HoneyRoot's 2015* Summer Retreat Course Descriptions
2016 Course Schedule
(2016 Course Descriptions will be posted closer to the 2016 event)
THURSDAY - Rooting Down
Embodying the Divine Feminine: A movement exploration into loving ALL of who you ARE
We come together to ground into the beauty of who we are as women, to embrace the messiness and to FEEL it all. Through movement, gentle verbal guidance and self-inquiry you will be invited to embrace yourself in your fullness as a woman. We as women are tender, strong, BIG, courageous, fearful, wild, serene and so much more. What would it be like to move with all of this? To allow all parts of you to be seen, to be known? In this safe container you will have the chance to explore and embody what arises. When we welcome what comes and move and breathe with it, we step into a new level of wholeness and end up feeling the depth of our vitality and aliveness!
Facilitated by: Padma Gordon
Dropping Down Yoga
A Yoga class which promotes themes of rooting: waking up through experiencing the gravity of our animal bodies.
Facilitated by: Sarah Mangion Foxfire
The Spirit of the Plants
Rooted throughout the property where Honeyroot thrives, are some of the most beloved healing plants. We will walk the property and visit these green allies, learning about their healing magic and lore. Open to all ages.
Facilitated by: Brooke Sullivan
*Children Welcome
Melting Barriers to Sisterhood
Something inexplicable happens when we come together with a willingness to open. Even if our bodies feel tight, our hearts feel clutched, or our minds feel distracted, willingness matters. This opening evening event is devoted to seeing each other, to being seen beyond our habits of closure, invited out of habitual ways of moving our energy, into the scary and exciting fullness of our shared enthusiasm and our mutual care. Arrive, as best you can, with a willingness to trust what you feel, to move as yourself, and to accept the invitation of your sisters to give more of your holy juiciness, as you live it. The shared field needs you as you are, needs your willingness to share what your hips, feet, heart and eyes KNOW beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Facilitated by: Shelly Smith
FRIDAY - Turning In
Turning In: Yoga, the Inward Path
Begin your day of Turning In with a journey along the yogic path. We’ll weave mantra (sacred sound), pranayama (breath control) and asana (postures) together, leading us to the experience of pratyahara (drawing our senses inward), visiting the inner sanctum of our personal temple where we access the realms of dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (bliss). Using our bodies as our vehicles and our breathe as our guides, we’ll warm ourselves from the inside out, create physical, mental and emotional spaciousness and step into a ritual space from which to move forward and inward on our day of Turning In. This is an all-levels practice, open to new and seasoned yoginis alike. Please bring a yoga mat.
Facilitated by: Jessica Avila
Nature Meditation
Starting with a brief guided meditation and some gentle movement down by the creek we will open up our senses to receive Mother Earth and spend this precious morning practice time meditating with all of her wild beauty, nourishment and wisdom.
Facilitated by: Stephanie Meux
Opening Her, Awakening Shakti
Inside and deep within this woman's body, lives a wellspring of sacred feminine sensuality or "Shakti." When we tap into this sustainable source of our authentic feminine power, we magnetize to us what is wanted instead of exhausting ourselves in hyper-masculine pursuit of it. With greater access to our Shakti, our natural vibrancy, succulence and abundance flows. We feel more creative, connected and passionate. To support you in more deeply landing in your sensual body and in our collective HoneyRoot field, join Lisa Schrader as she illuminates the three core keys of awakening Shakti using gentle Tantric teachings, meditation, embodied practices, and soul-sharing.
Facilitated by: Lisa Schrader
The Poetry of Aging: Waking up to Essence (Elder Focused Workshop)
Come dive together into the gorgeous wonders of poetry. Together we will allow the interweaving of music, voice and poetic speech to open our bodies, melt our hearts and awaken the wisdom of our souls, even as it drops us into ever deeper and more authentic connection with each other.
