1) Hero's Quest: Princess & Warrior (April 26 - 29, 2018)
Spring, East, Wood/growth, Child to Young Woman
Thursday Celebration: Sprout, a party for the day of our birth.
Pilgrimage East: We explore menarche, coming of age, reconnecting with the vision for our lives that was clear before birth. We will work with self-knowledge, with boundaries, with forces of nature and growth. This retreat has both group and solo backpacking components. It could be cold and wet.
2) Deep Collaboration: Mother & Father (June 21 - 24)
Summer, South, Fire, Young Woman to Mother/Creator
Thursday Celebration: Bud, a coming of age ceremony.
Pilgrimage South: We explore motherhood, both literally and metaphorically, as we embody the power of the creative feminine to bring our dreams to life. We will work with sensuality, sexuality, creativity in various media, and the symbolic element of fire. We could do this one either as a backpack, or with a home base and day hikes/drives. Factors are cost, desire, and physical ability of the group.
3) Heart Sovereignty: King & Queen (August 09 - 12)
Harvest, Center, Earth, Mother/Creator to Queen/Leader
Thursday Celebration: Blossom, a mother’s day opening reception.
Pilgrimage Center: We explore what it means to sit fully on our thrones, to be in service to community from a place that is grounded in Self, to overflow with self-love and self-nourishment enough to give truly to others. We will connect with the bounty of local harvest from Mother Earth, feeding and nurturing ourselves and one another. Each Woman has the opportunity to lead a mini-workshop or playshop: whatever her heart is most excited about at the time. Lodging could be a house, farm, cabin, or camping right near town.
4) True Authority: Wizard & Crone (September 20 - 23)
Autumn, West, Metal/Air, Queen/Leader to Elder
Thursday Celebration: Fruit, a coronation ceremony.
Pilgrimage West: We explore the gifts of the Crone, the Elder Woman, who knows how to grow deeper, wiser, and more radiant as she grows older. Our society seems to worship youth, leaving little to look forward to as time goes on and one’s value seems to lessen. In certain indigenous cultures, the goal of life is to become an Elder. Beauty is not just skin deep. This is a powerful time of life. Camping or shared yurt or cabin for this one.
5) Transformation: Death & Rebirth (December 06 - 09)
Winter, North, Water, Elder to Infant through the Great Beyond
Thursday Celebration: Sowing Seed, a wake for what we leave behind.
Pilgrimage North: We explore the quiet, the darkness, the stillness between worlds, imagining our birth as a conscious act, a choice to embody on the Earth. We reconnect with experience in the womb, and invite recall of birth memory. Aspects of ritual, meditation, dark retreat, and breathwork may be employed. We need a home base for this retreat: someplace warm, where we could make a 24-hour retreat in complete darkness. Still looking...
