Onland Gatherings
Gathering with the Land
Where the Conversation Becomes Incarnate
While our yearlong journey unfolds in our own home watersheds and across the digital weave of our cohort, there are moments when the work calls us to gather our bodies in one place. These On-land Gatherings are the 'hearth' moments, opportunities to step out of the everyday and into the wild sanctuary of the land.
Whether we are seeking the deep silence of a wilderness vigil, celebrating the threshold of a wild ordination, or gathering together for sacred conversation, these in-person immersions are designed to ground our transformation in the physical world. Here, we move beyond screens and words, offering our presence back to the Earth and finding the strength that only comes from walking the path together, side-by-side, on the sacred ground.
Wilderness Vigil
September 7-18, 2027
For alumni & current wild seminarians, a twelve-day rite of passage into the heart of wilderness. an opportunity for dedicated soul-to-soul listening with the living world. You step out of ordinary roles and routines and allow the natural world to meet you directly.
Note: Dates listed above refer to the next upcoming gatherings. Each of these is offered annually.
Sacred Conversations Retreat
July 28 - August 1, 2026 | Blue Ridge Mountains, VA | $1650+
"There is a mysterious union that happens when we enter into relationship with the wild and practice sacred conversation." Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred
Somewhere beneath our usual ways of noticing, there lies a capacity to enter into the sacred conversation of the living world.
In the Blue Ridge foothills, morning light moves through tall oak and tulip poplar. Wood thrush and Carolina wren call from the understory. The Rapidan River carries its steady sound over stone. Warm air holds the scent of leaf litter and sun-warmed bark, and by evening, fireflies begin to pulse along the meadow edge. When you slow down and listen with reverence, you remember that the whisper of nature’s interconnected kinship includes you.
The Sacred Conversation Retreat is four days of contemplative presence with the wild ones. Through eco-spiritual practices from Seminary of the Wild Earth, we gather to remember the reality of unbroken relationship with one another and the more-than-human community that hosts us. We will wander the ridges and meadows, sit beneath ancient oaks, engage in conversation with soul and river and owl and spirit. We will journal and share with one another, sing, dance, drum and be drummed, and remember the stories of our belonging. We will honor our encounters with ceremony.
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Some will be preparing for Seminary of the Wild Earth or discerning their participation.
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Alumni will join because the practices have become part of their lives.
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Others simply feel a tug, a call of the wild, they cannot quite explain and want to follow it long enough to listen for meaning.
You do not need prior experience. Only a willingness to be attentive.
Seven Oaks Retreat Center holds 120 acres of forest and field at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, along the Rapidan River. The land remembers older human stories as well, including the presence of the Monacan and Mannahoac peoples. We come as guests, practicing respect and reciprocity with the place that receives us.
What to Expect:
Join Victoria Loorz and Seminary of the Wild Earth Guides for a schedule designed to invite you into deeper conversation with yourself and the land.
Our time includes:
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Contemplative Practices: Nature-based invitations to listen to the teachings of the forest and the water.
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Sacred Ritual: Fire ceremonies in a shared circle, star-gazing without light pollution, and rituals that honor the living Earth.
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Spacious Wandering: Dedicated time to follow the "quiet nudge" of your own soul across the 120-acre sanctuary.
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Nourishing Hospitality: Locally grown and prepared meals with both private and shared accommodations available.
Cost ranges from $1650 to $2100 depending on choice of room.
The Wilderness Vigil: A Rite of Sacred Listening
September 7–18, 2027 | The Hills of West Virginia | $2200
A vigil is a state of holy awake-ness—a way of being that awaits Mystery. Rooted in ancient rites of passage but adapted for our time of ecological upheaval, the Wilderness Vigil is an immersion into the more-than-human world. It is not a self-focused excursion to "find oneself," nor is it a feat of heroic endurance. Rather, it is a call from the Earth for humans to be initiated back into proper relationship. It is a ceremony of sacred listening and a sacrifice of comfort, offered to restore the ligament that binds the human soul to the soul of the land.
Situated among the boulders and deciduous forests of West Virginia, the vigil unfolds over twelve days of communal ritual and contemplative solitude. We spend unhurried time on the land—long enough to feel our roots again, long enough to sense how the larger life moving through forest and water is also moving through us. We offer ourselves to the land through fasting and solo ceremony, stepping out of the "story of separation" and into the unfolding dream of the living world.
The journey does not end at the forest edge. A true rite of passage asks us to return carrying the gifts we have received in the embrace of the Holy Wild. Following our time in solitude, we gather in sacred Council to share our stories aloud, witnessed and mirrored by a community of like-hearted friends. We return to our home watersheds not just as individuals, but as people initiated into a mature compassion, ready to lead and live with a love that is rooted in the Earth itself.
What the Journey Includes:
The Vigil is led by trained Wilderness Guides from Seminary of the Wild Earth and is limited to twelve participants. The experience includes:
Preparation:
Two virtual gatherings to begin the work of ancestral connection and ritual preparation.
The Immersion:
Twelve days of camping on 300 private acres of wild hills and ancient stone.
The Rhythm:
Four days of communal grounding, four days and nights of solo fasting and vigil, and several days of storytelling and integration in Council.
The Return:
Post-vigil virtual gatherings to support the delicate process of weaving your wild insights back into the fabric of daily life.
Wild Ordination: Affirming Your Wild Call
June 15-19, 2026 | Wellspring Spa, Pacific Northwest
Ordination is a ritual of commitment—a public way of saying "yes" to a calling that has been whispered in private. While practiced across nearly every spiritual tradition, Wild Ordination shifts the source of authority. Here, the call does not come from a human institution; it comes from and through the natural world. You are not ordained by a committee, but by the Sacred Wild herself. This ceremony ritually marks a vow of fidelity to the unique sacred work you are being asked to carry into your community.
The process of Wild Ordination is a way to solidify a vow you have taken in relationship with the wild, initiated by the holy, witnessed by a community of companions. Like any life-long vow, it is both a pledge and a prayer for the grace required to offer your gifts back to the web of life. It is a commitment made not to a structure of power, but to Earth, to your own soul, and to the future of the living world.
The experience is centered around a dawn-to-dusk solo wandering and self-designed ordination ritual, in fidelity to your wild calling. Through shared practices, deep storytelling and celebratory ceremonies, we support one another through the threshold of graduation. The journey culminates in a closing ceremony where certificates of ordination and wild vestments are presented, and each graduate is commissioned to return to their watershed as a keeper of the New Story.
What to Expect:
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Five Days of Immersion: A communal retreat including lodging and food, focused on ritual, celebration, and commitment.
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The Weaving Project: A dedicated time to present your year-long work to the cohort for witnessing and mirroring.
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The Vow: A week of sacred conversation and ceremony designed to ritually anchor your commitment to the Sacred Wild.
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Ordination Certificate: Ceremonial presentation of wild ordination vestments and certificate, affirmed by the Center for Wild Spirituality, a non-profit religious organization.
