“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, she turned into a butterfly.”
Metamorphosis is an invitation to join a group of six women – a ‘sisterhood’ who are ready to share the parts of themselves they normally hide.
Women who have tried resisting the change and chaos of recent months, and instead now want to surrender themselves with abandon to the way life wants to evolve them, with the arms of the others around them as they travel.
Being in the sacred space of transformation – simply being with what wants to be presenced every time we are together.
Tears. Laughter. Fear. Joy. All are welcome.
Holding each other’s hands as we transform from caterpillar, through the darkness and chaos of the cocoon soup and emerge as butterfly.
And from that space, creating what our hearts long for.
That which as caterpillars, we never could have even begun to imagine, but that now with our new wings, becomes possible.
The heart and soul of this program is inspired by this writing by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. It’s how you’ll know if you’re in.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it is not pretty, every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Retreat One: 30 January – 2 February 2022
Retreat Two: 26-29 June 2022
Retreat Three: 4-7 December 2022
All take place at Foxhills Country Club, Surrey. Accommodation and breakfast is included.
Virtual gatherings each Monday at 12-1.30pm to run each week of the program, excepting bank holidays, retreat weeks and the months of August and December.
The second Monday of each month is replaced with a Sunday Jazz and Journalling gathering online between 6.30-8pm.
There will be approximately 30 virtual meetings in total throughout the year.
