Root and Bone

Reweaving the Wise Women

A Nine-Month Journey for Women

2024 Immersive closed.

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The Wise Woman is the Visionary, the Seer, the Intuitive, the Matriarch, the Guardian, the Medicine Woman, and Healer.

And for most of us in the modern world, she is missing.

This one-of-a-kind nine-month journey is for women in the perimenopause through post-menopause years (roughly 40+) who hear the undeniable call to finally and fully step into your fullness, truth, and medicine as a Wise Woman. 

We meet one full weekend per month from October 2024 - June 2025 on the wild lands that are Spirit Hollow.

This immersive is a unique weaving of personal/group nature-based depth work, honing your midlife medicine and a communal rite of passage—a container to relinquish masks, old roles, harvest your life wisdom and fortify your soul gifts in the sacred and potent perimenopause through postmenopause life stages (Wise Woman life cycles).

As we know, with the loss of the wild mature feminine and our rites of passage, the Wise Women are missing. This is inside-out work to repair, retrieve, and bring this vital medicine into our relationships, communities, and the collective.

The life stage of the Wise Woman straddles Mother through Crone and is often forgotten, buried, or even actively suppressed by the dominant culture. Despite pervasive messaging that we diminish as we age, on the contrary, this is a time when a woman is at the height of her agency and power. 

Our work in Root and Bone is about owning that we were MADE for these times of unraveling and allowing this potent time of transition (menopausal years) to fuel our ability to authentically show up as Wise Women or true Elders.

Do you feel a strong YES to the following questions?

  • Are you in a time of deep transition, physically, emotionally, and soulfully?

  •  Do you feel like your center of gravity is shifting or has shifted from taking care of personal/family needs to serving the greater world?

  • Are you feeling a need to CLAIM creative power arising within you, from your body, and from the Earth? 

  • Do you feel ready to finally shift patterns of hiding out or sidestepping your truest expression and sacred gifts as an older woman?

  • Do you crave building community and collaboration with other women in this life cycle - to cultivate a strong web of wise women walking?

  • Do you carry unattended grief about aging and the seismic shifts occurring in your body, your family/work structures, and these times?

  • Are you hungry to shed the false stories or roles you’ve taken on to step fully into the wild, wise woman you’re being called to embody/become?

  • Are you being called to your deeper soul life of service - to create or offer your unique body of work?

    We will explore these and other questions through our time together.

Bringing the Wise Women to Life

Many of us who enter this season of life know we’re called to a threshold – a time to honor or release what’s no longer needed for the Way ahead, to give rise to the woman we have become and lean into who we are being called to become (what’s still in the Mystery).

We carry both a yearning and a commitment to remember the power in this life passage. We know that the older woman is vital to Life, full of the wisdom that comes from years of experiences, full of capacity to tend to the greater Earth Community.

Yet few of us have the containers we need in the Wise Woman life stage - to retrieve the profoundly personal and essential wisdom this passage brings.

Even though the dominant culture speaks endlessly of loss, degeneration, and diminishing value in the aging woman, we know this is a potent time of transformation and possibility, of huge reservoirs of creative life-force energy and desire to serve all of life.

We know that damage has been done to all stages of the feminine experience over centuries, just as Earth herself has been degraded.  We know that the fabric has been torn and twisted.  

Root and Bone is about repairing and reweaving us both personally and collectively into a new tapestry of strong, inner-connected, Earth-sourced, multi-faceted Wise Women who are resilient, empowered, resourced and ready to bring our gifts to the world with new intensity and direction.

This nine-month journey is designed for those hungry to step more fully into their soul wisdom, and the gifts only they can bring to a world hungry for Wise Woman Medicine.

Through tapping into the heart of Gaia and reclaiming our elemental power in wholeness, a deeper well of our unique medicine, gifts, and capacity for love and service reveals itself. We remember ourselves as the sacred guardians of life, and this life becomes the very elixir we offer as a healing for the world.

