Welcome to a transformational immersion into ceremony, dance and womb wisdom…
MEDICINE WOMAN MOVEMENT presents INITIATION GROUND
CENTRAL PORTUGAL
3rd - 13th OCTOBER 2025
Answer the call of your spirit—take your place on this journey and return to the Medicine Woman within.
This is your invitation to a life-changing shamanic experience.
A 10 day deep immersion held in the beautiful wild lands of central Portugal in a majestic valley, the creek where 2 rivers meet. What a blessing to be held in the wild beauty of this land as we dive into the highly curated shamanic Journey work of Medicine Woman Movement, the heartbeat of this work is returning to our indigenous soul.
The Gateway in is embodied ceremony & ritual. You will be skilfully guided through this body of work to a place where deep alchemy unfolds.
During our time in this sacred land we will travel deep into our inner worlds through embodied ceremony & ritual.
Returning to ways in which Medicine Women & Earth keepers work, harnessing & communing in relationship with the Sacred Elements, Animal Spirit allies, our Ancestors & the unseen.
Working with & harnessing the power of the 4 directions, we journey with a powerful practice of embodied soul retrieval. As we awaken our wild nature through movement & dance, we begin to drop into the deep mystery & river of our life & longing.
Together we will create a Hayhuaricy (Dispatio) offering to the spirits, a truly beautiful prayer.
Also journeying into the ancient womb of mother earth in a sacred & purifying Temazcal (sweat lodge ceremony) with Ana Pomar.
Many days we will work with the beautiful heart opening plant medicine of Cacao.
Woven into our days will be womb & menstrual cycle wisdom, learning how we can live more in alignment with our inner seasons & cyclical nature, how we can reconnect within to the ancient wisdom of our womb.
We will be led by the beautiful Serafina into an introduction of Sufi whirling.
We will have time within our days to rest, to be bathed & nourished in the cleansing sweet waters & waterfall, to rest in the Sun on a secluded beach along the river, to cover our bodies in clay & detoxify our skin, star gazing & singing medicine songs around the fire….
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
* Daily shamanic, embodiment, dance ritual, ceremony, movement journeys
* Ceremonies include Sweat Lodge, Cacao, Dispatio, Whirling, Embodied soul retrieval
* Receiving powerful healing techniques and following the ways of the wisdom keepers & elders of the Q’ero Inca Paqo (shaman) of the high Andes of Peru.
* Learning medicine songs from renowned songstress Ana Pomar
* Working with the powers of the menstrual cycle for personal healing, creativity and spiritual awakening
* Returning to ways in which Medicine Women & Earth keepers work
* Harnessing & communing in relationship with the sacred elements, the 4 directions, animal spirit allies, ancestors, descendants & the unseen.
* Being immersed in the wild lands and waters with a beautiful, strong circle of women alongside you
This immersion is for women who are ready to transform the past into medicine and deepen their relationship with themselves and the sacred, to live in alignment and reciprocity returning to the alchemical power and wisdom we hold.
WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM THIS WORKSHOP
> An understanding of the transformational power of this body of work & the practices that we journey with, personally helping you to continue opening the gateway back to the deep longing of your heart & purpose.
> A profound healing from being immersed in the wild lands & waters with a strong & beautiful circle of sisters alongside you in this transformative initiatory immersion.
> A deepening in your relationship with yourself, coming home in a profound way to your sense of belonging & beginning to uncover your deep gift & purpose in this life.
> You will begin to transform the past into Medicine through the power of dance ritual.
> Experiences of how to make offerings to spirit, to pray in gratitude & remember the power & gift in reciprocity following the wisdom keepers & Indigenous elders of the Q’ero Inca Paqo (Shaman) in the high Andes of Peru.
> A deeper understanding of the heart & transformational power of Ceremony & Ritual.
> Experiencing & working with the healing power of a TEMAZCAL (SWEAT LODGE) ceremony, we will have two beautiful lodges.
> A powerful healing technique to work with (on yourself only), gifted from Indigenous Q’ero Inca Paqo (Shaman) in the high Andes of Peru.
> Alchemical Womb Wisdom.
> Work with the powers of the menstrual cycle for personal healing, creativity and spiritual awakening.
> Be initiated into the way of the deep feminine.
