StoneSong Retreat Information

June 23–28, 2026

You Are Safe. You Are Seen. You Are Sacred.

Jonathan’s Circle

holds its annual

StoneSong Retreat

at the StoneSong Awareness and Nature Center (western Maryland, near Flintstone).

Experience a gathering of men ready to explore the erotic and spiritual treasures at the core of our deepest, most authentic selves. This embodied community will gather in the rolling mountains of western Maryland at the StoneSong Nature and Awareness Center near the town of Flintstone.

During the retreat, we will celebrate the power of self-pleasure to open the heart. We will use the joy that arises from our own bodies to help us create an environment of full acceptance for one another and ourselves.

Share what is moving within you in our daily heart circle. Find joy, generosity, and healing in heart-centered, respectfully structured erotic exploration with your fellow travelers.

A Spiritual and Erotic Retreat

Experience a gathering of men ready to explore the erotic and spiritual treasures at the core of our deepest, most authentic selves. This embodied community will gather in the rolling mountains of western Maryland at the StoneSong Nature and Awareness Center near the town of Flintstone.

During the retreat, we will celebrate the power of self-pleasure to open the heart. We will use the joy that arises from our own bodies to help us create an environment of full acceptance for one another and ourselves.

Share what is moving within you in our daily heart circle. Find joy, generosity, and healing in heart-centered, respectfully structured erotic exploration with your fellow travelers.

Embodied Freedom and Erotic Generosity

In past retreats, we have witnessed the magic of men creating places of complete acceptance and safety for each other—where all our interactions are a way of saying, “You are safe. You are seen. You are sacred.” In offering that gift and receiving it back, we heal our souls, and we repair the world.

This freedom allows us to be spontaneous, take risks, and make surprising discoveries within ourselves and with others. We let down our defenses. Our innate capacities for kindness and empathy blossom. We experience the joys of deep gratitude. We delight in the pleasure and fulfilment we can bring someone else and ourselves.

Sometimes we find this freedom in walking naked through the natural world. Sometimes we find it in knowing others will celebrate the fullness of our erotic longings. We find it knowing that others will respect our personal boundaries and the choices we make about how to engage in community.

Building Sacred Community

Ritual practice and play are a major part of the retreat. Good ritual is about using tangible objects and embodied practice to express and expand our awareness of what’s moving inside us—as individuals, and as a community. One of the first things we’ll do together is gather in a circle and tell each other about the personal meaning of objects that we’ve brought with us. We will then create a communal altar using those objects.

If the idea of an altar is unfamiliar or uncomfortable, think of it as a visual focal point that represents what we are bringing to the gathering. We will consecrate this space as an area dedicated to the community that we build together, and colorful fabrics, sacred images, and beautiful objects will adorn the space.

Confidentiality and Consent

Our commitment at Jonathan’s Circle to principles of confidentiality and consent will be absolute. In order to create and maintain a safe container for the retreat, we have several explicit expectations stated upfront:

  • We will ask you to sign an agreement stating that you will keep retreat activities confidential.
  • We will speak about no one else’s presence at StoneSong to those outside the group, nor about what anyone else shares or experiences during the retreat.
  • We agree to speak only of our own experience. What happens at StoneSong stays at StoneSong.
  • Consent is always complex and delicate; therefore, we will engage in the mindful practice of asking for permission in all our interactions with each other.

Getting to StoneSong

The town of Flintstone is along I-68, a few miles east of Cumberland, Maryland. StoneSong is another three miles off the highway along winding country roads. Detailed directions come with registration—previous experience tells us your GPS is probably unreliable!

We do our best to put those who want to share a ride in touch with each other. The best choice of airport is Washington Reagan National (DCA), but Pittsburgh International (PIT), Washington Dulles International (IAD), and Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International (BWI) are roughly equidistant. It’s easier for us to help you find a ride share if you’re coming from Washington.

We strongly encourage you to share transportation with others, to minimize our carbon footprint and out of respect for the delicate land on which we’re gathering.

Registration and Fees

The retreat has a cap of twenty participants. Three levels of accommodation are available: camping; dormitory-style beds in the renovated barn that houses the dining facilities and our main program space; and a limited number of shared rooms in the farmhouse about a five-minute walk away. Fees are inclusive of all meals beginning with Monday dinner and ending with Sunday lunch.

This is a peer-organized community, and registration fees reflect the per-person charges levied by our hosts at StoneSong plus the additional overhead costs of organizing the retreat:

Camping — $714.00
Barn (bunkhouse-style) — $864.00
Farmhouse — $984.00

One private room will be available for a surcharge on a first-come, first-served basis:
Bluebird Room — $1,134.00

A $50 non-refundable deposit secures your reservation. If you pay in full before May 15, 2026, deduct $50 from the full registration fee. Full registration fee is due June 1, 2026.

If you can afford to be generous and are willing to contribute more than the listed fee in order to make it possible for someone else to register, we’ll gratefully receive what you can offer. Please consider “paying it forward” by adding a donation of $50 or $100 for the support of scholarships. Donations to Jonathan’s Circle are tax-deductible.

Refund policies: Full refund minus deposit until May 15, 2026. Refunds May 15–May 31 at 75%. Refunds June 1–10 at 50%. No refunds after June 10, 2026, except on documented medical or compassionate grounds.

Registration Opens April 1, 2026