Annual Conference 2022 – “Art Rescues the Heart”

Speakers: Peter Dawkins, Venetia Nevill, Aidan Andrew Dun, Nicholas Cope, Jeremy Rye, Caro Woods, Christine Rhone, Jolie Booth, Andrew Clark

"Much thanks and gratitude for a lovely day"

"Thank you to all. This was the most wonderful day, perfectly orchestrated. It feels like a great privilege to have been able to (e)attend."

"Thank you SO much for organising this beautiful, beautiful conference. I thought it was very special and I am so grateful to have attended. Usually I cannot go to things in person, so online allows me to be a participant. Brilliant!"

"Many congratulations to all the Gatekeepers involved in creating such a brilliantly successful conference! It was wonderful to be in the company of so many old friends - and to be introduced to some inspiring new ones."

'Mandala' by Venetia Nevill

Tickets - Recordings available here:

Recordings for this event are available here - you'll get immediate access to the whole day:

MORNING PROGRAMME:

Peter Dawkins - 
Art Rescues the Heart

Peter will speak about how art, in all its many forms of expression, is that which rescues the heart, raises consciousness, and produces harmony, beauty, and delight.

Venetia Nevill - 
'Spirit of the Land'

The natural world is Venetia’s canvas. She will share her journey connecting to the spirit of the land as an earth tender, tree lover and artist. Her art encompasses ritual, devotional mandalas, and a sensory connection to the cyclical rhythms of nature as a pathway to healing and an expression of her deep love for this precious earth.

Aidan Andrew Dun - 
‘Vale Royal’

Gatekeeper is honoured to share in celebrating the republication by Goldmark of his epic poem 'Vale Royal'. The poem leads us on a journey through London, taking a spiritual and symbolic view over the centuries, centred of the site that is now Kings Cross.

Peter Ackroyd says of Aidan ‘He’s one of those people, along with Blake and Chatterton and others, who are like a divining rod for history.’

Christine Rhone - 
‘The Green Heart of Hope Garden’

Christine brings us to Hope Garden where a sacred site has been created and is evolving in North Kensington, symbolised by a green heart in memory of the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire of 2017. A small urban plot has become an oasis: Hope Garden, providing inspiration and healing to all who pass by and visit. Marcia Robinson is the project leader, author of Sledge: the Soul of Notting Hill, the story of her father who first brought Rasta to London. @GardensHope/@Trees4Grenfell/ justsolutions123.wordpress.com
Christine will also preview the Fifth John Michell Symposium exploring the work of the late John Michell, who continues to be a founding influence for seekers in the arts, mathematics and the Mysteries.

Nicholas Cope - 
‘Nature and Art as Symbolic of the Real’

Nicholas will show some examples and speak about his recent artwork which is inspired by nature’s expression of the sacred. Everything in the natural world is symbolic of the metaphysical - though does not derive from any one formal spiritual tradition, it is the supra-formal principle of them all. Being always true, in all places and for all people, its expressions are many, but the truth is One.

AFTERNOON PROGRAMME:

Caro Woods MA - 
'The Rainbow Ribbon Way: An equine pilgrimage through the chakra'

Why would I, an artist with white hair, venture out with a matching-coloured pony, on a thousand mile trek across England, with no back-up plan other than blind faith, to meditate on the magical powers of colour? This talk for Gatekeeper is about what I discovered on that epic journey. Why did I carry a multi-coloured ribbon banner in my saddle bag, imbued with donated healing intentions from well- wishers? What did I learn along the way about the act of Pilgrimage?

Jolie Booth - 
'Theatre as a Spiritual Practice'

Jolie will talk about theatre and creativity as a spiritual path and the role of the fool archetype in speaking uncomfortable truths. She has conducted question-based circle plays designed to merge the inner and outer infinities, and speaks about the power of group ceremony and the relationship between creation and destruction. She will share how it was to lead 28 members of the public on a once in a lifetime experience on a pilgrimage to COP26, creating a piece of performance art on route, which they presented to delegates in the Green Zone.

Jeremy Rye - 
'Walking Nature’s way'

At the heart of all our work is nature and the cycles that nature drives through the months, the festivals and the wheel of the year. When we walk in time with these cycles, through our alignment with nature, we have the capacity to drive our personal journey, healing our lifetime's path, as we balance this with offering our gift of self-healing to nature.

In his talk Jeremy will help us understand these rhythms and how to align ourselves with nature's cycles to direct our own personal growth and in so doing use nature’s power as fuel to our wheel. He’ll talk of festivals, pilgrimage and trees and all the gifts that mark the rhythm of our own journey to freedom.

Andrew Clark - 
'Singing from the Heart'

Andrew will speak about the way in which singing can help us connect with our heart centre and nurture our heart consciousness. As our heart consciousness expands it gradually infuses our everyday consciousness, enabling us to express more and more our innate loving nature in an effortless way. This session will also include some experience of singing from the heart.

