Empowering Retreat for Women Seekers in Northern California's Redwood Sanctuary
Gathering the Gatekeepers, Priestesses, and Creative Midwives
Do you feel it? That stirring in your belly, the whisper that says it's time to gather with other women who understand the journey? If you're the witch who trusts her intuition, the priestess who holds ritual space, the gatekeeper who protects inner truth, the creative midwife birthing new versions of self, or simply the woman who feels a quiet yes in her bones—Witches in the Woods: A Somatic Awakening is calling you into sisterhood.
This retreat for women takes place October 21-25, 2026 (Wednesday through Sunday, four nights) at Spirit Camp in Mendocino County, Northern California. Designed specifically for women-identifying individuals (18+), this transformative gathering welcomes those who feel committed to their personal practice and ready to weave that devotion back into the world with clarity, courage, and authentic expression.
2026 marks the fourth year of this evolving experience, and this iteration invites something deeper than ever before. This is not just a restorative escape or a beautiful weekend in nature—though you will experience both. This is a creative and mystical incubator. A space to strengthen your foundation, to feel your body as home, to open your voice as an instrument of truth, and to practice sharing your gifts within a container of witnessing, support, and unconditional acceptance.
The women who gather here recognize themselves in these archetypes: the intuitive one who trusts her gut knowing, the alchemist transforming pain into wisdom, the entrepreneur ready to embody feminine wisdom in her leadership, the mother or caregiver longing to return to her own voice, the working woman seeking to reconnect with her authentic expression, and the woman who simply knows—without needing to explain—that it's time to come home to herself in the company of other women who understand.
Across four intentional days, you'll experience somatic awakening and ritual that grounds you in your body's wisdom, creative artistic expression that gives form to what words cannot hold, vocal activation and strengthening movement that claim the power of your authentic voice, deepening your devotion to personal practice in ways that feel sustainable beyond the retreat, immersion in nature and connection to the elements as remembrance that you are nature, embodying your inner witch and unique archetype through ceremony and play, expanding your capacity to hold yourself and others with compassion, cultivating lineage, legacy, and community that extends beyond these four days, and restoration of your nervous system through presence, spaciousness, and the profound medicine of rest.
Whether you're just beginning to remember this path or you've been walking it for years, you are welcome here. If something within you recognized itself in these words, trust that recognition. Discover more about Witches in the Woods or view all upcoming retreats at Spirit Camp.
How Witches in the Woods Creates Sacred Sisterhood for Women Ready to Embody Their Legacy
What makes this women's spiritual retreat different from a weekend getaway with friends or a solo journey into nature? It's the intentional container created specifically for women's transformation—a structure that holds you safely while inviting you to explore edges you might not approach alone. It's the rhythm of the days, carefully crafted to honor both activation and rest, both individual reflection and collective connection. It's the specific practices offered—yoga, dance, meditation, sharing circles, fire ceremonies, song circles, somatic healing, creative movement, and nature immersion—each chosen to unlock different pathways of healing and expression.
This women's empowerment retreat invites you into 2026 as the year of embodied legacy. What does that mean? It means moving beyond self-improvement or healing for its own sake into the territory of how your gifts serve the world. It means strengthening your foundation so solidly that you can share your medicine without depleting yourself. It means refining your intuition to such clarity that you trust your knowing even when others question it. It means practicing expressing yourself—through voice, through movement, through creative work—until your authentic expression becomes second nature rather than an act of courage.
The magic of this gathering lies not just in the practices themselves, but in experiencing them within a circle of women. When one woman finds her voice, it gives permission for others to speak their truth. When one woman moves through stuck energy via dance or breathwork, it creates a resonance field that supports collective release. When one woman shares her story vulnerably in a circle, it invites others into their own depths. This is the alchemy of sisterhood retreat California experiences—transformation amplified through collective presence, witnessing, and mutual support.
Kirin Power and Magalí Clazon have been curating these gatherings for four years now, and each iteration deepens. They understand that true transformation requires both structure and spaciousness, both challenge and softness, both individual work and communal witnessing. They know how to hold space for tears and laughter, for silence and ecstatic expression, for the sacred and the silly. And they've created a format that allows each woman to have her own unique experience while also participating in the power of collective healing.