Our practices include:

  • Council

  • Ritual and Ceremony

  • Sharing stories and wisdoms

  • Wanders and time to connect with land and more than humans

  • Grief work

  • Personal depth work and group container work

  • Deep imagery journeys

  • Visioning and expressive arts

  • Integration practices

  • Shadow and predator work

  • Myth and movement

  • Shared Saturday meal

  • Four facets of Wholeness

  • Dance for These Times

  • A 24-hour solo in the forest

  • A Rite of Passage 

Phase One: Re-membering and Sourcing

Weekends One - Three

October 4-6 Gathering the Bones; Remembering Wild

November 8-10 Unlocking Buried Wisdom; Recovering the Mature Feminine

December 6-8 Belonging to Self, Belonging to Life; Sourcing the Depths of Our Power

Phase Two: Initiation and Reclamation

Weekends Four - Six

January 10-12 Answering the Call; Uncovering Your Midlife Soul Gifts

February 7-9 Stalking the Predator; Claiming Ourselves as Wise Women

March 7-9 Gaining Fluency: Anchoring and Expressing Your Wise Woman Medicine (Mythos)


Phase Three: Rooting, Honing and Offering

Weekends Seven - Nine

April 4-6 The Wise Huntresses; Honing the Art and Skill of Vision and Delivery

May 2-4 Harvest: Weaving and Co-Creating the Path Forward

May 30* - June 1 Crossing the Threshold; Return of the Wise Women

*early start time May 30

Words from women we’ve worked with~

  • “I listened to the call to participate in the weekend with Mother Bone (Tish) and Key Turner (Tracey), and it ended up being profound. The container of the weekend was held with such strong and tender grace. These women are gifted in the ways of holding space, facilitating, and being present while dropping in. This is a rare art form in the world today.

    The weekend was a rite of passage for me that reminded me of who I am and the medicine I am bringing through to the world—and the healing I came here to do for my family, both backward and forward. The weekend was infused with ritual, connection, fun, introspection, and deep celebration. If you get the opportunity to work with either of these women—or the true magic of both together—I highly encourage you to take it!” - AL

  • Don’t walk, but run, if you feel the need to figure out how to stand in your power in the in-between places between motherhood and crone. Somehow Motherbone and Keyturner climbed into my heart and my bones and heard the essence of what I needed and then gave it to me in ceremony, in meditation, and in an extremely well thought out and executed weekend to get to the heart of the matter. I’ve been walking in these spaces of personal growth and ceremony for many years and this pair does it better than most. If you feel called, listen, and you will not be disappointed! - ET

  • “Having come to a crossroads in aspects of my personal and professional life, I joined the weekend circle of Matriarchal Medicine at Spirit Hollow. This small gathering of incredible women was supportive and empowering - full of laughter as well as tears. The program was guided by two gifted women, Tracey (Key Turner) and Tish (Mother Bone), who brought their warmth, wisdom, and empathy - providing an insightful structure with enough flexibility to move with the deep energies flowing around this unique circle. I am so grateful for each one of you - my beautiful sisters of this circle.” - CM

  • “Words fall short in describing my experience at the Matriarchal Medicine Retreat with Mother Bone and Key Turner as space holders. Here’s my attempt… sacred beauty, cultivating inner knowing, healing deep wounds, truly seeing one another, witnessing. Laughing deeply! Joy. Contentment. Ultimately, gratitude. Mother Bone and Key Turner really connected us with the beautiful land at spirit hollow, a magical place, and used that energy to guide and ground. I was very impressed by their ability to create a safe container full of love and free of judgement, which helped us all to deepen our trust of the process and of each other. I am so fortunate to have been there, and I will be back!

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!”- EL

  • "I’ve come to recognize how powerful it can be come together with other women in ways that allow us to show up authentically and be witnessed in community. Key Turner and Mother Bone co-created just such a space during the Matriarchal Medicine retreat at Spirit Hollow. This intimate gathering was thoughtfully designed and offered space for each person to be seen and heard while honoring the full range of emotions and needs that surfaced during our time together. I appreciate the care and skill that went into holding space for deep connection and sharing, as well as the unique gifts each facilitator contributed. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and warmth, and for creating such a supportive and empowering container.” —EW

Details

2024 cohort closed.

Location: All weekends will take place at Spirit Hollow in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Tucked in the Taconic Mountains of Southwestern Vermont, Spirit Hollow is situated on 100 forested acres and surrounded by thousands of acres of National Forest Land. The Center was established in 2000 on the slopes of Grass Mountain.

