Stephanie MacKay
Mythology and Culture Remembered

Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered

Stephanie MacKay
Mythology and Culture Remembered

Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered Stephanie MacKay Mythology and Culture Remembered
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    • Offerings
      • Myth Gatherings
      • Workshops
      • Mentoring
    • Media
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  • Offerings
    • Myth Gatherings
    • Workshops
    • Mentoring
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As the bleeding stops, the fire goes within.

Paula Gunn Allen - Lakota elder

The Fire Within

Empowering the creative transition from womanhood to crone.

Click here to register for a free info call on March 10.


Join Stephanie MacKay and Cari Burdett as we gather to hold the sacred questions as we transition through (peri)menopause to Cronedom - in community, in strength, with the Land. This offering is for female-body individuals who have journeyed through so many moon cycles of the body, and are now stepping into new realms of what it means to be a woman at this time. On 


~ For mothers ~

~ For women who wanted to be mothers ~

~ For women who chose to intentionally not to be mothers ~

~ The grief and praise, and everything in between ~


We will ask the big questions and look to each other, our innate wisdom and the messages from the land to guide us on our journey. 


Who am I in this phase of life?

What have I been doing and who am I becoming as I live into Crone?


It is said by wise old ones from around the world, this stage of life is our most “powerful” time as women. We will explore song, myth, ceremony, and creating beauty with our hands to reclaim the strength of our AGE.


We will touch our deepest longings, disrupt limiting beliefs from the dominant culture, and let our hearts and soul run wild!


These sessions will be held over the course of 5 months, the first and last sessions are over night camping on Vancouver Island. 


**Registration is for the whole series - contact us if you cannot make all the sessions.


***This program does not offer medical or clinical information on (peri)menopause. We are not health care practitioners and will not bring medical information on the medical or physiological processes of menopause. It is a gathering to empower women through community and ceremony

Join Us for this beautiful journey.

DUNCAN 2025 DATES:
May 31-June 1

June 28

July 19

Aug 23

Sept 12-14

WHERE: In the Wild on Vancouver Island and at Lila Music and Nature Centre, Duncan BC

PRICES: Early bird: $1150 (until April 1st), Regular $1400

AGE: 40+ (or earlier if you are in or approaching perimenopause)


DUNCAN: REGISTER HERE


GABRIOLA 2025 DATES:

May 17-18

June 14

July 5

Aug 24

Sept 26-28

WHERE: Overnight sessions on Vancouver Island and day sessions at a local venue on Gabriola

PRICES: Early bird: $1150 (until April 1st), Regular $1400

AGE: 40+ (or earlier if you are in or approaching perimenopause)


GABRIOLA: REGISTER HERE

“Is it not a magical thing, this life, when just a little ash, cinder, and unclear water can arrange themselves into a beautiful old woman who sways, lifts, kisses, loves, sickens, argues, loses, bears up under it all, and, wrinkling, still lives under all that and yet feeds the Holy in Nature by just the way she moves barefoot down a path?”  

- Martín Prechtel

// A Day Together //

Here's what a day will look like:

10 am – 11:15am: Opening Connection: song, gratitude, checkins 

11:15 – 12pm: Voice work and song exploration

12 – 1pm: Myth Study**

1-1:30pm: Lunch

1:30 - 3:30pm: Crafting ***

3:30 – 4:30pm: Deep nature connection, solo wander

4:30 – 5pm: Closing with sharing and aftercare


** Myth study: a collaborative exploration into the hidden layers of knowledge and wisdom held within old European stories.


*** Crafting and Handwork: working with different materials and plants to create offerings for the Land, deepen our connection to ancestral ways and strengthening our relationship with the sacred.


Our Final Weekend:

2 nights on the land, with the second night being a solo ceremony on the land. 

“Every month I looked forward to gathering with the women in my cohort, to be together on the land. For me it was a time to be in my aging/changing body and to explore what is my fire within? what lights me up? what do I need to let go of as I move into this next phase of life? Cari and Stephanie created a safe, supportive space for these explorations and expertly guided us on the journey with myth, song, movement and nature crafts. A healing, inspirational, sacred journey. ”  

- Pamela Williams (Fire Within 2024)

// What to Expect //

Air & Eagle & Arrows

Session 1: Sat 10am - Sun 4pm

Remote location, Camping on Vancouver Island 


Connecting to Breath and our ability to soar as Eagle. Initial weekend to meet, connect, set intentions, build containers, create a craft that will be sent off with you on a mission, offerings of prayers and feeding our reciprocity. With a focus on air, we will sing, share stories, connect to our inner fire and unfold our intuitive myth making ways. We will embody and claim our power at this time in our lives with our voice, our prayers, while keeping an eagle eye on the sacred within. 

