Revel in the beauty, joy, and untamed essence of women
You are invited and welcomed
We are creating an intimate space of nurture, discovery and becoming, where you can revel in intimate relationship with the natural world.
In these times of transition, as the shape of the old world gives way and calls for the new to be born, the role of women’s knowledge, wisdom, and access to hear the voice of this planet is being called upon. We need each other, we need support and we need to remember who we are.
Come to find connection, community, rest and play, as you dive to the depths with your sisters.
Come to explore and reclaim the power of your words and the potency of your own presence.
It is now vital for the truth of who we are to emerge and be expressed on behalf of the world that we love.
It’s time for the truth of who we are to take its place and find its unique and vital voice.
How do we find that voice and feel our way home to ourselves?
We do it together.
You’re authentic expression is being called into belonging.
The Journey: an Overview
You are invited into deep circle, ceremony and celebration.
This journey has 3 main components:
INTIMACY WITH NATURE
Feminine nature is nature embodied. We are not here to be acceptable, tamed rivers of acquiescence, we are here to embody the outrageous sensuality and power of wild nature, raw truth, and authentic responsiveness.
Discover the deep, enduring belonging as you let nature’s voice speak through you. Develop your unique voice and learn techniques to commune with nature’s intelligence.
INTIMACY WITH SISTERS
Discover the beauty of conscious togethering as a path to potent reflection, revelation, and healing. Your presence is alchemy waiting to happen. Through daily activities we will enhance our capacity for presence, embodiment, deep listening and reflection, compassion, and acceptance.
INTIMACY WITH SELF
Come to rest, restore, and connect. Tap the depths of compassion and acceptance that free your energy and liberate aspects of self long exiled. Fall back into the arms of your own embrace and relax within yourself. Dance. Journal. Paint. Watch the sun rise.
YOUR ALCHEMISTS
Leah Lamb, MSW, collaborates with story as a tool for self awareness, social change, and community building.
She has authored short stories, documentaries, and award-winning PSA’s about the environment. She produced and hosted The Green Channel on the Emmy-award-winning television network, Current TV, and has written for Fast Company, Spirituality & Health Magazine, National Geographic News Watch, and Huffington Post,
Her education in theater includes studying the Eric Morris technique, the Meisner technique at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC, and apprenticing at The Williamstown Theater Festival. Her love of the arts as a doorway to social change came alive when she began writing and producing to organize against the Iraq war, PIECING IT TOGETHER and ENGAGE. But it is her love of wilderness that took her to the threshold of listening. She worked as a wilderness guide for seven years, traveling from Alaska, to Nepal, to Mexico, and to the deserts of the southwest.
Leah created the format of Storytelling Ceremonies, (a process designed to alchemize and integrate the teachings of the story) which have toured in LA, San Francisco, and NYC. Her mystical storytelling, known as Soul Stories, provides people an opportunity to explore their archetypal structure and examine their lives through the metaphors and symbols that present in their consciousness.
Clare Dubois is the founder of TreeSisters.org, a feminine nature based organisation inspiring the world’s women to take shared leadership around tropical reforestation. TreeSisters reflects Clare’s exploration of the links between feminine consciousness and Nature’s intelligence. She and her team experiment overtly to discover how to call forth the unique capacities and creativity of women on behalf of the trees. Currently funding over 2M trees a year, they are calling for all of us to help them reach a goal of a billion trees a year as fast as we possibly can in the face of accelerating climate change.
Clare is known for her direct, catalytic energy; her whole systems approach to behaviour change and her unending loyalty and love for the natural world. For two decades she created behaviour change processes within the personal growth and social change sectors, and volunteered for three years as the UK co-ordinator for a massive agro-forestry initiative in southern India called Project GreenHands (PGH) before initiating TreeSisters. In her own life, her aim is to reclaim balance, rediscover freedom and health and to be 'walking permission' for those who are fed up of being held back, and just want to have a go.
Testimonials:
Leah lives in story, it resonates in her being – as a teller, as a writer/thinker, as an activist/world changer, as a contemporary artist rooted in the ancient. She knows the alchemy of myth and the miracle of life, and the tangible magic of language performed.
