"The priestesses gather at the sacred well making offerings, then drink the deep blue water, becoming ecstatic and energized by the love + inspiration of the Mother" — Motherpeace, Vicki Noble
DO YOU HEAR A CALL DEEP INSIDE YOU TO MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO A PLACE OF NOURISHMENT AND WILDNESS AND FLOW?
Crete, Greece
May 3–8, 2027
Welcome to the Sacred Well Retreat
Do you feel like something in you is deeply changing, and you need support in your becoming? This sensation of: I am so much more, and I came here to express it?
This retreat is designed to help you integrate, as well as pass through a portal of more of you in your body - so you can remember, and give your body space to unravel the patterns of comparison, competition, lack, and scarcity that have been programmed into us by oppressive systems, but are not true.
We are here for that. This is a place where we honor the Mother and Goddess within ourselves, as well as our wounds, as sacred portals. Our sensitivity and creativity are more than welcome - as is numbness, as is fear
We don't shy away from difficult or uncomfortable.
If you get it, you get it. If not - come experience it.
Your wounds are sacred portals — descend is the new ascend.
This is an invitation for the women who are ready to step into their oracle - a mystical journey, embodied, in connection with the goddesses within, and to experience the magic of connecting with them on the sacred lands where they were worshipped - specifically Artemis and Aphrodite.
This retreat is a ritual of pleasure, of play, of grief, and of Eros — of coming into communion, more deeply, with your own oracle, and with the deep waters of the Mother that live within each of us.
This is a space that will carry us through, and heal. We will simply be tuning in — there will be a lot of sacred rest, as we unlearn the patterns of doing and working all the time.
Crete holds this well for us. We are simply here to drink from it, together.
The intention for this gathering is slowness — awakening the senses, gathering and tuning into what's real, right now, for each of our journeys.
CONNECTION TO EARTH
⟡ Ancient practices: sacred theatre, play, yoni steaming, poetry and myth, playfulness.
⟡ Emerging into life without our phones — detoxing from social media, connecting to our intuition.
⟡ To awaken the ancient wild knowing within each of us, providing a beautiful space to let her move and speak to and through us.
⟡ Purifying and opening our channels of intuition even more.
⟡ Deeply quenching and nourishing the connection to truth.
⟡ To give offerings to her.
The Sacred Well is an invitation into your own inner waters of remembrance. We gather in sisterhood and community to reconnect with the sacredness of life, the wisdom of the body, and the beauty of being fully alive.
For six nourishing days on the breathtaking island of Crete we will...
-
Visit sacred temples and ancient sites - held by educated, professional guides and space holders, in a trauma-informed space, artists of life - and allow time to listen and open the oracle.
-
Dance barefoot upon ancient land.
-
Learn about medicinal plants of the island and create medicines.
-
Anoint ourselves with fragrant botanical oils.
-
Swim in the sea.
-
Receive bodywork.
-
Share nourishing meals prepared with love.
-
Sing together.
-
Practice ritual, movement, meditation, and embodied devotion.
Together we will celebrate Eros - the force of aliveness, creativity, sensuality, pleasure, beauty, and passionate participation in life itself.
A portal of remembrance.
You will not leave as the same person who arrived. And in the most nourishing way, we will make sure you receive all the tools you need to support yourself as you integrate.
The first time I arrived in Crete in 2017, I drove off the ferry at sunrise - the morning air thick with salt and light - and something in me simply exhaled.
I am home. I am home. I'm coming back home.
It wasn't a thought. It was an instant remembrance, undeniable, like my body knew before my mind caught up.
Almost every year since, I've returned. And each time, this land brings me home. The people here feel like family. The plants feel like family. The food awakens something deep within my heart and body and soul.
She speaks to me - the land herself -
"Please bring the women here. Let them drum. Let them dance barefoot on this ground. Let them lay naked upon me. Let me be nourished by them, the way women once were, the way this land remembers."
I have been deeply devoted to my own transformation, especially these last four years - moving through many thresholds, profound changes in my life. Finishing a deep training in Mahayoga, understanding the power of healing through tantric meditation and movement, I fell in love with the Body Temple Dance community, led by my teacher Adriana Rizzolo, and became a facilitator of that space too.
