Where Spirit and Body Meet
We are full beings, complete in ourselves, yet we often don’t feel that way. Modern life focuses our minds in one place while our bodies find themselves in another. This drains our spirit, bombarding us with messages that we are either too much or not enough.
What if we could reclaim the truth? What if we could feel our birthright that we are full, complete beings in ourselves, that we are blissful by nature, and just enough, exactly as we are?
In her book The Art of Sexual Ecstasy, Margot Anand articulated that our natural bliss is accessible to us if we take time to engage in practices that can help our body and spirit reconnect. Through the SkyDancing Tantra Institute that she founded in 1989, she and a lineage of others have been offering training that have helped thousands of people rediscover their full selves.
We honor the body as a sacred doorway to presence. In some sessions, participants will be invited into practices that explore body acceptance, comfort with self, and conscious exposure. These invitations are always clothing-optional. You are fully supported in choosing whatever level of dress or undress feels safe, empowering, and aligned for you in every single moment
Your co-facilitators are both deep in a training program to be certified SkyDancing Teachers and are currently SkyDancing Teachers in Training. The training that they have received through years of workshops, several weeks of participating and assisting at Love and Ecstasy Trainings, as well as their international teacher training – having recently studied with Margot Anand herself in Bali – has qualified them to offer the practices in this training.
Wilder Akasha works at the intersection of somatic healing, personal energy management, and sacred sexuality. Born in Taiwan and drawn to the transformational power of nature-based ceremony, Wilder found a permanent home on the Big Island of Hawai’i – where the land itself became the teacher. She has certifications as: Somatic Coach and School of Embodied Leadership, Strozzi Institute; Somatics, Trauma and Resilience, Strozzi Institute; Trauma Informed Mindfulness, David Treleaven; Your Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk; Quantum Light Breath, Richard Bock; Energy Mastery, Lynda Caesara; Light Language, Curanderos. Wilder co-founded the Hawai’i School of Tantra and also Cultivating Aliveness.
Jim Macdonald has focused on tantra, dance, improvisation, and the chakras, working to create safer spiritual containers – particularly in a world where various traumas keep us from feeling either spiritual or safe. He offers in-person and online workshops, as well as coaching in tantra with his partner Christine through Pink Rose Tantra. Jim, located in Bozeman, Montana, is also a licensed Chakradance facilitator, having co-facilitated a “deep dive” seven-month course with the founder of Chakradance, Natalie Southgate. Moreover, he offers local free-flowing street dances while finding rejuvenation in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
O’Shea’s Place is about a 20-minute drive southwest of Austin (30 minutes from the airport). This beautiful retreat center comes with a kitchen, sleeping accommodations, and temple space. It is also private! We will have it to ourselves, sharing it with no other group of people or visitors. Participants will need to arrange their own travel to O’Shea’s Place, which can be reached by car or Uber/Lyft.
We will have nine meals together beginning Friday evening and concluding with lunch on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday. All meals will be organic and specially prepared to meet your dietary needs.
O’Shea’s Place has options for private rooms for partners/couples and for everyone for shared bunkhouse bedrooms, and for indoor and outdoor camping. Provided that you agree to arrive on time for all sessions, you may also make your own accommodations offsite (recognizing that we will typically end by 10pm in the evening and begin again at 8am). Please check out O’Shea’s Place for more information. We will provide logistics regarding what to bring closer to the event.
Here are the cost options for the retreat. All cost options include all meals.
Not sure if you want to join? Set up a call here with one or both of us to discuss. We also are happy to answer any direct questions you may have.
Contact us at [email protected].
While the practices offered mostly draw from the SkyDancing Tantra Institute lineage, the weekend itself is a collaboration of Wilder and Jim and not an official offering of the Institute. Nevertheless, completing this training does fulfill a prerequisite for future Love and Ecstasy Trainings offered by the SkyDancing Tantra Institute. If you have questions about what that means, please ask us!