-Joe Lambert, Founder, Center for Digital Storytelling
"Kind yet firm, loving yet fierce, Leah expertly marries the magic with the mundane as she fluidly guides the unfolding of every soul's unique story. Her ears listen for the deeper currents flowing beneath the words and actions, her words call each participant more fully to life, her eyes sparkle with the radiance of aligned purpose, and her heart sings the siren song of remembrance and returning.
Leah's work is an imperative service to the great turning of our world and culture, and her devotion to the mystery invites all that work with her to step into their unique embodied expression of medicine and purpose... If you are ready for true transformation of the tales you tell and the germination of the seeds of growth within your soul, step into Leah's circle and surrender to the greater story that is longing to live through you.
-Hannah Jermstad
'Clare can be a lightning bolt. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, most of all she helps me register truth with every fiber of my being. It's like being loved awake in a completely irreverent yet humble way. Just wow.' Marianne Boxton, New York
'Working with Clare has changed my life. Literally. I got brave, I got honest and I found parts of myself I had no idea we're there, and I felt so safe, accepted, loved and seen on the way through. What a privilege.'
-Mandy Chaser. Brighton U.K.
'Clare is a truth talker. The wisdom that comes through her is a relief and a challenge. Working with her is something I hope to do again and again.'
-Ruthe. Santa Monica
Want to explore if this workshop is for you?
Who are you when you let your longings breathe and find voice, when you let the deep instinctual river of feminine knowing rise within you and inform the path of your heart, when you bow to the mystery within and stop trying to control your reality?
‘Woman’ is an experience requesting rediscovery.
She is asking to be revealed.
She is asking for your breath and your bones to remember her flow and to welcome her home.
If you have stories
That are ready to be laid to rest,
Ready to be rewritten
And new stories that are asking to be and embodied,
then this retreat is for you.
Transform your hard to tell stories into your medicine
YOU HAVE STORIES
Some may be ready to be laid to rest.
Some may be ready to be recalibrated.
And some may hold wisdom left behind still living
in the wake of the thresholds you have crossed.
You have new stories asking to be embodied
and lived out loud.
And together we will weave
the wisdom
from your past into the future.
Arrive at Bell Valley Retreat in the afternoon, get settled and walk the land -- dotted with oak and madrone -- before we gather for tea and introductions. On this day we'll begin to tease apart the many layers of the archetypes that live within us-- ancient wise woman, modern day meme, feminist icon, mother, daughter, wife, sister...In the evening, after dinner, we'll have our first ritual and open our work together in a sacred, connected, gentle way.
The Journey:
July 12th - 17th
During this workshop we will experience:
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Delicious, organic, farm-to-table meals.
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Yoga, movement, and song.
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Inspiring, guided rituals.
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Land-based medicine making, herbcraft and plant lore.
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Solo and group time to hike and listen to the land
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Rest in the hot tub under the stars
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Develop your mythic imagination through facilitated writing exercises
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Develop your wisdom, threshold, and teaching stories
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Sacred time to integrate & replenish in nature, surrounded by the quiet coziness of the valley.
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Deep sleep and potent dreaming in starlit-silence, without screens, email, and the daily buzz of city life.
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Sweet, intimate sistering and togethering in collaboration, creating, and mischief.
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Our final evening will culminate in a full moon ritual
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Our final day will include a cozy breakfast and heartfelt morning ritual, we'll gather our selves, our belongings, our new visions and intentions, unwind from the sacred container we have created, and plan on leaving the land around noon.
ACCOMMODATIONS & FOOD
Bell Valley Retreat Center...
You will be staying at Bell Valley Retreat, a beautiful private ranch with magical mountain pond, swimming dock, and deck for sultry sunny days (though we're much more likely to be immersed in the pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof at this time of year -- its a sweet time to go inward and be with story, song, and community).
There are a range of sleeping options, from shared dorms and rooms to your own private room.
Bell Valley is a majestic setting located in the serene hills of the Anderson Valley. The space is both rustic and elegant, and is truly magical.
