New: Four Shield Training for Women
This program is currently full and now waitlist only. To be added to the waitlist, please use this link and fill out the application form. ____________________________________________________________________________ For the first time, we are offering an 8-day training centered exclusively on women rites and earth-based ceremonies in the modern day wilderness Rites of Passage context. Using a…
Read MoreCeremonial Immersion (across 2 years 2025-2026)
Only a few last places remain… Hope is not a word in my vocabulary, I have to tell you. Faith is…There is beauty in erosion. And that has been evolving over time. So I think it takes us to our essence. It may take us to our knees; our consciousness is evolving. And I think…
Read MoreDiamond in the Rough: Wilderness and the Diamond Approach
Direct and intimate contact with the natural world is an ancient and profound
doorway to being. Our ancestors knew this, and we are rediscovering it. Curiosity,
experiential inquiry, mindfulness, simple ceremony, and group council open this
door wider and deepen this contact. This retreat is a chance to step outside your
familiar life, be nourished by nature, find the support of deep listening, and
discover renewal, guidance, and inspiration. Here, wilderness provides a
welcoming, accessible, and powerful way home.
Mid-Winter Vision Fast
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” ~ Wendell Berry…
Read MoreThe Four Directions of a Queer Man: Forgiveness, Apology & Reconciliation
Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us. —Alexander Leon epigraph in Last Call, by…
Read MoreCA Men’s Rite of Passage
The world is changing fast, and we must do our best to keep up. We now face unprecedented waves of transformation. The blossoming and decay of our modern ways is calling attention to fundamental questions about who we are and how we relate – to ourselves, each other, and the world we’re part of.
These questions illuminate a new and yet very old story about what it means to be a man. In these times – what does that mean? What are the inherited forms of masculinity that are calling out to be transformed? Healed? Loved? What are the gifts and the wounds that need to be grieved, praised, and renewed to truly honor and embody this shared identity of manhood?
Through this rite-of-passage we invite those who identify as Men to take a leap – to look deeply at our notions of manhood – and to enter the threshold with an empty belly and open heart. Alone and together we’ll embark on a shared journey towards finding integrity, towards finding ourselves and our community, and towards finding our yet-to-be written futures that are calling us to slow down and show up to embody the transformation these times are asking of us.
NM Fall Vision Fast
In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” rather than less. Yet, in the Zen tradition “not knowing” is most intimate. The natural world reminds us of this intimacy and offers us refuge. There is something waiting to find us but in order to be found…we sometimes must first admit we are “lost”…
Read MoreCO Summer Vision Fast
In your bones you hear the singing of your sacred ancestors. You follow in their footsteps. You go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for four days and nights. There you live with yourself in solitude. You surrender to the mirror of your wild environment, and to memory, the looks-within-place. You enter the mansions of nature’s soul. You ponder the questions: “Who am I?” “Who are my people?” and “What is my intent?”
Read MoreNM Women’s Vision Fast
A woman’s journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature’s calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an irresistible urge to cross personal boundaries, she travels the path of her unique destiny. Her passions and gifts are her map. Psyche is her guide. Dreams are her nourishment, the land her friend….
Read MoreTwo Week Training for Women
This is an offering to celebrate and hold the broad, and diverse experiences of what it is to be a woman in this moment in time. Since time immemorial Rites of Passage Ceremonies have facilitated change, offering a simple but indispensable container to transition from one life stage to another, to let go of (die to) the old and step in (birth) anew, so that life can continue.
What underlies these rites is the understanding of the circular, seasonal, and regenerative nature of life and death. This knowing runs deep in the female body. Despite the patrilinear impact of the last few thousand years that imposed a culture in which the feminine was largely exiled, we are still informed by the cyclical ebbing and flowing rhythm of circular time, and an innate understanding of the evolutionary necessity of change that lives in our bones.
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