This retreat will focus on ways we can shift from simply exerting our will in how we live, work, love and create on the Earth---however well-intentioned---to the practices that allow us to work and live harmoniously with the wise and loving Spirit of Mother Earth. The practices and perspectives learned and the spirit allies connected with will give you the ability to discover what creations are being called for from you to support overall planetary balance at this crucial time; what your best resources are to invite that balance; how to perceive and support true human needs with the needs of other life forms; how to trust with equanimity that you belong here and can flourish when working in loving cooperation with the source of all Life; and how to really LISTEN WELL!

This will be a deeply immersive and experiential gathering. To support this deep diving in, our gathering is being lovingly hosted in an intimate cabin on 20 private, quiet and wooded acres in Berkley Springs, WVA. Please come as refreshed as possible as we will be exploring and working deeply for most of the time we're together. We will be starting each morning by 8AM for a greeting to the day, followed by an hour of private time for breakfast, etc. There will an hour mid-day for lunch, an hour early evening for dinner, and evenings after dinner will be times for ceremony and initiations. Although these are long hours time wise, they will often be refreshing and some of these times will be spent quietly and with a peaceful, inner intent and focus.

No prior shamanic experience is needed.

I ask participants to refrain from any trance-inducing plant medicines, rec drugs, or alcohol during the gathering.

I don't like to give too much away about what we'll exactly be doing as I hope to meet with your "beginner's mind" and not too many preconceived expectations. However, I also realize that you'll wonder just what you might gain from coming. To address that here is a bit to know:
   

•  you will gain some classical shamanic spirit allies that enable you to work with   upper and lower world explorations as well as the somewhat more varied middle-world terrain, which is the home of most nature spirits.
•  you will receive gifts of power, protection and spiritual presence from these allies and learn how to relate to them with integrity, dignity, vulnerability and mutuality.
• you will receive important healings that help you navigate non-ordinary reality with more trust, curiosity and power.
• you will begin to learn what your unique medicine is and how to express it effectively and maintain it with care.
• you will begin to learn how to track your doubts and distrust; how to recognize and move beyond personal agendas and biases.
• you will explore your own personal energetic signature in non-ordinary reality and start to learn how to discern that of others.
• you will learn how to increase or decrease your empathic, perceptual portals---your spirit gates---in order to have the greatest clarity for what the helping spirits are conveying to you. Too little empathy and you will be in your mind and full of doubt and judgement; too much empathy and your own feelings and history will cloud your receptivity and objectivity.
• you will look for the first thread of how your ancestral lineage affects your relationship with the Earth, your body/mind/spirit/feelings, and work with benevolent ancestors to begin clearing your lineage of what's no longer working and creating ways of honoring your ancestors and invoking their presence and help.
• you will have a precious opportunity to encounter whatever sense of grief is separating you from a fuller joyful presence in your body and between you and the nurturing spirit of the Earth in a way that fully honors your path and is deeply supportive and dynamically healing. This opportunity will help your senses expand and soften so that you're more sensitized to the language of earth beings and not distracted by the very real but more transitory level of earth suffering.
• you will explore the intimate language of your own body, of your senses and how they correspond to your emotions, to your spirit and how those correspondences rise into creative urges and how to be most intentional with that process.                                                                                                                         
• and you will engage in very beautiful, loving, helpful relationships with being of the Nature kingdom

Registration Information:

Registration costs include meals and lodging, two post-retreat individual supportive phone calls for whatever is needed(healing/integration/information, etc.), and four weeks of active guidance for integration after the gathering by way of conference calls and recordings. Participants will also be invited to a private community Facebook page for sharing our shamanic experiences and continuing to explore together.

Standard registration is $725; $200 deposit due before November 10th.

There will be options to pay in three post-deposit installments (total of 4 payments). Deposits are due by November 10th. They are non-refundable unless your request for a refund makes me laugh. For any concerns and/or questions about costs/payments, please go to Contact Me. I will be creative and responsive about alternative installment payment plans with those who are serious and committed.