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Date & Time Details: Saturday, August 22, 2020, from 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

Location: Storyhouse

Address: 6449 Old Pietila Road, Clinton, WA 98236

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Rewilding Retreat

With Mary DeJong

August 22, 2020

Learn and Practice Seasonal Rhythms & Rituals for Sacred Guidance Through the Natural World to Grow an Earthen and Elemental Guidance

Now, more than ever, we are being called into the conversation of land and body. To the degree that we are able to perceive the sacredness of the land, we will be able to honor the holy within an other. This is the work of sacred intersectional environmentalism, and when we engage in the a process of rewilding—this deep work of re-membering the human self, our selves, to the whole and wild world, we reconnect to the fundamental reality that we cannot serve one without serving the other. We cannot have a sacramental view of the natural world and maintain distant from the cries and protests for social justice. When we lean our ear to the earth, to hear the holy heart beat of the other-than-human world, our posture is one of kneeling: taking a knee in a response of solidarity for the sacred that resides within all life.

 

Rewilding Retreats are offered quarterly, each exploring the entire round of the Rewilding Wheel™ while going deeper into seasonal practices that connect to the corresponding cardinal direction and element. The Rewilding Retreat will invite daily, monthly, and seasonal practices that will embed you in an interconnected, sacred relationship with your bioregion. You do not need to register for all four retreats to be profoundly impacted and invited into a new mindset of being in solidarity with creation; however, each quarterly retreat will spend time focusing on the sacred themes and practices that correspond to that particular seasonal quadrant.

What’s Included

  • A one day retreat experience within The Whidbey Institute’s Story House and the surrounding wild landscape

  • Expert teaching and soulful group facilitation

  • Invitation to engage with meaningful rituals and nature-based spiritual practices

  • Rewilding Wheel Workbook

  • Guided nature walk

  • Introduction to and support during a forested labyrinth walk

  • Thoughtfully prepared and seasonally focused vegetarian mid-day meal, snacks, and herbal teas

  • Wild-crafting materials

  • Supported nature solo time

  • Access to a 100 acre trail system in a legacy forest

Please Bring

  • Personal writing materials (journal, paper, pen/pencil) and backpack

  • Warm comfortable layers, weather proof outdoor wear, and sturdy water resistant footwear

  • Personal water bottle

  • Flashlight and fully charged cell phone

  • Emergency whistle

  • Fold up camping chair

  • A seeker’s desire and the posture of seeing the stranger as a sacred guide!

“Blessed is the life lived at a pace that is in sync with the land on which it is lived.”

~ Wendell Berry

2020 adjusted rates account for costs of bringing in seasonal specialists and materials. All retreats involve a 10% donation of proceeds to acknowledge the indigenous land upon which we live and learn, and to support the ongoing educational and land-based work of Eloheh Farm and Dr. Randy Woodley (legal descendent of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, and a mentor and teacher to Mary DeJong).

Event photo by April Huizenga.

Faculty

Mary DeJong
Influenced by the lives of Celtic saints, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey and the emerging field of ecopyschology, Mary facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland, that strengthen the unique and mystical interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world. She has studied and practiced within the Celtic Christian spiritual tradition, her own maternal line heritage, for over twenty years, receiving mentoring and vocational guidance from Vivienne Hull, co-founder of the Chinook Learning center and the Whidbey Institute and the director of the Iona Retreat Programs. Mary is also a graduate scholar of the School of Celtic…
Learn more about Mary DeJong

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