Deep Remembering Retreat


An intimate women’s gathering in the mountains near Bologna, Italy,

5 - 11 September 2022

We will journey through the deep, wild feminine for 6 days of embodied earth wisdom, movement, song, ceremony, and empowered sisterhood

reawaken the deep feminine

Shift from patterned mind to fully embodied expansivity and awaken to your truest essence surrounded by an incredible group of women, all showing up to connect and grow.

Protected by the Italian mountains and forest, full permission is given to be free, expansive, and fiercely creative.

our gatheting

We create the expansive space to explore our inner world and journey into the deep feminine, rising Her from the underworld where she has been exiled for the past 4,000 years.

Weaving ritual, ceremony, movement, song, breath, art, and playful exploration we bring create an empowered community to invoke healing, transformative growth, and nourishment for the soul.

Our journey will be guided by elemental wisdom, seasons, and the seven sacred directions.

We honor the feminine approach to rest, play, and productivity - a cyclical way of being that flourishes with the rising and falling of tides and celebrate life in beautiful equilibrium.

Through somatic movement, platonic touch, multi-medium expression, and deep connection, we remember our fiercely compassionate wild natures and activate our deepest potential.

our flow.

Gentle mornings of movement, meditation, song and touch lead us into various activities and workshops throughout the day, all settled into cyclical, intuitive rhythm with the group. Ending each day with practices to open dreamscapes, relax the nervous system and connect through unhinged creativity. We will gather together in ceremony and ritual, honouring elemental and womb wisdom.

our practices.

  • We believe in the power of movement. Reconnecting to the language of our body, to expand our capacity for self-healing and flow in our life. Allowing us to get into a feeling state, releasing stuck energies and simply feeling more alive.

    We will practice different styles of yoga (tantra, vinyasa, yin & restorative), always embracing a deeply embodied approach, where is not about forcing your body into any shape that feels counter intuitive.

    However our practices will expand beyond traditional yoga classes. Exploring intuitive movement, creative expression and dance.

    We offer a safe container with the flexibility to move intuitively with the group together.

  • Using our voices as medicine, we have the power to liberate our channels of expression and release embodied tension from past conditioning. The alchemy of voice and sound has immense potential to connect us more closely with our unique healing gifts as we still the mind and become completely present.

    Singing and listening together is a deeply ancestral practice – it is our innate way of being in community, celebrating life. Working with our voices also enables us to channel emotion and creative expression. Combining technique with play, we invite you to explore your authentic voice in a safe space, connected in supportive sisterhood.

  • Gathering in ritual and ceremony has been an integral part of human existence since the beginning of humanity. Ceremony is our way to remember that we are part of a larger circle, interconnected and whole together.

    Rituals guide us through life, providing meaning as we make sense of the world around us, as well as the world within.

    During the retreat we want to explore different rituals and practices that have been shared with us by our teachers, rooting in tantra & shamanism.

    For us, this is an intuitive practice that brings us closer to a magical, healing sense of ‘otherness’ or spirit. Francis Weller says it perfectly - When we cross the threshold and enter into the healing ground of ritual, we are able to pass into a territory that grants us permission to be authentically who we are. He continues - We need the invisible hands of Spirit to shelter us, to support us, and to offer us the nourishing comfort that comes from the Other World. This concert between the human and the sacred in ancient; it is held in the bones. Trust this bond. It is our healing ground.

  • Loving ourselves starts with self-care. We cannot share our gifts and energy if our cup is half empty. The best way to serve others is by serving ourselves first.

    Feeling grounded and at home in our own body is an essential part of this journey to deep self-love.

    During our retreat, we would love to share practices of self-love with you. Practices that we learned along our journey and found deeply nourishing e.g. ayurvedic walking massage, working with herbs and incense, meditation, value & boundaries workshop.

    We want to provide tools that you can take away with you and incorporate into your daily life. Practices to honour and empower yourself.

  • We believe that time for self-reflection and integration is needed while you are moving through a deep transformational process. Reflecting on our shared experiences opens up spaces of deep connection and trust.

    We invite you to participate in our group reflections, enjoying the beauty of true sisterhood, where we can feel held and supported by our new found family in a way that honours our ancestrally embedded need for real community.

Nestled on top of a hill, we can find peace and serenity and journey deep within during our gathering.

our home.

we are gathering at a hidden, charming old farmhouse.

