The Crone is calling: join me in the forest this Winter Solstice
3-day immersive retreat of ritual, rest, and return to enchantment
Winter is the time to gather our scattered energy.
Imagine yourself in a cabin perfumed with pine woods and campfire, snowfall hushes gently against the windows as you hold ceremony to call your authentic self home with the return of the Sun.
At our Bright Night Magic: Winter Solstice Retreat this December, we’ll call in the wisdom of the Crone — our guide through challenge and change, keeper of deep time, and a fierce ally in our collective return to connection with the land and ourselves.
Working with symbols, imagery, poetry, ritual, storytelling, and eco-somatic practice, this retreat will help you cultivate your ritual skills and empower your intuitive capabilities.
Crone wisdom roots into land, maturity, generosity, and helps us to overcome our fear of age and change. As we invoke the Crone at our winter retreat, you can expect to:
clarify your priorities and make decisions with more confidence
develop your discernment, knowing where to direct your energy and where to set clearer boundaries
increase your integrity and find ways to live in deeper alignment with your authentic self
Ritual work of this nature is not just about personal development.
When we cultivate our ability to tap into our inner wisdom — a sacred well sourced deep within the ancestral Otherworlds — radical shifts of consciousness take place.
Together with our community, we will find a path for collectively moving beyond the castle walls of Empire into the Bright Night Magic: the forest of the Crone.
The Retreat at a Glance:
December 19-22, 2025
Residential retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains, in Angeles Oaks, CA (2 hours east of LA)
$1500 ($1250 Early Bird until Sept 30)
Led by me, Amanda Yates Garcia — author, public artist, witch, doctoral researcher at UCLA, and founder of Mystery Cult.
Focus: Crone wisdom, eco-somatic ritual, Solstice ceremonies, storytelling
For: healers, artists, ritualists, visionaries, sacred space holders
Find out more below!
At the Bright Night Magic Winter Solstice Retreat you will practice:
Eco-somatic movement to strengthen your connection with the living world (yoga and breath work also included)
Storytelling to situate yourself in your current homelands and ancestral knowledges
Solstice Visioning and journey work to summon a future for yourself and your community that aligns with your values and dreams
Star gazing to weave webs of connection between your inner world and the cosmos
Prayers, songs, and ritual skills for honoring and staying connected to the sacred during times of change
Ancestral magic and soul retrievals (medicine for Soul Loss) to help you clear ancestral wounds and access wisdom and guidance
Working with the magic of the Crone through creative practice
Community building activities to transform grief into hope, doubt into courage, and despair into dedication re-enchanting the living world
This retreat is right for you if:
If you work in the healing professions, are a teacher, artist, community organizer, or simply someone who wants to develop your ritual skills to bring about radical re-enchantment of the world. Our work together will support the work you’re already doing by building skills to access your inner wisdom and to serve your community through ritual practice. If you’re someone who is looking around in heartbreak over the suffering and collapse we are collectively witnessing, and who wants to participate in co-creating a world rooted in care, imagination, ceremony and ecological balance, then this retreat will support you in this work. People who like to be in community, who are open to sitting with their discomfort, are naturally curious, have a sense of humor and play, and who have already done at least some anti-colonial, anti-racist inner work are those who will be best served by our gathering. This work is for people who are ready to harness the power of the imagination to transform their lives, and the world, in service of collective liberation.
Now is NOT the right time for our retreat if:
We want this retreat to be a truly nourishing experience for everyone who participates, and that requires readiness. If you’re currently in crisis, feeling a sense of desperation and agony, not sure how you’ll make it through the next year and/or in a deep financial or personal struggle, or if you feel like you’re near a breaking point, we offer this guidance with love: often in times of crisis, we look for transformative experiences in the hopes that they will provide an instantaneous end to our pain. It makes so much sense, and we would love to provide that. However, the work we will be doing at the retreat requires a stable baseline to get the full benefit. You deserve immediate care; you deserve in-depth psychological and material support. We encourage you to reach out to your community and create a sense of stability before you attend the retreat so that you can fully concentrate on what you’re doing. We’ll still be here for you in the future when you are ready. Crisis requires immediate care, and this work is not a “quick fix” but rather a long-term strategy of practice. If you’re experiencing crisis right now, please reach out to this number to get immediate support.
About the location:
Our venue is located at an off-season summer camp in Angeles Oaks, California, in the San Bernardino Mountains two hours east of Los Angeles on the unceded lands of the Serrano, Cahuilla, and Tongva people. The site is situated in mixed conifer forest of ponderosa pines, incense cedar, white fir, and black oaks, near lakes and streams. I can’t wait to share my love of this beautiful land with you.
Logistics:
When:
December 19-22, 2025 (arriving between 11am and 2pm on Friday the 19th and leaving by 11am on Monday the 22nd). This retreat is a residential intensive, meaning participants will sleep on-site. Keep in mind that it might be snowy, so bring your cold-weather clothes and be ready for campfires and hot cocoa.
