The Re-membering Retreat
Coming Home to Ourselves and Our Belonging Within the Web of Life
October 15-18, 2026
Earthaven Ecovillage
Near Asheville, NC
The Re-membering Retreat is an intimate four-day journey into connection with self, community, and the wider web of the living Earth. Through guided practice, ritual, story, song, and time in nature, we’ll explore what it means to be present with ourselves and each other, and to belong here.
When you connect with your whole self and what brought you into this world, the gifts you carry become more clear and accessible.
- Whole-group, small-group, one-on-one, and solo activities; all are optional
- Space between sessions for movement, time alone in nature, self-care and reflection
- Honoring grief as an essential part of living and loving
- Working with the elements of fire, water, earth, air and mystery
- Co-creating a deep and renewing ritual flow with caring, skilled and experienced guides
- Beautiful Appalachian forest environment with handmade infrastructure
- Three nourishing meals a day of seasonal food made with love
The biggest gift I’m walking away with from this experience is a much larger perspective on the kinds of connection and belonging I can cultivate to enrich my life.
The Re-membering Retreat provides space, time and guidance to gently approach the severed places within ourselves and the rifts between humans and the rest of life. Looking into nature’s candid mirror, we can remember the truth of our innate interconnectedness. Doing this together, in community with one another, brings powerful layers of vulnerability and witnessing*, both potent antidotes to isolation and loneliness.
*all activities are optional
Collaboratively, we will create a shared experience that can help restore our sense of belonging in the world and in our own seat of well-being. When we connect to the parts inside of us that long to belong, we ignite more authenticity, meaning, and pleasure in our external connections. With this renewed sense of our authentic selves, we can more fully engage in our lives, in service to life, and in reciprocity with Earth’s living web.
This was one of the most incredible facilitated experiences of my lifetime. I have never experienced this level of intentionality in preparation, execution, and aftercare. I feel clarity in my purpose, and a renewed sense of overall vitality. ~Nan
This program is for adults and mature teens.
Have Questions?
Check out the October 8 live info session to hear more about the program and ask questions. Everyone who registers will receive a link to the recording.
Feel free to contact us at any time with questions about the program.
In modern American culture, we’re not used to grieving together. However, many traditional lifeways include community grief practices as essential tools for overall wellbeing. Sobonfu Somé was an ambassador from such a culture, who NikiAnne had the pleasure of hosting and working with. She came from the Dagara people of what’s now called Burkina Faso in West Africa and brought many teachings around community ritual, including grief. In this short video, she shares why grieving together is so important.
An unforgettable journey into the depths of self, community and belonging. Throughout the experience, I was invited to embody the cultural change that I’m yearning for. I left with new friends, cherished memories, and a better sense of my place in the world. (And oh-my-gosh, the food!) I recommend this retreat!
I found what true peace, happiness, and Joy feel like. I learned the principles needed to apply into my life to continue to have this experience in my daily life.
Tentative Schedule
Thursday
11:00 Optional Earthaven tour
1:30 Arrive. Check in to Accommodations and Retreat
3:00 Casual Connection around the Fire
3:30 Opening Circle
5:30 Dinner
6:45-9:00 Opening Circle
Friday – Saturday
7:45 Morning Stretches (optional)
8:15 Breakfast
9:30 Morning Session
12:30 Lunch
2:30 Afternoon Session
6:00 Dinner
7:30-9:00 Evening Activity
Sunday
7:45 Morning Stretches (optional)
8:15 Breakfast and Pack up
10:15 Closing Circle
1:00 Lunch
2:30 Depart
The Group
We expect the group to have 25-30 adults. Every year, the group has been diverse, demographically, and in life experience. Historically, all ages from the 20s through the 80s were represented. This intergenerational group led to connections among peers and mentorship with elders. Most participants were going through a life transition — first or second Saturn return, moving, retirement, or relationship changes.
Many participants live at or near Earthaven or have participated in other School of Integrated Living programs. Many people look forward to this retreat each year to put down the work of the busy summer and settle into the autumn coolness.
NikiAnne, Chloe, and Mirna created, from the very beginning, a safe and loving container for healing to happen. I felt supported by the three facilitators and relaxed knowing and feeling their competence. I work as a psychotherapist, for the past 25 years, and have engaged in a number of different healing modalities and retreats during that time. Hand on heart, I can say that this was the single most healing space that I have experienced and witnessed
I came into the experience with a mixture of curiosity and timidness and I walked away super satiated…my cup runneth over with joy! The shared space and activities offered a chance to get in touch with grief, connection, and authenticity in myself and with the group. This is a unique experience that I feel really grateful to have been a part of. This retreat was food for the soul.
Logistics
Food
Delicious, omnivorous meals are prepared by talented culinary artists from the Earthaven community. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free options available. Snacks and beverages (tea, coffee) are provided. Participants are invited to help with meal clean-up. Many hands make light work.
