I have been a participant on The Way of the Melissae workshop and on The Darkness Visible course. What has been striking is the wholeheartedness of the team and their teachings and also how impeccable they are. At times the work was challenging – on a couple of occasions I felt taken to my edge and I could only go there because I felt so well held. The teachers were steadfast and very encouraging. Mostly though my experience was of being able to drop deeper and deeper with softness and flow and this was facilitated by just the right thing at the right time. It was wonderful to be so vulnerable, soft and open alongside my fellow participants. I am so grateful I have found The Sacred Trust. Their work is vital – both necessary and truly alive. Thank you.
Jacqueline Beattie RSHom
Homeopath
I recently completed the Two Week Training in Classical Shamanism. The training was indeed very intense, but in a very good way. Simon Buxton had structured our time to be of a bearable intensity, whilst surprising us (or at least me) with very powerful community ceremonies around the fire, or within the hall, using drums, rattles & voices. These ceremonies were extremely reassuring of the chosen path. Throughout the two weeks we learned classical healing techniques used within shamanism cross-culturally, such as soul retrieval, extraction work, compassionate depossession and work enhancing the deeper connection to the ancestors and spirits. The beauty of the work was that not only were we taught to heal but also received a lot of healing ourselves. I had left the course feeling completed, a greater peace and certain of my path. My experience with the The Sacred Trust was certainly life changing in many positive ways and I know the journey has only just started…
Thank you to Simon, Richard, Suzanne & Anna for the care, help, patience and support – I highly recommend this training.
Gudrun Fritz
Sacred Clown
I heartily recommend The Sacred Trust to you. Here is a place of magic, a place to meet the magic of the land, the magic of spirit and your own magical self. Here is true magic – the action of spirit and soul. Here is a place where your soul can grow in safety, love and compassion and your spirit flow and expand. For more than ten years I have been delighting my soul with Sacred Trust workshops, learning more about myself and how to help other people. In each of the six workshops I have attended I have been in awe of the integrity, great clarity , depth and richness of Simon Buxton’s teaching.
It’s like going to a sacred feast, our spirits are fed and we leave with a bag of sacred goodies to sustain us for a long time. The Sacred Trust workshops provide a rich tapestry of sacred teachings. Those that I have participated in have all been excellent, but I would like to especially recommend the most recent workshop that I have been to – Shamanic Dreamwork. Here I found an approach to dreaming that was different to any that I had previously encountered. We learnt of the true nature of dreaming, about the power of dreams, and met authentic teachings and ritual directly based on those found in indigenous tribes.
Vicki Savage
Shamanic Healer and Children’s Meditation Teacher
For the last 20 years or so I have read widely on topics related to shamanism and attended numerous workshops and training courses; always something not quite right. Eventually at The Way of the Shaman workshop I found the teacher I had been looking for in Simon Buxton. Simon, a man of the highest personal integrity, is a gifted and compassionate teacher who leads by example; his work and commitment sets the Gold Standard for his students. I have recently had the privilege of completing the Three Year Professional Shamanic Practitioner Training a profound and challenging course which is truly life changing in so many positive and different ways.
During this course one explores the core cross cultural elements of shamanic healing and gains the skills and knowledge to help others. However, perhaps more importantly, one also undertakes a journey of self discovery and healing. Personal values, prejudices, the ego, ethics and ingrained behaviours are challenged and explored. Throughout this journey of discovery and re-evaluation the student is always supported by Simon, their individual mentor and fellow students. I cannot commend Simon Buxton, the course mentors and the staff at Sacred Trust too highly. The Sacred Trust is in my opinion the Premier Shamanic teaching establishment in the UK; it sets the benchmark for others to seek to attain.
Ray Johnston
Retired Director & Professional Engineer
I have recently completed the Three Year Professional Shamanic Practitioner Training with The Sacred Trust and before that spent a year attending a number of other courses offered by the Trust. The practitioner training is led by Simon Buxton and it has been an honour to learn from him and to call him my teacher. Simon is warm & authentic, teaches with integrity and ever encourages you to aim for the gold standard. I have had many an amazing experience and wholly enjoyed my time with The Sacred Trust, indeed I’m sad that the training has come to an end. Highly recommended.
Greg Silcock
Royal Marine Commando (Ret), Shamanic Practitioner
Forests have always occupied a very special, magical place in my life. I remember my childhood in Africa where, from the backdoor of my home, I could skip barefoot into the wilderness on my own – into echoing forests where I was never alone. I was free to get lost and, in so doing, draw ever closer to the mysterious vitality and consciousness that animated them, giving them form. I was ever suspicious of the linear by-ways and standardised tracks snapping at the fringes of these forests, trusting instead their un-signposted inner pathways that would gracefully unfurl with an invisible luminosity in the quiet whispers of dappled sunlight, numinous shadows, soaring branches, searching roots, giggling, hidden streams and welcoming soil between my toes. Without fail, I would be lead to precisely where I needed to be and receive precisely that which I needed. Those forays were invaluable initiations in which I learned to move and dance with the forest, at one with the rhythm bursting forth from a subterranean lineage of syncopated roots, to a still, quiet place – the place of stories: the medicine stories, the teaching stories, the old stories, the big stories, the little stories, the forgotten stories as well as those yet to be born. My childhood awe and delight has only deepened as I have come to love the land and forests of Albion and the extraordinary teachers and healers that are to be found in those wild places.
