~ You are warmly invited to a retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains ~
This beautiful offering is a rare and accessible opportunity to join us in a sacred retreat amidst the ancient Blue Ridge mountains of Asheville. Through the collaboration between three sisters, Alena, Misa, and Heather, you are invited on a mystical journey to commune, grow, and reclaim ourselves through the intuitive arts. We embrace the divine feminine through movement, painting, divination, astrology, with moments to find presence, peace and stillness in the eros and womb of Mother Earth.
With the healing waters of the Bend of Ivy River and the deep medicine of these natural surroundings, this retreat is for the whole, wild woman: in her true radiant, creative, and intuitive self.
This retreat is for anyone who feels called to express themselves without fear, resistance, or distraction in order to embrace the new, the undiscovered, and the freedom within.
Note: only two single rooms and 2 shared rooms left.
The Unfolding of You
Our intention for this retreat is to invite you to surrender to your inner movement and beauty, allowing the true essence of you to unfold. We lean into what full creative and intuitive permission feels like, inviting a deeper connection to your body, and the freedom to express without fear.
This is a retreat of reclaiming and receiving our intuitive mystic, letting go of stories or voices that tell us we aren’t worthy of such joy, play, or empowerment. This retreat is about allowing all of you to be present.
All levels are welcome to come paint together, move and embody your divine self, learn about your personal astrology and the ancient tarot, as well as develop your intuitive gifts during ritual that are steeped in magic and presence.
The dates for this experience are next year: May 23-29, 2025, where the flowers are blooming in the oldest mountains of the world. The Blue Ridge mountains hold a beautiful yet gentle grid of transformation and cosmic clarity, both deeply familiar and also mysterious: a coming home to an ancient future, a cradling of your most tender self. Note: just one single room left (non-shared).
What’s Included:
- All accommodation at the retreat center. Choose from either a shared or single room. Shared rooms are encouraged and loved at this center. The lodge, pavillion, swimming pond, labyrinth, and scared river are all held here. This is our favorite retreat center in the area where the most blissful transformations have taken place during past retreats!
- All meals and refreshments, including organic and farm to table breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided from a local chef!
- Surprise gifts from the goddess.
- All workshops and classes led by Alena Hennessy, including: effortless color flow, archetypal symbol, abstract layer play, divine feminine flower (Tantra rose painting), and goddess/muse painting/collage. All levels welcome. You will be encouraged to unlearn the conditions of good vs bad in art, surrender to your own sacred mark making and flow, and learn the elements and principles of design. When you fall in love with the process of painting you allow for acceptance of your creations, thus understanding that painting is a metaphor for life. With this intention, art transcends, soothes, and alchemizes your being.
- All workshops and classes led by Misa Terral, including: the exploration of our innate, wild and powerful natures through embodying the 5 elements; the practice of breath, voice, & cathartic release to express & empower our energetic bodies; co-creative movement to deepen our intuitive connection to heart, body, mind and spirit.
- All workshops and classes led by Heather Cohen, including learning about your Sun/Moon/Rising signs, how to tune into your personal radiance through your astrology, developing intuition through tarot and other decks, receiving personalized readings, and divination through such magical tools and talismans.
- Breathwork for the divine feminine. Heart-mind coherence meditation for cosmic embodiment. From this heart expansion a new personal vortex or magnetism is formed for your life–one that attracts prosperity and abundance from authenticity.
- Ritual and ceremony in nature, including flower mandala and offerings with the gentle Bend of Ivy river. More in tune ceremonies will pop up through out our experience together.
- Embodying your true eros and essence through the archetypal energies of goddess through breathwork and gentle movement.
- Steeping your heart in delightful remembrance and liberating joy as who you naturally are.
About Your Guides:
My name is Misa & what I offer is freedom, joy, and transformation through the healing energy of emotive music and embodied movement. Our bodies are elemental & divine in nature, moving through its own seasons and cycles and in harmony with our beautiful Mother Earth. To flow, resist, turn, pause, evolve, create, and surrender are reflections of the innate potential within us, and to be able to express these things through the body, heart and spirit in any way is a gift we continually embrace & hone.
Through Soulpower Living, I offer embodiment and movement classes, workshops and trainings to help individuals and communities cultivate a deep connection with the body as an intuitive antenna, a powerful alchemizer, and a beautiful conduit of expression & creativity. Together, we let go of perfection & enliven our most authentic, playful and joyful selves as a transformative pathway to self healing and self love. In addition, I also take the healing power of movement to women in prison as a program facilitator for the non-profit Dance To Be Free.
My cumulative experiences of the last 25 years are as a dancer, an occupational therapist specializing in sensory integration, a death doula, & as a student in the lineages of Indigenous spirituality. I am a mom to Eric and Maya, Cici, our black cat, and married to Fred for 24 years. I look forward to getting to know each of you on this incredible journey.
Hello! I’m Heather and I look forward to connecting with you through divination (tarot and astrology) nestled in the lush Blue Ridge mountains. Divination is an ancient practice that involves reflecting truth back to oneself for greater healing, awareness, self realization and joy!
