Matriarch Lodge and Elder Grove

The Matriarch Lodge and Elder Grove are where the backbone and keel of the gathering are held. Here the wisdom of gathered years pours into the community to nourish, teach, steady and guide the youngers. Here are the weavers, weaving the context and storyline of where we come from and where we are going. This is the place where our full village ceremonies and rituals are woven.

 

Hearth and Mother’s Den

The Hearth is the center of the village. The source of life that holds the warmth of the womb and the sweetness of Mama’s milk. Here, we sit at the Mother’s feet. This is the temple of nourishment.  Tea and food is bountiful.  The smell of broth on the fire will invite you in. The softness of rose can tend to your heart. You are cared for and you are welcomed, just as you are.  Have the Hearth be your resting place. A gravity point for you to drop back into your center.  Your place for song and crafting.  This space is for all women, in all seasons of  Maiden, Mother, Mages and Crone, to gather and tell stories.  The sounds of babies suckling and children laughing will bring you back home.  Two interactive altars will be here to serve all and intend to inspire the hearth in every woman.

Within the Hearth lives the Mother’s Den. A separate lounge just a few steps away through a living breezeway path that will guide Mothers and their young to the nesting grounds. It is quiet in the den. This space glows with tenderness and soothes like the spirit of peppermint. The den emanates the sweet breath of life, for that is what it is filled with. Here, intimate circles for the journey of motherhood will be held.

 

Maiden Path

We are inviting our daughters who are in the midst of adolescence, at this precious and tender time of first budding, to come together to be embraced by, and woven into, the larger community. This is an opportunity for our girls to be supported and celebrated as they claim their power and birthright as women. The maidens will have the opportunity to see themselves and find their place within the greater context of the woman’s soul journey, and to orient to the specific tasks and gifts of their particular stage. We will welcome these young ones into the mysteries, teaching them the ways in which their Sacred Self is a temple that contains and expresses the same rhythms and power of Gaia herself. Our girls will begin to learn the arts of tending this temple, inside and out, with reverence and devotion. Threading the themes of womb wisdom, intuition, social belonging, sexual self-knowledge, confidence and personal sovereignty- our maidens will receive an awareness of the magic and medicine inherent in this time of blossoming.
We will have two age groups, 11-14 and 15-18. On Friday we will come together to bond the circle, getting to know one another with games, crafts and heart shares. Friday night will be a sleepover in the Maiden Clubhouse to deepen into our sisterhood, sharing stories and song around a ceremonial fire. They will experience a Menarche ceremony Saturday to ritually cross this threshold into the Circle of Women, receiving blessings from their families, Elders and guides along with the tools and teachings to resource themselves for the richness of the journey ahead. On Sunday we will bring the Elders and the Maidens together in council to integrate and ground the learnings of the weekend, allowing the voices of experience to mirror and reflect the voices of innocence, that we may come into the deep resonance of the fullness of the cycle from its conception to its completion.

Kid’s Camp

The kids camp is the children’s village within the village – designed to foster connection, creativity, curiosity, truth, presence and play. This space is an invitation for the children 5+ to journey with the land, the elements, and one another through activities, crafts, and guided field trips.

 

Temples of Mystery and Learning

The temples are not based on age but rather gifts and mysteries of the feminine we feel are essential to presence and cultivate.

 

Temple of Gaian Eros

The Temple of Gaian Eros is a space devoted to embodied, sensual union with nature as living, loving praise. We are the earth. We are the bodies, hearts, minds, and voices of Gaia. She is our muse beloved, alluring us to feel her, to move her, to embody her and to experience all expressions of her creative power. With courage and curiosity, we ignite our awakening hearts in the light of love and nurture our capacity to be intimate with all facets of life. In recognition of our interconnectedness, we open to viscerally remember our innate belonging in earth, in our bodies, in the web of life, and in the forest and village of human kin. We come together in celebration of each being’s unique spark of creative luminosity as a generative contribution to the greater whole. As instruments of dedication to the earth and all beings, we aim our eros as arrows of compassion, channeling collective power into sacred, loving action.

 

Forest Temple of Wild Mystery

This is a nongendered lodge for shapeshifters, edgewalkers, visionaries and those betwixt and between. It is a place on the outskirts of the village to attune to the wild, the feral, the unconforming, the medicine becoming. This is a mysterious place of descent, of transformation and deconforming, where we court the liminal, the unseen, the moon and the deep power and truth within. Here we welcome those in the unbecoming state of the Molt. It beings leaving known roles and identities. In this space you will be invited to feel your untameable wildness, the transition you are in, the medicine within, and the more-than-human guides offering imagery to guide you to shed a role, an identity, a life passage and open into deeper knowing of yourself as a mythic being.

