Honoring Our Elders

A Ritual Gathering with The Giants to Praise and Listen to Our Elders

What becomes possible when we remember that we’re not alone—that we live among elders?

How are our elders longing to be in relationship with us during these times of great upheaval and potential on planet earth?

Join us in this community ritual gathering with individuals and families alike camping in the company of “The Giants”, remembering together how to honor our elders.

Many of the Giant Sequoia Trees we'll be with have stood on earth for several thousand years. How does your heart long to acknowledge, praise, thank, and honor such great ones? If they had our undistracted collective ear, young and old, at their trunk, what might they speak? 

Learning to reconstitute robust relationships with elders, human and other, holds tremendous power and promise for personal and collective healing and thriving. In remembering how to seek out, honor, and ongoingly tend relationships with elders, we open to previously unfathomed depths of resource and love – helping us be better equipped to serve the more beautiful world that future generations long to inhabit.

In this gathering we’ll open to relationship beyond and below the mind and intellect, inviting our bodies and hearts to be central in the giving and receiving of love with our elders. Using simple embodiment and heart connection practices, we’ll invite ourselves to open to the possibility that relationship with elders is available and accessible. 

During our time together we’ll call on practices such as: 

• community ritual

• shared meals

• rest & solo time

• prayer 

• ecstatic shaking 

• song and poetry 

• group sharing circles 

• guided embodiment and listening practices

• beauty-making and art

In all of these practices we’ll ask: What do our elders want us humans to know at this time? How much fun, silliness, beauty, and connection can we find together exploring these themes/questions? What can us adults learn from the children in our group about all this? 

This gathering welcomes families as a core part of our collective fabric and ritual practice. We look to the children as guides and teachers in pure-hearted connection with Earth and our more-than-human kin (potty talk, sacred whimsy, "irreverent interruptions”, and all😉). As a group we’ll explore together how to weave families with young children into the rhythm of ritual in receptive, generous-hearted, and beautiful ways.  

People of all ages, economic classes, religions, ethnicities, and gender or sexual orientations are celebrated.

Our gathering will flow between large group circles that include the children and adults together, and times when adults and children will be in separate groups. All activities are invitations and all (especially you, parents!) are invited to shape their time in ways that care well for their and their family’s needs.

As we delight in creating beauty, enjoying good company, and letting our hearts freely praise and listen to the Giant Sequoias, may we learn much about recognizing, cherishing, and honoring the elders, human and other, that we live amongst in our lives back home. Together may we show our elders that we haven’t forgotten this essential relationship. We sincerely welcome you to join us! 

Registration closes October 13th. Read below for logistical details.

Join Waitlist Here

We've reached our 20 person cap though are considering opening up more spots so if you're interesred please join waitlist!

Investment 

We’re choosing as a facilitation team to offer this gathering freely. The prices listed below are simply the base cost of covering your campsite reservation fee, minimal group supplies, and your portion of the $500 donation to the local Miwok nation that we’ll make on behalf of our group. If you feel called to make a donation added on to the base prices listed below, we warmly welcome those now, during, and/or after the gathering ends. Donations on top of the base investment will go toward resourcing the facilitators to be able to organize future gatherings of this kind.

Baseline Investments:

• 1 person - $175

• 2 person (couple or friend duo) - $275

• 1 child (ages 3-11) - $50

Children 2 & under come free. Family cost not to exceed $325 per family. 

If you feel a deep call to join us, but cost is prohibitive to you, please contact us.

Arrival and Departure 

You’re invited to arrive to the park anytime before 630pm on Thursday, October 22nd. We’ll begin officially welcoming folx around 4pm with light invitations to greet the land, co-regulate and nourish ourselves and each other post-travels, casually share food, stories and song around the fire, and begin to build the field of relationship. Our formal opening circle for the ritual weekend will be Friday morning. 

We’ll close by late morning on Sunday, October 25th, with an invitation to stay for a final lunch together or begin your journey home depending on your travel needs. 

Unless otherwise discussed, we ask that all participants arrive on Thursday and stay through Sunday to support good holding of the ritual container. 

Camping 

We have 8 drive-in campsites reserved in an ancient Giant Sequoia grover near Arnold, CA. Each campsite allows up to 8 people and 2 vehicles. We selected campsites adjacent to each other to support ease of gathering. Depending on the number of people registered, you may be sharing a campsite with another person or family from our group. Several of our booked campsites are also adjacent to campsites that aren’t registered to our group. Campsites include: a fire ring with metal grill, bear locker, nearby spigot, and nearby bathroom with hot showers by token. You’re responsible for bringing your own camping gear. A thorough packing list and gear-sharing coordination spreadsheet will be sent to all registered.

