Rewild your sense of wonder and rediscover how nature provides sacred guidance through life's circular and seasonal journey. Rewildling retreats & pilgrimages are a response to the longing to deeply connect with the sacred, surrounding and within the wild world.

Weaving words that reconnect and deepen one to nature, Mary writes from within the wisdom of creation spirituality and the peregrination tradition, both which invite ways of being that bring humanity into a deep sense of belonging to the world and one another. 

All of us need guidance at some point in the Journey. Waymarkers comes alongside individuals and groups who long to experience personal transformation through soulful travel, and those who desire to participate in the cultivation of the culture of a place.  

“Mary DeJong is the next Wendell Berry; however instead of writing from a farm, her voice is rooted in an urban forest.”
— Dwight Friesen, The Parish Collective 
 
This morning I went to the woods, the great green cathedral that is cultivating my soul. The trail was well-covered and disorienting; several times I felt I didn’t know where I was. And yet, even in this state, there was such abundance and the #julianofnorwich sense that “all matter of thing will be well.” By stepping into the most tangled of woods, one enters the nourishment this wildscape offers. Feelings of uncertainty gave way to the excitement of finding forest food. Transformation occurs through the seeking to find and the discovery of the Sacred Wild in the process. Here is the is-ness of God. #secretlifeoftrees #treesareteachers #sacredecology #wisewoods #rewildingthesoul #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship
“Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.“ – Hildegard of Bingen • • As the season of Spring makes the round toward the Summer Solstice, I can feel an inherent longing for the wisdom of the earth and the need to get out into my garden to relate with my plants and herbs. This turning and attuning is fundamental to how humanity has always lived within the seasonal rhythms of the natural world, and it is also one from which many have become disconnected. • • Waymarkers Rewilding Retreats are designed to reconnect one to the Sacred that is here within the very soil and rhythms of our existence. These day retreats create space for prayers and practices that play with the numinous nature symbologies and associations found within the elements, cardinal directions, and seasons, landing them in a bioregion so to re-member ourselves to what Gary Snyder calls the “Spirit of a place.” • • The wisdom of the great creation-centered mystic of the West, Hildegard of Bingen, will guide many of our reflections that ground us in the season of Summer, the element of Earth, the direction of South, and the bioregion of garden/field/farm. Held at The @whidbey_institute we will engage the wisdom of this location through a special session in the sweet and woodsy Westgarden, learning about the entheogenic qualities of our plant allies! • • Registration is open now for the August 11 Rewilding Retreat. Come and rewild your wonder! • • #hildegard #hildegardvonbingen #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder #rewildingthesoul #rewildingworship #sacredecology #entheogen #entheogenic #sacredgarden #herbalallies #mysticgarden #sacredearth
Saturday’s be like hammocks, reading, and a rare moment when this family o’ six are all at peace and rooted! #nochildleftinside #wildchild #rewildingrest #probooks
May Monthly Mandala • • While I co-created this month’s mandala, I worked in the tension of the wisdom womanist author Alice Walker offered in her foundational book, “In Search of our Mother’s Gardens.” There are certain flowers that show up in this mandala that remind me of my mother’s garden, and even my grandmother’s. As I practiced today, I was aware of how far I have moved away from these gardens and have striven to plant my own version of wild, medicine, and food plants, and in so many ways, this work representing my own autonomy and independence. In my homescape, I find myself equally searching both for a collective identify within my maternal line and all women, as well as pushing against my ancestry of Whiteness and privilege, awakened to the history of planting over someone else’s soil with no trace of a sigh about it. This is the complexity about which Walker writes. • The flowers in my mother’s garden speak to her own journey. My memories are full of images of her with gloved hand weeding, pruning, planting. Pansies and violas were handled with careful adoration, put in the ground she called home to make a connection to the land that raised her hundreds and hundreds of miles away. As I worked with these plants today, Walker’s words ruminated within me, granting me a form of insight to my mother, her garden, and the land which I call home: "I notice that it is only when my mother is working in her flowers that she is radiant – almost to the point of being invisible – except as Creator – hand and eye. She is involved in the work her soul must have. Ordering the universe in the image of her personal conception of Beauty... Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and a respect for strength – in search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.” • This month’s mandala is co-created with Oriental poppy (papaver orientale), Rose, Variegated bishop’s goutweed, Oxalis, Lemon balm, Russian sage flowers, Columbine, Drop more scarlet honeysuckle, Allium flavum, and in honor of my mother’s garden, the Viola odorata. #naturemandala #sacredgarden #gardenguide #sacredecology #womanisttheology #alicewalker #mymothersgarden #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder
It’s the last day of May and the time to co-create my monthly #naturemandala. This morning I’m bringing in a few more elements to aid me in my attunement and presencing (you need it in the urban wild what with construction, development, airplanes, trains, and sirens filling the air). Feeling deep gratitude for my wise mentors and guides @snyder_gary and @j_philip_newell who write so richly about the spirit of a place and how to come back into relationship with it. • • Today’s prayer from Celtic Benediction is a perfect way to bring this practice: “As the light of the dawn awakens earth’s creatures and stirs into song the birds of the morning so may I be brought to life this day. Rising to see the light to hear the wind to smell the fragrance of what grows from the ground to taste it’s fruit and touch its textures so may my inner senses be awakened to you, so may my senses be awakened to you, O God.” • This mandala will also become part of today’s lunch! 💚 • #rewildingthesoul #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship #sacredecology #ecotheology #celticspirituality #creationspirituality #sacredwild #spiritofaplace #bioregionalism #homescape
