ILLUMINATING THE DARK
Reclaiming Our Inner Wisdom
Residential Retreat | Aug 17 ~ 18, 2019 | Coos Bay, OR
“ Wisdom can reveal the light hidden in dark times; but it requires that we face the darkness in ourselves. People may desire pearls of wisdom, yet most are unwilling to descend to the depths where the pearls wait to be found. Wisdom involves a necessary descent into the depths of life, for that alone can produce ‘lived knowledge’ and a unified vision.”
~ Michael Meade ~
This residential retreat offers an invitation to embark on an alchemical journey of reclaiming our inner wisdom through learning the lost skill and art of broken-heartedness. Through experiential group process, ways of council, earth-honoring ritual, storytelling, poetry, and song, we will engage with the themes of Grief, Love, Exile, Belonging, Elderhood, and Death, as initiatory rites of passage that guide us toward maturity and sovereignty.
By coming together in a circle of mutual sharing and honoring in community we can begin to metabolize and transform all that we are feeling in the turbulent times we are collectively living through. We will reconnect with what we most cherish and value, explore ways to call in new inspiration and vision for our lives and for our world, and renew and restore our commitments to caring for ourselves, each other, and the Earth.
Drawing from the work of Michael Meade, Francis Weller, Martin Prechtel, and Joanna Macy we will co-create an alchemical container within which to travel deeply and illuminate the inner gold within our hearts. In communion with ourselves, each other, the land, and the ancestors we will cultivate courage, restore vitality, and increase our capacity to respond to the challenges of our lives and of our world with compassion and wisdom.
“ We are living in a time when every one of us is going to have to make the descent. All of us. Not in some inflated way,
but "with the grandeur of our ordinary tears", because it is what defines us as true human beings. It is simply
the right way to behave. If we can't find our mythic ground, then we have little ground.
~ Martin Shaw ~
Lara Lwin Treadaway facilitates healing in community, weaving ways of council, cross-cultural ritual, poetry, music, storytelling, and song. She believes that communal grief work, ancestral healing, earth reconnection, and the creative arts are sacred pathways to restoring deep belonging within ourselves, between each other, and with the natural world. Lara's personal story includes many initiations through grief, loss, and trauma, leading to a hard-won respect for the alchemical journey of transmuting pain into medicine for the world.
DETAILS
DATES: Saturday, August 17, 2019 ~ Sunday, August 18, 2019
TIMES: Saturday, 10:00 - 7:00 pm | Sunday, 10:00 - 1:00 pm
LOCATION: Coos Bay, OR (address given on registration)
RECIPROCITY: Suggested Sliding Scale $150 ~ $350
Work trade and scholarships are available. No-one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please enquire.
Click here for more details on location, accommodations, and a list of items to bring
Space is limited. Early registration recommended.
For any questions please contact Lara:
“ The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door.
If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés ~
TESTIMONIALS
from previous retreats led by Lara Lwin Treadaway
"I can’t even begin to say how beautiful, brilliant, deep, delicious, wise, impactful, meaningful, moving, powerful, fierce, profound,
real and deeply healing this gathering was. I spent a year at Kalani-Honua on the Big Island of Hawaii following two years at
Esalen so\I have experienced many healing events, retreats and workshops, and I have to say that I was so thoroughly
cleansed, impressed, moved, touched, wrung out, inspired and lifted up by this Retreat that I still can’t believe it.
I highly recommend this experience to everyone I know! Amazing work!!! Amazing!!!"
~ Montgomery Norton, San Luis Obispo, CA
"This was one of the most rich and beautiful days of my life. I did not know how, but felt a need to grieve all that I had not for so
long... and to look for answers in that unacknowledged pain and sorrow. Lara held an impeccably clear, loving space for
all of us to do just that. I came away having made friends with my sadness and peace with the anger that protects it.
I continue to feel a sense of peace as I let the grief walk beside me, no longer judged or hindered by fear."
~ Erica Indrani Eddy, San Luis Obispo, CA
"Lara is an extraordinary spirit and a skillful facilitator. The container she created felt incredibly safe and inclusive
allowing me to do very deep work. This work is much-needed balm for healing the collective."
~ Jana Holm, Portland, OR
"This work was very powerful and transformative for me and I highly recommend it. I cannot say enough about you Lara
and the safe space you held communally. You are masterful at what you do, and so clearly and beautifully
committed to helping heal the planet with this work. Deep bow of gratitude.”
~ Laura Ghiringhelli Knutson, San Luis Obispo, CA
"Lara’s insight, knowledge and compassion to serve people through the process of grief is so powerful and wise.
It’s very evident she has devoted herself to this much needed practice of healing. The love and
acceptance she evokes in this work is truly moving and powerful."
~ Gina Shuman, San Luis Obispo, CA
"If you want a deeply poignant and absolutely beautiful experience, I most highly recommend this sacred work. If you
at all interested, go. If you are curious, go. If you are doubtful, go. If you think this is for you or if you
think this is not for you, go. You will be forever blessed and eternally grateful."
~ Chante Dao, Hugo, OR
"So much gratitude Lara for leading this life changing event. The village we created was stronger than I imagined possible,
and carried me to depths I've not reached in so long. Gratitude to all my villagers too, for embracing my
grief and beauty and strength. May all share in this powerful healing."
~ Öcean MacConnell Liff-Anderson, Corvallis OR
"This retreat opened up the pain of deep unresolved guilt, resentment and anger I held for my mother and allowed me to see
who she was and why for the first time. It was a true epiphany that I wouldn't have had without being
present in this beautiful circle Lara gave us. I feel I am at peace for the first time in my life."
~ Robin Clark, Coos Bay, OR
"Each time I tell of this experience to a friend they are amazed and my story becomes a little more complete and clearer to me.
You blessed us all with this gift. You truly created a sacred space, of trust, holiness and safety.
What a combination. Thank you so much, Lara."
~ Lois Williams, Coos Bay, OR