Yearlong Initiatory Immersion
for Women+
Initiatory Container for Community Stewards & Space Holders: Threshold Tending, Earth-based Elemental Ritual, Nature Connection & Deep Listening Practices
March 2026 - January 2027
with Alexis Slutzky & Friends
“Together, we reweave the relational threads of belonging, remember the gifts of our soul’s purpose, and gain courage to take meaningful action in service to the whole.”
The Journey
This yearlong immersive journey with an intimate learning and practice cohort is a dreaming, prayer and action - designed as a vessel for healing and transformation and meant to augment your work and ground you in the wisdom of nature, ritual, connection to mystery and community.
We come to certain passages when we are called to deepen, shed old ways of being, draw together forgotten parts of ourselves, in order to move with more authenticity and alignment into the next phase of our lives. Although each person’s journey is unique, together we open to an unfurling of experience that is more or less universal. We engage the natural cycles of change, as mirrored in the seasons, with invitations to deepen connection through experiential practices, including ritual, somatics, embodied movement, dreamtending, writing, poetry, handcrafting and song.When we are connected, supported and witnessed within a community of care, allow ourselves to grieve, and open to the well spring where dreams are sourced, we naturally move into a place of vision and possibility. Together, we reweave the relational threads of belonging, remember the gifts of our soul’s purpose, and gain courage to take meaningful action in service to the whole.
This year’s journey is rooted at the Topa Institute, a beautiful land based sanctuary in Ojai, California devoted to rites of passage and deep listening.
The container centers the experience of women and is specifically open to women and femmes (female identified or female gendered), trans inclusive, across spectrums of race, sexuality and age.
Included
4 seasonal in person 4 day retreats: Camping + lunch & dinners (Thur - Sun)
Fall 4 day retreat includes a 24-hour solo wilderness ceremony
2x monthly 2-hour zoom gathering (one with cohort / one with guest teacher)
Monthly practice suggestions and invitations for home based practice
We convene an intimate cohort of 10-12 people for four in-person seasonal gatherings, regular monthly online sessions and home based practice in between.
All gatherings, except the Fall retreat, will be held at the beautiful Topa Institute in Ojai, California.
The container centers the experience of women and is specifically open to women and femmes (female identified or female gendered), trans inclusive, across spectrums of race, sexuality and age.*
*If you are interested, and are unsure if this container is for you for any reason, including why the invitation is gendered, please feel free to reach out. I would love to speak with you.
Our first group call will take place early March 2026 in preparation for the Spring retreat.
Details
In person:
Thur 2pm - Sunday 2pm
Camping Included in cost (You will need to bring your own gear)
Shared Yurt option - with 3 others: 50$ per night additional fee/with 1 other: $100 per night additional fee
Dinners & lunches included (Breakfast not included in cost- You will be on a team for breakfast at least once and responsible for purchasing food and preparing for that meal. We will coordinate as a community.)
Fall gathering held at Quail Springs Farm in Cuyama, CA - Camping only
Online:
Two 2-hour zoom calls each month to be scheduled in April, May, July, August, October, November, January (first and third Thursdays or day TBD)
First call = Check-in and practice updates
Second call = Guest Teacher
**During the months we meet in person, there is only one zoom call per month
On Land Retreats
Spring : March 26-29
Summer : June 4 - 7
Fall : Sept 17 -20 or Oct 8-12 Dates & location To Be Confirmed
Winter : Dec 3 - 6
Unfurling Cycle
SPRING: Preparation - Opening to the Call: Gratitude & Ground
SUMMER: Severance - Shedding the Husk: Honoring Our Grief
FALL: Threshold - Illuminated Darkness: Turning towards Mystery & Other Ways of Knowing
WINTER: Integration - Embodied Engagement: Committing to Practices
(For those of you familiar with The Work That Reconnects, the Spiral is embedded within the Unfurling Cycle and curriculum).
We will be cultivating and practicing skills essential to navigating these times:
unconditional positive regard - a fierce kindness and tender hearted compassion toward our inner and outer lives
slowing down - helping us recognize and live into our intuition, the wisdom of our bodies, as well as giving us access to our grounded, centered, aligned and embodied presence
a supple warm open heart capable of courage, wholehearted participation, and tenderness toward it all
relational integrity - authentic and clear communication, wise discernment and ability and willingness to hold necessary boundaries
a sense of power with and safety in connection with our siblings and relationships between women
trustworthy access to a place of refuge in the spacious presence of our awareness and vast heart-mind
sensual embodiment - ways of moving and inhabiting our bodies centering pleasure, our own pacing and honoring our desires
soul activism - deepening our connection with soul in our lives as resistance and affirmation in a culture focused on accumulation, improvement and accolades
living with an abiding sense of gratitude, curiosity, wonder, awe and humor to support us through challenging times
growing our capacity to be with and welcome grief
a deepening relationship and intimacy with the divine mystery, and a corresponding ground of faith and resourcedness
nurturing ways of being with ourselves, our bodies and inner lives, with soul food - creativity, beauty, and poetry
a growing courtship with and sharing of our unique gifts which we carry as medicine for our communities
widening our kinship with the natural living world and our human relatives; loosening the hold of individualism; and growing the capacity to "think like a circle, like a village”.
ecological & cultural belonging - a sense of relational inter-being, embedded in a rich loamy soil of human and non human relatives, which includes caring for the web of life, reverence for life, self honoring expression in service to life, action responsibility, accountability
Writing Prompts
Poetry
Embodied movement
Somatic inquiry & Grounding
Earth intimacy & Nature connection
Storytelling & Myth
Dream tending & Imaginal arts
Tools & Experiential Practices
Song
Handcrafting
Meditation
Bearing Witness & Being With
Emergence
Council Circle
Ritual
I am delighted to have some dear friends and mentors join us for this journey to help guide and inspire, both in person and online, over the course of the year.
Confirmed Guest Teachers COMING SOON
Reciprocity / Cost
To ensure that the very real costs are met, that the land and guides are resourced, while also making this offering accessible, there are three income tiers with a limited number of slots for the Community Supported rate. Please engage this process with honesty and discernment. As a collective, we are betwixt and between ways with money in modernity (civilization & capitalization) and new ancient ways of being with reciprocity and transparency. For assistance and more context, please read through this Sliding Scale Model.
8-10K Community Supporting
7K Community Sustaining
5K Community Supported
NOTE: All camping costs are included. Additional cost for staying in a shared yurt. Yurts are $200 per night for one person, and can be shared by up to 4 people to split cost.
Once your application is received, someone will reach out to you to schedule a 1:1 call with Alexis.
Please reach out with any questions to: alexisslutzky@gmail.com.
The 2026/27 Yearlong Initiatory Immersion is a fiscally sponsored project of the Topa Institute, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a donation to support the work and the growing Scholarship Fund.