This retreat is for all those people (LGBTQI+, BIPOC and different) who do not identify with the heteronormative understanding of reality, irrespective of their gender or sexual orientation.

During this 7 days and 6 nights retreat we shall come together to redefine the very boundaries of reality, our relationship to it, and to one another.

We shall bathe in sound, moonlight and drum beats. We will open the Constellation Field for healing and for reconfiguring our self-imposed patterns and limiting constructs. We shall dance with our Shadow to ancient Tantric healing rituals and open-up our bodies to reveal the invisible bonds that connect us all, always and everywhere. We will cook together and learn to nourish ourselves and others’ bodies and souls. We shall move as one through our individual rhythms and in synch with those of nature.

We shall dig our hands and hearts into the earth of the forest and we shall awaken the evolutionary cellular memory of our body through a new reconnection to the Sea. We will listen to the sounds of nature as we step into silence and embark on an inward healing journey across our own emotional landscapes. We will laugh, run, dance with our queer ancestors, sisters and brothers both human and not. We will celebrate Life.

This week-long retreat sets out to honour Queer (counter)culture and give us an empowering and transformative time through individual inquiry and collective sharing of the essence of being Queer in contemporary times.

We will explore how a shared Queer Spirit can help create a better world for ourselves and others at a time when, fortunately, a shared understanding of ‘normality’ is no longer so strong and fixed.
This will be a holistic and experiential retreat in which everyone is invited to be an active participant and co-creator, exploring through Mind, Body and Spirit the radical power of Queerness, within our contemporary culture and in touch with nature.

We will work with body, energy, movement, performance, sounds, ideas, texts, movies. We will practice alone, in pairs, in groups, in complete darkness and in broad day-light, in the sun and under the stars, within the confines of the beautiful yogashala and in the boundless landscape of nature’s wilderness.

We will cook together delicious vegan meals, enjoy film nights and star gazing. We shall take care of one another, creating a loving & safe space for everyone to feel welcomed & respected. A space in which every Queer can belong.

The Tantrics spent thousands of years developing sophisticated techniques to awaken the Kundalini-Shakti so that she may tear down the veils of illusion and help us find our authentic selves, learning to dance with Life, rather than fear it, fight it, or control it.

Incidentally, Tantrics too have historically been treated as ‘freaks’ in India by the dominant Vedic and Hindu institutions before the British invaders tried to suppress it altogether because deemed obscene. In its original Tantric form, ‘Yog’ invites us to step out of any predefined notion of ‘being’ and, like a snake, peel off the layers of social norms and projections that lead to self-marginalising fixed identities.

Let’s remember that the word Queer comes from the old English word Wyrd (now spelled ‘weird’), which originally meant fate or personal destiny.
As such, Queer becomes synonymous with self-inquiry.
When framed like this, it is then possible to appreciate how Yoga becomes quintessentially Queer.

Each person whose sexuality and gender identity does not match the heteronormative expectation of ‘fitting in’ can find embodied trauma, loneliness and deep wounds in themselves. Many of these begin with the family of origin: absent or abusive parents, difficult siblings, oppressive families, difficult childhoods. Each life story is personal and unique.

Family constellations are a wonderful, powerful method for holding space for these dynamics and letting the healing begin, in order to re-write your story and let go of the impact that tragic or heavy events have left in your soul. It is a form of group work and it is centred in a systemic perspective and the understanding that the individual is deeply embedded within, loyal to, and inextricable from, a wider system or field of relations, both ancestral, material, spiritual and ecological.

We will experience Constellation work in its original form (Family Constellation), working from the topics that will arise from the sharing circles, as well as in its applied form (Creative, Ancestral and Archetypal Constellation) at the intersection of artistic acts, creative expression, energy healing and queer-magic rituals. Working with the Unknown will become familiar and revealing.

During our time together we will experiment with a rich array of techniques, practices and body-based exercises to find ways to awaken from a condition of unconscious patterns and begin looking at conscious ways of relating to the world in and around us.