When I met Jenna, I knew she was a special being - someone who truly sees through many lifetimes. I could feel her oracle nature, so connected. And I knew: whatever she says to go and do, it's time to follow.
She has such a natural connection to Crete - it speaks through her eyes. Trusting her inner knowing, as well as my own, we felt this was what was birthing through our connection and our practices.
We're staying at Rinido - held above the quiet valley of Tertsa, on Crete's wild southern coast, facing the Libyan Sea.
Deeply held in nature. A sacred, special place - the kind you can go to the beach and lay naked and feel completely safe. A place for deep, beautiful ritual.
Wild herbs and wildflowers everywhere. Banana trees. Rocky cliffs that catch the last of the light. Around 320 days of sun a year here, sheltered from the cold north wind by the mountains that wrap around the valley - one of the warmest, gentlest corners of Europe.
There's an old meaning folded into the name of this place.
Ter - treasure. Tsa - channel.
A place to remember what the land holds, and what you hold too.
You'll sleep close to the earth - simple houses of wood, bamboo, and woven fabric, warmed by fire, run on sun.
No polish, no pretence. Just what's real.
A short walk down through the valley and you're at the sea.
This isn't a backdrop. It's part of the ritual.
We are the pillars, we are the oracles, we are the true creators.
Let this space bring it all alive and shed the old.
When we reconnect with the womb - the symbolic seat of intuition, creativity, and life force - we remember that our bodies are sacred landscapes.
Through movement, ritual, rest, and shared presence, we awaken what has always lived within us.
We'll sink into the myths of the ancient goddesses of Crete, and dive deep into the archetypes within ourselves.
Through ritual practice, we'll evoke different goddesses, and explore how they support us, and want to speak through us.
But specifically, we'll be tuning in with Artemis and Aphrodite, on the sacred sites we visit during the retreat.
Artemis is the wild woman.
Graceful strength - the kind that lets you follow your own deep, primal desires without needing to please or impress anyone, or walk anyone else's path.
She is a pioneer of her own path through the wild.
Independence, in its most empowering, beautiful form.
She is the deep embodiment of a wild woman who knows - the one who protects the vulnerable, the feminine guard of the sacred.
A warrior of truth.
Where Artemis moves alone, Aphrodite receives and gives back.
She is the slowness that comes after the primal motion.
Texture, color, taste - pleasure in the simplest, most sensory ways.
She is the one who shines her own light - who doesn't ask for permission, but simply radiates, and lets others naturally do the same.
Her beauty starts from within.
"I am the pleasure. I don't need to seek it outside of myself."
Aphrodite is beauty and pleasure.
This is for the embodiers of new earth.
The sensitive. The healers. The artists. The shadow walkers. The wild ones.
The women already devoted to their own becoming - who have already touched their inner work, their shadow work, and know they're ready for more.
You know your way to your own oracle. You've already felt the pull of the rich herstory of this place - the wildness, the beauty, the fire - living somewhere in you.
This isn't a place to be taught. It's a place to be met. There is no curriculum here, no one standing at the front with the answers. We hold the space - you bring the practice. Together, we simply let it deepen.
This is Eros, in the fullest sense of the word - not only desire, but the force of your own creative aliveness. The thing that makes you an artist, a healer, a maker of beauty. We come together to let that force move through us, freely, in a place ancient enough to remember what that feels like.
If you're already living this work - in your hands, your body, your practice - and you're ready to let it open even further, in the sun, on this wild and holy land, you're who we're calling in.
MEET YOUR GUIDES
Jenna Barnes
Gemini Sun, Cancer Moon, Capricorn Rising — a nurturer with a nomadic soul, gleaning ingredients and mythology from cultures around the world. She began studying herbalism and food as medicine in 2010, working on an organic farm in San Diego, and spent the next 11 years guiding active travel trips worldwide with Backroads. Since 2020, she's carved her own path - hosting retreats, pop-up events, and crafting herbal infusions and elixirs - now rooted in Idaho near the Teton mountains, close to the medicinal plants that keep her thriving.
For Jenna, food is a ritual and a meal is medicine. She holds the nourishment thread of this journey - the meals, the herbs, the elixirs - as part of the retreat's ritual, not separate from it.
