What to Expect For Your Women’s Journey

In 2024, the Women’s Hero’s Journey ^® Summer Intensive will provide women with the best of what we have to offer – our intensive wilderness journey. This experience has been designed to deeply engage women’s particular needs at essential stages throughout our lives.  What we do during these wilderness experiences is actually live the journey myth of the hero.

The archetypal myth of the Hero’s Journey ^® is an ageless and timeless immersion into the transformative currents of personal and planetary evolution. It calls us away from the familiar horizons of home and habit, and to venture forth into the unknown territories within us. It calls us to the adventure given to us by living into our one true, authentic and vital life.

Through consistently ‘do-able’ action, we become a living, personified inspiration of whatever potential lies within the consciousness of our human bodies and minds.  Joseph Campbell said that it is not an exaggeration to say that the hero’s myth provides us with a ‘secret opening‘ through which the inexhaustible life force energies of the universe pour down and into human beings, making the eternal world manifest right here in our daily world.

Campbell called this ‘becoming the zeal of eternity for incarnation in time’.  When we are actively living into and coming forth from the hero’s myth,  when we actively take up our own personal challenge and journey through it, we both embody a personal presence while also being aware of and connected a presence larger and beyond what we typically live.  

About Our Unique Base Camp Location

We gather on an open mountaintop located in the heart of the Monongahela National Forest, near  Spruce Knob Mountain.  At 4800 feet, it is the highest mountain peak in West Virginia.  Our large gathering and dining spaces consist of round Mongolian-style yurts designed by the renowned yurt builder William Coperthwaite.

We sleep in tents under the darkest skies in the Eastern US, giving us a profoundly inspiring night sky to reflect upon each evening. The distinct combination of bucolic mountain meadows, breathtaking vistas, and deep wilderness forests provide an awe-inspiring mirror for the inner journey to discover the wild territories of our own human hearts.

Much of our inner work happens within the varied living landscapes of this dynamic, mountainous ecosystem, which features impressive rock crags, expansive wildflower meadows, secluded and extensive underworld cave systems, and the quiet solitude of verdant spruce forests. Indoor gatherings are held in our large and beautifully handcrafted wooden yurts.

Each of our meals is thoughtfully prepared by our own stewarding groups and accommodates most dietary needs and restrictions. It is our intention that you be nourished and sustained physically, emotionally, psychologically, and soulfully.

Due to the rustic and isolated nature setting, cell phone service is not available and external distractions are kept to a bare minimum.

An exceptional team of guides and a large contingent of experienced support staff help to clarify and energize your hero’s journey in a way that will serve your unique passage through this phase of your life and is likewise directed to enliven the whole of life.  Each one of us lives our Hero’s Journey ^® – first, for our own healing and wholeness, so that we may offer our most vital and capable self to be of service to the life of this world.

At every event we create, we recognize people by their self-given gender identities. We strive to create a safe space for people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Upon Your Enrollment

You will be directed to a detailed preparation section to help you get ready for your Hero’s Journey ^® Intensive.  This will include guidance to help you begin your journey while still at home.  You will be asked to respond to self-reflective questions and meditations, and we will suggest some reading to prepare you as well.

We will want a few brief, thoughtfully written reflections on Six Preparation Questions that you will submit to us before your arrival on the mountain, along with necessary paperwork and release forms.

All physical and logistical concerns such as recommended clothing and equipment lists and travel information will also be addressed in the preparation section.