Menopause rite of passage retreat

November 8-10, 2024
Osage Forest of Peace
Sand Springs, OK

You’re invited to a nourishing weekend of support and learning about the initiatory gifts of perimenopause and menopause. Claim your experience in a sacred rite of passage ceremony.

  • This weekend retreat will give you nourishment and support for perimenopause and menopause so you understand what you’re experiencing and are able to navigate this time of your life with a solid framework to support you.

While it’s great that menopause is rising in our public awareness, most of the support materials out there are focused on symptom management or keeping us rolling along as usual in our careers and lives. There is a very crucial aspect of menopause that is being completely missed:

At its core, it’s a deep initiation, a disruptor to our lives, and it’s calling us to withdraw from the world, to rest, and to hold space for this profound process. Initiations are meant to be challenging, and for sure when we come out the other side, we’re not the same person we were.

We’ve lost our wise elder women who teach us the sacred and powerful ways of this important passage of our lives, giving us something to look forward to.

Until now.

We don’t have to live by this narrative our society gives us.

There is another way.

Over this 3-day weekend, you’ll:

  • Get an overview of the physiological changes happening in perimenopause and menopause and learn why this is a crucial time of transition for a woman’s health that sets the stage for the second half of her life.

  • Navigate the five initiatory phases of menopause and receive their unique gifts, as taught by Red School.

  • Learn why you need to drop as much as you can in your life and rest, rest, and rest some more…and also learn the 1% rule.

  • Learn to recognize and accept where you are in your peri- or menopause process.

  • Embrace the great reckoning and clearing out of the first half of our lives so we can grow into our post-menopausal years clean, clear, and vibrant.

  • Gain a sense of hope and vision for your “second spring” and the rising of your energy and power post-menopause.

Menopause is a soul awakening

Menopause is undeniably one of the most significant rites of passage in a woman’s life, when she steps fully into her most magnificent power. Yet this is the power that we have been cut off from for generations, hidden in shame and secrecy, suffering in silence. Instead, we’re fed a narrative that:

  • Our lives are over, along with our youth, beauty, and “value” as fertile women.

  • Menopause is full of suffering and terrible symptoms.

  • Menopause is something to be “fixed” or ignored as we’re encouraged to just keep working and going on with our lives as before.

“We’re all alchemists, deep inside — it’s just that women have learned that fires must be put out, not encouraged to burn. We’re afraid of conflagration. We’re afraid of losing control. But during menopause we generally find that we have no choice. We’re not in the conflagration — we are the conflagration. 🔥”
— ~Sharon Blackie, Hagitude

About the retreat

The autumn of early November is an auspicious time for this retreat weekend, as menopause is all about transitioning into the autumn phase of our lives. Join a circle of women supporting each other through the journey of perimenopause and menopause.

The retreat will include:

  • Learning.

  • Experiential exercises.

  • Time for rest and replenishment.

  • Making your own charm bracelet, with symbols of your menopause passage, that will act as a map on your wrist to remind and guide you through this time.

  • A hot flash fire 🔥 ceremony claiming your sacred rite of passage, and your bracelet will be placed on you.

  • A story circle including readings of women in menopause or elderhood, such as the Navajo Changing Woman, and we’ll bring to light women who did their most meaningful work in life post-menopause.

  • Journeying into the Cave of the Mothers, the Forest of Peace’s underground temple to the Feminine Divine.

What to bring

  • Bring something to place on our communal altar that speaks to you about menopause. It can represent something you’re letting go of, or looking forward to, or anything that represents menopause to you.

  • Journal.

  • Day 01 / Opening ceremony

    Opening ceremony, creating our altar, intro to the weekend and sharing, overview of physiological stages. Yoga nidra for sleep (optional).

  • Day 02 / Sessions and fire ceremony

    Learning about the phases of perimenopause and menopause, supportive resources, creating our menopause bracelets, evening rite of passage hot flash fire ceremony. 🔥

  • Day 03 / New Beginnings

    Resting or meeting with your listening partner, closing ceremony, sharing time.

Who this weekend is for

Perimenopause

You’re in your 40s and navigating perimenopause.

Menopause

You’re actively in your menopause process.

Postmenopause

You’re postmenopausal and wanting to retroactively reclaim or understand your own rite of passage…or to grieve what you didn’t know or weren’t taught.

What’s included

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    A menopause playbook that includes all the information taught during the weekend, as well as remedies, resources, and ideas to nourish and support yourself.


