Thresholds and Altars: Nature-Based Rituals for Life's Transitions

Life changes rarely announce how to move through them. A relationship ends, a role dissolves, a chapter closes, or a calling begins to stir, and you find yourself at the edge of what was, unsure how to step into what comes next. This spiritual workshop on the Big Sur coast offers a sacred pause for exactly that moment.

Thresholds and Altars: Nature-Based Rituals for Life's Transitions is a weekend retreat at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, led by artist, author, and ritualist Day Schildkret. Through nature-based ritual, creative altar-making, reflective writing, and community reflection, you will learn to tend life's thresholds not as chaotic interruptions, but as opportunities to make meaning and meet what life is asking of you with greater clarity and care.

This is not a weekend of quick fixes. It is an invitation to slow down, tend what is tender, and mark the moment you are living through. Whether you are grieving a loss, stepping into a new role, or simply sensing that something within you is shifting, you are welcome here. No prior experience with ritual, art, or nature work is necessary, only your questions, your curiosity, and your willingness to cross.

What to Expect

The weekend is organized around the four practices of Threshold Literacy:

- Cherishing: honoring what has been and what still remains
- Wondering: making space for the questions, possibilities, and unknowns that are emerging
- Inventorying: seeing clearly what is alive and what is no longer needed
- Orienting: choosing what matters most and the direction you want to move in

Working with Day Schildkret's acclaimed Morning Altars practice, you will forage for meaning, create ritual altars in nature, and experience the power of communal witnessing. Written reflection and shared community time give each practice room to settle.

You leave with a deeper understanding of the change you are in and a way to craft your own modern rituals of change, ones you can return to long after the weekend ends.

About Day Schildkret

Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, and ritualist, and a teacher internationally known for Morning Altars, a nature-based practice of creating art and ritual from natural materials. He is the author of Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art, and Ritual and Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change, both recommended reading for this workshop.

Venue & Logistics

The retreat takes place at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The workshop includes an additional $15 fee for materials. Esalen has posted travel advisories about Highway 1 road conditions, so please review the current advisory on the Esalen website before planning your journey. Registration options include a workshop with an on-site stay, a workshop with an off-site stay, or an individual day pass, and scholarships are available through Esalen. If you would like to read ahead, Day's two books are a fitting way to prepare.