Preparing for the Women's Goddess Retreat 2012

This weekend is the fourth annual Women's Goddess Retreat.  WGR is a not-for-profit fundraiser benefiting Our Haven Nature Sanctuary, LLC founded and facilitated by Laurelei and me.  I've blogged about it before here.

The Women's Goddess Retreat was created for all women who want to pause and honor the Goddess in their lives and in themselves. This retreat is open to anyone who lives their daily life as a woman. Both women-born-women and transgender women are welcome at this retreat.

We are aware that the inclusion of transgender women at this retreat is controversial to some people involved in the Goddess movement.  We believe that excluding transgender women from womanspace is elitist, phobic, and counterproductive to the kind of work that we want to achieve at this event.  It is my personal opinion that any woman brave enough to ask hard questions concerning gender-identity and deciding to embrace womanhood has done more soul-searching about what it means to be a woman in this society than many cis-gendered women.

This retreat is open to young women at the discretion of their mothers. We recommend young women be at the age of menarche and are deemed by their mother to be mature enough to handle themes of women's sexuality, trauma, healing, and aging.

At its core our retreat intends to:

provide a safe, nurturing place for women to develop themselves individually, and as a group, through new skills, and the sharing of information,

and

to learn about, invoke, and honor Goddesses and Goddess spirituality from around the world.

The Women's Goddess Retreat was designed to honor different Goddesses from various world cultures. Throughout the course of the retreat each of the selected Goddesses for this year will be invoked by all participants for two hours each. During that time we will share stories of that Goddess, perform group activities in honor of Her, and look to Her stories and our inner wisdom for Her lessons in our own lives. At the end of each two hour session we will release that Goddess's energy, and have time for quiet reflection.

These Goddesses will each be invoked, honored, and discussed during our retreat, along with the lessons that they have to share for our lives.

• Ariadne ~ Facilitated by: Laurelei Black
• Baba Yaga ~ Facilitated by: Firehorse
• Bast ~ Facilitated by: Rev. Bonnie Campaniello
• Cybele ~ Facilitated by: Sharon Rose King
• Inanna ~ Facilitated by: Daun Door-Key
• Kali ~ Facilitated by: Natalie Black (Me)
• Pele ~ Facilitated by: Linda Spahr
• Shekinah ~ Facilitated by: Hetty MacDowell
• The Great Goddess ~ Facilitated by: Natalie & Laurelei Black

If you are interested in attending this year please visit the Women's Goddess Retreat website.