Lodgings:
Participants will sleep in bunk beds in rustic cabin dormitories with bathrooms. While each participant will have a bed with a mattress, you’ll need to bring your own bedding and towels. The site is a summer camp and is fairly basic (which helps us keep the cost low and the retreat open to more people). If you are traveling in by airplane and need to borrow some bedding, please let us know. We got you! Also, if you have any special needs for sleeping arrangements, check in with us and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Meals:
Meals will be cooked onsite by the staff of the venue. It’s simple fare, basically summer camp food. Think omelets, baked beans, toast with jam, etc. It’s not fancy, but it’s delicious. Vegetarian/vegan options available. Please let us know when you book if you have any dietary restrictions.
Getting there:
The venue is a two hour drive east of Los Angeles via the 10 freeway; it’s two and a half hours north east of San Diego; and a seven hour drive south east from San Francisco. There is parking available onsite. If you’re flying in to LAX, we will be arranging a group car service on the morning of 12/19 from downtown Los Angeles to make sure you can get to our mountain venue with ease. You can also fly into Ontario or Palm Springs airport - but you’d have to arrange your own transportation to the site.
Accessibility:
The venue is at an off-season summer camp in the San Bernardino mountains, there are seven stairs leading up to the main building (a ramp is available). Cabins are on the ground floor, some with a few stairs, some without. Paths are dirt, have a slight incline and are a little bumpy and uneven. We will be having hiking opportunities but they are not mandatory. While masking will not be required for this event, we support and encourage you to mask according to your preference. Please let us know what we can do to meet your needs, we want this experience to be available to all.
Cost:
The cost of this retreat is $1500.* Your contributions for this retreat include meals, board, daily teaching, and supplies.
Early Bird discount is available until September 30th and gets you a $250 discount on the retreat. Total payment in that case would be $1250.
Early Bird Coupon Code: WINTEREARLYBIRD
Need a payment plan? We got you! Reach out to us at: guardian@oracleoflosangeles.com
The crone is calling. Are you ready to answer? We can’t wait to welcome you.
*A small number of scholarship tickets are available for those in financial need. People of color and queer folks experiencing financial hardship are particularly encouraged to apply. For more information on scholarships, or if you need a payment plan, please reach out to us at: guardian@oracleoflosangeles.com
About me:
Amanda Yates Garcia is a writer, public practice artist, and doctoral student in the department of World Arts and Cultures / Dance at UCLA. Her dissertation, Out of the Woods: (Dis)enchantment, (De)colonialism, (De)forestation, and the Rituals that Root Us Together focuses on the cultural and ontological impacts of deforestation and colonialism in Northern Europe, and offers contemporary eco-somatic rituals as a grounded method of re-enchantment and ecological repair. Her first book, INITIATED, received a starred review from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly and has been translated into six languages. Amanda hosts the Between the Worlds podcast, which looks at the Western Mystery traditions through a mythopoetic lens and has been downloaded over 2.5 million times, with over 1,900 five-star reviews. Amanda is the founder of Mystery Cult, a 20k strong online and in-person community dedicated to eco somatic ritual practice and cultivating radical enchantment. She has led rituals, performances, classes and workshops at UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, MOCA, The Hammer Museum, LACMA, The Getty and many other venues. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, The SF Chronicle, The London Times, CNN, FOX, BRAVO and others. Amanda makes regular appearances in documentaries and other media regarding witchcraft as a contemporary earth-centered spiritual and political praxis.
FAQs:
Do I have to stay on-site for this retreat?
This retreat is residential and best suited for people to stay on site. Besides, it’s high up in the mountains and there’s not much else around. The nearest place for hotels would probably be Big Bear, but there’s not a direct road. Driving up and down the mountain every day is probably not realistic. If you’re worried about sharing a room with others, but would really like to attend the retreat, reach out to us before you book, we will do our best to accomodate you.
What is your refund/cancellation policy?
Cancellations are accepted with a tiered fee up until December 1st, at which point there is no possibility for a refund. Cancellations in September require a $250 fee, cancellations in October receive a $500 fee, and in November a $750 fee.
What’s the daily schedule of events?
We will be sharing the schedule of events to the participants in the weeks leading up to the retreat. However, generally we will start the day with breakfast at 9am, followed by an optional movement practice like yoga (taught by a certified instructor), with the retreat activities mainly going from 10am to 5pm with a break for lunch. After dinner in the evening, there will be stargazing and storytelling activities around the campfire. The days will be full but also moving at a gentle pace.
Who else will be there?
We get it, it can be a nail-bitey experience wondering who else will be with you on a retreat! Have no fear, we have an absolutely incredible, generous, loving, creative, funny, anti-racist, collective-liberation-oriented, queer and queer-allied, group of folks at this gathering. It’s actually being with the other participants that makes it so fun. Last year people made incredibly deep, lasting, and life-changing friendships and I know this year will be the same. Come!
Wooo hoo!!! 💕✨