The Dragon Sanctuary

Singing Sanctuary
2023-10-11 19:30 - 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.
Leo and Sundara have been leading singing events together since 2003. 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.
No prior experience is necessary. Doors open at 7pm. Come early for a cup of tea and a chat if you like. No need to book in advance.
See this page for more information about the songs we sing, as well as videos, audio recordings and sheet music of some of the songs.

Taizé Singing
2023-10-15 19:30 - 21:00
The songs of Taizé are easy to learn and uplifting to sing.
Taizé 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 Taizé singing in 2003, at the Findhorn Community in Scotland. These events are open to people of all faiths and none. For more information about these events see this page.

No prior experience is necessary. Doors open at 7pm. Come early for a cup of tea and a chat if you like. No need to book in advance.

Kirtan Singing
2023-10-19 19:30 - 21:00
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.

The Man with Empty Hands
2023-10-21 19:00 - 21:30
Stories of the Journey Home presents
Storytelling for the Spiritual Journey
The Man with Empty Hands features a King overwhelmed by the demands of ruling his Kingdom; a carpenter losing touch with his love for his craft; and a fisherman who rows into the centre of a lake one morning to find a huge golden fish swimming beneath his boat.
Storytelling has the power to draw us into deep soul-enquiry, using symbol and metaphor to allow us to dream big. This story will explore the theme of self-acceptance.
How much do you accept yourself?
Have you twisted yourself out of shape to gain other people’s acceptance?
We all do it, the question is how to recover those parts of ourselves that we’ve pushed into the shadows.
This story takes a deep dive into the theme of self-acceptance.
The more we accept ourselves, the more we can open to our divine potential.
Our true nature shines forth when we are meticulously loving and kind towards ourselves.
Feedback from our last storytelling show for adults at The Dragon Sanctuary
I was blown away by the story, it was magical. I was spellbound, and feel myself in this moment completely transformed by it. The words and music wove in so beautifully together, the setting also really helped – I was transported somewhere else…. and it was very healing. I left feeling so inspired and uplifted. The evening reconnected me with that impulse to surrender and let spirit carry me.
Neesa Copple
Leo Sofer has been telling stories since 1989. Sundara plays handpan, sansullah and tenor recorder to accompany the story. They have been setting stories to music together for over 20 years. For more information about their work, see here.
Event time is two and half hours, with an interval.

Singing Sanctuary
2023-10-28 19:30 - 21:00
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.
