Discover the power of menopause to awaken your authority and purpose

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.

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 weekend, you’ll receive 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. 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.
• 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.

“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’s underground temple to the Feminine Divine.

The weekend will include all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday brunch.

Who this is for

This weekend is for you if you’re:

• In your 40s and navigating perimenopause.
• Actively in your menopause process.
• Post-menopause (whether naturally or medically induced) and wanting to retroactively reclaim or understand your own rite of passage…or to grieve what you didn’t know or weren’t taught.

Menopause kit

You’ll get a menopause bundle that includes:

• A menopause playbook that includes all the information taught during the weekend, as well as remedies, resources, and ideas to nourish and support yourself.
• Some goodies to soothe and delight you.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Inspiration

“Menopause, at its best, is more than just a pause in our menses; it’s a sacred pause in the hurtling trajectory of life. As we slowly begin to burn away those old identities and outdated structures, and as our pale, exhausted visions begin slowly to recede, we enter a state of conscious incubation in which a nascent life can be dreamed into being. 

These multiple acts of deconstruction and reconstruction are what menopause is for. Because menopause…is not a medical condition, it is an earthquake, shaking us to our deepest foundations, wiping out the edifices we’ve so carefully constructed on what we once imaged to be the solid ground of our life. 

Menopause hacks us open. It tells us, above all, that there are new wisdoms in which we can now immerse ourselves, new ways of being in the world to be uncovered. Life is not over; it is simply, and irrevocably, changed.”

~ Sharon Blackie, Hagitude