Lodging: We will be staying at Spirit Hollow in yurts or rustic tents. If desired, women can opt to stay in a local Airbnb or Inn (more lodging option details on the registration page)

Times and Dates: We’ll gather together on Fridays at 7 pm (arrive between 5:00 and 6:30) and will wrap up on Sundays at 3 pm. The following weekends are when we will gather:

Oct 4-6 2024

Nov 8-10 2024

Dec 6-8 2024

Jan 10-12 2025

Feb 7-9 2025

March 7-9 2025

April 4-6 2025

May 2-4 2025

May 30 - June 1 2025 *start time 1 pm on May 30

Pricing:

Optional package includes 3 mentoring sessions

Payment plans are available. After making a $500 deposit, you can make quarterly payments. Reach out with any specific requests.

BIWOC optional discount: We offer two half-tuition slots for BIWOC; please reach out for more information.

Group Info: We will be an intimate group of 10-18 women. We are devoted to a container that supports a rich experience for each woman and us as a group.

Commitment:   As loving, devoted, and highly skilled guides, we will support you in all stages of this journey.  We will hold you in a sacred container and push you toward the unknown, naming places you might be hiding from or hijacking yourself, as well as mirroring your strengths and powers.  Expect nothing less than transformation.

We are committed to your evolution; likewise, we expect a full commitment from you in return.  This journey will ask a lot of you–psychospiritually.   It’s NOT for those who are currently in a healing crisis or actively in trauma response. Registering means you commit to attend all nine weekends, arriving on time and staying until the end.

Your Guides Tracey Forest and Tish Linstrom

Tracey (KeyTurner) and Tish (MotherBone) are highly skilled and seasoned guides who are dedicated to creating strong collaborative containers. They first met in college and are thrilled to be reconnected to create and cultivate this work together.


  • Guide

    Tish (MotherBone) is deeply passionate about reweaving rites of passage, the wild mature feminine, and soul-based journeys for women to access and reclaim their wholeness, vitality, true fluency, and creative force. She is devoted to Earth/ the Great Web of Life and the remembrance of who we are and our sacred aim - to embrace and act from our roots and ancient spirit as intimately connected people to each other and the animate world.

    Her unique body of work is a rich tapestry of 35 years of lived experience and guiding - her personal soul journey in the past several years funded an understanding and fierce commitment to the essential reweaving of our relational fabric and wisdom (art and skill) as women, including the vital reclamation of the Wise Woman.

    Tish crafts and guides spaces for women in this life stage to claim the deep wisdom they carry and are being called to act on and in service to - spaces for women to step fully into their soul gifts, their medicine, their creative bodies of work and right leadership or eldership. In service to Beauty, Possibility, and Thriving Life.

    We are the Ones.


  • Guide

    Tracey (KeyTurner) is a soul initiation guide, who is passionate about helping others step through the doorway into the mystical and the mythical, the sacred and the sublime, the earthy and the erotic, the dark depths and high heights. She is a fearless and compassionate facilitator who has “been to the mountain” and descended into the abyss to lament for the earth, to celebrate the beauty and pain and who knows the rich gifts that lie in the dark to be mined. She stands in the portal, holding a lantern, singing ancient songs, dangling a key, inviting you to step through into the vast landscape of your Soul.

    KeyTurner is particularly called to help women and young adults to move from the outworn worlds, across thresholds into yet-too-be-revealed worlds that are coming. She is a deep listener of Earth's dreaming, of the "in-betweens," in communion with the sacred land that is Spirit Hollow and a devotee of the underworld, the soul stream, the mythological realms in service to the deepest Source beneath all identities, all spiritualities and all beings.

    Director of Spirit Hollow, the center where she lives and guides in SW Vermont, she is a healer and teacher, yoga teacher and singer of soul-stirring songs. She is a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies Three-Year Program (1998) in Advanced Shamanism and Shamanic Healing under the direct teaching of Dr. Michael Harner; also, she’s a Certified Yoga Teacher at the 200-hour level, having studied with transformational teacher, Shiva Rea.

    With 30 years of experience guiding others, she been studying with Bill Plotkin for the last eight years. She is a Certified Level 1 Wild Mind Nature-Based Underworld Guide with the Animas Valley Institute. Currently, she is in the final phases of the multi-year Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program (SAIP) with Plotkin learning the nuances of Soul Initiation Guide and cultivating more tools to assist in the Wholing and Healing of this broken, beautiful world. Visit her at KeyTurner Forest

“To find the Wild Woman, it is necessary for women to return to their instinctive lives, their deepest knowing….let us remember ourselves back to the Wild Woman soul.

Let us sing her flesh back into our bones. Shed the false coats we have been given.

Don the true coat of powerful instinct and knowing. Infiltrate the psychic lands that once belonged to us…”

~Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes