119 Ross Durrance Road, Victoria, BC, Canada
Up to 12 in group
March 29 - August 9, 2025
About this Retreat
Dr. Stéphanie Marchal is a registered psychologist working in Victoria. Her practice focuses on relationships, attachment, trans-generational trauma and transitions/transformations. She is a wilderness personal guide, and studied with Animas Valley Institute and Francis Weller among others. She works with people toward recovering their wholeness, uncovering their gifts, and applying these in their lives and for the good of their community. She has experienced wilderness as a powerful ally in these tasks.
She is personally interested in supporting deep and courageous transformations driven by the participants. One of Stephanie's focus is to support the weaving of authentic experiences and visions with the person's embodied life. She's a firm supporter of people's authentic voices and helps them be heard. She uses dream images, guided journeys and somatic practices to help clarify the thread to deep experience, and support integration and manifestation.
Some of Stéphanie's integration work is brought into psychedelic-assisted therapy as she is legally trained to support the use of psilocybin, MDMA and Ketamine.
Visit Stéphanie's page: www.SacredWeaving.org
Stephanie MacKay is the Co-founder and Director of Fianna Wilderness School. She specializes in ancestral knowledge, earth-based skills, ceremony and myth. She has a degree in literature, and her work is informed by over 15 years of practice and study through Animas Valley Institute, Haven Institute, Wilderness Awareness School, and 12 years of study with Martín Prechtel.
She is a fiercely compassionate facilitator, mentor and guide in search of perspectives and practices to deepen the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Stephanie is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of old European mythologies, within our own bodies, and within our ancestral memory.
Details of this retreat
Sacred Stewardship: A Journey of Land, Food, and Soul
‘Sacred Stewardship’ is a transformative 6-month container designed to deepen participants' connection to the Earth through myth exploration, soulcentric practices, and ceremony, with a focus on food growing. Hosted at Cedar Song Centre for Wild Belonging in Victoria, BC, this immersive experience invites participants to reconnect with the land, its seasonal rhythms, and the beings who share it. Through hands-on food cultivation, ritual, and community, participants will explore how spiritual practices can be integrated with the practicalities of life, fostering a deep reverence for the Earth and its gifts.
From Spring to Fall, six gatherings will provide opportunities for individuals to immerse themselves in a sacred, place-based relationship with the land. This group is open to all, regardless of experience, and aims to bridge the divide between the spiritual and the everyday, creating a lasting community grounded in reciprocity, stewardship, and shared wisdom. Co-guided by experienced facilitators, including mythologist Stephanie McKay, Stowel Lake grower Meghan McEachern, and guide and Cedar Song co-founder Stephanie Marchal, the program will weave together practices of earth-based spirituality and practical land stewardship, supporting participants in developing a “village cosmology” rooted in interconnectedness and sacred reciprocity.
This project is rooted in a deep respect for ancestral wisdom and the living, animate qualities of the land. By fostering a spiritual connection to food growing and stewardship, it will help create a lasting community that honors the sacredness of the Earth and its cycles.
We will be meeting on land one full day, once a month between March and August, from the time of dreaming the land to seeing it in full bloom We will have opportunities for online check-ins in between gatherings, during which land-based explorations will be suggested. Participants will also be able to ask for one-on-one guiding from either Stephanie MacKay or Stephanie Marchal to support their growth in their connection to the land and to their deeper themselves.
Each participant will enter in relationship with one or two plant beings that they choose, either because it holds a special significance to their family or ancestry, or because it is calling them. They will deepen in appreticeship to these plants and learn to care for them.
At the end of the 6 months, we will have a celebration/feast (on August 9th) where stories and food will be shared. The participants will be able to take some of their crop with them to share, and will be invited to share some of their bounty to the larger community.
This is an experiential offering, to which you are called to commit for the whole 6 months and to co-create fully. The first and last online meeting is compulsory while the others are optional times for check-in and extra guidance.
Time commitment:
6 days on land with 6 online meetings.
On-land meetings: March 29, April 12, May 10, June 7, July 12, Aug 9.
Online check-ins (the first and last are mandatory but the others are optional) to get further invitations and guidance with Stéphanie Marchal: 7.00-8.30pm on Tuesdays March 18th, April 22th, May 27th, July 1st, July 29th, Aug 19th.
Opportunity to come to Cedar Song in between these dates to be with the land and/or support the garden. Available days to do a work exchange for scholarship (see below) include: April 6th, April 19th, May 4th, May 24th, June 14th, June 21st, July 13th, Aug 2nd, Aug 30th, Sept 14th, Oct 5th. You can choose the days that work for your schedule and come work for a few hours toward your scholarship.
Contribution:
1200$-1600$ for the 6 months (200$ per month). Fee will serve purchase of garden materials.
Possibility of work exchange scholarship: 900$ scholarship (you pay 300$) for a 36 hours on land work exchange commitment, organized in 6 hours of on land help on 6 regular days between March and September.
A field was recently restored on Cedar Song and is waiting for the visions of stewards.
Starting field back in summer 2024:
During restoration:
Verified
