ROOT AND BONE: Reweaving the Wise Women

The Wise Woman is the Visionary, the Seer, the Intuitive, the Matriarch, the Guardian, the Medicine Woman and Healer. And for most of us in the modern world, she is missing.

This nine-month journey is for women in the peri-menopause through post-menopause years who hear the undeniable call to finally and fully step into your fullness, truth, and medicine as a Wise Woman. 

We meet one full weekend per month from October 2024 - June 2025 on the wild lands that are Spirit Hollow.

This immersive is a unique weaving of personal/group nature-based depth work, honing your midlife medicine and a communal rite of passage—a container to relinquish masks, old roles, harvest your life wisdom and fortify your soul gifts in the sacred and potent Wise Woman life cycles.

As we know, with the loss of the wild mature feminine and our rites of passage, the Wise Women are absent. This is inside-out work to repair, retrieve, and bring this vital medicine into our relationships, communities, and the collective.

The life stage of Wise Woman straddles Mother through Crone and often lies forgotten or buried or even actively suppressed by the dominant culture.  Despite pervasive messaging that we diminish as we age, this is actually a time when a woman is at the height of her agency and power. 

Our work in Root and Bone is about owning that we were MADE for these times of unraveling. We were born to authentically show up for our communities as wise women or true elders.

Do you feel a strong YES to the following questions?

• Are you in a time of deep transition, physically, emotionally, and soulfully?

•  Do you feel like your center of gravity is shifting or has shifted from taking care of personal/family needs to serving the greater world?

• Are you feeling a need to CLAIM creative power arising within you, from your body and from the Earth? 

• Do you feel ready to finally shift patterns of hiding out or sidestepping your truest expression and sacred gifts as an older woman?

• Are you hungry to shed the false stories or roles you’ve taken on to step fully into the wild, wise woman you’re being invited to embody/become?

• Do you crave building community and collaboration with other women in these life cycles - to cultivate a web of wise women walking?

• Do you have some unattended grief about aging and the shifts occurring in your body or your family structures?

We will explore together these, and other, questions together.

Bringing the Wise Women to Life

Many of us who enter this season of life know we’re called to a threshold – a time to honor or release what’s no longer needed for the Way ahead, to give rise to the woman we have become and lean into who we are being called to become (what’s still in the Mystery).

We carry both a yearning and a commitment to remember the power in this life passage. We know that the older woman is vital to Life, full of the wisdom that comes from years of experiences, full of capacity to tend to the greater Earth Community.

Yet few of us have the containers we need in the Wise Woman/Matriarch life stage - to retrieve the profoundly personal and essential wisdom this passage brings.

Even though the dominant culture speaks endlessly of loss, degeneration and diminishing value in the aging woman, we know this is a potent time of transformation and possibility, of huge reservoirs of creative life-force energy and desire to serve all of life.

We know that damage has been done to all stages of the feminine experience over centuries, just as Earth herself has been degraded.  We know that the fabric has been torn and twisted.  

Root and Bone is about repairing and reweaving us both personally and collectively into a new tapestry of strong, inner-connected, Earth-sourced, multi-faceted matriarchs who are resilient, empowered, resourced and ready to bring our gifts to the world with new intensity and direction.

This nine-month journey is designed for those hungry to step more fully into their soul wisdom, and the gifts only they can bring to a world hungry for Wise Woman Medicine.

Through tapping into the heart of Gaia and reclaiming our elemental power in wholeness, a deeper well of our unique medicine, gifts, and capacity for love and service reveals itself. We remember ourselves as the sacred guardians of life, and this life becomes the very elixir we offer as a healing for the world.

Our practices include:

• Council

• Ritual and Ceremony

• Sharing stories and wisdoms

• Wanders and time to connect with land and more than humans

• Personal depth work and group container work

• Deep imagery journeys

• Visioning and expressive arts

• Integration practices

• Myth and movement

• Shared Saturday meal

• Four facets of Wholeness

• Special ceremony

• Dance for all beings of these times

• A 24-hour solo in the forest

• A Rite of Passage 

This immersion grows out of a weekend offered Spring 2024, where Tish and Tracey realized there was so much more to explore together. Here’s what sisters who attended said:

“I listened to the call to participate in the Matriarchal Medicine weekend with Mother Bone (Tish) and Key Turner (Tracey), and it ended up being profound. The container was held with such strong and tender grace. These women are gifted in the ways of holding space, facilitating, and being present while dropping in. This is a rare art form in the world today. The weekend was a rite of passage for me that reminded me of who I am and the medicine I am bringing through to the world—and the healing I came here to do for my family, both backward and forward. The work was infused with ritual, connection, fun, introspection, and deep celebration. If you get the opportunity to work with either of these women—or the true magic of both together—I highly encourage you to join.” ~ AH

“Words fall short in describing my experience with Mother Bone and Key Turner as space holders. Here’s my attempt… sacred beauty, cultivating inner knowing, healing deep wounds, truly seeing one another, witnessing. Laughing deeply! Joy. Contentment. Ultimately, gratitude. Mother Bone and Key Turner really connected us with the beautiful land at spirit hollow, a magical place, and used that energy to guide and ground.  I was very impressed by their ability to create a safe container full of love and free of judgement, which helped us all to deepen our trust of the process and of each other. I am so fortunate to have been there, and I will be back!” - EL

