The Quickening Hearth Retreat
Tending the Sacred Flame Within
Big Island of Hawai'i
Six nights: January 31-February 6, 2027
Are you still moving at midnight, tending everyone's needs but your own?
Can you feel something stirring, but you haven't had the space to listen to it yet?
Craving six days where no one needs anything from you?
Imagine six nights of air sweet with plumeria. An altered state settles into your body the moment you land. The Great Mother meets you there in her dual nature: cradling and revealing, soft and powerful, both true at once.
We gather at Imbolc in the company of Brigid, keeper of the sacred flame. Like an ember banked at nightfall and kept alive through the dark, her fire never truly leaves. It waits, ready to blaze again at first light.
We carry our winters across an ocean to the youngest land on earth, where Pele has been burning in the deep belly of the mountain since before memory began.
Through Brigid's symbols of the flame, the well, and the blackbird, we find the ember that is never truly gone.
Hi, I'm Elle.
Are you the one who holds everything together for everyone else?
I was, for years. I called it love.
Then I upended my life and turned to the Divine Mother and Her Archetypes.
She met me in the deepest shadow work of my life, and underneath it
I found a self-love that is now the wellspring of everything I lead.
I dance now, freely, with the people I love.
You deserve to feel steady in your body and fully alive in your life,
not just survive it in private.
You'll leave these retreats lighter, more rooted, and more fully yourself.
If that love found me, it can find you too.
Sister, I see you.
This is the transmission:
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Sacred circles: meditation, breath and sound, arrive fully.
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Teachings based on the ancient stories that unite you to your ancestors, the land and your next evolution.
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The Archetypal Realm of the Divine Mother in her fierce Creatrix form of Pele and Brigit, the Celtic Triple Goddess.
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Your hands and your pen both become oracular instruments.
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Body and nervous system deeply nourished with unhurried connection and innate rhythm.
Your journey includes:
Preparation:
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Introduction online zoom circle
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Discounted retreat pricing private sessions with Paige or Elle, optional add-on
Teaching
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Three channeled teaching mornings with the Divine Feminine Archetypes
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Three evening sharing circles
Rituals
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Opening evening storytelling: Divine Mother: Maiden, Mother, Crone
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Forging a new path: Earth
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Blessing and releasing at the Well: Water
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Shamanic guided journey to meet the volcano goddess, Pele: Fire
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Higher Self Writing: Air
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Bedding the ember: all elements
Excursions
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Volcano National Park
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Peluiki Peace Garden Labyrinth walk
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Whale Migration sunset dinner boat cruise, optional add-on
Nurturing
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Morning breakfast baskets
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Community evening simple meals
Integration
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Afternoon solo time to nest, create, swim, explore on your own
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Post-retreat integration online zoom circle
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Discounted retreat pricing private sessions with Paige or Elle, optional add-on
Meet Your Retreat Leader
Elle Saunders
Elle Saunders is a licensed marriage and family therapist, mythic educator, and ritual facilitator working at the intersection of Celtic mythology, depth psychology, somatic healing, and earth-based spiritual practice. She treats story as transmission, ceremony as medicine, and the body as the first and most reliable oracle. Rooted in Avalonian priestess training and multiple oracle and ceremonial traditions, she holds the clinical and the sacred as one unbroken thread.
Elle is the founder of Trinity Star Family Counseling, Inc.
Learn more about her work at The First Altar on Substack and at ellesaunderswisdom.com
“May you leave this island
more yourself than when you arrived.
Ember lit. Island carried home,
in your skin, in your bones.”
–Elle Saunders
What is Unique About this Retreat?
The Mythic Container
Onto this land we bring the mythic container of the alchemical, archetypal realm. We listen to the old stories of Brigid, a primordial creation goddess with many faces. Through her, we see ourselves: where we need light, fire, and forge. Where we need water, flow, and fluidity. Where we need comfort, rest, and replenishment.
The circle is small and intimate. We meditate. We create altars, nature mandalas, collage, and pages of writing. We eat, sing, and dance. Slowly, we spiral toward the center of our most sacred need, our most calling moment, and we witness it gently, amplified in the field of the group.
Our Three Teachers: Myth, Land, and Body
Myth offers living narratives connected to archetypal energies we can all access. Each time you hear a story, you may identify with a different character or element, seeing yourself in the heroine, the supporting figure, even the objects. The myth becomes a living structure, and we listen with heightened awareness for where its wisdom can teach us.
Land is your sacred mirror and guide. Through dream, meditation, and direct contact with the natural world, you discover your symbolic objects and receive messages, listening to what the earth and elements wish to share. We are on an island still being made by fire. There is no more powerful place to ask: what is being born in me?
Body is where wisdom integrates and transforms. Through sensation, breath, movement, and stillness, we witness what the body carries, honor what it reveals, and allow it to guide us into new ways of being. Here, the body becomes a living oracle of your journey.
The Retreat Location: Paliuli
This retreat was born from a partnership between me and Hestia Magic, who already hold the divine feminine in the activated land of Mount Shasta. When Hestia expanded to the Big Island, opening Paliuli, their working Kona coffee farm sanctuary, I heard the calling of the sacred volcanic land.
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Ten sacred acres above Hōnaunau Bay on the South Kona coast, about 20 minutes from Kona town and 30 minutes from Kona International Airport
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A living, working Kona coffee farm, with cacao and tropical fruit growing throughout the land
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Named for Paliuli, the legendary garden paradise of Hawaiian myth and home of Princess Laieikawai
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Wild spinner dolphins and migrating whales regularly seen in the bay below
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Ocean-view patios and golden sunsets from nearly every corner of the property
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Known for holding women, especially women arriving solo, with particular care
