Singing Sanctuary
2022-05-25 07:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London)
With Leo and Sundara
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar we’ll sing devotional songs in English. These original songs are based on prayers and sayings from spiritual traditions around the world. No prior experience is necessary. Arrive a little earlier if you like for a cup of tea and some time to connect before we begin. No need to book in advance.
Here’s one of the songs we often sing: Love Flows Like a River

About these songs
Sundara and I have been leading singing events together since we met in 2003 in the Findhorn community, an eclectic spiritual community in the north of Scotland. We started with the songs of Taize, an ecumenical Christian monastery in France. Although Findhorn is not a Christian community, these simple and easy-to-learn songs were very popular there because they expressed a universal spirituality that many people could relate to.
These songs gave us a taste for the beauty of singing together in a devotional spirit. Devotional singing isn’t a new thing, but it’s one of the many ancient-yet-essential things that we’ve lost in the modern world.
We also explored gospel songs and the Harmonic Temple songs of Nickomo Clarke, which take sacred phrases from many traditions and set them to four-part harmony. We kept learning new songs and sharing our favourites.
Inspiration from India
And then a few years ago, Sundara started singing bhajans, the devotional songs of India. She taught herself to play the harmonium and I joined her with the guitar, and we found that the music could support people to drop into a devotional way of singing together without feeling self-conscious. We’ve been singing those songs ever since, and have led many “Kirtan” evenings here at The Dragon Sanctuary.
But a niggle started to arise. What about songs in English? How could we write songs that were equally devotional but sung in our own language? We’d experienced that with the few Taize songs that we’d sing in English (they are mostly in Latin, and other European languages), and with gospel songs and some of the English-language Harmonic Temple songs too. Sometimes singing in your own language can make the experience even more powerful.
So Sundara wrote some songs and we’ve found a few more from other song-composers that we love, and we now have a small set, enough for an evening at least!
Devotional songs in English
There’s a fine line to be walked with these songs. Singing in one’s own language can be potent, but it can also be fraught. No-one likes being told what to think or feel, and for some of us the legacy of church hymns can make us wary of this sort of singing. And some “new age” songs can be a bit “cringey” (as our teenage kids would say).
The songs we’ve found are (we hope) devotional without being didactic, heart-felt without being hammy. Just like the best devotional songs, they help you get out of your mind and into your heart. Like the bhajans, we sing them with the harmonium and guitar. We hope you will want to join us! As stated already, no prior experience is necessary, and there’s no need to book in advance.

Adventures in Psyarchaeology
2022-05-31 19:30 - 21:30
A book event with the author of ‘Sesonsfin: A Tale from the Bronze Age’.
S D Anugyan (‘Anu’) will be giving a presentation on the background to his new book. The tale depicts a time of great transition: from nomadic to agricultural lifestyles, a largely matriarchal society to patriarchal, and a shifting emphasis from the spiritual to the material. The protagonists, aware of what is about to be lost, take extraordinary, daring steps to save it.
He will describe how being trapped on the Wiltshire downs during the hot summer of the first lockdown provided the perfect backdrop to the late Bronze Age; and how he used the practice of what he calls psyarchaeology – a combination of empirical research, meditation and imagination – to elicit enriching details. Noteworthy mentions include the importance of water to sustain both body and soul, the attitudes to time, birth and death, and the use of stone circles and alignments.
For more details see the book on Amazon.
Copies of ‘Sesonsfin’ will be available at a discounted price.

Cancelled - Kirtan Singing
2022-06-16 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
We’re sad to say that we are cancelling this event. We both have covid and have lost our voices!
We’ll be back next week, with the Singing Sanctuary on 22nd June, see below. We’ll both be out of the recommended 10 day quarantine period by then. I trust that our voices will have recovered, also!

