Spinning in The Light
August 21 - Aug 31, 2026
An 11 day intensive nature immersion held by the beauty that is
Twisted Roots Farm. This immersion is for those who are called to foster a deeper relationship with nature and uncover clues about the deeper structures of the poetic gift we were born to live into the world.
Our separation from nature grows with each generation in our pursuit of the technological dream. The stages and crossroads of human life we navigate were once a beautiful dance with the wild community guided by our rich cultures now forgotten in our desire to fill ourselves with more. We have become hungry ghosts walking on the living earth unable to satiate our growing appetites.
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The cultures from which many of us originate have been scattered to the four winds in the pursuit of this imperial, industrialized and colonized path we have been on. The result has been a collective forgetting and repression of those sacred ceremonies that once beautifully guided us through our human lives.
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We now live in an age of information. This offers humans great opportunities in connecting as a global community of diverse cultures with the wealth of knowledge and teachings that have come from this interconnectivity. We can choose beautiful ways of tending to relationships with ourselves, our communities, and beyond knowing what we know with the information of our time.
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Our sacred ways of being in relationship with nature are fortunately not lost, but rather forgotten. Re-membering will not necessarily bring back the ceremonies that once guided our cultures, for new ways must evolve to meet the challenges of our times. The guidance rests in the wisdom of the land and the vast knowledge that is there for us to understand how to live our unique individual way of being in the world.
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Spinning in the Light is a descent into the deeper structures of ourselves with the elder guidance of the land showing us the way.
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Through fasting, solo time on the land and ceremony, we embark on an age-old human journey to unearth poetic / mythic clues we can weave into the essence of who we are, that unique gift we were meant to live into the world, for our communities, wild and human alike. We must die to our old ways of being to weave in the light with the guidance of the land, the true elders of our time.
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For almost a decade now, we have been engaged in a process of deep time with the land here at Twisted Roots Farm. It has been a journey of rewilding ourselves, of connecting intimately with our food, and opening a rich and beautiful conversation with the wild community, a process of ecological re-membering.
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Others have joined us over the years, with powerful and moving stories from their experience of the farm and time spent immersed within this wild community. Reflections in nature showing us something unique about ourselves, removed from the technological world we now find ourselves consumed with.
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As the dream of this place continues to evolve, we see Twisted Roots Farm as a refuge, a sanctuary, and a pocket of cultural and ecological re-membering where others are invited to explore the mysteries of nature and how she can help us navigate those necessary transitions and crossroads in our lives.
Immersion Outline
Severance
Participants will be engaged in a variety of practices and preparatory work leading up to solo time on the land. One month prior to arriving, we begin this journey with two online mentoring sessions to set the stage for your solo time. We will explore your intentions, discuss relevant dreams, and offer resources to prepare for your arrival and severance from your community and old ways of being.
Arrival
Arriving at the farm and forest here at Twisted Roots, your dive will begin as we prepare for your threshold crossing into the solo time spent with the land.
Practices and activities during this time will include:
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Orientation and immersion into the farm and the forest
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Way of Council practices
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Ceremonies and practices to open ourselves to a process of nature-based dialogue
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Guided meditations and somatic practices to open our hearts
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Dieting the land with foods grown from the farm and harvested from the forest
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One-on-one mentoring sessions to help guide and prepare for the threshold crossing into solo time
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Self-designed ceremonies to facilitate your solo time with the land
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Fasting preparation for solo time on the land
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Practices for cultivating gratitude
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Dream work
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Poetry work
On our first evening, we will join as a community for a farm to table meal as you begin your process of dieting with the land. Foods offered are grown on the farm, harvested from the forest, or locally sourced from other growers. We see this as an integral part of your journey as you take in the essence of “place” through food. After dinner, we will gather for Dream Fire Counsel, a fire council gathering for everyone who will be participating or supporting Spinning in the Light over the next 11 days.
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Day two will begin with a community breakfast and dream share. We will hear and reflect on the dreams of others over a farm fresh breakfast. Following breakfast, there will be an orientation of the farm, including some participation in our daily routines thereby sharing our connection with the foods we will be serving during your stay. We feel this is an important aspect of the journey by creating these special relationships.
Time will also be allocated for individual early morning practices prior to breakfast.
After lunch, we will explore the forest and provide an orientation of the trails that you will be accessing during your time here.
Activities will continue into the evening to help you arrive and deepen into your immersion time.
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On the third day, you will spend more time on the land individually as you move closer to your threshold crossing. Our work will focus on ways to resource yourself for the crossing. We will also engage in practices to open our hearts more each day by building our relationship with the wild community.
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Day four is the day for setting your intentions and laying the foundation for the vision you are seeking for yourself, your people, and the wild community. We will meet one-on-one with participants to further help prepare and guide for the coming days fasting with the land.
Spinning in the Light is a ceremony that has been shaped and formed with the guidance of Evening Primrose, who grows wild here at Twisted Roots Farm. In the evening prior to your threshold crossing, we will participate in an Evening Primrose Tea Ceremony and meditation to help with guidance and insight for solo fasting time with the land.
