Dark Goddess Retreat: A Journey into the Shadow Heart

The Dark Goddess Retreat is a three-day retreat held at Valaterra Retreat Center in La Grange, Kentucky, focused on embodiment, reflection, and self-trust.

This retreat offers a supportive space for women and womb-holding beings to explore personal growth through guided discussion, gentle somatic awareness, creative reflection, and community connection. The emphasis throughout the weekend is on learning to listen to the body rather than override it.

Participants will engage in practices that explore conscious consideration, consumption, and indulgence to develop awareness of what we take in physically, emotionally, mentally, and energetically. Intentional choice will be encouraged and integrated to support clarity and regulation.

Optional Reiki sessions and oracle readings will be available between Saturday sessions for those who wish to explore additional reflection and energetic support. All offerings are trauma-informed, optional, and respectful of personal boundaries.

Info: Arrival, accommodation assignments, and the beginning of the digital detox.

Info: Group introductions, facilitator overview, and review of house guidelines, container agreements.

Info: Many women are conditioned to believe that safety lives in being pleasant and agreeable, even when it costs them their truth. Sweetness may have been a survival strategy at one time, but survival is not the same as empowerment, authenticity, or wholeness. Sometimes being disagreeable is how we call our power back and get our needs met. Sometimes, being "difficult" is how we look reality straight in the eye and set the temperature to rise to the occasion of what is actually needed to serve the greatest good. Niceness can feel lovely when it is genuine, but it can also suffocate us when it is a costume rather than a choice, or when we no longer recognize the difference between being kind and being hidden or harmed. This interactive workshop walks us through the shadow of “nice” and honors the wisdom of the disagreeable woman. We will explore how a sacred no can enhance self-trust and protect the heart, often revealing a sacred yes. We will honor how softness and strength can coexist.

Info: This introductory Bowspring class explores movement through the myth of Persephone, tracing the archetypal journey of child, maiden, mother, and crone. Using the Bowspring alignment system, students are guided to experience how posture, breath, and gentle activation support adaptability, strength, and ease in the body.

Rather than performing shapes, this class emphasizes listening, curiosity, and embodied awareness, inviting participants to notice how different phases of the myth reflect physical and emotional states. The practice is accessible, educational, and grounded, offering a supportive entry point into Bowspring while weaving myth as a framework for self-reflection and integration.

No prior experience with Bowspring or mythology is required.

Info: A 2-Hour Guided Journey of Art, Insight, and Remembering
This two-hour immersive experience invites you into a gentle, symbolic journey to meet and heal your Inner Child Archetypes. Guided by the wisdom of The Oracle of the Lost Children, art-making, and meditation, you’ll explore the subtle energies that have shaped your inner world—and begin to release what no longer belongs to you.
Through the creation of three Journey Circle Cards ™, you’ll awaken inner child archetypes and allow art to become a living language of exploration and energy. A guided meditation will lead you along a chosen inner landscape, where you’ll connect with meaningful symbols and an animal guide offering insight, protection, and support.
You’ll be invited to listen deeply and ask your inner child simple yet powerful questions—uncovering where you’ve felt trapped or held, what fears and tears are ready to be witnessed, and what remains true and alive within you now.
This is not

Info: This guided breathwork experience invites you to slow down, return to your body, and regulate your nervous system from the inside out. Designed to help you soften into presence and reconnect with your inner wisdom, this session offers both ritual and practicality. You'll be guided through grounding breath patterns that soothe overwhelm, restore safety, and unlock the deeper truths that live beneath the noise.

Info: Rage is an emotion that is often feared in our society because it is associated with violence, but rage is a valuable emotion with a lot of energy to fuel transformation. When it is expressed and channeled in safe and productive ways it has the power to alchemize stuck energy and fuel creation. Through this Sacred Rage Ecstatic Dance Journey we will explore this powerful emotion through music, movement, vocalization, and by accessing altered states of consciousness. Participants will be invited to adorn face paint (optional) to invoke their fierce selves, imbibe heart opening cacao, collectively weave a safe and sacred ceremonial container of self exploration, be guided through a movement lexicon, and be guided gently into a partnership with music body, and mind, intended to facilitate unbridled expression and reclamation.

Info: ? SHADOW JUICE — Crimson Descent
A blood-red offering honoring grief, truth, and the power found in the dark.
? LIGHT JUICE — Golden Devotion
A radiant blend celebrating pleasure, embodiment, and divine joy.

Info: Christi will be offering a sacred "drum washing" session for this retreat. Her unique sound bath experience  weaves sounds of the Shamanic Buffalo frame drum, ocean drum, rain sticks, and rattles.

Info: An hour of Noble Silence offers a quiet pause for integration, reflection, and nervous system settling. During this time, participants refrain from speaking and external stimulation, allowing space to listen inward, rest the mind, and gently process the experiences of the day.

Info: Reclaiming Touch, Pleasure, and Power
In this session, Dr. Monica will lead an educational, trauma-informed exploration of sacred sexuality, intentional touch, and the Dark Goddess archetype as a guide for authenticity and embodied empowerment. Participants will examine how desire, pleasure, and intimacy intersect with the nervous system, trauma patterns, and personal agency. This offering invites reflection, curiosity, and deeper self-understanding, focusing on the inner landscape that shapes our experiences in the “bedroom” of the psyche.

Info: The Queen’s Feast is a shared, celebratory meal centered on conscious indulgence, presence, and connection. During the feast, the digital detox comes to a close, inviting a mindful return to the outside world after a day of reflection and integration. The evening concludes with a symbolic coronation honoring personal sovereignty, along with the receiving of a personalized gift as a tangible reminder of the insights gathered throughout the retreat.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Katie Ward with Realigned Body LLC