 

Earth Temple

The Earth Temple serves as a bridge between the natural world and the human realm. The wisdom of the natural world has the power to heal and restore our souls and the relationship we all have with our divine mother earth. We will share skills to leave you feeling empowered and ready to transform your relationship with the land you love. Let us create an earth inspired living alter and walk through this portal together.
Feel supported as you further come home to yourself and your belonging here on our beloved home planet. We will share active, conscious principles and skills for co-creating with the natural world. The invitation is for you is to engage with the wisdom of the Earth Temple as a space to feel rooted, nourished, and connected. This nature inspired, shared space serves as a safe nest to ground to the earth, learn, sing and co-create together.

 

Sanctuary of the Healing Arts

The Healing Sanctuary at Forest and Village this year is a sweet, soft yin space ~ a place to come home to yourself whenever needed, to be heard, to be seen, and to be held. Here, you’ll find offerings that are both deeply restorative and inspiring, supporting and empowering your journey as it unfolds within you and through the collective. This sacred space is of service to the whole, providing herbal remedies to uplift and support your experience. Within the sanctuary, you will find a central altar and circle space, an apothecary filled with carefully curated plant medicines, and cozy nooks for bodywork, energy work, and other healing modalities. Come for tea and reflection, to process and integrate, or for first aid if needed. A wide array of remedies will be available, with a special focus on nervous system support. The sanctuary is lovingly held by Heather and Lyssy, along with other incredible women offering their healing gifts.

 

Temple of Ancient Arts

The Temple of Ancient Arts is a sanctuary for slow, intentional living—where creation flows from heart to hand, and devotion becomes a way of being. Ancient art is not just something we make; it is alive in how we listen, how we move, and how we honor the sacred within the everyday. It calls us into presence, inviting us to witness the beauty of simply being. This interactive temple space is woven with intention—to honor, exercise, and explore the muse of creation within us all.
Throughout the weekend, a living altar will hold space for reflection, with journal prompts, offerings to the muse, and hands-on creative projects that invite meditative exploration as a way in to individual and collective artistry. Here, we gather in reverence for the art of ritual. Through workshops on sacred adornment and the crafting of ritual tools, we tend to our inner and outer altars—kindling a creative fire that extends beyond this gathering, infusing our homes and daily lives with meaning. We welcome you to visit at any time—to create, to be, to listen, to let the muse move through you.

 

Shrines

The shrines are tended spaces to pray together and alone.

 

Grief Shrine

Grief, Death, and Transformation: Your grief is the precious gift of your open heart. Each human heart holds immeasurable grief because it can hold immeasurable love, and everything we love, we will lose. In this time of Great Turning, we are faced with incomprehensible loss. Our hearts are being called upon to hold space for Grief as magnificent warriors of peace. In order to transform this grief into praise and right action, we must come together and create spaces where the energy can move and be transmuted by Gaia. We are devoted to ancient technologies and modern insights that help us take grief out of the shadows and place it back into the heart of community life. At Forest and Village, all of our grief, rage, and love is welcome. There will be altars and shrines set up for us to visit at any time, while the tendril of Grief-tending will spiral through our different Temples throughout the weekend. Because Grief is so central to our love and embodied right action, we recognize the ways it touches us at every stage of Life. During Forest and Village, we will allow the dance of Grief to swirl with the other Temples, and moments to drop into Grief, Death, and Transformation will present themselves in mysterious ways.

 

Ancestor Shrine

Through a path in the woods, woven between trees, live the echos of the beings all life has been birthed from. Each of us is but a stitch, within a thread that is our lineage.. all these threads are woven together to create the tapestry of humanity. The Ancestors Shrine is a space for collaborative storytelling and art creation to remember and honor exactly that. All Forest & Village attendees are invited to bring printed photos and outdoor friendly symbols of your lineage, family, or ancestry to be woven into, placed nearby, or hung within the living weaving we will co-create throughout our time together. We are here together, with all the gifts.. the burdens.. the uniqueness of our Ancestry. Here is where BIWOC, queer, & Adoption affinity space will be held — to honor the living ancestors that we each are. The Ancestors Shrine is a concentrated portal to hear the silent voices, that exist around and through us at all times. Come celebrate, grieve, meditate, feel.. when called upon — the ancestors hold you completely.

The Village Commons

Our central spaces for ceremony, information and feeding.

 

Wisdom Fire

The Wisdom Fire is at the center of the village and is where we hold full camp ceremonies in the evening.

 

Info Hive

This is a place to find out what is happening around the village and serves as our information relay station.

 

Kitchen

Our kitchen is rooted in co-creation and collaboration with the land to bring deep nourishment to the village to fuel our prayers, our tears, our ceremonies and our becoming. The kitchen witches will be humming with juicy abundance and love to provide a rainbow of offerings to nourish all of your senses with healing care and joy infused in every dish. We will be serving 6 vegan gluten free meals with dairy and gluten sides.