The day I can start infusing elder flowers in our family water jar is a favorite one! This particular infusion is a favorite and my children will drink water for days, hydrating and receiving the gifts of the flower to boot!
Today I’m getting lots of opportunities for soul growth, which often feels like being lost in a forest’s massive darkness, grief and fear so big it could light the whole place up in flames. Even though it doesn’t always feel good, I understand these to be times to be in conversation with Spirit; the darkness is both tinder and shadow in which the Holy moves. I’m reminded of Rilke’s writing of God being in conversation with us through the transformational seasons of growth: “Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me.” May I have the grace to grow both flame and shadow and discover more of the Sacred through this conversation. #rilke #soulrewilding #soulcultivating #sacredecology #sacredforest #grow #sacredspring #wisewoods #treesareteachers #secretlifeoftrees #mythopoetic #sacredwild #sacredwildsoul #soulcraft
Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver • I thought the earth remembered me, She took me back so tenderly Arranging her skirts Her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before A stone on the riverbed, Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars, But my thoughts. And they floated light as moths Among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms Breathing around me. The insects and the birds Who do their work in darkness. All night I rose and fell, As if water, grappling with luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times Into something better. • My dreams have grown tendrils and roots, mossy with the time in the woods last week. Back home and reflecting on all the wisdom bound up in this canopy of creation. Blog post with pictures of this Spring Rewilding Retreat in a tree house coming soon! #secretlifeoftrees #treesareteachers #sacredecology #wisewoods #rewildingthesoul #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship #theoverstory #lowlandforest #sacredforest #forestbathing #numinousnature
Every soulful journey needs a guide, and for this rewilding retreat these have been mine. In addition to the rooted wisdom of the trees, these authors are giving me trails upon which to wander and wonder while I’m here in the woods. I also very much enjoyed listening to the #tothebestofourknowledge podcast episode about The Secret Language of Trees. I cannot wait to pick up Richard Powers’ book, The Overstory! #secretlifeoftrees #treesareteachers #sacredecology #wisewoods #rewildingthesoul #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship #theophany #theoverstory #treehouse #rewildingretreat
“I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them.”~Rainer Maria Rilke • • Everything begins in darkness. Even the beginning of each day, a time that is lengthened when one is burrowed deep in the forest, begins with strokes of dark ink. With the birds’ matins song, the light of the sun begins to emerge, illuminating and shedding light upon the creativity born within the dark. • • The word “emergence” comes from the Latin emergere, “bring to light.” • • This Spring morning I light a small flame in this forest with praise, intention, and gratitude for what is to emerge. Praise and gratitude for the element of fire, for the light, illumination and warmth it brings. Intention towards that which is emerging towards a blossom in my life. Gratitude for the trees, whom Native Americans call Standing People. You are my teachers and guides. #rewildingthesoul #secretlifeoftrees #treesareteachers #sacredecology #wisewoods #rewildingwheel #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship #elementalblessings
“Today I have grown taller from walking with the trees.”~Karle Wilson Baker • • There is nothing like being in a gloaming forest! Tonight I lay my head to rest amongst leaves and pine, wind tussled trees, and rustling rivers. The creative sacred energy of this woodland quadrant of the Rewilding Wheel is rising like sap! I’m ready for rest and eager for the patterns and pre-ordinations my dreams will weave. • • #rewildingwheel #rewildingwholeness #rewildingthesoul #secretlifeoftrees #treesareteachers #wisewoods #sacredecology
I am away for the next few days for my own personal rewilding retreat. In this Spring season, I head east to the direction of primordial light where the element of fire and bioregion of forest play in tension. I’ll be tucked away in the lowland forests of the Cascades, intentionally meditating on the revelatory patterns within the forest and woods, and how this particular place can give sacred insight into the ancient wisdom symbolism of the cardinal direction East and element of Fire. May these hours hold a liturgy of divine transformation, inspiration, and creative energy! “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ~John Muir #rewildingwonder #rewildingwheel #rewildingworship #languageoftrees #livingearth #ecotheology #sacredecology #wheeloftheyear #forestphase #rewildingsoulscape #soulrewilding #forestwisdom
I’ve been seeking the Sacred in wild places with this man for as long as I can remember. Coming off of a #rewildingretreat always gets me thinking of my story and what was writ and what had to be remembered. This man, unbeknownst to him where the trail would lead, showed me the trailhead, the path, that took one beyond convention; with him I rediscovered a profound mutualism with the more than human world. This picture was taken in 1999 on top of Mt. Adams. #rewilding #rewildingwonder #sacredecology #mountaintopwisdom #mountaineer
The Spring Rewilding Retreat was gloriously held by sun, cedar, and sacred circles! The woodland labyrinth is a powerful way to walk one’s inner journey back into wholeness and interconnection. Full of gratitude for yesterday and the beautiful soul’s who gave themselves over to the Sacred Wild! #rewildingretreat #rewildingwonder #theophany #whidbeyinstitute #labyrinth #sacredcircle #sacredwheel #rewildingwheel
Pretty much there is no better place to be at 6:00am today than here! #salishsea #rewildingretreat #rewildingwonder #rewildingworship #whidbeyisland #whidbeyinstitute #storyhouse #sacredecology #mercymornings
When my youngest gets his chance to work with the mandala, he brings his favorite plant friend: dandelions! ☀️🌼☀️ This is a wonderful practice for children too, and one they inherently understand. They are still awake to the sentient world around them! I’d love to see what you co-create in YOUR homescape! Post a picture and tag @waymarkers so I can the beauty of your bioregion. #rewildingwonder #rewildingwheel #rewildingworship #sacrednature #naturemandala #kidsmandala #backyardbiodiversity #sacredecology