Through a combination of body, breath and sound work you will be invited to step into a world of magic where the laws that govern our everyday world do not apply, and where you can experiment with the feeling of being free to dare to reshape yourself and the reality that surrounds you.

Yoga, when rooted in its original Tantric tradition, can take us to places within ourselves we didn’t know existed, and lead us to states of being we couldn’t imagine possible.
It takes us beyond the person we have always identified with, and brings us face to face with the one we really are, could and want to be.

Constellation work, drawing from lineages of ancestral practices, can reveal systemic portals and give us access to other dimensions, where we can learn to interact with energetic healing entities while reconnecting with primordial creative forces. It expands our consciousness and comprehension of how the Universe works, its laws, systems and mechanisms, and invites us to resolve our self-limiting entanglements, be these at a personal, family, karmic or soul level.

Through Yoga and Constellation work, we can derail the binary system on which we travel daily through patterns we might not even be conscious of choosing, and step into a new and boundless cosmology born from our inner and conscious Fire of Creation.

Throughout history, Unicorns have captured the imaginations of human beings far and wide. The Greeks, Babylonians, and Persians, among others, gave the Unicorn the symbolism and meaning of mysticism, magic, health, and purity.

Because of this creature’s phallic horn, Unicorns have typically been represented as a symbol of Male energy. This is thought to be the reason why King James III chose a Unicorn as Scotland’s national symbol, and why Great Britain’s coat of arms features a Unicorn as a symbol of sovereignty.

However, over time, the Unicorn has come to be associated with more feminine qualities, and certain folk tales have seen Unicorns magically turn into a female human form.
As such, today Unicorns are often employed as a symbol for the sacred marriage and balance between polarities: emotions and logic, day and night, and especially the fusion and transcendence of male and female energies. Thus, the Unicorn could be seen as a symbol of quintessential non-binarism and transgender nature.

The qualities of the Unicorn match perfectly the essence of the Equinox, a time when a rare and perfect balance between day and night can be found and used for accessing wisdom and healing.
Since time immemorial, Yogis, tantrics as well as pagans, have been celebrating and honouring the Equinox in search for this inner and outer balance that can help us experience the transcendence of a polar existence.

It is for this very reason that the retreat will take place over the course of the Autumn Equinox, as a way of aligning with the balancing energies of nature and, through this alignment to its rhythm, find that inner centre of gravity from where polarities can be observes, resolved and transcended in search of an essence that is free from these unconscious self-imposed limitations we experience in our day-to-day life.

On this inward and outward journey towards authenticity and in our individual and collective exploration of what it means to be Queer, we will look at the human/nature relationship, inquiring into the nature of the relationship tying humans with animals and plants especially. Playful methods part of the Deep Ecology tradition will help us explore this connection and guide us towards finding our own way of understanding and defining that relationship. In doing so we might discover a role we can play in making a difference in the world through our physical, mental and verbal actions.

As part of our journey we will learn about Vegan nutrition and we will prepare together delicious vegan yogic meals to enjoy in the most idyllic setting – a millenary hamlet nested in the national park of Monterufoli-Caselli, on the Etruscan coast of Tuscany – learning to create a diet specific to your everyday needs. You will leave the retreat feeling more healthy and empowered and with a set of great, easy recipes that will keep your mouth watering well after the retreat is over.

The retreat is for anyone who felt ‘different’ in some way for a significant part of their life and would like to connect with like-minded & like-hearted people.
‘Queer’ is not set in stone as a pre-conceived identity but rather it is best embraced in its fluid and broader understanding.

People who feel a connection with the subtle realm, the invisible and other worlds are most welcome to join this gathering.

The retreat is open to anyone comfortable with being in a diverse group of people from all walks of life and sexual orientations.

You will be cared for with much love and, under the guidance of the teachers and through the flow of the process, you will take an active role in participating and co-creating this transformative experience, both for yourself and others.

If you have physical and mental conditions which may require special assistance, please get in touch with us to make sure that we, and the venue, are suitable to meet your needs.
Similarly, if you are taking medication, make sure to let us know about it when making your inquiry as this will help us better understand how to best tailor the work for you.