Summer Solstice Rebirth Retreat - A 6 Day Gathering Including Two Sweat Lodge Ceremonies

Summer Solstice Rebirth

A wild and awakening gathering in Dorset, UK

17 - 22 June 2022

Connect with earth, spirit and soul

This Summer Solstice we are calling in all who yearn for a wild and awakening gathering to honour the transformative, creative and healing power of the Solstice and to celebrate together in connected community. 

This gathering is a radical dance with traditions and practices that cleanse, nourish, enrich and deepen our experience with life for a profound shedding of old skins and empowered rebirth.

We will move through elemental wisdom, life’s seasons and aspects of the Self, rising each morning with somatic practices to awaken the language of the body, journeying through creative workshops, sacred ceremony and ritual into nourishing night time practices of rejuvenation and integration.

Nestled in the Dorset countryside with forest, meadow, a natural pool and a beautiful beach a short drive away, we will have the space to express, digest, grow and revive our deepest sense of joy and harmony with life. 

This is a celebration of our existence, a prayer for our world and a dance with timeless union.

“The creativity and the strength that I was able to recharge in the circle of these fantastic people still has an effect on me today.”

— Katrin Jahns

“That retreat was one of the most magical journeys of my life. Veronica managed through her attentive and nurturing care and skills to create a safe container for all of us to connect deeply and explore our most vulnerable wounds with compassion and love. I can't recommend it enough.” 

— Lilja Sif Þorsteinsdóttir

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Why we celebrate the Solstice

Our early ancestors held the Solstices of utmost importance. Both the Winter and Summer Solstice marks moments where the veil between this world and the ‘otherworld’ is the thinnest and where dances, ceremony and ritual can connect us with our ancestors, deities and cosmos. The Pagan festival of Litha celebrates the power of the sun god, where magic is thought to be its strongest - strengthening communion with spirit and soul. It is a time of abundance and creative activation, where we can come together and deepen our capacity for kinship with life.

“Every single moment of that retreat made me go deeper and deeper into my heart. Remember. Reconnect. Unfold.”

— Zasha Patek

Ingredients for our rebirth

• 2 Sweatlodge Ceremonies - Returning to the womb of Mother Earth for elemental healing 
• Daily Somatic Exploration - Embodied Yoga, Yin, Myofascial Release, Tantra, Intuitive Movement, Dance 
• Daily Subconscious Journeys - Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Breathwork
• Bonfire Cacao Ceremony + Ecstatic Dance
• Rebirth Breathwork Journey
• Music, Story + Poetry - Exploring our intuitive voices and accessing our authentic expression
• A Sensual Beach Ceremony (with Rapé)
• Forest Bathing + Art Making
• Local Ayurveda Inspired Food
• Ritual + Rite of Passage
• Sharing + Community
• Ancestral Drum Making (optional extra)

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“This retreat was definitely a powerful and transformative journey which took me to the unknown shoreside of my inner self. It felt like embodying a new flesh, taming new sensations, embracing new forms on a constant discovery or rediscovery of scents, visions as if the world was unveiling itself for the first time before my eyes. A metamorphosis full of promises, tears, laughs, smiles and an utterly rage for life that will remain etched in my heart and flesh for eternity.”

— Elisa Henny

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About Rooted Healing

We seek to deepen human kinship with the living world and with the great mystery that runs through us.  We do this through transformational gatherings in nature, cross-cultural wisdom exchange, workshops, interactive courses and a growing collection of community lead accessible resources, including our podcast - listen here.

We honour a path of ancestral remembrance where we recognise that we all possess an indigenous soul that longs for a deepened, more connected experience with life and a wondrous state of ‘otherness’. We facilitate, support and empower individual and collective shifts in consciousness that bring us back to our innate, most alive soul-aligned essence. 

Facilitators

Veronica 

Veronica is a somatic healing guide, voice and breath facilitator, multidisciplinary artist, dream-worker and ritualist, who honours a path of ancient remembrance rooted in earth wisdom and reciprocity. She seeks to reconnect others back to their innate sense of intimacy, awe and creativity with the living world and the great mystery or spirit – bringing deep healing and reviving interconnectivity with our inner and outer landscapes. With over a decade of training, initiation and cross disciplinary experience, she understands the boundless possibility of using the medicine of ceremony, the body, and the voice to access life changing transformation. Veronica is the Co-Founder of Rooted Healing and the host of the Rooted Healing podcast.

Elizabeth Oatley

Temazcalera Elizabeth Oatley carries the Half Moon Altar and Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan. She has spent 13 years in her work with the temazcal, tobacco & medicine ceremony and vision quest, in Wales, Spain and Israel. She received permission and blessing to carry these mystical altars and designs, and to pour the first medicine of the sweet water from Carmen Vicente, chief, teacher and medicine woman from Ecuador, after completing four years of Vision Quest with her. She now holds a lodge at her home in Carmarthen and facilitates tobacco ceremonies in the homes of those who call for them.
The temazcal is an ancient ceremony of prayer, purification, healing and celebration. We invite you return to the womb of Mother Earth in trust and faith; to reconnect, to pray, to listen. In entering the lodge we make a commitment to ourselves to open our hearts and invite in the spirits of the seven directions as we return to the elemental foundation of our being. Working with the medicine of the water and sharing the sacred tobacco, we come together for purification and to set our intentions for the retreat; to support one another in our tears and laughter; to raise one another up with love.

