Vibrations of Earth, Ancestry & Fire

I am delighted to invite you to a special afternoon-to-evening retreat at Sculpture by the Lakes on Saturday 22 August 2pm - 10pm

Join me, visionary sangoma and sonic healer Dr Nkosenathi Koela, and artist-cuisinière and food-ritual practitioner Dr Miche Fabre Lewin. Together we will create an intimate and truly magical afternoon and evening retreat amidst the beautiful surroundings of Sculpture by the Lakes. It will be an immersive journey of vibration, ancestral wisdom, earth connection and heartfelt community creating a warm, deeply connective atmosphere filled with presence, sound and shared intention.

As the evening draws in and the light fades, we will gather around the fire to share cultures and vibration in a truly special atmosphere of connection and remembrance.

Nkosenathi crafts and plays traditional and sacred instruments. His indigenous frequencies bridge ancestral wisdom with contemporary soundscapes. His transformative performances sit at the crossroads of science and spirituality, using sound as a powerful tool for collective healing and remembrance.

In celebration of palate and planet, Miche will prepare a plant-based artisanal Deep Soup in a cauldron over the fire - a living offering in thanksgiving to the Earth that naturally nurtures body and soul, soil and society.

Held in the beautiful Retreat area with its serene lake and inspiring artworks, this retreat offers a harmonious blend of sound baths, gentle breath and voice practices, drum circles, fire ritual and nourishing food ritual.

Programme Highlights (14:00 - 22:00 approx.)

• Opening circle, introductions and cacao ceremony
• Gentle somatic breathwork and vocal toning
• Simon’s sound bath
• Nkosenathi’s African Indigenous Sound Journey
• Miche's Kitchen Ritual Deep Soup supper around the fire
• Drum circle and collaborative music
• Fire ritual and joint closing sound offering
• Integration circle and gentle close

All practices are invitational and held with care in a trauma-informed space. The day is designed to support deep relaxation, reconnection and joy.

Practical details

Location: Sculpture by the Lakes, Dorset Time: 14:00 arrival - 22:00 close

What to bring: Comfortable layers, a mat or blanket for lying/sitting, water, journal (optional) and an open heart. Plant-based Deep Soup provided; please inform us of any dietary needs.

More information –

• Dr Nkosenathi Ernie Koela (@Mntana.WeXhwele) is a Ph.D candidate specializing in indigenous music therapies at the University of Cape Town. Koela’s Transdisciplinary practice encompasses being an Afrikan Sound artist, sound knowledge teacher, Instrument maker and multi-instrumentalist, he explores how healing practices through sound, creates space that manifests spiritually and materially. Koela has been a performer and instrumentalist for over 18 years and plays multitude of indigenous instruments from around the world. He also teaches others how to make and play traditional instruments with strong emphasis on the instruments h’story, spiritual significance and importance.

This he does as testament to his ancestry, the long line/s of traditional instrumentalists, diviners/ healers (amaGqirha namaXhwele) that run in his family, who are masters of traditional San, Bantu, and Nguni music/heritage. Koela has released 4 Afro-Spiritual collections of dreams and soundscapes: ‘Inkaba’, 2018 Brazil/ Cape Town, Embo Ethongweni (2021) , InKungu and InGuqu (2023). (60) Indigenous Frequency Cast - YouTube

• Dr Miche Fabre Lewin - A White woman, born on Zimbabwean soil, Miche Fabre Lewin has French and Jewish heritage. Her devotional vocation is rooted in a passion for art, ecology, food, and liberatory processes. As an artist-of-the-becoming, Miche’s body of work embodies a profound re-membering of ‘rta’, the Sanskrit root of art, artisan and ritual. This concept evokes how our humanness is in continuous evolution within a participatory and wholly interdependent cosmos. These interwoven threads manifest through her co-creating with sentience of matter, living processes, recycled and found materials – all in respect of the genius of place and people. Through her pioneering work as part of her doctoral research with Coventry University she has contributed the concept of ‘sympoiethics’ as a life-affirming ethos and practice of making-with our animate world. mfl
• Deep Soup has its source in healthy living soil and is a collaboration with spirit of place. Prepared by hand from fresh plant harvests rich in vital nutrients and flavours of the season, this is a soup to tantalise the senses and deepen our connection to earth ecologies. All the ingredients will be sourced from our own Kitchen Garden where we grow our food using the no-dig method to maintain a healthy soil structure. We also do not use any artificial chemicals or fertiliser.
• Eaten in slow spacious time we relish and reawaken our tastebuds to knowing that vital food is our medicine.
• We are in and of nature-cultures. Everyday every mouthful we make an impact on our food and farming cultures. Let this be harmonising not harmful.

Deep Soup is a thanksgiving, an invocation to reanimating the power of earth-based ritual to re-member our roots within the sacred and elemental rhythms of the cosmos. Deep Soup is a hearth and rekindles joy.