Red Tent Retreat – A Sanctuary For Inner Work

Have you read The Red Tent by Anita Diamont?

Its a beautiful and inspiring book about how women in the bible spent their moon time of bleeding every month in a red tent where they were nourished and taken care of by other women. In our society, women are expected to function on all cylinders every day of the month ignoring the cyclical nature of our beings.

For many years , my dear friend, Verity, and I have been running various workshops connected with Red Tent energy and an few months ago we came together and were curious about combining our skills, talents and energy to create a special monthly space for women to be nurtured, explore, heal and transform.

We wanted it to be right and develop organically so we decided to meet every few weeks to connect with each other through meditation, creativity, exploration and authentic sharing of our deepest fears and desires about creating this project. If felt important to allow our creative energy to merge and mature and trust that we would know from within when the right time arose to allow the our first session to unfold. After much deliberation we decided to call our monthly gatherings the Red Tent Retreat because not only did we want women coming to have the opportunity to feel nurtured, nourished and relaxed, but also to engage in processes that offer the possibility of transformation and healing.

Finally there came a point when we felt ready. We bought, dyed and gathered red materials and the day before our first gathering, we came together with our children on hand to help to create a red tent in my workshop room.

The sessions run for 3 hours in the morning followed by bring and share lunch.

The first session we focussed on nurturing and nourishing our wombs. Verity led a powerful womb meditation which lead into an art process. After a short break, I lead a family constellation style process to invite the women to explore their relationship with their femininity. We finished up with some Positive EFT on deepening our connection with our femininity.

Here is some lovely feedback from one participant:

“As a mother of two, a wife, a home maker and starting up my own business, I give of myself constantly, willingly but constantly.  I find it hard at times to give myself the necessary nourishment to continue to give of my best to my family.  Along my journey, I encountered Tamara Donn who, amongst other things, runs women’s groups.  I attended one of her and Verity’s retreats recently and found it incredibly moving, inspiring, and most importantly nourishing.  It left me feeling like I used to after a hearty meal at my Granny’s house. A huge and heartfelt or should that be womb-felt thanks. I feel so good. I see a clear path ahead of me with you all, the sisterhood, behind / beside me.” HH