Singing Sanctuary
2022-06-22 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-07-20 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-09-21 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-10-19 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-11-16 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-01-04 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-02-01 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-03-01 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom

Kirtan Singing
2022-07-14 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-09-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-10-13 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-11-10 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-12-22 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-01-19 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
With Leo and Sundara.
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar, we will sing Indian devotional chants based on simple mantras. These “sung prayers” invoke the qualities of Indian deities like Shiva, Krishna, Durga, Saraswati and Ganesha, qualities such as love, creativity, courage and compassion that are all present within us and that can be brought more fully into our lives by singing together in this way. No prior experience is necessary. Arrive a little earlier if you like for a cup of tea and some time to connect before we begin. No need to book in advance. But please bring a cushion of a backjack if you can.
Sundara and Leo Sofer have been leading singing events together since 2003. They previously taught in Findhorn (a spiritual community in Scotland), with an especial focus on the songs of Taize (a Christian monastery in France) and Nickomo Clarke’s Harmonic Temple songs (based on sacred phrases from diverse spiritual traditions).
In recent years they have fallen in love with bhajans, the devotional songs of India, which are sung mostly in Sanskrit at gatherings known as kirtans. They are also creating songs in English which are short and easy to learn, and that can also be sung in a devotional spirit.
Sundara plays the harmonium and Leo plays the guitar to accompany these songs. Having two instruments present enables people to sing freely and to relax into the experience, supported by the music.

Taize Singing
2022-11-27 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
The songs of Taize are easy to learn and uplifting to sing.

Taize is a Christian monastery in the South of France famous for its beautiful songs. We’ll sing them in three or four part harmony, in Latin as well as various European languages. We’ll have a time for silent prayer also. We’ll keep teaching to a minimum and sing for the pure enjoyment of the devotional atmosphere that these songs evoke.

Leo and Sundara started leading Taize singing in 2003, at the Findhorn Community in Scotland. These events are open to people of all faiths and none.

Taize Singing
2022-12-11 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-01-08 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-02-12 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-03-12 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-04-16 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
The songs of Taize are easy to learn and uplifting to sing.

Taize is a Christian monastery in the South of France famous for its beautiful songs. We’ll sing them in three or four part harmony, in Latin as well as various European languages. We’ll have a time for silent prayer also. We’ll keep teaching to a minimum and sing for the pure enjoyment of the devotional atmosphere that these songs evoke.

Leo and Sundara started leading Taize singing in 2003, at the Findhorn Community in Scotland. These events are open to people of all faiths and none.

Doors open at 7pm. Come early for a cup of tea and a chat if you like.

In the Belly of the Whale
2022-12-17 19:30 - 21:30 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
Leo and Sundara Sofer will be sharing a story with music that goes to the heart of the question “how to live with devotion?”
How to live with love, with purpose and with intention? How to stay true to yourself in even the most trying circumstance? How to stay aligned to your highest purpose even when life pulls you down? How to remain with love when all hell breaks loose?
It tells four interwoven stories: of a prisoner in a prison cell who has lost all hope; a knight who walks away from an endless battle; a young woman searching for the golden thread that will complete her dress and a Queen who has become overwhelmed by her troubles and finds the solution to them in the belly of a whale.
Drawing all of these lives together, the story shows how in every circumstance we have the power and the support within to make seemingly impossible changes for the better.
Leo has been telling stories for over 30 years. Sundara plays handpans, flutes, accordion and harmonium to accompany the story.

Kirtan Singing
2023-02-23 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
With Leo and Sundara.
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar, we will sing Indian devotional chants based on simple mantras. These “sung prayers” invoke the qualities of Indian deities like Shiva, Krishna, Durga, Saraswati and Ganesha, qualities such as love, creativity, courage and compassion that are all present within us and that can be brought more fully into our lives by singing together in this way. No prior experience is necessary. Arrive a little earlier if you like for a cup of tea and some time to connect before we begin. No need to book in advance. But please bring a cushion of a backjack if you can.
Sundara and Leo Sofer have been leading singing events together since 2003. They previously taught in Findhorn (a spiritual community in Scotland), with an especial focus on the songs of Taize (a Christian monastery in France) and Nickomo Clarke’s Harmonic Temple songs (based on sacred phrases from diverse spiritual traditions). In recent years they have fallen in love with bhajans, the devotional songs of India, which are sung mostly in Sanskrit at gatherings known as kirtans.
Sundara plays the harmonium and Leo plays the guitar to accompany these songs. Having two instruments present enables people to sing freely and to relax into the experience, supported by the music.

