? ⁠
🪸 What did you use it for?

📚 When was the last time you enjoyed a good bed time story? 📚

Campfire stories once formed the bedrock of culture but most of us can't remember the last time we heard a tale under the stars or curled up at the feet of our grandparents 🔥

Sadly today, Netflix is our new Elder 📺

But I still personally believe we long for those old stories again.

I think our souls are hunger for a new narrative that nourishes our heart and activates our creativity, rather than make us feel depressed and anxious about an apocalyptic future.

This is why conscious storytelling is a powerful act of sacred activism ✨️

Enlivening the old campfire stories that once guided our ancestors is not only medicine for us during these uncertain times, but also medicine for our world ❤️

The old stories contain powerful lessons that both grow us up and grow us down, but the stories themselves also awaken parts of our psyche that lay dormant, waiting for the right nourishment.

This is why stories are considered as fertiliser for the soul 🌱

It's no wonder why stories and myth were central to all eco-centric cultures of the world who lived in deep reverence and regenerative balance with the Earth for thousands of generations, and who also had an unwavering sense of purpose and belonging.

Because the stories we tell, shape our lives and everything in it.

So in a time where the news is currently with stories about how dangerous, scary and polarising the world is, we invite you to join us around the metaphorical campfire and engage in one of the oldest and yet humblest forms of cultural repair:

A good bedtime story 📖🔥

🌌 Join Britt (Co-Founder of NatureCulture) and Nathan Meola (Bear Heart) next Wednesday for an evening loom and lore where we lean into the old stories as our compass during times of uncertainty.

Weaving the Worlds 🧵
Wednesday 10th May
7-9:30pm via Zoom
$33 per person

👉 More info: https://natureculture.samcart.com/products/weavingtheworlds/

We’ve got your back babe!

Equity and Diversity Scholarships for Wild Woman: The Immersion (full and partial) are available to women who long to feel more connected to the landscapes of their soul and nature but currently find themselves in financial hardship.

Scholarships are available to anyone who:

💚 Is currently experiencing financial hardship
💚 Is a single parent
💚Identifies as a First/Original Nations people (i.e Australian Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander)
💚 Or is currently experiencing other challenges that limit their ability to participate without financial support

First Nations women and single mothers are highly encouraged to apply 🔥

If you are intending to come to the Immersion whether you receive the scholarship or not, I would recommend jumping on the Super Early Bird or Early Bird price to save as much as possible and then I can always reimburse you if you are successful with the scholarship.

Scholarship applications CLOSE ON 28TH APRIL 2023

➡️You can apply via the Wild Woman website:https://natureculture.samcart.com/products/wildwoman2023

The WILD MAN program website is LIVE!

Men - Can you clearly and succinctly communicate your life purpose, mission, vision, and legacy?

When a man has clarity on these questions, the metaphorical ship of your life (aka your frame) can navigate anything that the ocean of life sends you. They are your guiding compass that provides motivation, direction and meaning.

Without them, it's easy to get caught in the storm of distractions.

As men, we are inspired by the Jedi archetype as it represents mastery, focus, and leadership that enable us to face the storms of life with ease. Yet these aspects of yourself often need the right context to come fully online.

And there is no better context than wild nature.

Removed from the daily distractions of life, wild places provide the perfect environment to dig in and transform your internal chaos from nemeses to close allies.

For millennia, men have utilised wild nature as a training ground for embodying spaciousness, purpose, and guardianship in their lives.

🔥🔥🔥🔥

Wild Man is a one-on-one guided expedition for men to grow beyond distraction and become a Jedi of their vision, mission, purpose and legacy.

Throughout history, men have journeyed into the wild to reflect and connect. Away from the day-to-day grind, nature provides the essential spaciousness to forge a life of meaning.

These 10 day tailored journeys are guided by Darvis Walker on the Tarkine Coast where he has led people on transformative experiences for 23 years.

Check out the new program website here: https://natureculture.samcart.com/products/wildman