The Power of Women's Circles - Ancient Wisdom for Modern Transformation
Long before modern psychology recognized the healing power of group process, women gathered in circles. Indigenous cultures across the globe understood that women's bodies, minds, and spirits required specific forms of communal support—moon lodges where menstruating women rested together, red tents where birth wisdom passed from elder to younger woman, grandmother circles where plant medicine knowledge stayed alive through oral tradition. These gatherings weren't simply social occasions but sacred containers where women's cyclical nature, intuitive knowing, and communal wisdom could flourish without patriarchal interruption.
The practice of women gathering in circles extends through virtually every indigenous culture. In many Native American traditions, women held significant decision-making power within their moon lodges, making choices that affected the entire community during their time of retreat and heightened spiritual connection. In African cultures, women's societies maintained secret knowledge, ritual practices, and collective power that balanced masculine-dominated public spheres. In ancient European traditions before patriarchal religion dominated, priestess circles maintained sacred sites, seasonal ceremonies, and earth-based spiritual practices. The red tent tradition, popularized through Anita Diamant's novel but rooted in actual Middle Eastern practices, created space for women to rest during menstruation, support each other through childbirth, and pass down women's wisdom without male presence or influence.
Modern psychology and neuroscience now validate what these ancient cultures always knew. Research on women's groups demonstrates that psychological safety—the felt sense that you can be vulnerable without judgment—increases dramatically in same-gender circles, particularly when facilitated with skill and intention. Dr. Brené Brown's work on vulnerability shows that shame cannot survive being spoken aloud in an atmosphere of empathy, and women's circles create precisely this environment. When women witness each other's stories without trying to fix, advise, or one-up, profound healing occurs simply through being seen and accepted exactly as we are.
The neuroscience behind collective healing in women's groups reveals fascinating mechanisms. Mirror neurons fire when we witness another person's emotional experience, creating embodied empathy that goes beyond intellectual understanding. When one woman expresses grief, anger, or joy in a circle, other women's nervous systems resonate with that experience, creating what therapists call "co-regulation"—the mutual calming and organizing of each other's nervous systems through presence and attunement. This is why crying together can feel so relieving, why dancing in a group creates euphoria beyond solo movement, why singing in harmony literally synchronizes heartbeats and breathing patterns among participants. Learn more about the psychology and benefits of women's circles.
This women's wellness retreat incorporates sharing circles where each woman's voice matters, fire ceremonies that mark transitions and release what no longer serves, and song circles that blend individual voices into collective harmony. These aren't arbitrary additions to a yoga schedule—they're carefully chosen practices that activate the ancient wisdom of women gathering, creating containers for the kind of transformation that can only happen in community. When you participate in these circles at Spirit Camp, you're connecting with millennia of women who gathered before you, adding your voice to a lineage of feminine wisdom that refuses to be silenced.
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 Retreat for women. All cabin spaces are included in Women's retreat Northern California.
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.
Meet Your Sister-Guides - Kirin Power and Magalí Clazon
Kirin Power is a yoga and meditation teacher, holistic hypnotherapist, nature lover, fellow witch, and enthusiastic student of life whose entire approach centers on creating spaces where women remember their medicine. Her dedication to living life in love and gratitude, combined with extensive studies in yoga, meditation, and healing arts, infuses everything she offers with deep reverence for the miraculous, ecstatic, and powerful elements of both nature and human potential. Kirin's teaching alchemizes yogic technologies, movement, music, mantra, and meditation into inspired, creative offerings that feel both grounded and magical. Her guidance invites you to awaken to the wonder and awe of being alive and embodied, reminding you that gratitude itself is medicine, that you belong exactly as you are, and that your authentic expression deserves to radiate at your favorite frequency without apology or dimming.
Magalí Clazon, founder of Movimiento Creativo and Ocean Dance SF, brings her unique background as a movement artist born in Argentina who developed her wellness career as an Ontological Senior Coach alongside her work as a yoga, dance, and mindfulness teacher. For the past 15 years, she has dedicated herself to the learning and practice of somatics and movement, informed by her hospitality experience, perspectives gained from corporate life, and extensive world travels. Since moving to San Francisco in 2020, Magalí has immersed herself in practices involving nature and shamanism, integrating her mind-body work into the realms of spirit. She combines her somatic arts in diverse settings including Wolf Womb women's circles—her signature offering for women's empowerment and cyclical wisdom—Ceremonies Dancing with Animal Spirits, Creative Movement experiences, Ocean Dance sessions, and one-on-one coaching in nature. Magalí founded Movimiento Creativo from a place of love and with a prayer to gather together and rediscover human connections through movement, music, and nature.