For me, the Sacred Trust is a forest, like those of my childhood and like those that often feature in the old tales beginning with the words: “Once upon a time…” The subtle alchemy at its heart seamlessly and effortlessly weaves the ways of the ancients with the modern and is rooted gently yet unwaveringly in partnership with the ineffable. The rich well-spring of teachings and healings on offer are joyous discoveries, which in their diversity reflect the strength and promise of their heritage. The Sacred Trust is home to such impeccable, generous teachers and healers as are sometimes spoken of in those tales of old…and so much more. Time and again I come away inspired by the standard raised for what it truly means to be human and to live in community with spirit. As with the heart of a forest, I have found no judgment here. You can safely hang-up the weighty armouring required by convention and from that unguarded place, discover a wild-craft of the heart that is uniquely yours and emerge profoundly enriched having traversed the invisible landscapes and forests of the soul. If the call of the old ways reaches you and points you here, honour it! Give yourself the precious gift of rediscovering and reclaiming your life story and the tools to chart the dreamtime – the doorway stands ajar, the path beckons: “Once upon a time…” How can you afford not to?
Ian Sellars
Shamanic Practitioner and Solicitor
The courses I have attended at The Sacred Trust have been life enhancing – stretching perceptions in a safe and nurturing surrounding. There is an extraordinary depth of authentic teaching and enabling of one’s own sense of spirit and connection to source. I cannot recommend their work more highly – be prepared for challenge and fundamental change!
Sarah Dawkins
Zoence Academy
I recently attended The Shaman’s Gnosis which was my third experience of working with The Sacred Trust and it was a very different one. Through poor management on my part I arrived fresh from another training course elsewhere and was feeling a little depleted, not knowing what to expect but looking forward to finding out about a shaman’s take on enlightenment.
Some adjectives I could use to describe the course include rigorous, arduous, challenging and disciplined — but also worthwhile, life-changing and transformational. It feels it was designed to deeply challenge the ego and move beyond it towards a highly expanded state of being. Although it pushed me to my limits, it was well worth the effort.
On the second day I hit a brick wall so hard I considered giving up and leaving the course unfinished. I am so very glad I persisted because, on the very next day, I had a breakthrough and experienced a feeling I can only describe as bliss and I now KNOW that that is achievable for me. Whether or not it was actually an experience of Gnosis seems unimportant. Equally significantly and for the first time, I have a very clear idea of the gifts I have to offer, what I came here to do in this incarnation and I now feel adequate to the task.
Some of the connections I made with my fellow students were profound and I felt sadness when we dispersed back into our own lives. It helps to believe our circle remains intact, existing somewhere outside of time.
Simon Buxton has catalysed a major shift for me and it is not an exaggeration to say I feel transformed. I have taken a leap along my spiritual path. The expanded feeling remains with me as I write and I find it hard to adequately express my gratitude to all the team at The Sacred Trust who made all this possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Veronica Potts
Reiki Master Practitioner
I have been on my journey of self discovery for twenty-two plus years. Along the way I have met some good teachers, some average teachers and some some downright awful teachers. Simon Buxton, and his companion faculty at The Sacred Trust all fall squarely into the ‘Great Teachers’ category. Simon is a man of great warmth, integrity and is very intuitive as to what you need, so students get the most from the work that is undertaken. It is so refreshing to undertake work with The Sacred Trust as each course is totally content-filled and is geared around directly experiencing the work first hand. There is also the amazing support team at The Sacred Trust Centre, whether it is Anthony sorting out any logistical challenges during your stay, Anna attending to any dietary needs or Janet dealing with the administration. The net result: you get to focus on you and getting as much as possible from the work — and the surrounding land is utterly magical as well.
If you want a real, authentic experience that speaks to the whole of you straight from the heart, go ahead and pick any Sacred Trust course…
Simon Cook
Artist & Writer
My introduction to the work of The Sacred Trust came exactly at the moment when I most needed it and was most ready for it. Emerging from a very instructive relationship, I was led to my first 5 Rhythms dance class held by Kate Shela, a member of The Sacred Trust faculty. The effect of learning how to move honestly and openly under the guidance of this remarkable woman led me directly to The Sacred Trust. My ignorance meant I was clueless as to who Simon Buxton was. In time I realised that was a blessing as I was able to meet him as an innocent and judge him solely on the work alone. From the first meeting at The Way of the Shaman workshop in London, to the end of our Professional Shamanic Practitioner Training Course in Dorset, Simon has been nothing short of exceptional. Previously I had often struggled being taught by a man. Under Simon’s guidance I found a new level of respect for the masculine in the world, and for the masculine within myself. Simon was never anything less than kind, sincere and patient; strict when necessary, by turns humorous and playful, but always passionate about Spirit and the work that, month by month, enabled us to deepen our spiritual journeys.
It is no exaggeration that practicing under Simon and Kate and The Sacred Trust helped me to move through much that was holding me back, regain what I had lost and fulfil the work I came here to do. Shortly before completing the course I received the guidance to funnel all the knowledge I had been channelling and write a book. Two years after its completion, I sit here in the knowledge that it is about to be published. Everything I ever dreamed of achieving is coming to fruition, and I owe so much to the circle in which I sat with Simon Buxton.
There are many courses out there, many teachers and organisations offering help and guidance. I believe we all get what we need, something I gained a very physical understanding of when digging the earth in preparation for my initiation burial. In that case, I am truly blessed to have found my way to the doorway of The Sacred Trust and I know that if ever I find myself out of my depth or in need of that precise balance of seriousness and levity, I could approach Simon again and be met as fully as I was when I first began my training with him five years ago.
Nick Taylor
Author & Journalist