sacred wild learning initiative
explore / learn / play / connect / heal
Rites of Passage Training
Nature Connection Experiences
Sacred Wild Retreats
Human Design Thinking
Personal and Group Vision Quests
Naturalist Training
Storytelling Workshops
Wild Family Gatherings
Sacred Wild Learning Initiative is a growing group of professionals, artists, teachers, consultants and guides, who are having the conversation about connecting to the sacred wild all around us and within. We intentionally design spaces rich with wonder in order to learn reciprocal connection with ourselves, others, land and Spirit. We do this through sacred gathering, play, creative expression, naturalist training, and rites of passage.
All the experiences we offer are co-created in a circle together. When we work with friends, we hold an open mind in front of a blank canvas. Together, we dream and scheme. The goal is creativity, connection, reciprocity, healing, harmony and wonder. All of these lead to a sacred flow of life.
Go on a Sacred Wild Vision Quest with us!
Realizing our culture is in a liminal space of transformation, we recognize a longing for deep connection with ourselves, our local community, and the natural landscape. The ingredients of connection are different for each person and community, but some of how we practice connection are:
taking steps to consecrate intentional time amidst a busy schedule
paying attention to the delight and wonder that acts as a spiritual biome in our deep selves
providing intentionally planned spaces to connect and listen to the natural world
being honest with our spiritual longings and curiosities, even if it means we face trauma from past individual, societal or religious narratives that have shut down or dominated our personal journeys
Connecting with others in safe, non judgmental spaces in order to offer support and care
Providing rich and meaningful rites of passages to both young and old that act as memory stones and altars along life’s journey
Creatively problem solving material and spiritual blocks to living in sacred reciprocity with land, people and Spirit
Providing spaces of play and deep joy
We provide space where it is okay to laugh, explore, play and grieve. And to share these experiences with others.
We pivot in our offerings as needed to provide individuals, small groups, corporate teams, church groups, spiritual groups, teacher teams, etc. with playful and meaningful experiences in order to deepen personal and corporate connection and curiosity. Among some of the experiences we offer are:
Naturalist Experiences and Training
Retreats for Soul Care and Relational Health
Storytelling Cohorts and Workshops
Training in the Healing Art of Play (while playing)
Vision Quests (for life direction and corporate creativity)
Rites of Passage for Various Stages of Life (young and old)
Human Centered Design Workshops and Creative Exploration for Corporate Groups
Dance for opening up awareness by listening to the body and connecting with our deep instinct
Drum Circling
Forest Bathing Experiences
All are welcome. We’d love to partner with you or your group.
Establishing Sacred Connection
(Re)Connecting with Self
At Sacred Wild, we believe the true light of the Self is perpetually whole, beautiful and connected with Spirit. A lot of trauma has occurred from rigid teachings that we are born lost, dark and disconnected. Unlearning this mindset and walking in connection with our divine light is one of the great journeys we take, in both mind and body.
We do this reclamation through practices which deepen this connection not just cognitively, but through embodiment practices—such as nature immersions, vision quests, rites of passage training, dream work and soul care intensives.
(Re)Connecting with Nature
No matter where our culture is at present in terms of eldership and rites of passage training, one thing we do know is that Nature always provides us with wise elders. Trees, Fires, flowing Water, Animals, Flowers and many other Beings move throughout our landscape—intertwined with us and ready to offer peace, challenge, inspiration, support and guidance.
Connecting with Mama Nature is to listen, learn and speak with Her, and not just about Her. We believe this to be a crucial distinction.
We offer intensive nature immersions where we scientifically learn about the natural world—birds, trees, fungi, ecological landscape, mammals, reptiles, creepy crawlies, etc. We do this in an environment that includes sacredness and play—with singing, fires, drums, song-prayers and gathering.
(Re)Connecting with Life
As we move deeper into the acceptance of self design and our place in nature, an organic web of life begins to form. This builds our natural instincts (already connected to the land) and reveals a new worldview. We slowly begin to consume differently, rest more rhythmically, interact with others in new harmony and move through the world with greater confidence and wonder.
In short, we become more and more HUMAN. It can be discombobulating within the mindset of a disconnected culture, but it is wildly life giving, adventurous and full of love. We offer support as transformation happens, because we are not alone. All of life is interconnected and sacred.
(Re)Connecting with Work
We are also interested in moving into the field of consultation for businesses and various institutions in order to encourage deeper human-emotion-centric connections in the workplace. We desire to work with those in the business sectors who feel drawn to a shift away from the common baseline motivations of profit and productivity and feel called to a more harmonious flow of goods and desire more life-giving creativity and healthy relationship with your community of people. Our consultation will focus on deep creativity, human centered design and workplace relational health. From this perspective, profit is replaced with abudance and productivity with fruitfulness.
"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys."
-Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation
"We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put into the universe will always come back."
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
"To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together."
-Barry Lopez
"The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order."
-Henry Miller
I'm not going to recommend recklessness but somewhere just short of it - testing yourself and proactively pursuing a rite of passage has become necessary because in western developed countries we've become very comfort-addicted.
-Sean Penn
About Us…
Stephen Otis
Stephen “Sitting Skunk” Otis has been teaching for over 25 years. He enjoys working with contemplative practices from various traditions. As well as nature immersion therapies (forest bathing, sit spots, vision questing and naturalist training).
He is passionate about the art of storytelling and has been guiding experiences for over a decade.
He is certified in AAIT (Acceptance and Integration Training) and pursues healing journeys that re-construct a deep sense of self, the divine and natural connection.
Interests: I love to hike, write, build things, tell stories, play with my kids and imagine. I love sitting next to streams in the Smoky Mountains with my partner, Sara. And sitting around fires with friends—especially if there is a drum circle going on! I cherish being in the midst of laughter. Professionally, I am one of the guides at Knox Forest School and a middle school teacher at Clayton Bradley Academy.
Ashley Addair
Ash Sunbird Dawn Addair is an artist working in kinship with a variety of media including paint, textile, costume, installation, experimental living, performance, curated gatherings, and language. Recited in alternating tones of delight and exasperation, her work wrestles with macro questions at an individual and familial scale. She attends to ordinary gestures, the narratives we map onto existence, and the immaterial spirit of the matter we inhabit. She received her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Bryan Terril
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