This workshop will be an experiential and sensitively guided shamanic journey or "poetry dive" into the depths that poetry evokes. Participants should bring a pen and notebook as there will be an opportunity to do some writing following the experience of the "poetry dive". We will be working the medicine of music and with poems that speak directly, and indirectly, to the experience of growing older, of letting go, of the mystery that opens before us as we allow the process of aging to invite us ever more deeply into the life and the gifts of the inner world.
Facilitated by: Cris Mulvey (Member of HoneyRoot Elder Council)
The Anatomy of Awakening
We will be creating an environment where the conditions are ripe for the translucence of our own form to occur. Through precise awareness, breathe, sound and movement practices our living anatomy can “lite up” and reveal the true intelligence encoded within the ‘forms’ of our bodily functioning. We can become privy to the original intent at the very core of creation. Why is this relevant? Our origin story is a love story. We are living, breathing, and walking Miracles. No matter how much amnesia caused from trauma, pain or suffering that may cloud our experience, the original template of Love is always available to be reclaimed. When we tap into this precious nectar, we become medicine carriers for the world.
Facilitated by: Ajaya Sommers
Vital Body Vital Earth
In the twilight language of the sages, our energy, mind and Source are spoken of as Sun, Moon & Fire. In this class we will learn these three ancient pillars of wisdom that apply so perfectly today in the awakening of ourselves and the Planet. We explore techniques and tools from the plants, breath & body movement that shape energy, balance the mind & bring support to this Divine awakening.
Facilitated by: Brooke Sullivan
*Children 7 and up welcome - must be ok with a brief meditation
The Motion of Emotions: Welcoming Grief, Befriending Anger
Unlocking the energy of anger allows love to flow. Melting frozen fear allows trust to deepen. Surfing the waves of pain allows pleasure to wash over us.
Come get a taste of how to move emotions through the body, rather than having them stuck, bottled, tangled, and frozen in the body. Discover the intrinsic wisdom of your emotions and how they can truly serve you. When you learn how to ride your emotional waves, you connect with your deepest truth and aliveness. We'll practice ways to move from blame and disempowerment to feeling your strength, juiciness, and tenderness. Together, we’ll explore… we’ll experiment… we’ll dance the power and passion that emotional energy provides, and come back into alignment with who we really are!
Facilitated by: Deepika Sheleff
Rooting to the Mother - Enter the Embrace of the Great Mother as the Source of Self Love
A deep dive into the Temple of the Great Mother. Welcome sister to the temple of deep EMBRACE. In this circle we will utilize the breath, movement practices, meditation, and intimate sharing to support us in entering into the heart and womb of the Mother to embody the mystery of I surrender- I receive. In our time in temple we will connect to, and awaken our ancestral roots to our own Mother line, and the Divine Great Mother. As we deepen into the frequency of the Mother we will journey to connect with both the wound and the gift of our own Mother line. In the power of an alchemical cauldron, we will embrace and surrender whatever is in the way of us receiving deep holding, support and love. We will travel together to embody and experience this potent archetype of the Great Mother as She lives within each one of us. Come be embraced in the deep unconditional love, nurturance and healing.
Facilitated by: Elayne Doughty
Yoni Meditation
Bringing attention--loving attention--into the darkness, the sensations, the textures, the tensions and the shape, we will make contact with the wisdom and the guidance system that lives in our yoni. It is in this relationship where healing happens. *This is a fully clothed meditation.
Facilitated By: HoneyRoot Hive
Receiving Song, Finding Voice
We will dive deep into the layers of listening, from our crowns and our hearts, our bellies and our roots. By singing into fear, doubt, and whatever is in our throats, we can learn to trust our voice and speak our truth. We will learn about healing our voices, our fears, and our bodies through song, leading us to share what we create with the world, and be of service to the higher will that wants to give our gift out to this planet and all it’s inhabitants.