Kirtan Singing
2023-03-23 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-04-27 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
With Leo and Sundara.
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar, we will sing Indian devotional chants based on simple mantras. These “sung prayers” invoke the qualities of Indian deities like Shiva, Krishna, Durga, Saraswati and Ganesha, qualities such as love, creativity, courage and compassion that are all present within us and that can be brought more fully into our lives by singing together in this way. No prior experience is necessary. Arrive a little earlier if you like for a cup of tea and some time to connect before we begin. No need to book in advance. But please bring a cushion of a backjack if you can.
Sundara and Leo Sofer have been leading singing events together since 2003. In recent years they have fallen in love with bhajans, the devotional songs of India, which are sung mostly in Sanskrit at gatherings known as kirtans.
Sundara plays the harmonium and Leo plays the guitar to accompany these songs. Having two instruments present enables people to sing freely and to relax into the experience, supported by the music.

Singing Sanctuary
2023-04-05 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
With Leo and Sundara
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar we’ll sing devotional songs in English. These original songs are based on prayers and sayings from spiritual traditions around the world. No prior experience is necessary. Arrive a little earlier if you like for a cup of tea and some time to connect before we begin. No need to book in advance..
Here’s one of the songs we often sing: Love Flows Like a River

About these songs
Sundara and I have been leading singing events together since we met in 2003 in the Findhorn community, an eclectic spiritual community in the north of Scotland. We started with the songs of Taize, an ecumenical Christian monastery in France. Although Findhorn is not a Christian community, these simple and easy-to-learn songs were very popular there because they expressed a universal spirituality that many people could relate to.
These songs gave us a taste for the beauty of singing together in a devotional spirit. Devotional singing isn’t a new thing, but it’s one of the many ancient-yet-essential things that we’ve lost in the modern world.
We also explored gospel songs and the Harmonic Temple songs of Nickomo Clarke, which take sacred phrases from many traditions and set them to four-part harmony. We kept learning new songs and sharing our favourites.
Inspiration from India
And then a few years ago, Sundara started singing bhajans, the devotional songs of India. She taught herself to play the harmonium and I joined her with the guitar, and we found that the music could support people to drop into a devotional way of singing together without feeling self-conscious. We’ve been singing those songs ever since, and have led many “Kirtan” evenings here at The Dragon Sanctuary.
But a niggle started to arise. What about songs in English? How could we write songs that were equally devotional but sung in our own language? We’d experienced that with the few Taize songs that we’d sing in English (they are mostly in Latin, and other European languages), and with gospel songs and some of the English-language Harmonic Temple songs too. Sometimes singing in your own language can make the experience even more powerful.
So Sundara wrote some songs and we’ve found a few more from other song-composers that we love, and we now have a small set, enough for an evening at least!
Devotional songs in English
There’s a fine line to be walked with these songs. Singing in one’s own language can be potent, but it can also be fraught. No-one likes being told what to think or feel, and for some of us the legacy of church hymns can make us wary of this sort of singing. And some “new age” songs can be a bit “cringey” (as our teenage kids would say).
The songs we’ve found are (we hope) devotional without being didactic, heart-felt without being hammy. Just like the best devotional songs, they help you get out of your mind and into your heart. Like the bhajans, we sing them with the harmonium and guitar. We hope you will want to join us! As stated already, no prior experience is necessary, and there’s no need to book in advance.