Craft: ceremonial arrow made from obsidian, oceanspray, sinew, and feathers

Earth & Plant & Medicine

Session 2: 10am - 5pm

Local Venue

Honouring the earth, where all life comes from, we lay beside her and seek plant allies for support in medicine making. What songs and myths are alive in the mossy forest floor? How does the earth hold us in this time of transformation to the elder and aging self?

Craft: herbal tinctures and salves with local and indigenous plants

Water & Salmon & Skin

Session 3:  10am - 5pm

Local Venue

Diving deep into the water allies and medicine of the sacred salmon, who swims away and returns home again. What lessons can we learn and where is our home in our body, heart, spirit, soul in this time as women? What skins are we shedding and what are we transforming into? Who are we now? Who are we becoming? What are we releasing? How does the water hold us and change us? What messages are we receiving from the waters as we grow into our crone years. 

Craft: processing a salmon skin into richly beautiful leather

Fire & Bear & Copper

Session 4: 10am – 5pm

Local Venue

The fire lives within us all, what is burning and wanting to become ash and coal? As a wild animal, how can we embrace and embody the sensual crawl of the bear? What lives inside the magic and beauty of copper? Fire as medicine is potent and life giving, giving answers to our scared questions. Working with alchemy copper may invite us into the realms of magic and transformation.

Craft: working with fire and copper, we will craft a copper pendant

Reciprocity & Prayer & Ceremony

Session 5: Friday 6pm – Sunday 4pm

Remote location, Camping on Vancouver Island

Weaving and Bringing it together in an embodied and ceremonial space, we will stand at the threshold of our questions and go into the wild for a solo quest; bringing with us crafts from previous sessions, animal and plant allies. Returning to a sacred holding and witnessing of each participant in celebration of the becoming, the accepting, the surrendering, the awakening, the letting go, the renewal, the mystery, the magic.


Note: this session involves spending up to 24hrs alone on the land

Join us for "The Fire Within"

Duncan RegistrationGabriola Registration

Q&A

Physical Comfort

Singing and Participation

Solo Overnight Support

We’re all about creating a space where you feel comfortable and supported. While much of our time will be spent outdoors, we’re mindful of your physical comfort. For sitting during sessions, we encourage bringing cushions, blankets, or anything that helps you stay comfortable. If you need a chair or something that will keep you warm, that

We’re all about creating a space where you feel comfortable and supported. While much of our time will be spent outdoors, we’re mindful of your physical comfort. For sitting during sessions, we encourage bringing cushions, blankets, or anything that helps you stay comfortable. If you need a chair or something that will keep you warm, that’s absolutely okay. You don’t have to sit on the ground if it doesn’t work for you!

Solo Overnight Support

Singing and Participation

Solo Overnight Support

The solo overnight is an incredibly powerful part of The Fire Within, and we provide plenty of guidance and support before and during the experience. You’ll have access to mentors and group support leading up to the solo time, and there’s always someone available to check in if you need anything during your solo. It’s a gentle, supported process, and we ensure you feel prepared and safe.

Singing and Participation

Singing and Participation

Singing and Participation

We encourage personal expression, but we also respect where people are at with their comfort levels. If singing or any form of expression feels too much for you, that’s absolutely fine. The goal is to step into your own experience, not to force participation. Whether you prefer to listen, observe, or engage in your own way, we honor your process.

Confidentiality

Singing and Participation

Singing and Participation

Confidentiality is very important to us. If you choose to share something personal, you can feel confident that it will be respected and kept within the group. We create a culture of trust and safety, and the group agreements are clear that what’s shared in the circle stays within the circle. This is a space where people can be vulnerable and supported without fear of judgment.

Testimonials

"Stephanie and Cari each hold incredible gifts and richness of experience and expertise which they shared so fully in Fire Within. Individually, you have two powerhouses and in collaboration and partnership they compliment each other so beautifully, like two puzzle pieces that are meant to fit together. What I experienced was an intensive program that deepened my understanding, connection and appreciation for myth, nature, the land, practices and ceremony, and connection to self and the women who gathered each month. I felt deeply held in the container of their offering. They poured their essence into this program and I felt the respect, reverence and care they held for each other and for each of us who gathered to be guided by and with them. I want more of this! Fire Within... next iteration please." 

