The Heroine’s Journey:
A Woman’s Rite of Passage Retreat

Linda Atwater is a grandmother, artist, and lifelong wilderness adventurer whose life has been shaped by education, service, and cross-cultural connection. A retired educator, she founded a Ghanaian nonprofit after Peace Corps service in a school for the Deaf. She now lives with her partner in an eco-village rooted in community, shared land, and urban farming. A dedicated seeker, Linda’s spiritual path weaves Christ-centered wisdom with Eastern practices and the fertile meeting places of Pagan, Wiccan, animist, and Abrahamic traditions. Her life is grounded in creativity, relationship, and a reverence for the wild and sacred world.

Dr. Bonnie Bhatti is a mother, social worker, and psychotherapist/coach whose 45-year career has spanned personal-growth workshops, healing retreats, and university teaching across the West Coast and Canada. Specializing in trauma healing, she integrates a body-centered approach rooted in Hakomi, hypnosis, EMDR, and Parts Work. Bonnie currently partners with First Nations communities in British Columbia, traveling into remote regions to support healing from multigenerational trauma. Her spiritual grounding is interfaith and intercultural, drawing on her Sikh heritage, Buddhist meditation, time in nature, ritual, ecstatic dance, and Indigenous wisdom. She honors Mother Earth as a primary source of healing presence.

Jacqueline Cuayo (she/her) is a soul care provider, ritual maker, and interfaith chaplain who companion people with curiosity and attunement through life’s joys and sorrows. She founded Luna Soul Care & Rituals to offer arts- and earth-based experiences for individuals and groups navigating transitions, cultivating mindfulness, intention, and connection with self, others, the earth, and the sacred.

An interfaith learner, Jacqueline follows the way of Jesus while honoring the vision of “Shalom”—deep wholeness for all beings. She lives in north Seattle with her husband and dog, cherishes time with family, and finds renewal in forests, ocean waters, and cooking Cuban food.

Mary DeJong is the founder of Waymarkers and an urban naturalist, pilgrimage guide, and practitioner of sacred eco-spirituality. Based in Seattle’s Rainier Valley, her home—Hedgewood—has long served as a gathering place devoted to ecological restoration and the revival of neighborhood forest. Mary holds a Master’s in Theology & Culture focused on EcoTheology, and post-graduate certificates in Religion and Ecology from Yale, and in Ecopsychology and Advanced Applied Mythology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her work draws on ecotheology, ecopsychology, deep mythology, and the Universe Story to explore how place shapes the ecological self. Influenced by Celtic Christianity, Christian Animism, and the mythic rites of pilgrimage, she leads retreats and journeys in the Pacific Northwest and on Iona, Scotland, inviting participants into deeper relationship with the Sacred and the living world.

At nearly 84, Mayra Fernández remains radiantly active as an author of 22 books, podcaster/vlogger (@mondayswithmayra), choir director, singer, mother of 17, and grandmother many times over.

A seasoned workshop leader, keynote speaker, and community organizer, she moves with the same vibrant energy that has fueled her life of service. Fluent in three languages and still biking, swimming, and dancing regularly, she embodies joyful longevity and creative purpose.

Mayra often says, “If I had known turning 80 would be so much fun, I would have turned 80 a long time ago!”—a testament to her enduring spirit and generosity.

Dr. Margaret Ann Mitchell practiced as an integrative, holistic chiropractor in Minnesota for nearly four decades, centering her work on people rather than disease. Using kinesiology and gentle corrective techniques, she supported the body’s innate capacity to self-heal, while integrating nutritional guidance and constitutional homeopathy. Since retiring in 2023, she lives in Shepherd Village in West Virginia, where her work continues to distill toward its essence—supporting people of all ages to honor their inner divinity, nurture the sacred feminine, and revere the inner elder. Margaret delights in mythic ritual, dancing, singing, drumming, storytelling, journaling, meditation, and walking in nature.

Merry Stanford is a grandmother, mystic, poet, retired psychotherapist, and long-time peace and social justice activist. As a survivor of trauma, and later as a trauma specialist with women and children, she came to understand the deep creative and destructive forces that trauma’s integration can awaken. Her most enduring teachers have been the Inward Christ and her own body in relationship with the natural world. Spirit has led Merry to sojourn with many spiritual communities—Catholic, Quaker, Shamanic, Yogic, Presbyterian, and Pentecostal—each speaking to her condition in a particular way, and deepening her experience of God and Creation. Her life continues to be an ongoing conversation with Spirit, healing, and the sacredness that permeates the living world.