🔥 Honoring the Ancestors • 🪶 Ceremony • 🤝 Community • 🌿 Renewal
📅 October 9–12, 2026
📍 The Merrill House | Andover, Maine
🌄 A Return to What Matters
In a world filled with constant distraction, endless information, and increasing disconnection, this retreat is an invitation to slow down, step away from technology, and remember a more ancient way of being.
Over four days, we will reconnect with the rhythms of nature, the wisdom of Indigenous traditions, and the healing power of community. Through 🧘 meditation, 🌬️ breathwork, 🔥 sacred prayer, 🌲 time in the forest, 🧊 cold water immersion, 🎶 music, 🤫 silence, and ceremony, we create space to release what no longer serves us and welcome a new season of life with greater clarity, gratitude, and purpose.
Indigenous Peoples' Day offers an opportunity not only to honor the original stewards of this land, but to remember the timeless values they carried—🌎 reverence for the Earth, 🙏 gratitude, 🌾 simplicity, 🤝 community, and living in right relationship with all of life.
Whether you are seeking healing, renewal, deeper purpose, or simply a meaningful pause from everyday life, this retreat offers an opportunity to reconnect with yourself, the natural world, and something greater than yourself.
Hosted by Jason Faulkner and guided by David Gutiérrez, a Medicine Man, Sun Dancer, and ceremonial leader from Mexico, we will gather around the 🔥 Sacred Fire in prayer, song, silence, and community.
David carries the ceremonial lineage of the Teocalli Quetzalcóatl family and has walked the Red Road for more than twenty years, learning from Indigenous elders while preserving these traditions through prayer, ceremony, and service.
❤️ Our Intention
- 🪶 Honor the ancestors.
- 🍂 Release the past.
- 🌅 Welcome new beginnings.
- 🌎 Give thanks to Mother Earth.
- ❤️ Remember what it means to live from the heart.
📵 A Complete Digital Detox
Upon arrival, participants will surrender their phones for the duration of the retreat.
This intentional pause from technology allows the nervous system to settle while creating space for deeper presence, meaningful conversation, uninterrupted reflection, and genuine human connection.
🗓️ Retreat Schedule
🍁 Friday • October 9
🕐 1:00 PM — Arrival & Check-In
- 🏡 Welcome to The Merrill House
- 🛏️ Settle into your accommodations
🕑 2:00 PM — Opening Circle
- 👋 Introductions
- 🧭 Retreat Orientation
- 🎯 Establishing Personal Intentions
🕝 2:30 PM
📵 Digital Detox Begins
Participants surrender phones for the weekend.
🕓 4:00 PM
🥗 Farm-to-Table Vegetarian Dinner
🌲 Afternoon
- 🚶 Explore the property
- 😌 Rest
- 🌿 Nature walks
- 📖 Quiet reflection
🕕 6:00–7:30 PM
🌬️ Somatic Breathwork Journey
Guided by Jason Faulkner
A guided breathwork experience designed to regulate the nervous system, release stored tension, and prepare the body and mind for a weekend of ceremony and self-discovery.
🕗 8:00 PM
🔥 Opening Fire Circle
- 🙏 Welcome
- 🪶 Indigenous teachings
- 🧭 Weekend overview
- 🧘 Evening meditation
🤫 Silence begins following the evening gathering.
🌄 Saturday • October 10
🌅 6:45 AM
🧘 Morning Meditation
🍎 7:30 AM
Tea & Fresh Fruit
🧊 9:00 AM
Cold Water Treatments
Experience the restorative benefits of intentional cold water immersion paired with breath awareness and mindfulness practices.
Participants will learn how controlled exposure to cold can support nervous system regulation, mental resilience, circulation, and presence.
🥣 11:30 AM
Brunch
🌲 Afternoon
- 🚶 Forest walks
- 📓 Journaling
- 🌿 Personal reflection
- 😌 Rest
🥘 5:00 PM
Vegetarian Stew Dinner
Following dinner, participants begin preparing for the overnight ceremony.
🌇 6:10 PM
🔥 Gather at the Sacred Fire for Sunset
As daylight fades, we enter sacred space together.
🔥 Sacred Four Tobacco Prayer Ceremony
🌅 Saturday Sunset → Sunday Sunrise
As the sun sets, we begin an overnight ceremonial prayer around the Sacred Fire inspired by the traditions carried by David Gutiérrez.
This sacred gathering is an invitation to:
- 🍂 Release the past
- 🌅 Welcome new beginnings
- 🕊️ Pray for healing and peace
- 🌎 Honor Mother Earth
- 🙏 Give thanks for the gift of life
- ✨ Deepen our relationship with Spirit and community
Throughout the night we remain together around the Sacred Fire in prayer, sacred song, silence, reflection, and gratitude.
Participants are invited to observe a ceremonial fast after dinner, consuming only liquids throughout the night as they feel called.
🌞 The ceremony concludes at sunrise.
🌞 Sunday • October 11
🌅 Sunrise
Morning Prayer
We welcome the first light of day together in gratitude.
🌽 Offering Ceremony
Together we offer gifts to Mother Earth:
💧 Water
🌽 Corn
🥩 Local meat
🫐 Seasonal berries
offered in gratitude to the land, the ancestors, and all living beings.
🍎 7:30 AM
Fresh Fruit & Light Nourishment
🧊 9:00 AM
Cold Water Treatments
An opportunity to renew the body following the overnight ceremony through mindful cold immersion.
🥗 12:00 PM
Community Vegetarian Lunch
🌲 Afternoon Integration
- 🚶 Forest walks
- 😌 Rest
- 📖 Journaling
- 🌿 Personal reflection
- 💬 Optional one-on-one conversations
🍽️ 6:00 PM
Community Dinner
🪘 7:00 PM
Community Drum Circle
- 🎶 Sacred songs
- 🗣️ Chanting
- 📖 Storytelling
- 🥁 Music
- 🌿 Integration
- 🤝 Community celebration
🍁 Monday • October 12
🌅 Morning
🧘 Meditation & Breathwork
🥣 Breakfast
❤️ Closing Circle
- 🌿 Reflections
- 🙏 Gratitude
- 🤝 Community Sharing
🌎 Offering to the Land
Participants are invited to offer flowers, prayers, and gratitude before departing.
🚗 Departure
Approximately 11:00 AM
🎒 Preparing for the Retreat
We recommend:
- 🎯 Establish a clear personal intention.
- 🥗 Eat nourishing whole foods during the week before arrival.
- 🚫 Avoid alcohol and recreational substances.
- 🥬 Limit animal products if possible.
- 💧 Stay well hydrated.
- 😴 Prioritize quality sleep.
- 🌲 Spend time in meditation, nature, or quiet reflection before arriving.