Together, Kirin and Magalí are soul sisters with a shared passion for creative movement and nature, on a mission to gather curious, courageous women to awaken to the magical powers of practice, ceremony, ritual, ecstatic expression, play, and deep connection with Nature, Self, and Each Other. Their partnership creates unique alchemy—two distinct voices, backgrounds, and gifts weaving together thoughtfully curated experiences where every detail matters. Previous participants describe their facilitation as creating "one of the most profoundly healing weekends of my life," praising them as "incredibly gifted guides, space holders and weavers of deep, deep magic." The care they bring, the balance between structure and spontaneity, and their genuine love for supporting women's transformation creates a container where participants feel safe to explore edges, release stuck patterns, and step more fully into their power and authentic expression.
A Weekend Immersed in Redwood Magic and Intentional Community
Nestled within 27 acres of ancient Redwood forest in Mendocino, Spirit Camp offers a transformational retreat for women where nature itself becomes teacher, healer, and witness. The towering Redwoods—some reaching over 200 feet toward the sky—create a cathedral of green light and forest hush. Their interwoven root systems form a family structure that mirrors the communal bonds you'll forge during your time here, reminding you that strength comes through connection rather than isolation. Access to hundreds of acres of undeveloped land means you can wander private hiking trails, cross small bridges over seasonal streams, and find pockets of profound solitude whenever your soul needs space to integrate the work you're doing.
Accommodations Designed for Rest, Reflection, and Sisterhood Bonding
Your lodging options honor both your need for comfort and your desire for authentic connection. Private Redwood cabins feature queen beds dressed in luxurious cotton and linen bedding, oak hardwood floors that warm under bare feet, whitewashed walls accented with subtle color, and blue-blocking lights that protect your natural sleep cycles. Each space includes cozy electric heaters, electricity, Wi-Fi when you need it, and that indefinable sense of being held by the forest itself. Shared cabins offer the same Redwood charm and attention to detail while creating opportunities for deeper bonding with friends or new sisters you meet during the retreat—late night conversations, shared morning tea, the intimacy of witnessing each other's processes throughout the days.
The bunkhouse evokes nostalgic summer camp vibes with its bunk beds and single beds, offering the most economical option while maintaining Spirit Camp's commitment to impeccable cleanliness and comfort. Regardless which accommodation tier you choose, every space is cleaned both physically and energetically between guests using all-natural botanical sprays, ensuring you step into a container that feels clear, welcoming, and ready to hold your transformation. Many women report that the spaces look even better than photos suggest, with thoughtful details that make you feel simultaneously comfortable and connected to the wild beauty surrounding you.
Communal Dining as Sacred Practice and Connection
Meals at this women's retreat Northern California destination are designed as communal rituals rather than simply fuel. Locally sourced, organic, plant-based cuisine served in the Redwood Lodge or gardens creates natural opportunities for conversation, laughter, intention-setting, and the kind of spontaneous deep sharing that happens when women gather around tables. The food tastes as delicious as it is nourishing—designed to support your healing journey without weighing you down before movement or meditation practices. If you have specific dietary needs, retreat facilitators can accommodate virtually anything with advance notice, ensuring you feel fully cared for throughout your stay.
These shared meals become some of the most memorable moments—passing bowls of vibrant salads, hearing each other's stories over warm soup, lingering over tea as afternoon light filters through the Redwood canopy. There's magic in breaking bread together, in tasting the care that goes into each dish, in feeling how nourishment extends beyond food into the quality of presence and attention you offer each other.
Sacred Gathering Spaces Where Sisterhood Deepens
The Sanctuary serves as the spiritual heart of Spirit Camp—an architectural marvel with its copper roof featuring a central skylight and 20-foot south-facing windows that capture sunlight year-round. This luminous space holds up to 25 women in circle formation, perfect for meditation, sharing circles, tarot readings, or simply curling up with a journal and tea while rain patters gently on the copper roof overhead. At night, it glows like a beacon visible from anywhere on the property, calling you home to warmth, connection, and the ineffable sense of being held by something larger than yourself.
The Redwood Lodge offers 1,500 square feet of gathering space built from lumber harvested onsite, featuring six skylights that keep the interior bright even during coastal fog, a stone fireplace with hearth that doubles as teaching platform, and a wood-burning stove for cozy warmth. Large wooden tables invite communal meals and crafting sessions, while houseplants—banana plants, palms, monstera—bring the outside in. There's even a chest of dress-up clothes for playful expression and a disco ball for spontaneous dance parties when the collective spirit moves toward celebration.
