Why We Gather

June 29, 2024 juniper stokes

Nothing on this site has been written by AI.

It wasn’t until my thirties that I finally admitted to myself an important truth:

I despise attending festivals. 🙃

And group fitness classes. And camping within 50ft of other people. And even meditation seminars where we’re packed in a room like sardines. Burning Man. 😵‍💫

All the things that are supposed to be fun and good for me…end up feeling overwhelming and exhausting.

As an introvert and empath, crowds can be rough. So when Covid brought us all online, I celebrated the ability to teach from anywhere and reach students from around the world.

I still love the gifts of technology, and have a few online workshops coming up soon, but…

The most recent in-person shamanic workshop I taught here in Bend, OR blew my mind.

While it did take me a good amount of time to energetically recover from facilitating three immersive, in-person days of magic — the experience was 1000% worth it.

The women who gathered together were amazing. Ages ranged from 30s to 70s. Experience ranged from complete beginners to already professionals. And everyone had been through some shit in the past few years.

We needed each other. In the flesh. Our collective energy unfolding and holding, connecting and reflecting. The safety and clarity of our strong, sacred container allowed true magic to awaken within every participant there.

It was incredibly touching to witness these powerful women activate and embrace their divine gifts. The healings and divinations they facilitated for each other were wild to watch. It was as if I was viewing a room of seasoned healers and psychics do their work (and they probably all were in many lifetimes).

During our third day together, I facilitated an anointing ceremony. As I channeled the great goddess Isis, divine energy flowed from my heart, through my hands, and into the oil, where aromatic plant allies activated and attuned the power of this energy further before each participant received her blessing.

My dear friend and assistant for the workshop, Heather Porter, then guided everyone through a Celtic-style ceremony for receiving a reflection of their heart’s medicine.

Throughout our time together, we danced and sang. Meditated and channeled. Unraveled old narratives and their disempowering hangovers. And began to embody the divinity we are each here to hold.

As a facilitator, I loved witnessing all of this in person. I loved feeling the healing energy our group created. And I loved witnessing myself in this role, my decades of training coalescing into the exact workshop I wish I could have attended earlier in my journey.

What struck me most, though, was how every woman told me that this was exactly what she’d been looking for.

I’m now more motivated than ever to continue offering in-person experiences in addition to my online offerings. And the next one will be in September…

Soul Retrieval: The Shamanic Art of Becoming Whole

Soul Retrieval is my most requested class, and I’m delighted to be able to offer it at the most beautifully magical location in Sisters, OR this September.

Together, we will meet for five days of ritual, healing, learning, and connecting with each other and spirit.

Soul Retrieval is the art of integration. Of restoring those parts that have become fragmented. Of becoming who you truly are, eternally whole and loved.

And, Soul Retrieval is a gift we can share with our world. We can restore wholeness to our communities. We can release the energetic trappings of inherited trauma. And we can tend the Earth with our spiritual gifts.

Applications for Soul Retrieval are now open, and I hope you’ll consider joining me IN PERSON ;) Please reach out with any questions.

May we all find the communities that light up our souls, even if small doses for introverts like me ;)

Alchemessence™

Why We Gather

Soul Retrieval: The Shamanic Art of Becoming Whole

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