“Don’t walk, but run, if you feel the need to figure out how to stand in your power in the in-between places between motherhood and crone.  Somehow Motherbone and Keyturner climbed into my heart and my bones and heard the essence of what I needed and then gave it to me in ceremony, in meditation, and in an extremely well thought out and executed weekend to get to the heart of the matter.  I’ve been walking in these spaces of personal growth and ceremony for many years and this pair does it better than most.  If you feel called, listen, and you will not be disappointed. “ - ET

Phase One: Re-membering and Sourcing — Weekends One - Three

October 4-6, 2024: Gathering the Bones; Remembering Wild

November 8-10, 2024: Unlocking Buried Wisdom; Recovering the Mature Feminine

December 6-8, 2024: Belonging to Self, Belonging to Life; Sourcing the Depths of Our Power

Phase Two: Initiation and Reclamation — Weekends Four - Six

January 10-12, 2025: Answering the Call; Uncovering Your Midlife Soul Gifts

February 7-9, 2025: Stalking the Predator; Claiming Ourselves as Wise Women

March 7-9, 2025: Gaining Fluency: Anchoring and Expressing Your Wise Woman Medicine  (Mythos)

Phase Three: Rooting, Honing and Offering — Weekends Seven - Nine

April 4-6, 2025: Bringing Wisdom to Life; Honing the Art and Skill of Vision 

May 2-4, 2025: Harvest: Weaving and Co-Creating the Path Forward

*May 30- June 1, 2025: Crossing the Threshold; Return of the Wise Women

*early start time at 1pm

Details

Location: All weekends will take place at Spirit Hollow in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Tucked in the Taconic Mountains of Southwestern Vermont, Spirit Hollow is situated on 100 forested acres and surrounded by thousands of acres of National Forest Land. The Center was established in 2000 on the slopes of Grass Mountain. 

Lodging: Spirit Hollow is a rustic retreat.  Your options for lodging are sleeping in one of our two yurts, rustic tent cabins, or personal tents. If desired, you can opt to stay in a local Airbnb or Inn (more lodging option details below). Lodging in one of our two yurts is slumber party style, so you’ll need to bring all of your bedding.. This is a shared space, so if you need more privacy, we suggest you book a room nearby or stay in your own tent).  Our outdoor showers are ONLY available in the warm months. We have four outhouses for your use. There is no additional cost for camping or staying in our yurts or tent cabins (tent cabins in warm months only)

Times and Dates: We’ll gather together on Fridays at 7 pm (arrive between 5:00–6:30 to get settled) and will wrap up on Sundays at 3 pm. We’ll stay connected to our journey through e-council (email thread) and a total of 3 group Zoom councils.

We will begin Friday evenings around 7:00 pm. You are invited to arrive between 5:00-6:30 to get settled. Please come having eaten supper (or bring your own supper).

We will end on Sunday afternoons between 3:00 - 4:00 pm.

Food: You will be responsible for your own lunches and breakfasts.  We will be sharing a potluck meal on Saturday nights with dietary needs (allergies, intolerances) taken into consideration. Coffee and tea (creamers, sweeteners) will be provided all weekend long. Come having eaten on Friday evenings.

You will have access to a guest refrigerator and our outdoor kitchen in the warm months and our house kitchen in the cold months. We ask that all you bring simple foods for breakfasts and lunches (ones that don’t need to be heated) as we will not have time for cooking anything too elaborate. Potluck dishes should already be prepared (we will not have time for chopping and cooking—other than reheating). Please make healthy, organic choices for our group meals wherever possible, and keep in mind many are GF or vegan. A detailed welcome and preparation letter will be sent upon registration.

Pricing: Early bird price through July 31st at $2800.

Full price (after July 31st) $3100

Optional package price $3400 *includes 3 mentoring sessions with either Tish or Tracey (or a combo)

Payment plans are available. After making a $500 deposit, you can make quarterly payments*. Reach out with any specific requests. 

BIWOC optional discount: We offer two half-tuition slots for BIWOC; please reach out for more information.

Group Info: We will be an intimate group of 10-18 women. We are devoted to holding a container that supports a rich experience for each woman and us as a group.

Commitment:   As loving, devoted, and highly skilled guides, we will support you in all stages of this journey.  We will hold you in a sacred container and push you toward the unknown, naming places you might be hiding from or hijacking yourself, as well as mirroring your strengths and powers.  Expect nothing less than transformation.

We are committed to your evolution; likewise, we expect a full commitment from you in return.  This journey will ask a lot of you–psychospiritually.   It’s NOT for those who are currently in a healing crisis or actively in trauma response. Registering means you commit to attend all nine weekends, arriving on time and staying until the end. Please make sure you feel you can commit to the whole nine-month journey and all sessions.

*We prefer four equal payments of the balance after deposit  throughout the year on the following schedule:

October 4 (first weekend)

December 6 (third weekend)

February 7 (sixth weekend)

May 2 (eighth weekend)

Use this link to make those payments.

In addition to a deposit, a Registration Form is required.

A What-to-Bring list will be sent upon registration.

OTHER LODGING IN THE AREA:

There are plenty of inns and Airbnbs for staying in the area.

We recommend all of the following hotels/motels/inns, all within 20 minutes of Spirit Hollow:

• Harwood Hill Motel, Route 7A, 802-442-6278

• Governor’s Rock Motel, Route 7A, Shaftsbury, 802-442-4734

• Serenity Motel, Route 7A, Shaftsbury, 802-442-6490 (closed in winter months)

• Henry House Inn, Route 7A, N. Bennington, (802) 442-7045

• Eddington House, A Village Inn in North Bennington, 802-442-1511

Guides Tracey Forest and Tish Linstrom

QUESTIONS? Email either Tracey or Tish!