The Women’s Retreat You've Been Waiting For: Witches in the Woods in the Redwoods of Mendocino
Not every retreat is built for every woman. This one was built for the ones who feel the pull of the forest, who know that fire is not just warmth but medicine, who have been carrying a practice — or the bones of one — and are ready to deepen it in the company of their kind. Now in its fourth year, Witches in the Woods: A Somatic Awakening is the women’s retreat that women across California have been returning to and telling their closest friends about. It takes place October 21 through 25, 2026, at Spirit Camp Retreat Center in Mendocino, Northern California, nestled within 27 acres of ancient Redwood forest on the Northern California coast. This is not a workshop. It is a gathering. A living, breathing, fire-lit circle of women ready to awaken, remember, and root. Reserve your place here, or browse the full Spirit Camp retreat calendar to explore everything on offer.
Fire, Circle, and Song: The Ancient Roots of Gathering
Long before the word witch carried the weight of persecution and misunderstanding, women gathered. They gathered at the new moon and the full moon. They gathered around fire to mark the turning of seasons, to grieve, to celebrate, to ask for guidance, and to transmit wisdom across generations. <u>Earth-based ceremony</u> — fire, circle, song, and ritual — has existed in nearly every culture on earth, not as fringe practice, but as the heartbeat of community life.
Fire ceremonies across indigenous traditions have long served as containers for healing, transformation, prayer, and rites of passage. The circle as a gathering form carries its own intelligence — when humans sit in a circle, without hierarchy or performance, something shifts in the body. Walls come down. Truth comes up. Song, used across countless spiritual traditions as both prayer and medicine, has the capacity to open the throat, move stuck emotion, and bridge the individual voice into something collective and resonant.
These forms — fire, circle, song — are not decorative elements at Witches in the Woods. They are the architecture of the retreat itself. Alongside somatic movement, yoga, creative expression, and nature immersion, they create a container designed to help you go somewhere real. Research on women's circle traditions shows that these ancient gathering forms have persisted across centuries precisely because they work — they meet something fundamental in the human need for belonging, witness, and transformation.
What the Retreat Holds: A Four-Day Immersion in Ritual and Somatic Awakening
Witches in the Woods 2026 carries the theme of embodied legacy. This is the year Kirin and Magalí are calling in the women who are not simply seeking restoration, but who are ready to strengthen their foundation and weave their practice back into the world.
Over four days, the programming moves through somatic awakening and ritual, creative and artistic expression, vocal activation, nature play, fire ceremonies, song circles, sharing circles, yoga, and full immersion in the Redwood forest. Each element is intentional. Nothing is filler. The days are shaped to allow you to refine your intuition, embody your inner witch or archetype, expand your capacity to hold yourself and others, and cultivate the kind of lineage and community that continues long after you leave the forest.
This is a retreat for witches in the broadest and truest sense — for anyone who feels at home in ritual, drawn to the elements, alive in ceremony, and called toward a practice that is both personal and collective. The retreat is for women-identifying participants 18 and older, and a 15-minute discovery call is available for anyone who wants to speak with Kirin and Magalí before committing.
Photo of Deer Haven, one of the our many unique cabin spaces. This cabin has three beds. Cabins have between 1 to 8 beds each and provide several different sleeping arrangements for women’s retreat. All cabin spaces are included in women's retreat Mendocino.
Photo of Group Glamping Tents Setup in Sunset Meadow. We have 10 Glamping Structures that can be added with 1to 3 beds each. This can increase bed capacity of campus to 50 guests across 20 unique accommodation spaces.
The Guides Who Weave the Magic
Kirin Power is a yoga and meditation teacher, holistic hypnotherapist, and, as she puts it herself, a fellow witch. Her teaching is rooted in a deep reverence for nature — not as backdrop, but as teacher, medicine, and mirror. She alchemizes yogic technologies, movement, mantra, music, and meditation into offerings that leave participants feeling awakened to the wonder of being alive and fully embodied. Those who have practiced with her describe a rare quality: she holds every detail with devotion while the whole experience unfolds like something organic, wild, and perfectly timed.
Magalí Clazón is a movement artist born in Argentina, the founder of Movimiento Creativo and Ocean Dance SF, and a practitioner deeply immersed in the worlds of somatics, conscious movement, and nature-based ceremony. Since 2020, she has been integrating her mind-body work with practices involving nature and shamanism. She facilitates Wolf Womb women's circles, Ceremonies Dancing with Animal Spirits, and ocean dance experiences — and she brings curated music into every offering, building playlists that move with the natural rhythm of change. One past participant described Kirin and Magalí as guides who weave "deep, deep magic" — holding a space where stuck energy moves, where transformation feels real, and where the work is "SUCH a gift of self-care."