Threshold
In the morning of the fifth day, we will meet at the fire council area and ceremonially light the vigil fire that will hold soloists for the coming days and nights. In the event of a fire ban, animal fat candles will be used as our vigil for the solo time.
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During this time, you will seek the vision that mystery has been calling to you. You will enact self designed ceremonies, sitting with the land and crying for the vision that is yours to hold.
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Solo sites are secluded within the property of Twisted Roots Farm on small wooden platforms. You will stay within this area over the three days with ample drinking water and minimal food of your choosing depending on your ability to fast. Fasting helps to clear our strategic minds and open our hearts, allowing us to listen to deeper parts of ourselves and opens us to conversations and reflections from the wild community that will be with you during this sacred time.
Return
On the morning of the eighth day, soloists will exit their solo sites and return to the fire. Here we will welcome you back to the community and begin the process of nourishing your body and digesting your stories.
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Soloists will take the day to acclimate from sacred time spent with the land, while sharing meals with the community and sinking into dreams and images that have been offered to you from this experience.
Incorporation
Days 9 to 11 and beyond, soloists will begin the long process of incorporating the experiences that have been shown during your time at the farm and in the forest. We will listen to your stories of the land, digest what has been shown, and reflect your story that has been so beautifully illustrated and experienced.
You will be bundling many gifts as you return to your community, and it will take time to build these gifts into your daily life. We offer two mentoring sessions on your return home to help with the continued unfolding and incorporation of the experience.
We also highly recommend that participants allow for time to further incorporate the experience prior to returning home. Our recommendation is to book a stay down the road at Archer's Edge Luxury Camping to give time to be with the ocean and sit with stunning sunsets. There are also many other amazing accommodations in the area that can be arranged to help you settle into your experience as you navigate the reintroduction back home.
Meet Your Guide
My love for and connection with nature has always been a driving force in my life ever since I can remember. I was fortunate to have grown up on the doorstep of a vast boreal forest, guided by the passion my father had for the outdoors.
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My professional career spans many decades where I have found myself in positions that have placed me in the wilds of nature, and in the depths of the human condition. I have hiked through ancient temperate rain forests, kayaked with the wolves of the sea, engaged in environmental research, guided others into the beauty of the wilds, sat with the trauma and anxiety of our youth and their families, witnessed transformational change in rite of passage programs, listened to the struggles of the addicted, led initiatives to protect land, created curriculum to engage nature awareness and invited others to explore their relationship with the wild community.
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I have studied with many amazing teachers along the way, to which I owe an incredible depth of gratitude for. Their teachings and wisdom have guided me on this journey of nature human connection, allowing me to go even deeper in the ongoing courtship I have with this land and place I now call home.
Over the last decade, my greatest teacher has been the farm and the forest, a place where I am immersed in the wilds on a daily basis. It has been a process of rewilding one's self and sinking deeply into the language of the wild community. I find myself in the role of farmer, builder, homesteader, permaculturalist, teacher, guide, visual artist, poet, and student of the land.
Every year we welcome volunteers from all over the world, young and old from all walks of life. Our role has been to hold their stories, listen to what is happening in the world, and offer the reflections that are so beautifully guided by the farm and the forest.
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My invitation, my offering, my medicine is to open a space where others can explore their relationship with nature and uncover the mythic and poetic conversations that exist in the depths of our humanness. ​
You can view more of my work on my blog at Firedog Medicine
Tuition : $2645 CAD : Friday Aug 21 to Monday Aug 31
Tuition includes the following:
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(4) 1 hour online or by phone mentoring sessions. (2) to be completed pre-program date, and (2) to be completed post program date
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Accommodations during the program. Participants will be hosted in one of our Brook-side Forest Bunkies for group programming days, and then hosted on one of our forest mediation platforms during solo time on the land
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Meals during the program. All meals will be prepared and served by Twisted Roots Farm during your stay with farm fresh ingredients from our farm or other local farms
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Guiding and Mentoring during the program
Registration
Spinning in the Light is an Intensive Nature Immersion delivered in a small group setting of four participants, two of which will be from our Wyld Roots Immersion Program. The program will be guided by Twisted Roots Farm which will also have volunteers present who will be helping to support the program.
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To register, please send us an email to info@twistedrootsfarm.ca with your intentions and we will send out a registration package. All questions can also be forwarded to this email.
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We are also seeking volunteers to help support this program, please contact us for more details if this is how you would like to contribute to this immersion.
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Resources
The following resources are excellent ways to prepare for and learn more about the program we are unfolding here at Twisted Roots Farm, Centre for Ecological Re-membering. We have studied with many of these earth writers and their work is deeply woven into our little project in the woods here at the farm.
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Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche by Bill Plotkin ​​
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Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche by Bill Plotkin
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The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature by Stephen Buhner
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Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness by Pam Montgomery
Ravenwood: The Healing Forest: Indigenous Wisdom, Life Threatening Illness, & Awakening the Heart by Corinna Stevenson
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Buffalo Dreamer: A Lifetime of Wilderness Vigils A Memoir by Annie Bloom
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The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic, by Martin Prechtel​​
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