Ritual & Renewal: Dark Moon Fall Retreat
November 5–8, 2026 | Weekend Retreat | 4 Days | Thursday to Sunday
Shed, release, and re-awaken with Rachel Wilkins (E-RYT 500, YACEP) through intuitive flow yoga, ecstatic dance, group reiki, fire ritual, and ancestral ceremony in the coastal redwoods of Mendocino during the Dark Moon portal of Samhain. Created for anyone ready to reclaim their magic and embrace seasonal transformation.
Retreat Modalities Included
New Moon Circle
Earthing
Nature Walk
Group Reiki
Ayurvedic Self Care
Seasonal Wisdom
Ancestral Healing
Ancestral Altar
Elemental Ceremony
Witchcraft
Yoga
Ecstatic Dance
Somatic Healing
Breathwork
Fire Ritual
Shadow Work
Underworld Journey
About This Retreat
This retreat is independently organized by Rachel Wilkins. Spirit Camp provides the venue, accommodations, and retreat setting. For registration, pricing, program details, meal info, and lodging options, please contact the retreat organizer directly using the button below.
Who the Retreat Is For
This retreat is for anyone feeling the pull to slow down, go inward, and honor what this season of life is asking them to release. Whether you are experienced in yoga and ritual practice or simply feeling called to something you cannot quite name yet, this gathering meets you where you are. If you have been craving a return to yourself — to your intuition, your body, your roots — this is your invitation. You do not need to have a meditation practice or know anything about Samhain. You only need the willingness to show up fully, sit with what arises, and trust the wisdom already alive within you. This retreat is especially resonant for those drawn to earth-based spirituality, seasonal rhythms, ancestral connection, embodied movement, and the courage it takes to face the shadow with an open heart.
Retreat Description
When the Wheel Turns: Ceremony, Yoga, and Release Under the Dark Moon
There are times in the cycle of the year when something ancient stirs beneath the surface. November's Dark Moon — falling during the liminal window of Samhain — is one of those times. The air cools, the leaves drop, and the earth itself seems to exhale, inviting everything that no longer serves to fall away. Ritual & Renewal: Dark Moon Fall Retreat gathers a small community in the coastal redwoods of Mendocino, California for four days of ceremony, intuitive flow yoga, ecstatic dance, group reiki, Ayurvedic self care, fire ritual, and ancestral healing timed to this potent seasonal threshold.
Led by Rachel Wilkins — an E-RYT 500 and YACEP whose teaching weaves together vinyasa yoga, somatic awareness, reiki, and earth-based ritual — this is not a retreat that skims the surface. Rachel's approach is rooted in what she calls Intuitive Flow: a practice of listening to the body's wisdom, following sensation rather than forcing shape, and trusting the inner teacher that already knows the way. Across four days, participants move through morning ritual practices that braid together yoga asana, pranayama breathwork, ecstatic embodied dance, and intuitive movement in Spirit Camp's sunlit Sanctuary. Afternoon workshops shift toward restoration, guided self-study, journaling, and open circle dialogues held within a supportive community container. This Samhain retreat is structured to honor the rhythm of the season itself — active and fiery in the morning, reflective and still in the afternoon, ceremonial and communal by night.
Descending Into the Underworld: Shadow Work and Ancestral Reconnection
Samhain marks the thinning of the veils between the world of the living and the world of spirit. Across many traditions, it is recognized as a time when what has been buried — grief, memory, longing, forgotten gifts — rises to the surface asking to be witnessed. Rachel guides participants through shadow work practices and underworld journey meditations inspired by myths of the Dark Goddess, weaving together somatic movement, breathwork, and embodied meditation to help each person meet what has been hidden with compassion rather than fear. This is not about fixing or forcing. It is about remembering.
A centerpiece of the retreat is the ancestral altar, created collectively as a living tribute to loved ones who have passed. Participants are invited to bring photographs, heirlooms, or written letters and to share stories within the group — an experience that often becomes one of the most meaningful moments of the entire gathering. The fire ritual on Saturday evening offers a ceremonial space to bless, purify, call in, and release, closing the retreat's most intensive day with the elemental power of flame beneath the redwood canopy.
Ayurvedic Self Care and Seasonal Attunement in the Redwoods
What makes this retreat distinct is how Rachel threads Ayurvedic wisdom through the entire experience. Rather than treating self care as an add-on, Ayurvedic self care rituals are woven into the daily rhythm — aligning participants with the seasonal and lunar shifts happening all around them in real time. The retreat's timing during the Vata season of autumn makes this integration especially potent. As the external world contracts and cools, participants learn to mirror that intelligence internally: grounding, warming, nourishing. Combined with the earthing practices and nature walks through Spirit Camp's 27 acres of second-growth redwood forest, fern gullies, and ephemeral streams, the result is a felt sense of alignment between inner rhythm and outer landscape that lingers well beyond the final day.