Magic Meadow, where the Redwood canopy parts to allow year-round sunlight on the forest floor, features two fire pits perfect for nighttime ceremony, song circles, and the kind of vulnerability that emerges when firelight flickers against ancient trees. This is where bonds of sisterhood deepen beyond words, where you'll likely experience some of your most profound moments of connection. The gardens—designed specifically for pollinators with native plants attracting hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies—offer sunny pockets perfect for journaling, painting, or quiet conversation with new friends who somehow feel like soul family you've known forever.
Mendocino County - Northern California's Coastal Gem for Women's Transformation
Spirit Camp sits within Mendocino County, Northern California, on 27 acres of second-growth Redwood forest that stretches into hundreds of acres of undeveloped wilderness. Located just three hours north of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and the broader Bay Area, this women's circle retreat Mendocino destination offers world-class transformation without international travel. The retreat center is accessible from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport (OAK)—both approximately three hours away—and Santa Rosa Airport, which is only two hours from the property, making it remarkably convenient for women traveling from throughout Northern California and beyond.
The location occupies a unique ridge line creating microclimates that offer both warm, sunlit meadows perfect for afternoon reflection and cool Redwood shade ideal for contemplative walking. Coastal fog often drifts in from the Pacific, creating the mystical, witchy atmosphere these forests are known for, yet the elevation frequently allows sunshine to break through, ensuring you experience both the ethereal and the bright during your stay. This balance mirrors the work you'll do here—honoring both shadow and light, both introspection and expression, both the mysterious depths and the joyful heights of feminine experience.
Just 12 minutes from downtown Mendocino—a charming coastal village known for its thriving artistic community, locally-owned galleries and boutiques, farm-to-table restaurants, and stunning ocean views—you have access to amenities while maintaining forest seclusion. Many women choose to arrive a day early or linger after the retreat concludes to explore Mendocino's dramatic coastline, wander the headlands, visit tide pools, or simply sit on the bluffs watching waves crash against sea stacks while integrating the transformation they've experienced.
This retreat for women in Northern California provides an affordable alternative to flying to Bali, Mexico, or Costa Rica. Instead of dealing with jet lag, international travel stress, and the environmental impact of long flights, you can immerse yourself in equally powerful healing experiences just hours from home. The ancient Redwoods here create an energetic field as profound as any tropical jungle, the Pacific Ocean as vast as any distant sea, and the commitment to women's empowerment and transformation as deep as anywhere in the world. Browse additional women's retreats and transformational experiences offered throughout the year at Spirit Camp.
Your Questions About This Women's Retreat Answered
Is this retreat only for women with spiritual or yoga experience?
Absolutely not. This women's empowerment retreat welcomes women of all backgrounds, belief systems, and experience levels. Whether you've been practicing yoga for decades or have never stepped on a mat, whether you identify as deeply spiritual or are simply curious about personal growth, whether you've attended dozens of retreats or this is your first—you belong here. Kirin and Magalí create an inclusive, non-judgmental environment where each woman can explore at her own pace, honoring her unique needs, capacities, and edges. What matters is your willingness to show up authentically, your openness to experiencing something new, and your desire to connect with other women in meaningful ways.What makes this different from other women's retreats?
While many women's retreats focus exclusively on yoga or meditation or creative arts, Witches in the Woods integrates multiple modalities specifically chosen to unlock different pathways of healing and expression. The unique combination of somatic work that grounds you in your body's wisdom, creative artistic expression that gives form to what words cannot hold, vocal activation that claims the power of your authentic voice, strengthening movement that builds physical and emotional resilience, and deep nature immersion that reminds you that you are nature—all of this within an intentional container focused on embodied legacy and leadership—creates transformation that touches every dimension of your being. Additionally, the four-year history of this specific gathering means there's a refined quality to how Kirin and Magalí hold space, an understanding of what women need that can only come through years of devoted practice.Can I attend if I'm coming alone without knowing anyone?
Yes! Many women attend solo, and the retreat format specifically facilitates authentic connection and sisterhood formation. From the first sharing circle where you'll introduce yourself and your intentions, through communal meals where conversations flow naturally, to partner and small group activities that create intimacy, to the overall arc of the days that deepens trust and vulnerability—you'll find yourself forming meaningful connections quickly. Previous participants consistently mention being surprised by how safe they felt sharing with women they'd just met, how quickly surface-level chitchat gave way to real conversation, and how the bonds formed during these four days often continue long after the retreat ends. Coming alone can actually be a gift—you're more available to whatever and whoever shows up, more open to surprise connections, more fully present to your own process without the comfort buffer of familiar faces.