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    Morning and evening meditations.

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    A menopause-themed Spotify playlist.

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    1x1 private coaching session with Jeni (optional)

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    All meals from Friday dinner through Sunday brunch

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    Lodging in a cabin if you select it in your registration.

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Retreat location

The retreat is located at the beautiful Osage Forest of Peace interspiritual retreat center, located in Sand Springs, OK, on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Osage Nation.

Experience the beauty and privacy of 45 wooded acres on a ridge between Keystone Lake and Shell Lake, just 20 minutes from downtown Tulsa.

The Forest facilities include private cabins nestled among the trees, a beautiful chapel with big picture windows, and sacred spaces such as:

  • Cave of the Mothers underground temple to the Divine Feminine.

  • Woodland labyrinth.

  • Zen Garden.

  • Trails.

  • Mary’s Grotto.

  • Dragonfly Meadow.

Check out the beautiful Cave of the Mothers here:

Coaching session with Jeni

Coaching session with Jeni

If you need more personal support, you can add on a menopause coaching session with Jeni to take place after the retreat weekend. My coaching method is more of an experiential exercise that gets deeper than the mind and listens for what medicine you need in this moment.

Jeni is a certified menstruality mentor with Red School and can also help with menstrual cycle coaching for women in perimenopause.

Jeni can also work with you to create an individualized ritual for your menopause rite of passage, to help you navigate this important passage in your life.

Coaching fee

  • For those with limited financial resources or recent financial hardship, Jeni is offering one coaching session, free of charge. Please make note of this in the registration comments.

  • For those who can afford it, Jeni is offering one coaching session on a sliding scale of $50-100.

Schedule

(Subject to change)

Friday

1:30-5:30 Arrival, check in, settle into cabins if staying overnight. 

4:30 Community meditation (optional)

5:30 Dinner

6:30 Opening ceremony, creating our altar, intro to the weekend and sharing, overview of physiological stages.

8:00 Yoga nidra for sleep (optional).

Saturday

7:00 Community meditation (optional).

7:00-9:00 Self-serve silent breakfast.

9:00 Morning session:

  • Perimenopause: The quickening and entering the menopause hinterland.

  • Menopause: The five phases of the menopause initiation.

  • Experiential exercise.

  • Sharing.

11:00 Rest time and integration.

12:00 Community meditation (optional).

12:30 Lunch and free time.

2:30 Afternoon session:

  • Supportive resources and remedies.

  • Make your menopause charm bracelet.

  • Story circle and positive examples of post-menopausal women.

  • Prepare for our evening rite of passage ceremony. 🔥

4:30 Rest time or community meditation (optional).

5:30 Dinner.

7:00 Rite of passage ceremony. 

Sunday

7:00 Community meditation (optional).

7:00-9:00 Self-serve silent breakfast.

9:00 Rest or meet with a listening partner you choose from the group, to mutually share and integrate your experiences.

10:00 Closing ceremony and sharing time.

11:00 Brunch.

Pricing

For this retreat, we’re offering a You Choose sliding fee scale in which you can choose the amount that best fits your financial situation.

You can choose to stay overnight in a cabin or to commute to the retreat every day from your home. If you choose to commute, we kindly ask that you commit yourself to the weekend and the schedule of the retreat to avoid disruptions to the group.

Supported level

  • For those with limited financial resources or recent financial hardship:

    • Covers the basic cost of the retreat (lodging, meals, and materials) only.

    If you are unable to cover the supported level, please contact us. We may be able to provide a scholarship based on proceeds from the benefactor level, if available.

  • Overnight stay with lodging: $220

    Commuter: $110

Program fee level

  • For those who can:

    • Cover the basic cost of the retreat (lodging, meals, and materials).

    • As well as a program fee that assists the Forest of Peace with care and maintenance.

  • Overnight stay with lodging: $250-300

    Commuter: $140-190

Benefactor level

  • For those who can afford it, this fee level:

    • Helps provide support for peri- or menopausal women with limited financial resources who want to attend the retreat.

    • Covers the basic cost of the retreat (lodging, meals, materials).

    • Covers a program fee that assists the Forest of Peace with care and maintenance.

  • Overnight stay with lodging: $300 – 400

    Commuter: $190 – 290

Sign up  here!

Questions? Let’s chat.

Have questions or just need support? Contact me here.

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