After receiving a Master’s in counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies of San Francisco in 2000, I offered therapy for 10 years. I began noticing the lack of modalities bridging the personal/psychological realm and spiritual/oneness realm. So I began to travel the world, working with healers and Shamans learning how to connect these two worlds. I craved a more holistic, imaginative and expansive approach to healing and awakening one that honors our deep personal emotional journeys, the magic of creativity and art and the transpersonal path of spiritual oneness.
Today, I offer readings and somatic modalities that support growth in conscious awareness, and freedom through trust and openness. The readings you receive will reflect your current challenges and the clear path to transformation and freedom. Readings in a group create a deep sense of intimacy, trust, and creative flow. We will also connect to our own inner oracle and the powerful magic that lies within each of us.
Hi there, I’m Alena (A-lee-na) and a lover of fluid color, botanical detail, and heartfelt expression. I feel we are all born to create and there is no such thing as perfection in the name of creativity. The only perfection is the coming and going of this breath, which keeps us alive… all else is play.
My life’s work is to open people up to the rich understanding that they are gifted just as they are and to make art by expressing the flawed beauty or Wabi Sabi aesthetic. From understanding the principles of art we can then break them and grow as artists. I believe we are here to know ourselves as intimately as possible, for that is how we show up for our own care and thus others, which the world so desperately needs at this time.
I have been teaching art for over 17 years, with thousands of students participants enrolled in my online classes. I lead retreats and workshops both at my studio and around the world. I also have 4 books out on painting, the creative process, and flower essences and have exhibited in galleries and a few museums. Ultimately, my sincere interest also lies in connecting to nature, Spirit, and our shared humanity. Being a Reiki Master, Flower Essence Practitioner, and space holder for women infuses into every aspect of my work.
* Read testimonials about my facilitation here.
For quick reservation to secure your spot, please send Zelle to alena.hennessy@gmail.com or Venmo to Alena-Hennessy (either are great). $777 is the deposit to saves your space Otherwise, simply use your credit card to check out and either pay in full for your room choice or make a deposit! Remaining payments will be due November and March 2025.
Kind Words:
“My work with Heather was completely transformational, her wisdom, vision, and kindness were like 6 months of therapy in an hour” –Olivia Johnson
“Heather’s readings have provided such profound insight and awakening into my life. I was completely blown away from the depth, inspiration, truth, and even wild laughter. So healing and so illuminating. She has a unique gift to see into the prismatic range of all sides and dimensions while honing into wild truth that fulfills the soul. I cannot recommend her enough! She is a precious gift.” –Leila Moore
“I am so thankful for the reading I received from Heather, her ability to see into, around, and through my current challenges and transmit a loving yet powerful energy, like a ZAP to my consciousness, and a couple of months later my life drastically changed for the better.” –Rebecca Lawson
“Misa is a powerhouse and divinely fierce channel of love and truth. Her classes have liberated such a depth of spirit and freedom within me and her range of esoteric knowledge is awe-inspiring. Misa is an incredibly generous facilitator devoted to everyone’s evolution. Sit back and be amazed by what transforms in her classes.” –Claudia Brentwood
“Dear Misa, I felt (and I saw) a connection between the dancers that transcends words…a flowing and supporting group energy…Your organization, leadership and vulnerability make this workshop! Can’t wait for the next workshop. Your gift is divine… Thank you!” –Angelina Jones
“Misa: I am so grateful for your SoulPower classes, they have had such an incredible impact on me. When I dance with you, I feel like my soul gets the therapy it’s yearned for. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your gifts with me and with the world. I am honored to be able to learn from you, dance with you, and receive some of your innumerable gifts. Blessings to you!” –Heather Monroe
“I cannot recommend this Alena’s facilitation enough. It will change your entire world view.” –Rachel Michelson
“My Bali and India experience (retreat experiences with Alena) are still the best moments in my life.” – Jing Shun Yip
“Dear Alena, I’m now noticing how grace seems to manifest itself in our everyday lives, something I never would have taken note of if not for your teaching. I can’t tell you how much YOU have contributed to my mental stability. I’m filled with motivation and a renewed determination to enjoy life, and I can’t thank you enough. This experience has been cure I needed that no doctor could prescribe.” –A. Monroe
Let yourself be seduced by the connective powers of art, movement divination tools, wisdom of the stars, delicious food, and gorgeous sisterhood.
You came here to pamper your senses and rediscover who you have always been… an empress of pure passion.
You came here to remember here in this duality only to become drenched into oneness once again.
* register here *
Note: Guests will be responsible for travel to the Bend of Ivy retreat center, which is located just outside of the Asheville area in Marshall, NC. Everything else is all-inclusive!
Rooms:
Choose from a single or shared room. Each room has its own theme from the spiritual places of the world. The energy of the lodge is like a sacred slumber party, and you will sleep so soundly. Sharing a room is encouraged! Everyone loved sharing during the last retreat Alena hosted here.
Let us weave together a new timeline of easy bliss and a relaxed nervous system. Let us walk each other home.