Dogs are welcome at campsites, in picnic areas, on paved roads, and on designated dirt fire roads. Pets are strictly not allowed in the Giant Sequoia groves, inside the Visitor Center, or in the environmental walk-in campgrounds. Dogs cannot be left unattended at a campsite and must be kept inside a tent or enclosed vehicle at night. Note: a good portion of our guided practices and ritual will happen in areas where dogs are not allowed.

Food

You’ll be responsible for providing your own food and cooking supplies. We’ll set up a communal cooking and eating area in one of the campsites and all are invited to collaborate (on the spreadsheet we email) with each other to prepare and share meals.

Weather

These beloved ancient Giant Sequioa groves nestle just above 4,500 ft in the western foothills of the great Sierra Nevada mountains. Weather is unpredicatble. This said, October average temperatures incude highs in the mid-to-upper 60s and lows in the mid-to-upper 40s with rainfall averaging 3-4 days out of the month. We're grateful to be expecting a wet year starting towards the end of the year. It's very rare but not impossible that there could be snow in the groves in late October. We'll include good clothing and gear tips in the packing list we send out to attendees.

Accessibility

We’re on a big learning journey in how to celebrate and think well about our whole community, including those with differing physical ability. The park where we're gathering has wheelchair accessible bathroom and shower facilities, picnic areas, and trails. There are also paved roads throughout the park that connect most key places. During our ritual weekend we’ll invite our group to circle and walk in areas that are wheelchair accessible. Our campsites are generally accessible with some places of mild slope or uneven terrain. Additionally, we're able to reserve a specific ADA campsite if we provide an ADA validation # connected to a license plate. If you would like to stay at an ADA campsite please reach out to us to arrange. 

We warmly welcome your feedback as we continue to learn how to create culture and community that uplifts, honors and cherishes all its members.

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If you have any questions, contact us by email at seren.olina1@gmail.com or mhambley91@gmail.com or by text/phone: Seren at (920) 650-2891 or Micaiah at (209) 540-9350

Micaiah Hambley (Right, Co-Faclitator)

Micaiah grew up visiting these Giant Sequoia groves since he was a wee one, as did his father, and grandfather before him. He sources his ritual facilitation from his relationship with the lands of his upbringing and his devoted love for life. Micaiah brings a rich background in embodied contemplative practice and earth-mysticism. At 19, he began training in Buddhist Monasticism and embodiment-based healing modalities. At 23, feeling called by the wilderness, he left the monastery to embark on a series of multi-month to year-long solo retreats in remote nature, that continued for the next 9 years.

Micaiah helps weave human community into deeper intimacy and reciprocity with the other-than-human community through group ritual, earth-reverent prayer, and deep-listening and wilderness-communion practices. He also offers 1-on-1 sessions as a soul guide, healer, ritualist, and relational coach for deepening connection with the wilds. His passion is supporting others to thrive on all levels as they connect with their own depths, with the lands where they live, and align their lives with what they truly love and what the greater web of life is calling them to step into.

Learn more about Micaiah’s offerings here.

Carolyn Griffeth (Middle-Right, Special Guest Facilitator): Carolyn serves a wide network of visionary, tender-hearted humans as a spiritual mentor, soul guide, dream worker, grief tender, and Earth-reverent ritualist. She brings to this calling a rare depth of wisdom rooted in decades of devotionally surrendering to the guidance of her soul and guiding others to do the same. She is also the root teacher of Earthkeeper Wisdom School, which apprentices sacred space holders in the art of intuitive ritual craft. If you are seeking companionship on your soul’s journey or mentorship as you step ever more deeply into your calling as a sacred space holder of any kind, Carolyn welcomes you to call upon her for a free consultation: https://spiritualmentorship.as.me/freeconsultation

Michael Denmeade (Middle-Left, Special Guest Facilitator): Michael has spent most of his adult life learning and living what he calls the Mitakyasin Way—how to live in Right Relationship and Reciprocity with all life. Mitakuye Oyasin literally means ‘All My Relations’.  He was trained to be a fire keeper for sacred ceremony and answers the call when medicine people need him.  He is a spiritual mentor, vision quest guide and invitationalist to other two-legged people on how to live in Right Relationship and Reciprocity with All Life!

This gathering is an off-branching of Earthkeeper Wisdom School, where our facilitaiton team offers a year-long training in the art of intuitive ritual craft.

Identity Acknowledgment: We recognize that our particular life experiences as white have us arrive to facilitation with limited and particular lenses of reality. We both seek to bring care, humility, and consideration to this truth and seek to make this container as welcoming as possible to all life experiences and identities. We welcome feedback as we are actively learning and growing here.