As much food as possible is sourced from Earthaven and its surrounding farms and gardens, with some ingredients sourced from grocery stores. Our meals are created with seasonal, local, fresh, wildcrafted, humanely-raised, and organic ingredients.
***If you have dietary needs beyond the ones listed here, please be prepared to bring supplemental food to support your nourishment and well-being. Our kitchen cannot accommodate all diets.
*** Although we would like to know if you have any allergies, we cannot provide an anaphylactic safe meal. There is always the chance of cross contamination.
Click here for more information about food.
Program Specific Info
Nine meals are included: Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch.
Location
Earthaven Ecovillage
This program takes place at Earthaven Ecovillage. This permaculture-based community offers a unique living classroom where participants will engage with the natural world, eco-infrastructure, and the intimate experience of rural community living.
Dancing Shiva Retreat Center
Within Earthaven, most of this retreat will be held at the beautiful Dancing Shiva healing center. Dancing Shiva is located away from the hustle and bustle of the village center and features a cozy meeting space and long views.
Facilitation Team
NikiAnne Feinberg
Founder, Facilitator
Throughout the last two decades, NikiAnne has dedicated much of her life energy to facilitating transformative learning journeys, particularly in community settings, and with folks in transition — between vocations; stages of life, including death; and those working to live into new, more life-giving stories of the world and themselves. In all her work, NikiAnne partners with the ancestors, the natural world, the power of ritual, and others to best serve the whole.
Chloe Lieberman
Facilitator
Chloe (she/her) is a student and steward of the living mystery that is this generative Earth body. Throughout her life, Chloe has explored and engaged the intersections of food, environment, community, and spirituality. She has long yearned to understand how and why we humans have gotten into such a dysfunctional relationship with the sources of our sustenance, and how we can heal and thrive. Her nurturing and natural curiosity lead her into deep, attentive connection with the people around her, humans and others.
Mirna McWilliams
Facilitator
Mirna is a resident of Earthaven Ecovillage, where she is learning what it means to live together in Village. She is a lifelong artist who has spent many years of study and practice in various lineages of theater, dance, and music, now turning these capacities toward the possibility of healing, liberation, and cultural transformation. In all that she studies, offers, and practices, she is devoted to moving through the complexity of these times in the spirit of prayer, pleasure, and deep play.
Rachel Fee
Chef Queen
As a farmer as well as cook, Rachel's reciprocal relationship with nourishment spans soil to plate. She enjoys facilitating simple and intentional culinary experiences where each ingredient can shine. Her meals focus on seasonal vegetables and animal proteins tended with her own hands or those of her beloveds. Engaging in food production and preparation as a belonging practice, Rachel loves to gift the foods and the people with tales of their journey to our plate — highlighting our deep relationship with one another and the grief and devotion that often mingle there.
More than anything, Rachel believes that an intentional meal enjoyed with gratitude and awareness is a prayer and one of the highest forms of love for ourselves and the earth.
Financial Co-responsibility and Scholarships
Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding-scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. We offer several price tiers and leave it to you to select the most appropriate tier. The price range aims to take into consideration economic disparities, historical injustices, and personal circumstances. The system is designed for those with more resources to support those with less.
At Earthaven and through the School of Integrated Living (SOIL), we strive to practice a culture of financial transparency, authenticity, and generosity. Trusting each other to assess their needs, what is within their ability, and when to ask for help. We are excited to include you in our experiment with financial co-responsibility.
We are now offering self-selected scholarships for many of our programs. No proof of need, no questions asked. Just the clear intention of trust that registrants can assess whether the cost of a program is truly a barrier to attendance and the growth of self and community our programs seek to foster.
In addition, we offer partial scholarships (50% of the middle of the sliding scale) to black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) with financial needs who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend, even with the self-selected scholarships. We understand that BIPOC may experience more financial and institutional barriers to participation, and this is one way we are able to create more access. If you identify as BIPOC with financial needs and would like to receive a deeper scholarship, please contact us.
SOIL endeavors to support the healthy flow of all resources; whether that be monetary or the skills and information that seed cultural change; and widen the doors of accessibility to what we offer.
Cost
General
Tuition Sliding Scale: $450-650
$325 general scholarship rate
$275 BIPOC scholarship rate (code required)
What’s Included
Tuition includes meals, instruction, materials, and a virtual tour recording to watch before the retreat.
Accommodations are available for an additional cost.
Registration
Complete the registration form once per participant. It takes 5-10 minutes, and you will complete your enrollment with a credit card authorization.
After your enrollment is processed, you will receive several confirmations…
- An automatic confirmation of receiving your registration form
- A payment confirmation from our card processor
- Confirmation that your registration has been processed
Please contact us before registering if any of these apply:
- You would like indoor housing and have an electrical device, such as a CPAP, that needs power overnight. The indoor accommodations for this program do not provide overnight electrical power.
- You have a service animal.
- You are bringing a trailer or vehicle longer than 25′. There are limited spaces to park large vehicles at Earthaven.