Encounter with the Mothers of Water

The story underneath it all!

Since 2011, I’ve been welcoming women to Brazil for Encounter with the Mothers of Water, an immersive journey of embodiment, mythology, nature and transformation.

From the beginning, this retreat has attracted women standing at significant thresholds in their lives. Some arrive in the midst of profound change. Others feel the stirring of something new, a longing to initiate a transformation of their own.

The retreat grew out of my movement research and my immersion in Brazilian culture. By the time I created it, I was well into my second decade of living in Brazil, a country I had adopted as my home. I had become fascinated by the three great Afro-Brazilian Orixá goddesses of water: Oyá, Oxum and Yemanjá, and the extraordinary parallels between their elemental powers and the great cycles of transformation in our own lives.

What particularly intrigued me was their relationship to the hydrologic cycle: the continuous movement of water through atmosphere, earth, rivers and ocean.

Water gathers, changes form, releases its energy, nourishes life and returns to the sea, only to rise and begin its journey again.

Within this cycle, I discovered a powerful mytho-somatic framework for exploring and integrating processes of change alive in our lives.

THE THREE MOTHERS OF WATER

OYÁ — THE STORM

Oyá embodies the gathering storm, the winds of change and the tremendous elemental forces that disrupt, clear and initiate transformation.

The storms of our lives sometimes arrive uninvited. At other times, we summon them ourselves, driven by a longing for change that can no longer be contained.

Through Oyá, we explore our relationship with these powerful forces. We learn to engage the energy of transformation, move with it and discover what becomes possible when familiar structures begin to shift.

And then comes the rain.

OXUM — THE SWEET WATERS

The waters released by the storm replenish the earth. They gather in streams and rivers, nourish the landscape, collect tributaries and carve new pathways as they travel toward the sea.

Here we encounter Oxum, goddess of the sweet waters, fertility, beauty, sensuality and flow.
Oxum invites us into the fertile territory of renewal. What becomes possible after the storm? What new life is asking to emerge? Where can we soften, receive nourishment, rediscover pleasure and allow our creative energies to flow?

Like a river, we are transformed by everything we encounter along the way. We gather experiences, discover unexpected pathways and participate in the continual reshaping of our own lives.

And the rivers carry us toward the sea.

YEMANJÁ — THE GREAT OCEAN

Yemanjá, the great Mother of the Ocean, receives the rivers into her vast embrace. Their waters join the great oceanic currents, mysterious forces that move through the depths and connect the waters of the world.

She invites us into this immensity: to feel the ancient currents of connection beneath us, the exhilarating rush of waves around us, the buoyancy of surrender and the sensual abandon of sea and foam.

In her waters, we encounter the depths of our belonging, the wild pleasure of being alive and the healing power of the ocean. We awaken to our own immensity.

And from the sea, the waters rise again. The cycle continues.

Together, these three goddesses offer a profound mythic framework for engaging the continuous cycle of transformation: the gathering storm, the fertility of flowing waters, the return to the great ocean and the endless possibility of renewal.

THE BODY AS THE VESSEL OF TRANSFORMATION

I created Encounter with the Mothers of Water as a sanctuary where women could take a long, deep breath from their everyday responsibilities and become completely, sensually alive in themselves.

Every day, I guide deep embodiment experiences distilling the gems of my life’s work in dance, ritual and somatic practice. The heartfelt invitation to women is to feel, mold, move and breathe with their bodies as vessels of their soul’s expression.

Through ritual and mytho-somatic experiences, we engage the elemental powers of the goddesses as living expressions of our own processes of change. Through story and cultural participation, we honor a long lineage of wisdom in one of the world’s most embodied and sensual cultures.

In Brazil, you feel it everywhere!

The storm becomes something we can move through our bodies. The river invites us to discover new pathways of sensation and creative release. The ocean opens us to experiences of expansion, integration and connection with the great currents of life.

By immersing in movement, ceremony, song, offerings, and celebration, the goddesses become our mentors. Their stories become living experiences, allowing us to explore transformation physically, emotionally, imaginatively and spiritually.

BRAZIL: THE LIVING LANDSCAPE OF THE GODDESSES

Our experience unfolds in the coastal rainforest of Brazil, a vibrant confluence of waterfalls, rivers and ocean, where the great cycle of water is unfolding all around us.

Here, the mytho-somatic experience comes into direct contact with the elements. We enter the forest, immerse ourselves in crystal freshwater, then surrender into the rushing, salty embrace of ocean waves on golden sand. The landscape becomes both our sanctuary and our living ritual environment.

Through devotional play and practice in these environments, we encounter the elemental powers of the goddesses through our own senses. The relationship between mythology, nature and our inner lives becomes something we can experience in our bodies.

Equally important is our engagement with Brazilian culture. Through music, cultural participation, encounters with local traditions and immersion in Orixá goddess lore, we enter into relationship with the living cultural heritage that inspired the retreat. Brazil is very welcoming and and continually invites us into deeper connection.

AN ENCOUNTER WITH TRANSFORMATION

This beloved experience is a multilayered immersion of embodiment, mythos, nature, culture and transformation. It brings together the depth of our inner work and the sensual, supportive abundance of the world around us, offering women the rare opportunity to step away from their everyday lives and dive into a world where movement, ritual, nature and culture continually inform one another.

For fifteen years, I’ve watched women arrive at this retreat standing at different thresholds in their lives. And I’ve witnessed what can happen when they give themselves permission to enter fully into the experience.

To move with the storm and open to transformation.
To rediscover their flow and release into healing.
To align with the great currents of our soul’s journey.

And to awaken to their own immensity.