Two Mendocino Experiences to Extend Your Women's Retreat
Russian Gulch State Park - Waterfall Hikes and Coastal Exploration
Just north of Mendocino town, Russian Gulch State Park offers one of the most beautiful hikes on the Northern California coast—a gentle 3.5-mile round-trip trail through Redwood and Douglas fir forest leading to a stunning 36-foot waterfall. The trail follows Russian Gulch Creek through lush understory plants including sword ferns, salal, and huckleberry, creating a cathedral-like atmosphere perfect for contemplative walking and integration after your retreat concludes. The relatively flat terrain makes this accessible for various fitness levels, while the destination waterfall provides a natural altar for gratitude, intention-setting, or simply witnessing the power of water carving its path through stone year after year.
The park's coastal section features dramatic headlands with sea caves, blowholes that spout ocean spray during high tide, and tide pools teeming with sea stars, anemones, and hermit crabs. Several picnic areas overlook the ocean, providing ideal spots for solo reflection with your journal or small group conversations where you can process and integrate the experiences from your time at Spirit Camp. The combination of forest and ocean, waterfall and tide pools, solitude and accessibility makes this park perfect for extending your retreat journey while staying close to Mendocino's amenities.
Mendocino Art Center - Creative Inspiration and Local Artisan Galleries
Located in the heart of Mendocino village, the Mendocino Art Center serves as a vibrant hub for creative expression and artistic community. Multiple galleries showcase work from local and regional artists working in diverse mediums—ceramics that echo the organic shapes of forest and ocean, fiber arts that weave color and texture into wearable sculpture, paintings capturing the dramatic light and landscape of the coast, sculptural works in wood and metal, and jewelry incorporating local stones and natural materials. Wandering these galleries after your retreat can inspire your own creative expression, reminding you that the artistic impulses you explored during your time with Kirin and Magalí can continue in your daily life.
The center's beautiful garden courtyard provides a peaceful space to sit with tea from the café, flip through your retreat journal, or chat with fellow visitors about the work on display. Various studios around the property house working artists, and you might catch a potter at the wheel or a printmaker pulling impressions from a press. Rotating exhibitions ensure there's always something new to discover, and the gift shop offers opportunities to purchase unique, locally-made pieces that can serve as tangible reminders of your Mendocino County transformation. Supporting these artists honors the creative legacy you're cultivating within yourself—a commitment to beauty, authenticity, and the courage to share your gifts with the world.
Answer the Call - Your Sisters Are Gathering
If something within you stirred as you read these words, if recognition sparked in your belly, if a quiet yes resonated in your bones—that is the call. That is your intuition speaking, your body knowing what your mind might still question. Trust that whisper. Trust that you found this retreat for a reason.
Witches in the Woods: A Somatic Awakening is an invitation to strengthen your foundation, deepen your intuition, open your voice as an instrument of truth, and practice sharing your gifts within a container of witnessing, support, and unconditional acceptance. This is a gathering of women ready to embody their legacy, to weave their devotion back into the world with clarity and courage, to remember what they've always known but perhaps forgotten—that you are not meant to walk this path alone, that sisterhood amplifies rather than diminishes your unique power, that community and authenticity can coexist beautifully when held with intention and care.
Space is intentionally limited for this intimate gathering, ensuring each woman receives the attention, witnessing, and support she deserves. Join Kirin Power and Magalí Clazon October 21-25, 2026 in the ancient Redwoods of Mendocino County for this profound retreat for women seekers, gatekeepers, priestesses, and creative midwives. Reserve your space for Witches in the Woods or browse all women's retreats and transformational experiences at Spirit Camp.
The forest is waiting. Your sisters are gathering. The legacy you're here to embody is ready to emerge.
TOPICS:
Retreat for women, Women's retreat Northern California, Women's spiritual retreat, Women's empowerment retreat, Sisterhood retreat California, Women's wellness retreat, Transformational retreat for women, Women's circle retreat Mendocino, Mendocino, Mendocino County, Northern California, Redwood forest, Bay Area proximity, Sacred sisterhood, Embodied legacy, Collective healing, Feminine wisdom, Women gathering, Sisterhood bonds