Open time on Friday and Saturday afternoons allows participants to wander the property at their own pace — lounging by the fire pit in Magic Meadow, journaling among the gardens, hiking the private redwood trail, or simply resting in the cabin. This spaciousness is intentional. Rachel's philosophy trusts that the body integrates in its own time, and the yoga retreat in Northern California schedule reflects that trust.
Remember Who You Are, Reclaim Your Magic
The final Sunday morning closes the retreat with a renewal meditation designed to ground participants into their next cycle. After four days of shedding, moving, weeping, dancing, and sitting in ceremony together, this closing practice offers an anchor — a felt memory of what it means to come home to yourself. Rachel's teaching has always returned to this core invitation: you are your own greatest healer. This retreat simply creates the conditions for you to remember that.
This experience is perfect for those searching for: Samhain retreat, shadow work retreat, yoga retreat in Northern California, Dark Moon retreat, witches retreat, ritual retreat, Ayurvedic retreat, dance and embodiment retreat, moon circle retreat, spiritual retreat Mendocino, wellness retreat Northern California, redwoods retreat, transformational retreat, best yoga retreats in California.
About the Retreat Facilitator: Rachel Wilkins
Rachel Wilkins is an E-RYT 500 and YACEP yoga teacher, reiki master, and ceremonial guide whose path into teaching began the way it does for so many — through her own unraveling. After years of feeling disconnected from herself, she found yoga and devoted herself to the practice with a conviction she had never felt before. What began as survival became a lifelong calling.
Rachel completed her initial 200-hour certification in 2011 with Tracey Rich and Ganga White of the White Lotus Foundation, followed by advanced studies under their guidance. In 2014 she began studying and apprenticing with Shiva Rea, completing her 500-hour certification in the Prana Vinyasa tradition and receiving an initiation into Kalaripayattu in Kerala, India. She holds Shamanic Reiki I and II attunements received in Bali with Devi Ma, as well as her Reiki Masters with Melanie Koch — energetic and subtle body techniques she incorporates into all of her offerings. In 2021 she completed an additional 300-hour advanced training with Jason Crandell focused on yoga philosophy, modern asana alignment, biomechanics, anatomy, and injury management.
Beyond her public and private class offerings, Rachel's dharma is leading her empowering Embodying Shakti ritual retreats, monthly Moon Circle gatherings, and her Intuitive Vinyasa Flow RYS 200-hour teacher trainings both locally and internationally. Her teaching voice is warm, grounded, and unapologetically spiritual — she holds fierce tenderness in equal measure and consistently creates an environment where people feel safe enough to meet all of who they are.
↓ Continue reading to learn about Spirit Camp Retreat Center and full retreat details
About Spirit Camp Retreat Center
Spirit Camp is a 27-acre retreat center nestled in the coastal redwoods of Mendocino County, Northern California — a former youth summer camp reimagined as a transformational sanctuary for adults. Located just one mile inland from the Pacific Ocean and roughly twelve minutes from the charming town of Mendocino, the property sits approximately two to three hours north of the San Francisco Bay Area, accessible from San Francisco International (SFO), Oakland International (OAK), and Santa Rosa Airport.
The grounds are woven through with second-growth redwood forest, fern gullies, ephemeral streams, wildflower gardens, and open meadows that catch sunlight even under the canopy. Shared gathering spaces include the Sanctuary — an architectural gem with a copper roof, central skylight, and 20-foot south-facing windows — and the Redwood Lodge, a 1,500-square-foot hall built from redwood lumber harvested onsite decades ago, complete with skylights, a stone fireplace, and a wood-burning stove. Magic Meadow offers two fire pits for evening ceremonies and stargazing, while the gardens attract hummingbirds, honeybees, and butterflies through a mix of native wildflowers and medicinal herbs.
Accommodations range from private cabins with queen beds, oak hardwood floors, redwood furnishings, luxurious cotton sheets, and linen duvet bedding, to shared cabins, a nostalgic bunkhouse, and seasonal glamping and tent camping options (available May through October). Every space is cleaned both physically and energetically between guests. The communal bathhouse offers renovated modern shower stalls alongside original camp-style facilities.
Spirit Camp is a sober, substance-free environment — no alcohol, THC, or psychedelics on property. It is queer-owned by co-founders Nathaniel Reagan and Julian Cressman, and intentionally cultivated as a body-positive, inclusive space welcoming all backgrounds, orientations, and identities. The ethos blends earth-based spirituality, embodied practice, and the playful irreverence of summer camp — a place where a disco ball and a fire ceremony can exist in the same evening, where you might journal beneath ancient redwoods in the morning and laugh through a communal dress-up session in the lodge by night.
Retreat Information
Organized by: Rachel Wilkins
Venue provided by: Spirit Camp Retreat Center
Spirit Camp provides the retreat venue and accommodations. The retreat facilitator is responsible for all programming, meals, pricing, registration, and retreat content.
For all questions about: Registration, pricing, and payment plans Meals and dietary accommodations Retreat schedule and programming Accommodations and room assignments Contact Rachel Wilkins directly.
For venue questions (directions, property layout, amenities), visit our Guest Guide and FAQ page.