Facilitated by: Ayla Nereo
She Moves, Her Body Knows
When a woman moves and experiences her body with attention and devotion, she summons her native ways of inner seeing and embodied knowing and tunes into her sensuous body’s capacity to heal and guide the way forward. In this workshop we ask our bodies what they know about us, our inner landscape, our surroundings, our lives and each other. We let them sense, “see” and intuit, perceiving directly from the felt sense and moving deeper into the ancestral legacy written in the female form. As we call on and embody the Dancing Priestess– an archetype and a heritage as old as the oceans– we remember ourselves as maidens and grandmothers, sisters and midwives at once, and call back the powerful knowledge our bodies have kept about beauty, healing, birth, and transformation.
Facilitated by: Stefana Serafina
Listening to the Wisdom of Your Womb
There is an inner depth of wisdom that resides at the core of our being – in our sacred sanctum that is our womb. Together as sisters we’ll co-create a sacred womb temple for heartfelt sharing of body and soul. We’ll be diving deep to access this inner portal, then gently moving from this deeper space. We’ll also share stories related to our yonis, menstrual cycles, and those deep yearnings that are ready to birth into the world. As we each listen and respond to this deeper wisdom, our lives are enhanced and our femininity flowers on a deeper level!
Facilitated by: Devaa Haley Mitchell
Happy Healthy Hormones - A ten step action plan
This class includes foundational material on the physiology of our endocrine system from a fun and feminine perspective. I will offer ten diet and lifestyle tools for tending to your hormones and creating more balance in your body and your life.
Facilitated by: Sarah Bly
Mama to Mama Listening Circle
When Mamas come together and give each other support through conscious listening the whole tribe benefits. With a conscious listener, a Mama gifts herself the time to feel her feelings, release her stories and return to herself. We will gather as Mamas to learn about the brain science behind conscious listening and then practice it so that we can meet the challenges and joys of nurturing ourselves and our children.
Facilitated by Megan Clemens, Parenting by Connection Practitioner
The Wildish Impulse: Outdoor Sensory Lab
This time together is an invitation and encouragement for us to listen to and honor the wildish impulses which originate in our very bones, in our electricity and our flesh, and which come alive in the sensory feast of the outside.
This is a time to try things your body wants as if you are new to this world, to follow and trust your curiosity and pleasure, to notice the ways that the outside calls you deeper.
This is an opportunity to play and practice together, to catch each other out of the corner of our eye doing what comes naturally, re-membering what we have forgotten, finding our way in the heart of that which is so much bigger than us, and which feeds and revives us all without struggle.
Facilitated by: Shelly Smith and Stephanie Meux
Connection Circle: Open Sharing
This is a time to in circle with the support and witness of some of the HoneyRoot Elders Council and share about what is alive or moving through you, to rest and receive nourishing touch or just to come and listen deeply and with an open heart to you other sisters.
Supported By the Elders Council
Mom and Child Dance Jam
Mom and kids, aunties and elders, come shake and shimmy, prance and play together in a pre dinner dance jam!
Facilitated By: Megan Clemens
SATURDAY - Bridging
Morning Yoga: Build Your Bridge, Open Your Heart
The heart center (anahata chakra) is considered the bridge between the upper and lower chakras, connecting our earthy energy to the cosmic realms, our physical sensations to our subtle body. Together we’ll move through a heart opening asana sequence, including setu bandhasana, bridge pose, and other back-bending, heart-expanding, soul-stirring postures to energize the body and enliven the spirit. This is an all-levels practice, open to new and seasoned yoginis alike. Please bring a yoga mat.
Facilitated by: Jessica Avila
Sensation Meditation: Meditating with the Body
An early morning sit, open to both beginning and experienced meditators. We will begin with some simple stretches to open up the nadis (the body’s channels of energy), move into a short guided mediation to wake up the world of sensation, and move, together, into a silent sit. A deeply nourishing practice you can take home with you.
