Rewilding Retreat: Recovering the Wisdom Within the Wild
Quarterly day-long retreats at the Whidbey Institute (Whidbey Island, WA)
Learn and practice seasonal rhythms & rituals for Sacred Guidance through the natural world to grow an earthen and elemental guidance
How are your spiritual practices changing in the face of climate change? How does your faith flourish as our forests burn? How do you engage the wild edges of your life, not as a place of chaos, but as a place of profound creativity? How do our prayers hold the ecological grief that howls within our hearts? A response to these probing inquiries demands a return to a whole-relationship with creation and re-membering, or rewilding, ourselves to a profound sense of the Sacred within and with-out the wild and wonder-filled world.
Come rewild your wonder at a day long retreat designed to reconnect and remember yourself to the Sacred Wild through seasonal prayers, practices, rites and rituals. The Western world has valued separation and alienation from the more than human world, which has resulted in sterile and depleted soul-lives. As we decrease the external wildness, we decrease our internal wildness as well. One could argue that there is no greater spiritual project in today’s world than the reclamation of the wild. By bringing ourselves back into relationship with the sacramental nature within the more than human world, we remember how to conceive of ourselves within a cooperative, a member within the blessed assembly of Creation!
Respond to this call to seek the sacred within the text of the natural world and recover your feral faith on Whidbey Island with ecotheologian, writer, and wild-soul guide Mary DeJong at the Whidbey Institute's Storyhouse, a nurturing cabin surrounded by legacy forest and the whispers of wild life half a world away from the urban hustle and bustle.
Here you will expand your sense of rootedness and belonging to a place through the practice of the Rewilding Wheel, a sacred wheel circuit, influenced by Celtic spirituality and indigenous wisdom traditions. and designed to cultivate seasonal practices and disciplines that nurture a conscious and inspired relationship with the earth, the elements, and the divine. You will come away with grounded theory and routine, regular, and repeated rhythms and rituals that honor and connect with Earth's seasons and elements as a way to recover your sense of self and the sacred in the very real soil of your daily existence!
“We see quite clearly that what happens
to the nonhuman happens to the human.
What happens to the outer world
happens to the inner world.
If the outer world is diminished in its grandeur
then the emotional, imaginative,
intellectual, and spiritual life of the human
is diminished or extinguished.
Without the soaring birds, the great forests,
the sounds and coloration of the insects,
the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields,
the sight of the clouds by day
and the stars at night, we become impoverished
in all that makes us human.”
Following a community learning circle in the morning, a hearty and wholesome lunch will be served on site that will nourish you for a time of personal rewilding within the Chinook woods. Listen deeply to the numinous natural world within the Listening Circle, a sacred circle of stones set deep within a grove of hemlocks, cedar and fir. Engage in the ancient labyrinth-walking practice as a way to discern your place within the wild web of life. Spend time listening and learning from those with roots, wings, or fur and fold those messages deeper into your soul while you take a personal moment to breath in the peaceful air within the woodland sanctuary. Meditation materials along with wild-crafting supplies will be provided to enhance this process of remembering and reconnecting with the precious and wild more-than-human world.
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. Each quarterly Rewilding Retreat will focus on the sacred themes and practices that correspond to that particular seasonal quadrant, offering new rituals and practices that will deepen one’s presence within the wild world of creation.
What's Included
A one day retreat experience within The Whidbey Institute's Story House and the surrounding wild landscape (begins at 9:00am and ends at 5:00pm)
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
What's Not
Lodging
Travel expenses
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!
2023 adjusted rates account for post pandemic increased costs. 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).
“Blessed is the life lived at a pace that is in sync with the land on which it is lived.”
~ Wendell Berry
“Rewilding is restoring whole relationships.”
2024 price increase reflects the reality of increased costs associated with rental facilities; meal supplies, prep and service; and retreat administrative and on-site support.
Cascade Mountain Rewilding Retreat
Dedicate a weekend during Earth Month to speak to the Earth; to allow the animals to teach you; to listen to the wisdom of the birds of the air and those who live in the rivers (Job 12:7-10). These are all profound sources of sacred guidance as we find our way through the complex realities of our time. This will be a powerful weekend of learning, listening, and eco-spiritual practice!
Individuals and faith-based small groups invited to attend!
“In this age of ecological collapse, I believe an Earth-based spirituality with roots as strong as the deepest keel is as necessary as water and food, if not even more so. Nothing less than a practice based on remaining attuned to the wisdom of the Earth herself will provide the daily grounding each of us needs to stay balanced and centered as portions of the biosphere collapse around us.”
What people are saying about their Rewilding Retreat experience:
“Mary led us through a profound journey to awaken our souls and find our place in the more-than-human world. I am astounded by what I learned this weekend and I expect the aftershocks will continue for a long time.” ~A.K.
“So beautifully skilled in holding the most tender souls and fragile moments with grace, wisdom and understanding. I had the privilege of doing a pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland with this lady last summer. I can't recommend a retreat with her enough- you'll wish you had more days than one.” ~D.C.
“Welcome to my sacred clearing.
Welcome to my thinnest place.
Where God and Breath and Earth converge
and grace us with this Holy Space.
Where we are nature, advocating;
sometimes pleading on our knees
that the wisdom of the birds return.
I am not the Lorax, but I still must speak for the trees.
Speak to the earth and let it touch you.
Pick up the feather, the shell, the stone.
The original scripture is in there speaking;
drink it in deeply, make it your home.
One leaf, one twig, one lizard, one bird;
talk to it with respect.
Honor its place as equal with yours,
care in handling; avoid neglect.
Where is your Geography of Hope?
What landscape of your soul
ignites in you the urgency to stand up
Beside, before, with and as the whole?
Everything we can see is the Incarnation
pulled forth from our loving God’s center.
The emergence of life before and around us
is pleading for us to enter.
You must make the time, you must listen in
Your compass [inside] knows true North.
Like the cry of the hawk, the howl of the wind,
your divine DNA must burst forth!
For in all of creation, for I and for thou,
for Fox Woman Dreaming and kin.
The value of being is always enough
for all to be welcome. Enter in.
So, welcome to my Nemeton.
I am done trying to breathe on my own.
Join me and the earth, the cool water and stars;
its symbiotic, its respectful, its home.”
Photography by April Huizenga April Huizenga Photography and Mary DeJong