Every ending is a beginning, and every beginning an ending. In darkness, you discover that you are both the journey and the destination.
Your transition into complete darkness and eventual return to light are as sacred and significant as your time spent within the darkness itself. These carefully designed processes honor the magnitude of your journey while ensuring your comfort, safety, and optimal conditions for transformation.
Your entry into darkness is ceremonial, intentional, and deeply supported. It is a crossing of a threshold into an entirely different state of being.
Arrival (4:00-6:00 PM)
Welcome and Orientation
You will arrive in the late afternoon when the natural light is beginning to fade - a symbolic alignment with your upcoming journey. Greg will welcome you and provide a tour of the facilities, helping you understand the layout while you can still see.
Setting Up Your Sacred Space
This is your last chance to arrange your physical environment. Take time to create a space that feels nurturing and supportive.
Building Confidence in Movement
Before the lights go out permanently, you'll practice moving through your space wearing an eye mask. This crucial step helps you:
Learning the Art of Dark Navigation
Most guests are surprised by how quickly they adapt, discovering their body has capabilities you've never needed to access.
Warming and Preparation Ritual
For those who choose it, a warm ginger compress applied to the back and abdomen helps:
This traditional preparation helps signal to your body that something special is beginning.
Nourishment and Connection
Your final meal in the light serves multiple purposes:
Topics We Often Discuss:
This is your opportunity to share anything that feels important and receive any final guidance.
The Sacred Threshold
As natural darkness approaches, we ceremonially enter the complete Darkness together through a gentle, intentional transition that honours the significance of what you're undertaking.
The Moment of Transition:
This moment often brings up emotions - anticipation, fear, excitement, peace. All are welcome and normal.
Your return to the world of light is as carefully orchestrated as your entry into darkness. This process honors both what you've experienced and who you're becoming as you integrate these experiences.
The First Light
Your emergence begins gently with the lighting of a single candle. After days or weeks in complete darkness, even this small flame can seem blindingly bright and magically beautiful.
Initial Moments:
Many guests describe this moment as deeply moving - seeing light again after extended darkness often brings tears of joy or profound emotion.
Gentle Transition
You'll spend time with only candlelight before any brighter illumination is introduced:
What Often Happens:
This intermediary phase prevents the shock of sudden bright light and allows integration to begin naturally.
Reconnecting with the External World
As your eyes adjust to full daylight, a gentle walk in nature provides:
Common Experiences:
Nature often provides the perfect bridge between your inner journey and external reality.
Breaking the Fast, Sharing the Experience
Your first shared meal in the light serves multiple purposes:
Food often tastes both more intense and more satisfying after the darkness experience.
Making Meaning of the Journey
This crucial conversation helps you:
Topics We Explore:
This conversation helps transform raw experience into integrated wisdom.
After you return home, a follow-up call provides continued integration support including:
Timing: Scheduled based on your needs and preferences, typically within 1-2 weeks of departure.
Integration continues long after the retreat ends. This support ensures you don't navigate the process alone.
Immersion is about letting go of more than light. It's also about:
Emergence isn't just about seeing again - it's about:
Both immersion and emergence are profound transitions that deserve reverence and care. They are sacred passages that honour the courage it takes to step into the unknown and the wisdom it takes to return transformed. We've learned that how you enter and leave the darkness significantly impacts the depth and integration of your experience.
Every threshold crossed mindfully becomes a doorway to greater freedom.
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