Set in the poetic Italian hills and forest near Bologna, we will be surrounded by beautiful nature, with charming old walls to cocoon and welcome us to unwind and re-wild. Feel immediately at home with plenty of spaces to relax, read, write, meditate and simply be. 

 
 
 
 

with plenty of space to grow.

Our venue has a wonderful yoga shala that peers out across the forest and mountain. You can expect the sunrise to bless your body every morning. We will also take one of our yoga flows to another mountain top at a castle ruin (pictured here).

 
 
 

our local land.

Down the road we will venture into Tuscany to find a magical forest and river where we will make a beautiful ceremony. From our home, a 40 minute meandering walk through the forest and old lanes leads us to the local medieval town, where there is a farmers market and bustling local Italian life. You will have free time to explore town and enjoy a lunch out at a local restaurant.

our cuisine.

The preparation of food and drinks will be lovingly assembled by an incredible catering team with locally sourced organic seasonal produce. Our menu is vegetarian with vegan and gluten free options available - please do express your dietary requirements when you submit to join us.

We will share hearty and wholesome daily brunches and dinners as a family, buffet style and there will always be fruit, tea and fresh herb or lemon infused water accessible. Our menu is creative and flows with our journey through elemental wisdom, seasons and life cycles.

space holders.

Veronica Stanwell

Veronica is a Multidisciplinary Artist, Voice and Embodiment Teacher and Holistic guide who honours an embodied path of ancestral wisdom and remembrance. She is the founder of Rooted Healing, where deep exploration into our kinship with the living world and with spirit or soul is activated through transformational gatherings, workshops and growing community lead resources. She also hosts the Rooted Healing Podcast, available on all of the main platforms.

A childhood immersed in the rugged Welsh countryside entangled Veronica into the natural world in a very visceral, intimate way. She grew up entranced by the power of story, the perspective of ‘other’ and the sensation of transformation, which led her into a career in the theatrical arts for 8 years.

A wild journey with her own health lead Veronica away from the city to Latin America, where she worked closely with sacred healing plant medicines and ancient traditions that reconnected her soul to an indigenous experience of the natural and spiritual world. She continues to be a student of shamanic reciprocity with life.

She is an experienced yoga teacher of Iyengar and Indra Devi lineage and never ceases to expand her learning and facilitation in practices that connect us to the magic and wonder of life.

 

Pia Sewelies

Pia is a facilitator for ceremonial & embodied awakening experiences. She is a yoga & somatic movement teacher, and a student of non - dual Saiva Tantra and ancient shamanic healing rituals. Pia transmutes ancient practices and traditions into a modern day language, bridging the gab for deeply transformative and nurturing transcultural experiences.

She is the founder of Our Future Is Ancient - an organisation that is weaving a cross-cultural network, preserving ancient wisdom, to fuel individual & collective awakening through transformational experiences, ceremonial gatherings, courses and workshops, in pursuit to break with the old linear paradigm and to allow us to expand our minds and explore alternative ways to healing & growth.

Pia will be guiding embodied, somatic based practices to allow for a deep reconnection to our body mind, that will remind us of the depth of intuitive wisdom we carry within. She will be sharing ancient and new practices of rituals, song and prayer to activate and integrate soul awareness and connection.

our exchange.

Price is per person and includes accommodation, food and all activities.

Shared Room

1300 GBP / 1495 EUR

We ask for a deposit of 520 GBP / 550 EUR to secure your place. Please read our Terms + Conditions.

Additional Expenses

Airfare, bus or train travel must be purchased by participants. Pick ups are from Castle Bolognese Train Station (this is a real place).

The lunch out in our local town is not included.

We require all participants to have travel insurance before joining us, which you are responsible for booking.

C19 Safety Measures

We are not requiring vaccination to join this retreat. We do require testing prior to our gathering so that we can all feel safe during our immersion. By attending you acknowledge and accept the risk involved in joining an intimate, unmasked gathering. We will adhere to the local requirements, which involve wearing masks on the transport and in the bus stations and airports etc.  It is your responsibility to review the entry and exit requirements to and from Italy and your return country. Antigen and PCR testing are available in cities and airports and we suggest you plan these logistics before arriving at our gathering.

We thank you deeply for your trust and willingness to explore, grow and re-wild with us.

Can’t wait to see you there…