Singing Sanctuary
2023-05-03 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
With Leo and Sundara
Accompanied by harmonium and guitar we’ll sing devotional songs in English. These original songs are based on prayers and sayings from spiritual traditions around the world. No prior experience is necessary.
Here’s one of the songs we often sing: Love Flows Like a River

And you can find another of our songs here: Divine Mother
About these songs
Sundara and I have been leading singing events together since 2003, beginning in the Findhorn community, an eclectic spiritual community in the north of Scotland. We started with the songs of Taize, an ecumenical Christian monastery in France. Although Findhorn is not a Christian community, these simple and easy-to-learn songs were very popular there because they expressed a universal spirituality that many people could relate to.
These songs gave us a taste for the beauty of singing together in a devotional spirit. Devotional singing isn’t a new thing, but it’s one of the many ancient-yet-essential things that we’ve lost in the modern world.
We also explored gospel songs and the Harmonic Temple songs of Nickomo Clarke, which take sacred phrases from many traditions and set them to four-part harmony. We kept learning new songs and sharing our favourites.
Inspiration from India
And then a few years ago, Sundara started singing bhajans, the devotional songs of India. She taught herself to play the harmonium and I joined her with the guitar, and we found that the music could support people to drop into a devotional way of singing together without feeling self-conscious. We’ve been singing those songs ever since, and have led many “Kirtan” evenings here at The Dragon Sanctuary.
But a niggle started to arise. What about songs in English? How could we write songs that were equally devotional but sung in our own language? We’d experienced that with the few Taize songs that we’d sing in English (they are mostly in Latin, and other European languages), and with gospel songs and some of the English-language Harmonic Temple songs too. Sometimes singing in your own language can make the experience even more powerful.
So Sundara wrote some songs and we’ve found a few more from other song-composers that we love. Our repertoire keeps on growing…
Devotional songs in English
There’s a fine line to be walked with these songs. Singing in one’s own language can be potent, but it can also be fraught. No-one likes being told what to think or feel, and for some of us the legacy of church hymns can make us wary of this sort of singing. And some “new age” songs can be a bit “cringey” (as our teenage kids would say).
The songs we’ve found are (we hope) devotional without being didactic, heart-felt without being hammy. Just like the best devotional songs, they help you get out of your mind and into your heart. Like the bhajans, we sing them with the harmonium and guitar. We hope you will want to join us! As stated already, no prior experience is necessary, and there’s no need to book in advance.

True Storytelling
2023-05-04 19:30 - 21:00 | The Dragon Sanctuary, 34 Bossell Road, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0DD, United Kingdom
Do you have an amazing story to tell?

Something miraculous that left you in awe
Something so absurd that you couldn’t have made it up
A story that reminded you of what really matters in life
The challenges you faced, and the lessons you learned

We’ll sit in a circle and tell our stories. True Storytelling is not about performance, it’s about sharing our stories in community, for inspiration, healing and mutual understanding. It’s also fine to just sit and listen!
“It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be able to listen, really listen, to other people telling about precious moments in their lives. And to have the chance to tell about your own experiences and memories (only if you want to), with others listening to you too. It’s inspiring and entertaining and humbling, all at once.” Previous participant.
Why True Storytelling?
Human beings have always told stories. They are vital to our wellbeing.
Imagine the scene: our tribal ancestors are gathered around a fire at the end of the day, and stories are being told. But these are not the stories of the gods and goddesses, those would have had their special time. Rather, these stories would answer the questions “what happened to you today? What did you see? What did you learn?”
These stories would have been crucial for the survival of the tribe. Our ancestors lived in a world full of unknowns. It was vital for them to make sense of the world around them: to know where to find food, or how to avoid danger. “What did you find out today?” was not just small talk, it was a matter of survival.
As a result of living like this for thousands of generations, storytelling has become hard-wired into the human brain. It’s an essential way that we make sense of the world around us and find the inner strength to face life’s challenges.
True Storytelling is about returning to this ancient rhythm; sharing the stories that have been significant to us; deepening our appreciation of life by both listening and being heard.
No prior experience of storytelling is necessary.
Doors open at 7pm, come early for a cup of tea if you like.
