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Speak From the Body


Apr 29, 2020

Mac Macartney is an author, an activist, and an international speaker. He is the founder of Embercombe in Devon, a centre that seeks to explore and promote the profound regeneration of land, society, and people.

Over a period of twenty years Mac was mentored by a group of indigenous elders. During this training and ever since, he has attempted to bring two worlds together – an ancient world-view that emphasises relationship, interdependence, and reverence for life with the significant challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.

Mac is the author of a recently published new book entitled The Children’s Fire, heart song of a people. He has delivered four compelling TEDx talks.

 

 

  • Embercombe is a 50 acre valley on the foothills outside Dartmoor Park in Devon, UK. It has 20 acres of woods and a lake. The valley is rewilding from the field system. Embercombe is a centre to ‘touch hearts, stimulate minds and inspire committed action for a truly sustainable world and in relationship with nature’’
  • Mac had a leadership development consultancy and one of his clients offered him a piece of work that was likely to make a lot of money in 1996. The company was later sold to Warren Buffett for an undisclosed sum.He was offered money to bring his dream to life in 1999
  • When speaking to audiences, Mac tries to give people a felt experience of what he talks about
  • Heart-based leadership and serving higher and deeper purposes
  • Building and re-building community
  • Bringing spiritual selves into alignment with our physical, mental and emotional selves
  • “We are so lost as a species, that we are self-harming, and almost entirely ignorant of where we sit in the wider scheme of things”
  • “Being in love with life and knowing that, we too, are loved”
  • “The insane story of the economic model that we follow”
  • One of the methods to try and save the environment has been to monetise it
  • Cities don’t have to feel alienating from communities and nature
  • In the future, cities will be redesigned to enable food-growing, education, engaging older people so they feel they belong and increasing access to wild nature
  • The depth of perspective and insight of the past
  • Reverence and respect for those that went before us and won the freedoms we now enjoy
  • Living with wonderment
  • Nature is all around us
  • Hippos once lived in the River Thames!
  • The bones of sabre-toothed tiger, cave bear and hyena were found in limestone caves near Devon
  • Making sense of history and creating civilisation that draws on the mistakes and successes of the past
  • 3 questions to revisit over and over: 

 

  • What is it you most profoundly and deeply love?
  • What are your deepest and most profound gifts?
  • What are your deepest and most profound responsibilities?

 

  • Empowering children to help them grow and be resilient and dream
  • The forgotten value of what elders bring
  • Nature Play, Australia 
  • Becoming frightened of nature
  • Unless we go into risk and the unknown, the comfort zone shrinks
  • Our failure to be adults is forcing the next generation to be old before their time as they compensate for the state of the planet
  • The qualities of play and curiosity
  • Self-respect as a deep respect and aligned relationship with ourselves
  • Responsibilities for community and society
  • Realising what makes life worth living when we are under threat
  • The garden as a place of prayer and deep connection
  • Tiny shrines such as houseplants and troughs on the window ledge to acknowledge beauty
  • Cooking as alchemy
  • Bringing ourselves to any activity with kindness, generosity, open-heartedness and attention
  • Kith and Kin, Mac’s year-long mentorship journey
  • The Journey, a residential programme at Embercombe



Resources:

Mac Macartney

Embercombe

Twitter

https://macmacartney.com/writer/

https://macmacartney.com/portfolio/kithandkin/

TED talk

A Line In the Sand