The 600-acre venue includes old growth trees, lush gardens, fire pits, swimming pond, varied, unique accommodations and access to over 600 acres of wild California land and more than 5 miles of developed trails to hike and explore. Bell Valley is home to a myriad of wild animals including bobcats, foxes, pigs, turkeys, grouse, quail, and many others, and holds redwood forests, oak knolls,the Navarro River, wineries, breweries, restaurants, and farms.
Cozy Communal Space
A cozy spot shared with 6-8 people in the Bunk House.
The Bunk House is a freshly renovated space with a separate entrance
from the main building, with its own private deck, kitchen, and full bath
(with claw-foot tub and shower). The Bunk House’s unique layout centers around an octagonal living room with an open kitchen, creating a space filled with natural light -- it's a great place for a group of friends or women's circle, should you decide to come together. We also have some shared spaces in the Barn, just over the knoll. Includes all meals, herbs and materials, guided workshops and daily ritual.
Deluxe Semi-Private Space
A semi-private room in one of the four original guest rooms in the Toll House, which is a Grand Victorian nestled in the center of the Valley. Originally a stop on the toll road from Boonville to Ukiah (the town “over the hill”), the Toll House served, in later years, as a restaurant, bed & breakfast, and residence. Includes all meals, herbs and materials, guided workshops and daily ritual.
Early bird special has ended
Private Room
Your own sacred sanctuary in the Toll House: the Porch Room, the Green Room, the Red Room, or the Blue Room. Includes all meals, herbs and materials, guided workshops and daily ritual.
We are both committed to focusing the resources of our commitment to the next 7 generations. 10% of all registrations go to support our organizations. We also offer an opportunity to go above and beyond your own private room and support work-trade and scholarship opportunities for activists, single mothers, people of color, queer folk, student. We aim to make this work as accessible as possible to everyone who feels the call, and enrolling at this rate helps spread this work even more
Please email info@leahlamb.com for more information on how to be an sister activist.
10% of registration Supports Tree Sisters & The Whale Dreamer
Glamping Option
in Luxe Bell Tents
Just bring your bag and the rest is waiting for you. You will sleep in a beautiful bell tent on a platform with two twin beds, actual memory foam comfy cot beds-- no air mattresses or thermarests here. Linens, blankets, towels, and pillows are all provided. Tents are stocked with fans, heaters, and bed foot warmers. You will sleep in nature with luxurious comfort. You will have access to lounging indoors around a fireplace, indoor and outdoor showering options, and hanging out in any of our cozy communal spaces during the day as well as enjoying your own glamping deck space.
Filled
We have two work exchange positions available. Please tell us a bit about yourself when you inquire below for details.
Over the years she has developed original recipes, along with tried and true favorites, that offer health benefits without sacrificing taste. She experiences cooking as an art, and includes prayer and beauty into her dishes, and prides herself in being able to take someone's unique food preferences and turn them into exciting meals!
Meet Our Chef
Mira Nussbaum will nourish us. She honors the sacred process of cooking and eating, seeing it as magic and medicine, connecting us to the earth, to our bodies, and to each other. As part of this mission, she tries to offer food that is grown, harvested, transported and cooked with awareness and integrity. She chooses fresh ingredients with little or no processing or packaging to bring you each item in its most natural and vibrant form.
Mira is passionate about creating food that is both delicious and deeply healing. After almost two decades of cooking for families, and large groups, she found that many people have sensitivities to food and require specific diets to meet their needs and preferences.
Are you ready to join us?
This workshop is designed for women.
Open the channels to receiving.
Explore your sovereignty.
There are no prerequisites for this retreat, and we encourage people who are new to ritual, storytelling, and experienced practitioners to attend.
This retreat is an immersive deep-dive.
You will have an opportunity to explore your edges.
You will discover, or rediscover, or uncover new forms of magic.
You will have the opportunity to lean into a community where you can explore transforming belief systems and stories that no longer serve you.
There is space for laughter and tears.
You may meet a soul mate. You will definitely find community.
If you're a "yes" to all of that, we would love to have you!