Dorrie Joy

Dorrie Joy is a multidisciplinary artist, ancestral craftswomen, herbalist, space holder and educator, influenced by her almost 30 years of initiation and intimate training with indigenous women and elders in many areas of ancient craft and ceremony. She offers drum making as a ceremonial, initiatory journey of homecoming, affirmation, celebration and belonging. 

Carly Burke

An explorer and advocate for mental health awareness and the therapeutic use of psychedelics, Carly weaves her work immersed in ancient, indigenous shamanic practices across Latin America with her ever curious flare for modern advancements in therapeutic psychedelic research, curating events across the UK with the Psychedelic Society and offering her own facilitation as a professionally trained Tantra Yoga teacher and experienced space holder. Carly celebrates the elusive bridge connecting science and spirit and sees great potential when we marry the two for healing and our collective evolution. 

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“You’ve done so much. My gratitude is beyond words.”

Sigga

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Our nest

We will be gathering at the magical Centre of Unlearning, huddled in remote Dorset landscape with an abundance of forest, meadow, garden and summer full bloom magic.  We have access to a natural pool, created for use with deep intention in mind and a lovingly community built sweat lodge for our opening and closing ceremonies. A short walk away there is a hill with panoramic views of the land and sky - a perfect place for us to celebrate our Summer Solstice Rebirth together. 

Additional details

Arrival on the 17th June is at 2pm

Check out on the 22nd June is also at 2pm

You arrange your own transportation and we are happy to help connect guests for car and journey sharing. The Centre of Unlearning is a 20 minute drive from Dorchester Station and about a 2.5 hours drive from London (we will make a Whatsapp group for you to make travel arrangements).
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Investment

We’ve carefully curated an intimate gathering with various pricing options and it is our hope that there is the perfect option for you. These prices include all activities (except optional drum making with Dorrie Joy), food and accommodation. Do you need financial assistance? Please contact us. 

What’s included

• 5 nights accommodation
• All activities (classes, workshops, ceremonies etc) apart from the optional drum making
• Delicious food throughout the day
• Access to natural pool
• Access to wild nature 
• Cacao, Rapé and all other herbs

(Does not include travel to and from site)

Please Note

We are celebrating a gifting approach to this event as we have low/mid income and supporter tickets available. By purchasing a supporter ticket, you are helping cover the costs for those on lower incomes and your gift is greatly appreciated by the team involved with creating this event. 

You need to be attending this retreat in order to attend the drum making workshop (please do not purchase the drum making workshop only).

Accommodation:

Camping - Bring your own gear (some informal rental options are available)

Glamping - Furnished luxury bell tent, sleeps 2

Shepherd's Hut - Sleeps 2

Hay Barn - Beautiful fully equipped apartment with 1 Kingsize bed and 1 sofa bed; for three

Who is this offering for?

This is an all inclusive space calling on ALL who yearn to gather, celebrate, heal, transform and awaken during this activating time of the Summer Solstice. All genders, non genders and all ages are welcome. 

What you will need:

• Clothes for all weathers
• Comfortable clothes for movement practices
• Swimming wear
• Torch
• Eye mask or scarf
• Suncream (Natural please if possible)
• Any art supplies you feel called to bring
• An object of sacred or sentimental significance to add to the altar
• Instruments (optional)

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Drum Making

Dorrie’s workshop lasts all day with a wide range of gorgeous ethically, locally and sustainably sourced materials to choose from, all hand-prepared with kindness, honour, integrity and care.

£280 per person

“Dorrie’s drum making workshop felt like time out of time - so sacred, tender, insightful and deeply nourishing. I felt as though my soul had been yearning to finally meet it’s drum. Dorrie is deeply devoted to carrying this work in total reciprocity and I found the way she guided us through the experience and the artistry with how she introduced us to our materials utterly magical. My drum remains my life long companion and treasure and I am beyond grateful.”

Listen to Dorrie speak about ancestral crafts as our path to belonging on the Rooted Healing podcast.

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Please Note: 

Although this retreat is run by skilled facilitators, it is not a replacement for personal therapy. We will be engaging in a range of somatic, psychological and physical techniques. If you are experiencing significant difficulties with your physical, emotional or mental health please contact us in advance of booking so we can explore if this is the right environment for you. We will invite you to share only what you feel comfortable expressing; and encourage ongoing personal development following this retreat. 

All food will be Vegetarian with Vegan options. If you have specific dietary requirements please let us know. 

We will be encouraging the retreat to be a no phone zone. Please arrange as much as possible to be free of communication commitments.

REFUNDS POLICY: Please note, we do not arrange refunds or exchanges. When possible we encourage reselling on Ticketswap.

ACCESS:  We do our best to include everyone in our events, regardless of health circumstances. If you have access requirements please email the event organiser directly to discuss. Many facilitators are able to offer reduced ticket prices for those truly unable to afford the ticket price. If this applies to you, do please get in touch with the event organiser.

For PSYCHEDELIC KNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES please check out the Psychedelic Society website. 

Our facilitators have agreed to our code of conduct. Learn about our procedure for raising concerns

MEMBERS of the Psychedelic Society get a discount off almost all of our events.
Join from £5 a month and become part of this amazing community with invites to special events and more.