Ancestral Tending for Changemakers
A Non-Residential Retreat in Austin, TX
An invitation to the ones who meet the uncertainty of these times with:
dreaming, writing, teaching, advocating, restructuring, wailing, helping, healing, childtending, caregiving, listening, feeding, farming, gardening, designing, building, tearing down, baking, singing, loving, composting, weaving, creating, voicing, cleaning, resting, dancing, birthing, dying, cooking, researching, moving, shaking, reclaiming, praying, breathing.
dreaming, writing, teaching, advocating, restructuring, wailing, helping, healing, childtending, caregiving, listening, feeding, farming, gardening, designing, building, tearing down, baking, singing, loving, composting, weaving, creating, voicing, cleaning, resting, dancing, birthing, dying, cooking, researching, moving, shaking, reclaiming, praying, breathing.
Madre del Mundo by Marsha Gomez at Alma de Mujer
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The ancestors are as close as our breath, food in our bellies, wind on our faces, ground beneath our feet, birdsong in our ears, longings in our hearts, pulses of our souls, cellular intelligences, stardust. The ancestors call to us through the cracks of all that would keep us from them. They are help for the helpers; change for the changemakers. |
Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change
Thursday, July 23rd & Friday, July 24th
9 AM to 2 PM
Two-Day Retreat
Thursday, July 23rd & Friday, July 24th
9 AM to 2 PM
Two-Day Retreat
Bridge propped up by stones over Cypress Creek at Alma de Mujer.
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Join us at Alma de Mujer for a
two-day retreat to bask in the care of the ancestors. Many of us know the hard work of leaning into ancestral wounds and intergenerational trauma. AND sometimes we need to emphasize how to receive from the ancestors, the land, and the creative intelligences of life. |
This retreat is welcoming of whatever
your relationship is with the ancestors.
All of us come from ancestral webs that are rife with
rupture, entanglement, and severings.
No one is immune from the brutalities wrought by civilization.
Come exactly as you are.
The helpful ancestors will find us.
They can be ancestors of soul, land, blood, adoption.
They can find us in any form or expression.
Our task is to summon the willingness
to enter into the conversation with them.
your relationship is with the ancestors.
All of us come from ancestral webs that are rife with
rupture, entanglement, and severings.
No one is immune from the brutalities wrought by civilization.
Come exactly as you are.
The helpful ancestors will find us.
They can be ancestors of soul, land, blood, adoption.
They can find us in any form or expression.
Our task is to summon the willingness
to enter into the conversation with them.
There is a whole world longing to reclaim us.
I identify as Chicanx, bisexual, cis-woman, late-identified Autistic and VAST. I currently reside in Tucson, Arizona. I am also a practicing psychologist, and I wrote my dissertation based on the teachings I received from the elders at Alma de Mujer. I am descended from people who made the Sonoran Desert borderlands their home going back generations. They include northern Mexican Indigenous people, as well as settler colonialists from the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland, and France--and many ancestors who have made themselves known to me in my heart but whose names and stories I have yet to know. You can read more about my influences here.
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I am Dra. Alicia Enciso Litschi (she/her/ella), and I will be facilitating this experience. I come to you with a great devotion to working with the ancestors. I love them.
I will be teaching you some practical tools and approaches that I have gathered over the years to help make the entry into this work contained, well-paced, trauma-informed, and 2SLGBTQIA- & neurodivergent-affirming. I honor a decolonial approach. With some important guardrails in place, we will enter into experiential and titrated ceremonial space together. On this retreat, you will be meeting one of my primary anchors, Corn Mother or Madre Maíz, who represents a wise ancestral field connected to the gift economy and ancestrally supported social change. We will also be honoring the ancestral roots of Alma de Mujer and ancestral guides who are especially poised to help us in these in-between times we are living through. 
Corn Mother accompanying me to make offerings of repair.
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On this retreat, we will:
- Situate the ancestors within a kincentric worldview (where humans are not the center of the world)
- Learn practical models and practices for connecting to ancestors
- Encounter the medicine of Corn Mother and the language of offerings
- Witness unwell ancestors and legacies of harm
- Explore the role of repair and change in the ancestral web
- Learn about Nepantla (in-between spaces & times)
- Explore themes of ancestrally supported social change
- Learn rituals, songs, and ceremony for ancestor and land tending
- Create an ancestral talisman as an anchor to take home the blessings
We will be welcoming two special guests:
Dra. Brenda Sendejo will be talking to us about legacies of spiritual activism, conocimiento & making soul that have emerged from the courageous journeys of local elders and leaders who are visionaries in reclaiming ancestral wisdom. Dra. Sendejo is author of the forthcoming book Chicana Spiritual Activism: Making Change, Making Soul.
Lotty Ackerman Mayer is a well-seasoned Reiki & Shamanic practitioner who will be facilitating a group Reiki offering to help us enter more deeply into a state of receiving blessing, release, and support.
Dra. Brenda Sendejo will be talking to us about legacies of spiritual activism, conocimiento & making soul that have emerged from the courageous journeys of local elders and leaders who are visionaries in reclaiming ancestral wisdom. Dra. Sendejo is author of the forthcoming book Chicana Spiritual Activism: Making Change, Making Soul.
Lotty Ackerman Mayer is a well-seasoned Reiki & Shamanic practitioner who will be facilitating a group Reiki offering to help us enter more deeply into a state of receiving blessing, release, and support.
 Ancestor altar at Alma de Mujer
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This retreat takes place on the land of
Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change, which includes 23 acres of land that is stewarded by the Indigenous Women's Network (IWN). These are lands who have hosted countless gatherings of changemakers who, decades ago, anchored a vision to reclaim the wisdom of Indigenous knowledge systems and kincentric worldviews. |
Registration Details
Attendance both days is required.
The full fee is $536.
Sliding scale is available: $213-$536*
*Full fee reflects the intention to share profits after expenses with Alma de Mujer in a gesture of gratitude and repair to the Indigenous Woman's Network.
Please contact me if finances are a barrier.
Questions? Email me at [email protected]
Attendance both days is required.
The full fee is $536.
Sliding scale is available: $213-$536*
*Full fee reflects the intention to share profits after expenses with Alma de Mujer in a gesture of gratitude and repair to the Indigenous Woman's Network.
Please contact me if finances are a barrier.
Questions? Email me at [email protected]
Other Retreat Details
- This is a two-day retreat; both days are required to participate. We are breaking this into two days in order to accommodate the Texas heat and allow time for integration after the content of Day One.
- Alma de Mujer is a beautiful location, and it is rustic. There is AC in the main lodge, and come dressed for the heat with close-toed shoes for some brief outdoor portions of the day. We will try to confine outdoor activities to the morning.
- We will provide some cool herbal teas and simple snacks. Pack a lunch. We will have time each day for eating, which is an important aspect of grounding our bodies. There is a refrigerator in the main lodge for lunches.
- This is a non-residential retreat. Housing accommodations must be sought out in Austin.
- Alma de Mujer is located in northwest Austin at: 13621 Farm to Market Rd 2769, Austin, TX 78726
There is a field of unimaginable belonging beckoning to us.
Tree canopy at Alma de Mujer