~ EI (Fire Within 2024)

The Fire Within was a beautiful, soul-nourishing gathering of mid-life women expertly and lovingly stewarded by Stephanie and Cari.  We were treated to a tapestry of myth, spirituality, rich conversation, song and hand-crafts.  Each session was woven into thoughtful themes, giving us the opportunity to connect to ourselves, to each other and to the land in meaningful ways.  I hadn't realized how much my heart longed to sit in circle with midlife women and how rare it is in our current culture to have the space to do so.  Cari and Stephanie offered an abundance of generosity, wisdom, humour and reflection which inturn enriched our experience and enabled us to feel held, witnessed, nurtured and cared for.  I cherish the new experiences, insights and friendships gleaned from this magical group and would definitely recommend it to those looking for connection, meaning and nourishment as they make their way into the wisdom of cronehood. 

~MR (Fire Within 2024)

“Every month I looked forward to gathering with the women in my cohort, to be together on the land. For me it was a time to be in my aging/changing body and to explore what is my fire within? what lights me up? what do I need to let go of as I move into this next phase of life? Cari and Stephanie created a safe, supportive space for these explorations and expertly guided us on the journey with myth, song, movement and nature crafts. A healing, inspirational, sacred journey.”  

~ Pamela Williams (Fire Within 2024)

“I wish every woman my age could have this group! 


At the time when I joined Fire Within my life was chaotic and demanding. This group was exactly what I needed to nourish myself through hard times. 


All parts of me were welcome - actually more than welcome! I was held in gentle embrace as my own wisdom was stoked back to brightness. As participants we grew to be close friends - deeply and profoundly connected. Surely our hearts will remain entwined for years.


Thank you Cari and Stephanie for this sweet and important offering, and for your skillful, transparent, and responsive facilitation. 


One specific thing that I appreciated was how the facilitators came prepared with a full program, and time and time again showed us that they could adapt to what the group was needing in the moment. Sometimes we needed rest. Sometimes we needed gentle movement. Sometimes we needed an energetic game or a song. Cari and Stephanie modelled authenticity, vulnerability, and courage as they solidly held our group with their combined experience and deep wisdom.”  

~ Sara (Fire Within 2024)

About your guides

Cari Burdett

Cari is a new mentor with Thriving Roots and is so happy to be mentoring children and teens out in nature. Cari is a mother to three wild, creative, musical children who bring her great joy each day. Over the past two years, Cari’s commitment to her nature journey has deepened while taking part in the Adult Nature Immersion Program with Wisdom of the Earth on Salt Spring and the Tend the Fire Apprenticeship Program with Thriving Roots Wilderness School. Cari is now an official mentor of Thriving Roots and comes to these programs with bundles of diversity and grounded offerings. 


Cari is trauma informed and has been studying and training with Myrna Martin, in her pre and perinatal trauma program over the past seven years. Allyship with our local indigenous hosts is near and dear to Cari’s intentional living practices, where she offers her time in service and a percentage of her work back to the First peoples of the Cowichan, Coast Salish Peoples.  Cari is a trained and certified Way of Council leader with level three from the Ojai Foundation, practicing and leading council circles for over 15 years. Cari lives on a small farm on the traditional lands of the Cowichan, Coast Salish peoples, where she gratefully tends the land, growing food, plants and flowers, working with permaculture and organic farming practices. The farm is also home to Lila Music Centre, bringing music to the Cowichan community for over 17 years. With over 30 years of teaching music, voice, choir, music improvisation and performance practice, Cari adores supporting others to sing and explore creating music. She is trained with a BMus and MMus in music performance. 


www.cariburdett.com 

Stephanie MacKay

Stephanie MacKay is the founder of Myth Club and Co-founder and Director of Fianna Wilderness School. She specializes in ancestral knowledge, earth-based skills, ceremony and myth. She has a degree in literature, and her work is informed by over 15 years of practice and study through Animas Valley Institute, Haven Institute, Wilderness Awareness School, and 12 years of study with Martín Prechtel.


She is a fiercely compassionate facilitator, mentor and guide in search of perspectives and practices to deepen the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Stephanie is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of old European mythologies, within our own bodies, and within our ancestral memory.

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