Where the Witches Gather: Spirit Camp in the Mendocino Redwoods
Spirit Camp is not a typical retreat venue. It is a former youth summer camp that has been transformed, with great care and aesthetic intention, into a boutique spiritual retreat center within 27 acres of second-growth Redwood forest in Mendocino County. The Redwood trees here are described by the owners as energetic anchors — "antennas" that bridge cosmic energy with earthly grounding. Guests consistently report slowing down almost immediately upon arrival, sleeping more deeply, and feeling the forest itself participating in the work.
The Sanctuary, with its copper roof, central skylight, and south-facing windows, is perfectly suited to circle work, tarot, meditation, and ceremony. After dark, it glows from anywhere on campus — a visual beacon of warmth and presence. The Magic Meadow is a clearing in the Redwood canopy where year-round sunlight reaches the forest floor, and two fire pits accommodate up to 50 in a circle for the evening fire ceremonies that anchor this witchy wellness retreat. The private hiking trail crosses two small bridges over seasonal streams through fern-covered forest that has been described, by more than one guest, as feeling like a world apart.
The environment is sober and substance-free, honoring natural states of consciousness that are more than enough. It is queer-owned and body-positive, creating genuine safety and belonging for all women. And it is all-inclusive — accommodations, meals, and programming woven together from arrival to departure.
A Witchy Retreat in the Redwood Forest, North of San Francisco
Spirit Camp sits in Mendocino County in Northern California, approximately three hours north of San Francisco and the broader Bay Area. It is about two hours from Sonoma and Marin counties, and two hours from Santa Rosa Airport. The camp is only ten minutes from the village of Mendocino, with its ocean-view bluffs, independent shops, and cafes, while remaining entirely sheltered within the forest.
October is the month when Mendocino does something extraordinary. The Redwoods shift to gold. The mornings are still and slightly misty. Ravens move through the canopy. The air carries that particular cool-forest clarity that sharpens the senses and settles the mind. For a women's mystical retreat in Northern California, there is no better time and no better place. This is what it looks like to come home to yourself — not in a tropical location halfway around the world, but in the ancient, grounding presence of California's Redwood coast, North of the Bay Area. Explore everything at Spirit Camp at https://www.spirit.camp/retreats.
Common Questions About This Earth-Based Retreat
Do I need to identify as a witch to attend? Not at all. The retreat welcomes any woman who feels the resonance of its language — whether you have walked this path for years or are responding to the first quiet stirring of recognition. The invitation is wide. The door is open.
What kinds of ceremony and ritual are included? The retreat includes fire ceremonies, song circles, sharing circles, somatic movement, nature play, yoga, and creative expression. The exact shape of each day is held by Kirin and Magalí's living, responsive approach to facilitation.
What are the accommodation options in October? Spirit Camp offers private queen-bed cabins, shared rooms, and potentially glamping in late October depending on weather. All accommodations are cleaned physically and energetically between guests and feature quality linens and thoughtful detail. Confirm current availability on the retreat booking page.
While You're in Mendocino: Two Experiences to Explore
The Fern Canyon Trail at Van Damme State Park
Three miles south of the village of Mendocino, Van Damme State Park protects a lush, sheltered fern canyon that winds alongside Little River through dense coastal forest. The trail is intimate and deeply green — the kind of place where the light filters through the canopy in long, slow rays and ferns grow from every surface. Within the park, you will also find the remarkable pygmy forest, where ancient cypress and pine trees stand only inches to a few feet tall, their growth stunted by the unique soil conditions of the coastal ridges. It is a genuinely one-of-a-kind Northern California ecosystem and a deeply grounding walk for anyone who has spent days immersed in somatic and earth-based work.
Walk the Mendocino Headlands at Golden Hour
The coastal bluffs surrounding the village of Mendocino are among the most dramatic and accessible in Northern California. The headlands trail is mostly level and follows the top of 70-foot cliffs above the Pacific, passing natural sea arches, exposed tide pools, and sweeping views of Goat Island offshore. In October, the light in the late afternoon turns the water to copper and the cliffs to amber. There is a natural blowhole at the west end of Main Street where the sea surges through a collapsed sea arch below — one of those geological moments that feels genuinely mystical. Bring a jacket, bring your journal, and give yourself at least an hour to simply stand at the edge of the continent and breathe.
Answer the Call of the Forest
If you are looking for a witchy retreat in Northern California that holds real depth — not aesthetic witchiness, but actual ceremony, genuine somatic work, and the kind of sisterhood that changes you — Witches in the Woods is it. October 21 through 25, 2026, in the Redwood forest of Mendocino. Claim your place here, and explore all upcoming gatherings at Spirit Camp: https://www.spirit.camp/retreats. The forest is waiting. So are your sisters.
TOPICS:
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