Facilitated by: Devorah Bry
The Subtle Dance of Inside and Outside: An Exploration of Boundaries
In this sacred container we as women will explore where we begin and end in our physical and energetic bodies. We will dive deeply inside to feel where we are already connected to ourselves and discover how to maintain the connection as we relate to others. In the world, we as women are the caretakers, the ones who nurture our families and our communities, and so often we give to the point of depletion. In this embodied practice space we will discover how to recognize our boundaries and know our limits so that we can stay healthy and in integrity with ourselves. This practice helps to facilitate sense of wellness in the physical, mental and emotional realms as well as truly healthy relationships. In our time together we will dance, pray, play and relate.
Facilitated by: Padma Gordon
Sister Sex Talk
Bringing voice to our sexuality, ripeness and radiance. Talking about Whatever subjects want to be explored in an encouraging, juicy and real space. Embodiment games, boundary exercises and authentic sharing will be at the heart.
Facilitated by: Matia Divitt
The Moving G-Spot: Expanding Bliss to Embrace the Whole of You
How do we root ourselves in bliss as we navigate the unpredictable changes in Life, whether its due to age, health, emotional or spiritual crisis? Your "G-Spot", that current of YOU energy, becomes the conduit of your power - physical/sexual, mental, heart/emotional, and spiritual - not simply an anatomical source of orgasm. In these 90 minutes together, you will discover, name and connect to your own personal G-Spot, as it is, now. You'll learn how to use this energy wisely as a Divine channel for Love, whether it be for making or BEING love, sources from your deepest longing...expressed through the deepest embodiment of your soul. You will walk away with deep self-discovery, as well as practical tools in sourcing from your unique energetic and sexual being.
Facilitated By: Barbara Aman and Sabrina Chaw
Zoo Yoga!
This class is designed to be a super fun way for kids to do yoga; all under the theme of being at the zoo. We will take many of the traditional Hatha Yoga animal poses and create new animal poses to create an enchanted animal atmosphere for calming mental chatter, and cultivating healing in the body. Its amazing to see how much children love to relax deeply, and how healthy it is for them to do so amidst so much stimulation in their lives. This class starts with a short visualization and ends with a relaxing journey of the imagination that kids then get to draw on paper.
Facilitated by: Sarah Mangion Foxfire
*Children Welcome: Open to children of all ages, though Children under 4 should be supervised
Persona Play: Embracing your Shadow and your Light
The bitch, the witch, the good-girl, the know-it-all (and all their friends!) are welcome at this party. Come experiment and reveal hidden wisdom as we make room for the aspects of yourself that you have been keeping at-bay, repressing, feeling shame around, and/or projecting onto other people. There is gold in the energy they hold.
Facilitated By: Devorah Bry
Feminine Nature ~ Mythic Nature
Thru the Art & Play of Storytelling
A delightfully provocative exploration of embodied Storytelling with Sirena Andrea, Creatrix of the YoniVerse Monologues. Sirena will lead us through on an embodied inquiry into our feminine nature ~ igniting your inner storyteller while playfully using our senses as vehicles into your imagination. Perfect for anyone who loves to tell stories to attract all that they love!
Facilitated by: Sirena Andrea
Shadows of Sisterhood: An Embodied Discussion
So many women have experienced significant loss or injury in their womb space. Even the imprint of past sexual experiences can hang out in the womb. Whether it be challenges of pregnancies, miscarriages, abortions, surgeries, or physical injury, our womb spaces can be left with a deep need to be held in safety, to tell its story, to be honored and revered for all it has experienced. This is where healing happens. Come to the conversation of the womb that so often goes unspoken. Bring us your version. Teach us what you know from your experience. You are not alone.
