And so it is again.
I’m crawling deeper into the compost heap of 2025, into the darkness, and then suddenly it’s a new year and the chatter is of goals and resolutions and how to be productive and relevant and successful.
I’ve always struggled with that.
And now in this moment and in these times.
“It’s January 2026 and the global order is collapsing in real-time.”
I’m unsure how one can truly know any of that anymore with the current unraveling state of everything that once seemed certain in our world.
You 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 time with curiosity to consider and explore this slower, more liminal, mysterious time of darkness with greater attention and intention.
What might we find in the dark ?
In the last 4 years we’ve been convening a crew towards the end of January on a 5 week journey - an intentional exploration of this darker, slower time.
In some ways as an act of resistance to 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, stranger liminal vibes.
Sitting longer with the uncertainty, fermenting the not knowing, intentionally letting go of what’s not serving us anymore.
Practising listening to a wider web of life, opening to the wisdom of the more than human crew aboard spaceship earth, the ones who still trust in ancient rhythms.
What might we find in the dark?
For me this practice and ritual has become the only trusted way I can orient myself for the year ahead - I’ve ditched the lists.
There’s definately always some edge at first in resisting the productivity urge and allowing this emergent process to unfold, trusting in what will be as we come out blinking into the light in mid-February.
But I’m still working with rich insights from the last few years, of strange cloaked ancestors on acorn covered ground, of the focus and attention of a barn owl, of scattered oak bones and a slow flowing river at dawn.
I was in Italy in early December and I met up with Letizia Piangerelli who participated in Into the Dark in 2025.
She told me about her threshold walk through thick freezing fog, where she discovered a surreal 4D clarity of what was right in front of her. She told me that the experience and insights had remained alive for her throughout the whole year, in a truly regenerative way.
That made me very happy to hear.
Because it’s also how I experience this stuff.
There is no need to know anything or to have any specific skills to participate in this journey.
Just a feeling that many of the ways we’ve been doing things in these times of modernity are no longer serving ourselves, each other or the living world around us.
And a willingness to show up with humility, an open heart, open mind and a curiosity of what could be.
And what we do know is the more one commits to the practices, experiments and invitations and trusting in the not knowing, the more one seems to receive.
Into the dark is to enter a container for five weeks, which invites us to gently co-create our intentionality, our orientation for the year ahead, if you like.
And to do so in community, human and more-than-human.
It’s a deep, gentle, experiential journey.
Creating space for connection, contemplation, and creative practice, exploring darker 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 to our homes.
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.
We’ve had participants from all over Spaceship Earth in previous crews.
Everyone is welcome.
There are price points that should speak to everyone, young and old, comfortable and skint.
We’d love to see you in this crew.
I’ll leave you with some words from some who’ve journeyed with us.
Peace and out
Dan
“When was the last time you visited the darkness? The Into the Dark Crew cracked me open and led me to unexpected places. I emerged feeling more connected and braver than I felt for a long time “
Siobhan
“It’s the space I’ve been looking forward to feel, reflect, connect, and hibernate. This experience for me has revealed strength in community nature and being, it’s amplified my innate craving to become a human being, not a human doing, and has led me to a collective heartbeat.”
Amelia
“Through a whole in the world that led me to places I never visited before and gifted me insights. I am still working with.About words and worlds and writing way finding and web weaving. Being a crew member last winter has had a lasting impact on me. “
Anne
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