Dominika Dwernicka
Here to accompany and support you on your journey to live a truer, fuller version of yourself. "When you let go of control, the magic begins — that's where real life begins." Her path began with dance, theatre, acting, movement, and performance art, then yoga — where she had her first deep spiritual re-awakening, a sense of unity and presence that led her deeper into tantric teachings, somatic trauma release, and shamanic practice. She is a deep Shakti devotee, sadhaka, as well as life lover and playful being.
She trained as a teacher and spiritual guide in the tantra lineage under Harshada David Wagner (Mahāyoga lineage), and studied somatic healing and trauma release with Adriana Rizzolo of Body Temple Dance. For years, she has held space in women's and mixed circles and 1:1 coaching sessions — sharing this path from authentic experience, not theory.
Savanna Wonderwheel
A multidisciplinary healing artist and lover of all things human. Bodies, breath, movement, grief, joy, art, and the great mystery that is what it means to be alive. She has been a massage therapist since 2013, a rehabilitative pilates instructor since 2015, and has been immersed in a deep study of somatic movement, sex education, and pelvic care since 2023. Savanna is also the co-host of the Little Gifts podcast.
The ethos behind all of her work is that when we become more free in our own bodies, we create more freedom for everybody. As a strong advocate for preventative healthcare and rest as a radical act of resistance, she considers self-care to be a form of community care — and she fully believes that your capacity to show up for others grows exponentially by showing up for yourself, and giving your body intentional care and support.
THE INVESTMENT
Full rate $4000
Early Rate $2,300
until November 15, 2026
€500 single room supplement (only 3 single rooms available - book early to secure)
Payment plans:
-
6-month plan, or 3 installments, at each price tier:
-
$2,300 tier: €384/month (6 months) or €767 x 3
-
All payments are non-refundable.
Included: accommodation, transportation, plant-based meals (except one lunch), entrance fees to ancient sites, May 3–8.
Not included: airfare, accommodation the night of May 2 in Chania, extra snacks/tavernas/personal purchases.
*All payments are non-refundable, please book intentionally. We reccommend getting travel insurance.
.jpg)
FAQ's
Who is this retreat for?
This is for women already walking this path - already working with the energies of Artemis and Aphrodite, already devoted to their own healing and creative work. This isn't an introduction to oracle or embodiment practice; it's a deepening. But we will guide you through if you haven't experienced this in a group setting before - so don't worry.
How do I get there?
Fly into Chania, Crete. We'll meet at 9am on May 3rd in the Old Town, and drive to Rinido together as a group.
Where should I stay in Chania the night before?
We recommend staying in the Old Town, in the heart of the charm. A few favorites, for different budgets:
-
Quaint + comfortable: Hotel Off, 48 Suites, Elia Potie
-
Treat yourself: Monastery Estate
Where will we be staying for the retreat?
Rinido — a small retreat space on Crete's wild southern coast, in the valley of Tertsa.
What's included?
Accommodation, transportation once in Crete, plant-based meals (except one lunch), and entrance fees to ancient sites, May 3–8.
What's not included?
Airfare to Chania, accommodation the night of May 2nd, and any extra snacks, taverna meals, or personal purchases.
Do I need experience with ritual, embodiment, or oracle work?
Yes - but we'll guide you through it if you haven't experienced this kind of group work before, so don't worry.
What should I bring?
Sun cream, a journal, a hat, a swimsuit, loose dancing clothes, and something fabulous for our goddess party - come dressed up and let yourself play. Bring a small item that connects you to Aphrodite or Artemis, if you feel called to - anything, get creative, don't overthink it. And if you don't have anything, don't stress - it's not required.
What if I have allergies or health needs?
If you have any allergy or condition that requires specific medicine, let us know. We want to welcome everyone who feels the call - but please communicate with us about anything that might create difficulty for you. You won't have to take part in every activity if something feels like too much, though we'd love for everyone to try what creates a coherent, connected space for the group.
This retreat is a ritual of pleasure, of Eros, of coming into communion — with your own oracle, and with the deep waters of the Mother that live within each of us.
We let the earth hold us, as we follow the waters of our own bodies through practices of self-nurturing: movement and mantra, herbal medicine, self-love through touch.
A portal of remembrance. You will not leave as the same person who arrived.
