Invitation Only Women’s Fast 2022
Oct 24th, 2022 - Nov 4th, 2022 | Cottonwood Canyon, Death Valley, California | Petra Lentz-Snow, Siri Gunnarson, Kim Belair
The need to become anew lives deep in our ancestral bones because it was, and is, crucial for the survival of our communities that we let go of what no longer serves, and enter the calling of our new becoming. Life transitions are initiatory invitations to go out onto the land, to take time out of time, and make sacred.
As women and female identified people of this time, many of us also feel the global grief cries reverberating in our bodies, in the rawness of our personal lives, and in the torn fabric of our communities. The ancient evolutionary imperative to re-member wholeness, to move from “power over” to “relationship with,” is waking strongly, and asking us to unearth a new story, for ourselves, our people and for life.
Finding our medicine, finding our voice and way as daughters, mothers, elders, and stewards of this Earth is essential. We welcome gender expansive folx, this is a Women’s fast with openness for all who feel affinity with this invitation.
If you hear the call to this ceremony, you will go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of essentials, into the heart of the wilderness, for four days and nights. To live with yourself, in solitude and sovereignty. To look into the mirror of nature and see your whole self.
As those who’ve gone before, you will ponder the questions: Who am I? Who are my people? What is my intent to guide this moment of my life? You wander along the edges of loneliness, where vision lies waiting. You drink at the springs of emptiness and are filled with self-knowing. What is unimportant falls away. The life that longs to be lived lies ahead. . .
Come as you are. You are welcome here.
Logistics: The twelve day ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation. The program will be held on the ancestral, and present day homelands of the Timbisha Shoshone, in Death Valley National Park (Tüpippüh Valley). You can find more information on the history of the land where you will be fasting through this link.
Preparation
Your preparation begins the moment you decide to come, and perhaps it has been happening long before that. Once in the desert, you will be supported as you prepare to physically, psychologically, mentally, and spiritually to meet the experience of fasting alone in the wilderness. You will be given the means of looking into the mirror of nature through the Four Shields framework.
Threshold
The time of fasting and aloneness will take place at Cottonwood Canyon in Death Valley. Your guides will maintain a safe perimeter around the area while you are alone and make sure you have sufficient water. Another person will fast nearby. The two of you will be “buddies,” each day leaving assurance of your well-being at a stone pile erected along the borders of your respective areas.
Incorporation
You will return to human companionship and a feast. In council you will witness and be witnessed with others as you tell your story and listen to the stories of your community. As guides, we will listen, and offer support to you to see and remember yourself through the medium of your own story— to live the life that longs to breathe through you. When all of the stories have been told, we will celebrate together and prepare to return to the lives we left behind, knowing that we are not the same ones who left.
Financial support: Aware of the disparity of income caused by racial, and social inequities, we are offering two spaces with near full scholarships (covering up to 80-90% of total tuition, based on need). Anyone is welcome to apply. BIWOC will receive special consideration as we strive to create more access to this work and these experiences.
Program Questions Contact: Petra Lentz-Snow at [email protected]
Letter of Intent: As part of the preparation process, we ask that you write a letter of intent. Is there a particular life stage or event you are marking? You are welcome to take your time with your letter, as it is often a longer process to formulate the core knowing of why you are called to this ceremony but please have it ready at least a month before the program.
Submit Waitlist form
This program is full; however, you may add your name to the Waitlist by clicking the Waitlist button below.
Submit enrollment form
Please fill out and submit the enrollment form and then pay the program deposit below. Before you pay the deposit, please read deposit section below, all deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable. After your enrollment form is complete, please submit all health and liability forms.
Pay program deposit
Deposits: This deposit signifies your commitment to the program and is deducted from the tuition balance. All deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable. They cover the work of the specific course you signed up for, including all communication involved as well as the fee that guides pay to the school administration for the course accounting.
Additional Deposit: Some programs require a second deposit to help us affirm commitments. Last minute cancellations make it hard to fill openings and incur a loss of income to the School and the guides.
Tuition Balance: Balance of tuition can be paid before or upon arrival. Simply deduct any deposits made from the amount you’ve chosen on the sliding scale.
Additional course details & Materials
This Women's fast is held as a 12-day immersion program in the wide open expanse of Tüpippüh Valley (Death Valley National Park), where we will hold camp among creosote bushes, ancient rock and sweeping vistas. We will meet on Oct 24 at 9am at Stovepipe Wells Station in Death Valley and then drive out to our base-camp as a group. The program will conclude by 2pm on Nov 2.
CA ADDITIONAL FEES: National Park Entrance ($30 unless you hold a valid Park Pass) and $30 for camping.
You will be responsible for bringing your own food and equipment, though we can provide some gear if needed. We ask everyone to come prepared to live self-sufficiently. You will need to bring shelter and clothing suitable for a full range of inclement weather.
All participants must submit the required health questionnaire and liability form.
If you have questions about the enrollment process contact us at [email protected] or call 760-938-3333.
Tüpippüh is home of the Timbisha people and is the name of their ancestral and contemporary homeland. Miners came to this area in 1849 and the Timbisha’s land was stolen to create Death Valley National Monument in 1933. The Timbisha were allotted a 40 acre reservation in the park and also forced onto other reservations and into towns in the area.
The guides have a practice of donating a small portion of our proceeds to the indigenous communities whose land we share during ceremony, we will be gifting a portion of the tuition offered to the Timbasha Shoshone Tribe of Death Valley.
To learn more about our commitment to regenerative relationships please visit Cultural Relations.