Speaker Bios:

Peter Dawkins is a philosopher, author, teacher, visionary, and geomancer. He is the founder of the Zoence Academy & Mystery School, which he runs in partnership with his wife Sarah, and of the Francis Bacon Research Trust, a gateway into the wisdom traditions. He leads pilgrimages in many countries, and takes people into the mysteries. Peter is a co-founder of Gatekeeper Trust. www.zoence.co.uk; www.fbrt.org.uk

Venetia Nevill is an artist, earth tender and healer. Underpinning her art is a passion for nature, and by recycling natural materials and cocreating art with nature, she encourages gallery visitors to look at nature in a new light. As a ceremonialist she creates interactive mandalas, and spaces for people to connect to the natural world, the ancient festivals and sacred waters. She is currently writing a book about her healing journey with the Celtic ogham trees during lockdown. www.venetianevill.com

Aidan Andrew Dun spent his childhood in the West Indies, returning to London as a teenager to live with his inspirational grandmother, dancer Marie Rambert. He knew his calling for poetry from an early age.

Aidan is widely acclaimed as one of our greatest contemporary poets whose exploration of the mysteries of Kings Cross in the epic Vale Royal (Goldmark, 1995, launched at the Albert Hall) caused a groundswell of interest in this extraordinary zone of London. The prestigious publishing house Goldmark has gone on to publish five more volumes of poetry and their collaboration continues with the relaunch in 2022 of Vale Royal in a new edition.

A triad from Vale Royal is now inscribed in stone in the Kings Cross main piazza, Granary Square: “King’s Cross, dense with angels and histories, there are cites beneath your pavements, cities behind your skies. Let me see!”

Voice of Kings Cross (aidanandrewdun.com) 'Grand Sky' Sonnets at https://thehighwindowpress.com/2021/05/page/5/

Caro Woods studied at the Sir John Cass School of Art, London before gaining her MA in ‘Contemporary Visual Practice’ at Falmouth School of Art in 2003. She began to find her visual ‘voice’ when she started to tramp the cliff paths of Jersey where she lived at the time, recording the landscape in pocket-sized sketch books. Over the years, she developed a practice that was as much about walking in nature as it was about painting, becoming increasingly fascinated by the land as a multi-faceted mass of geology, archaeology, energetic forces, pathways and tangible ley lines that echo down through the ages. She began to see herself as an Artist as Pilgrim and her work is increasingly concerned with concepts surrounding the ideas and practice of pilgrimage. www.carowoods.com @carowoodspilgrim

Nicholas Cope is an artist, geometer, and author, whose work is devoted to the Sophia Perennis as embodied in the symbolic geometry of both Traditional Art and ancient megalithic architecture. He authored The Knap of Howar and the Origins of Geometry together with Keith Critchlow (Kairos Publications 2016). Nicholas gained his Masters at the Royal College of Art in ‘Visual Islamic and Traditional Art’ (1989-1991). After years of mutual association and collaboration, in 2016 Keith named Nicholas his successor as Professor Emeritus of the Research into Lost Knowledge Organisation. www.ncope.co.uk

Christine Rhone is a French-American retired teacher, event organiser, writer, and translator for major publishers and universities. Since 2007, she has regularly contributed to the Temenos Academy Review and organised study days exploring the work of John Michell (1933-2008), the visionary geometer and author who popularised the work of Alfred Watkins, the discoverer of ‘leys’ or straight lines in the landscape in the 1920s. Christine is putting together the 5th symposium which will be happening in 2023.

Jolie Booth - Established in 2003, Jolie Booth's company Kriya Arts is a cutting edge arts and production company with a passion for making creative and innovative work in a wide variety of mediums, whose aim is to make the world a more compassionate and extraordinary place. www.kriyaarts.co.uk/

Jeremy Rye loves history and the analysis of how history has shaped what we see before us. He believes that landscape is fundamental to our lives and to how we see and understand our being. The landscape is both teacher and friend, guide and critic, allowing us to see ourselves in a real way and to see our uniqueness. To achieve this we have evolved ways to shape, work and connect with the land. Jeremy sees his role as a designer and a creative is to interpret and demonstrate the essence of the landscape itself and our place in both it and ourselves. www.jeremyrye.com @dragon_walks @JeremyRye

Andrew Clark worked for nearly 30 years as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in the NHS, before retiring in 2017. Through many years of singing in choirs, as well as on retreats and pilgrimages (many of which were Gatekeeper Trust events), he deeply appreciates the therapeutic and spiritual impact of singing. He now feels increasingly called to use heart-centred singing and sounding as a way to develop our heart consciousness.

Tickets - Recordings available here:

Recordings for this event are available here - you'll get immediate access to the whole day: