Rise to the Occasion

An Aspirational Erotic Retreat for Cis-gendered Men

Are you ready for a deep dive into the place where your erotic desires and your spiritual life converge? Come spend six sweet days, June 17-23, 2024, in a community of open-hearted men where shame and judgement have no place–where the longings of your body are food for your soul. If you’re seeking the adventure of looking deep within and celebrating what you find there with a band of loving, supportive fellow travelers, this retreat is for you!

 June 17-23, 2024, experience the sweet joy of expansively embodied community: a gathering of men ready to explore the erotic and spiritual treasures at the core of our deepest, most authentic selves, amidst the natural beauty of western Maryland’s rolling hills. 

Start the day together with conscious breath, yoga, stretching, meditation, and mindful centering. Share what’s moving within you in our daily heart circle.  Find joy, generosity, and healing in heart-centered, respectfully structured erotic exploration with your fellow travelers. 

Participate in honest, unrestrained conversations about your experience of living in a male human body. Express your gender in the ways that feel most natural to you, and in ways you’ve always wanted to explore–feather boas and biker’s caps (worn separately or together) are equally welcome. Immerse yourself in the green magic of the land.

In this six-day retreat, capped at twenty-four participants, we’ll especially celebrate the power of self-pleasure to open the heart. We’ll use the joy that rises from our own bodies to help us create an environment of full acceptance for one another and ourselves.

Every day at StoneSong will bring fresh experiences, but here’s the schedule that the retreat follows from day to day. Activities are spaced to allow a relaxed experience and some free time in between.

7:30 Stretching, yoga, and mindful centering

8:45 Breakfast
10:00 Morning Program and optional workshops

12:30 Lunch

2:00 Optional workshops and free time

4:00 Heart Circle

6:00 Dinner

7:30 Evening Program

The daily Heart Circle is, well, at the heart of our practice. It’s where we speak what we most deeply need to say, with each other as witnesses. It’s where we create a strong, safe, brave container by listening deeply and without judgment. We speak only one at a time, with no  cross-talk. We lead with the heart, not the head, with feelings, not abstract ideas, with personal experience, not generalizations. There’s direct response to what someone has shared–we just take it in. Sometimes the Circle goes into tender and vulnerable places. It’s not always easy. The rewards of the practice are more than worth the challenges.

Building Sacred Community

 

Ritual practice and play is a big part of the retreat. 

Good ritual isn’t mystified woo-woo. It’s 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 as we bond. 

One of the first things we’ll do together is sit in circle the evening we arrive and tell each other about the personal meaning of objects that we’ve brought with us. Then we’ll create a communal altar using those objects. 

If the idea of an altar is unfamiliar, maybe even uncomfortable, then don’t think of it as an altar. Just think of it as a visible focal point for what we’re bringing to the gathering.

That same night, we’ll dedicate the repurposed barn where we’ll gather as a space consecrated to what we build together throughout the retreat. Please bring materials that will help enrich  the space: colorful fabrics, sacred images, beautiful objects.

 

Play with abandon. Touch with wonder and delight. Practice generosity. Heal your soul. Repair the world. Come home to the deep truths of your nature.

The Facilitator: David Townsend

 

David Townsend is a teacher, ritualist and sacred intimate based in Toronto. He calls his practice Anchorhold. Through Anchorhold, he companions gbq men on their journeys toward a bigger, freer, more joyful life. You can read his blog on gbq men’s spirituality at www.anchorholder.blogspot.com.