Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
Learn More.

Learn more.

Due to road closures along Highway 1 to our north and south, Esalen is closed through April 11.
Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
past workshop

Marking Change: Using Nature, Creativity, and Ritual to Navigate Life's Transitions

February 21–23, 2025

Day Schildkret

As life changes, we also must change — yet this isn’t guaranteed. Too many of us get stuck at our thresholds. Nature, creativity, and ritual can help us cross them gracefully, helping us ground, listen, and orient to what is changing.

Join us for a transformative workshop designed to provide the skills and understanding needed to create your own modern rituals, with a special focus on the healing modality of Morning Altars. By working with nature and the incredible power of the land at Esalen, we will reawaken our creativity, open to possibility, and witness what is changing in our lives.

Guided by award-winning author, artist, teacher, and ritualist Day Schildkret, you are invited to:

  • Learn the ins and outs of this ancient technology to expertly navigate change.
  • Learn the power of “symbolic action” to align your psycho-spiritual experience.
  • Craft your own modern ritual to mark your personal threshold and rediscover yourself.
  • Discover the 7-step Morning Altars practice, using nature, art, and ritual for understanding and meaning.
  • Experience the support and witness of others who are also experiencing loss, celebrations, and change.
  • Create custom “Threshold Altars” that provide reflection, refinement, and direction.
  • Discover the meaning-making skills needed to traverse your life thresholds with renewed grace and purpose.

This workshop is designed for anyone in a life transition who wants to learn creative ways to ritualize it. Crafted with great care, this experience welcomes all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Threshold moments are meant to be crossed together. Join us if you feel your transition has become protracted or need greater support and attention to skillfully move to your next chapter.

Recommended Reading: Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change and Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art, and Ritual by Day Schildkret

This workshop includes a $30 material fee.

Day Schildkret

Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, teacher and is internationally known for Morning Altars, which BuzzFeed calls, “a celebration of nature and life.” For nearly two decades, he has worked with individuals, communities, and organizations to help heal the culture through a meaningful and creative response to personal and collective change.

Full Bio