Facilitated by: Devorah Bry
Into-Me-See: Embodying Intimacy
What happens when we bridge the divide between our body and that of another? When our breath, gazes and intentions mingle together as we lay belly to belly and heart to heart? When we invite someone into our inner world and accept the invitation into theirs? Let’s journey together into the realms of emotional intimacy in this lovingly held practice rooted in the tantric tradition where all is embraced and nothing is rejected. Working in pairs we will first co-create an environment of relaxation and safety for the body and sympathetic nervous system to soften into. Once in that space, breath, sound and touch will be our tools in this simple, effective and receptive practice that dissolves our barriers to love and connection, and offers the opportunity to fulfill many of our basic needs that often go underserved or unmet. This practice will be done with clothing on and it is not necessary to come with a partner as we will rotate throughout the session. Please bring a yoga mat, pillow, blanket or anything else that will allow you to comfortably lay on the floor.
Facilitated by: Jessica Avila
Opening to the Healing Power of Sacred Sound
Over the centuries, most every spiritual tradition has used sound for healing. Sound helps to transform energy patterns, reveals measurable effects in the physical body, and facilitates the connection between mind-body-spirit. In this session, we’ll use the voice as our primary sacred tool, weaving together breath, vibration and intention for healing. In this session you’ll melt into an ecstatic space through sound, learn a few tools you can use at home, and come away feeling refreshed and renewed!
Modalities: Chanting, improv singing (light touch), toning, and delightful sound making!
Facilitated by: Devaa Haley Mitchell
Dancing the Feminine-Masculine Continuum
To be a women, fully embodied, means to embrace both the feminine and masculine aspects of our lives. Come explore what it is (and what is feels like) to move and express as receptivity and responsiveness and how that differs from shaping, centering, and penetrating space. The class will include discussion, personal exploration, and partner dancing. No experience necessary.
Facilitated by: Devorah Bry and Matia Divitt
The 7 Layers of Love and Loving
Love is multifaceted, and often confusing. For most of us, some kinds of love are easy to express, while others seems difficult or out of reach. Perhaps you're great at being a good friend, but struggle with your partner. You may be amazing at channeling divine grace, but have a hard time opening sexually, or keeping your word.
We have all struggled with love at some point and over time we have developed ways to protect our feminine heart. In this workshop we'll learn the secret to restoring the flow of connection in each of the seven flavors of love. This is the user manual they didn't give us at school - the keys to creating authentic love and connection. In this sacred, safe space, we will rediscover our natural capacities as lover and beloved.
Facilitated by: Deepika Sheleff
The Path of Motherhood
In this class we will sit in circle as tribe, as women, as mothers, sharing the Path of Motherhood, about our connection to being mother…and becoming Mother.
Through sharing our truth, being seen, & being heard.
We will then weave together in movement, our journey, through dance, ritual, yoga, and partner shares.
Expressing our stories through movement.
Facilitated by: Alison Love
Connection Circle: Open Sharing
This is a time to in circle with the support and witness of some of the HoneyRoot Elders Council and share about what is alive or moving through you, to rest and receive nourishing touch or just to come and listen deeply and with an open heart to you other sisters.
Supported By the Elders Council
Mom and Child Dance Jam
Mom and kids, aunties and elders, come shake and shimmy, prance and play together in a pre dinner dance jam!
Facilitated By: Megan Clemens
SUNDAY - Weaving
Core Embodiment: Continuum Explorations
Through the work of Continuum movement arts we will undulate, spiral, wave, sound and breath our way back home to our royal seat of embodied wholeness and intimacy with Source that we are designed to live and thrive from.
Facilitated by: Ajaya Sommers
Nature Meditation
Starting with a brief guided meditation and some gentle movement down by the creek we will open up our senses to receive Mother Earth and spend this precious morning practice time meditating with all of her wild beauty, nourishment and wisdom.
Facilitated by: Stephanie Meux
For the Next Generation’s Body
Soul Motion Dance/Ritual
Facilitated by: Rev Dev Bry
*Children Welcome
Continuing with Embodiment, Sisterhood and HoneyRoot
Life after HoneyRoot. Transitioning back into our day-to-day. Staying connected.
Facilitated by: Dev, Shelly, Jessica and Stephanie