> An introduction into SUFI Whirling & the power & beauty of this devotional practice (with Serafina).
> Connect with the Elements with a real sense of recognition that you are an elemental being, widening your sense of ground, belonging & power.
> An enhanced relationship with the beautiful heart opening medicine of Cacao.
> A fuller understanding of Medicine Woman Movement as embodied prayer & the transformational power & alchemy it holds.
> A deeper understanding into Shamanism & how the extraordinary can be seen and felt in the ordinary. How we can bring the medicine of this work into our day to day relationships with loved ones, family, friends & to the wider community and web of life that we are connected to.
So we can experience the most profound medicine of the land, earth, waters, sky & receive the most healing & transformation from our time together within ceremony - Initiation Ground will be a digital free space. All devices get switched off (of course, anyone who needs to phone home or check in with family etc can), just on the whole we are creating a time offline, off social media, offline to the outer world so we can deeply be here.
MEET BONNIE MCATEER YOUR GUIDE ON THIS JOURNEY
Bonnie is a Medicine Woman & wild spirit who has traveled across continents & vast inner worlds for over 2 decades to bring this medicine home. She weaves in deep teachings from intensive Initiations she received in the Amazon rainforest bridging a pathway from the dreaming world to this world.
Her roots are deeply nourished by a 13 year shamanic apprenticeship with the founders of Movement Medicine, in which Bonnie Graduated & trained to the most advanced level, after 10 years of teaching locally & internationally she was called by spirit in the form of a double lightning strike just after the birth of her second child to initiate her own body of work.
She weaves within this work the prayer & prophecy of our time, Bonnie is initiated into an ancient lineage of Inca Paqo of the Qero people in the high Andes, journeying in an ongoing apprenticeship training as a Nusta Paqo.
Also trained as a menstruality mentor with the Red School she shares her deep passion for reclaiming the wisdom of our womb & cyclical nature. With decades of work within ceremony & ritual she holds a powerful space for deep transformation & homecoming.
“Bonnie is a radical human being and she brings this edge into the space she holds. Her offering is about our deep connection with spirit and the other-world.”
CARA CREEK ECO LODGE
Cara Creek Eco Lodge, an off-grid retreat centre in a majestic valley in central Portugal where 2 rivers meet. The centre is run solely on solar power and the water is supplied by the land.
Cara Creek invites you to embrace a natural way of life through enjoying leisurely swims in the creek, bathing in the river, detoxifying your skin with the locally sourced clay, lounging in the natural infinity pool, star gazing from the private beach, singing songs around the fire-pit or hiking to a nearby waterfall.
Meals are prepared lovingly with seasonal & organic ingredients by their in-house chef.
It is the ultimate retreat destination and completely supportive for our wild immersion.
MEET OUR GUEST FACILITATORS WITHIN INITIATION GROUND
TEMAZCAL (SWEAT LODGE) & MEDICINE SONGS
Welcome to the womb of the Mother Earth…
A sacred ceremony, healing with the Elements,
nourishing the Earth with our songs and prayers.
An offering of gratitude for life,
honouring all that has been,
and weaving together the beautiful vision
of what is to come.
The Inipi, also known as the Sacred Sweat Lodge or Temazcal, is an ancient ceremonial practice with deep historical & cultural roots. The origins can be traced back to the indigenous peoples of North & South America, particularly Native American tribes who have passed down this sacred tradition for generations.
ANA POMAR - Is a renowned medicine singer, a weaver of songs, and devotional artist from Portugal, a mother with 20 years experience in ceremonial ways of different traditions, studying with elders from Brazil, Mexico, and North America. Ana offers a safe space of healing and devotion, journeying through the Medicine wheel, sharing her own songs as well as traditional native songs of prayer. She has been hosting women’s sweatlodge every new moon for 5 years in her home in Portugal along with many other prayer gatherings she hosts.
MYSTIC WHIRLING DANCE
Serafina will lead us in the devotional dance of the Sufi dervishes & mystics, known as ‘Sema’ Whirling. Sema, meaning listening, is a ceremony in which we collectively share in practices to empty ourselves to become a channel & vessel for the divine to enter. Serafina will share techniques in the art of Whirling along with preparatory practices & supportive, grounding meditations. Through the exploration of our inner circles and spirals, we begin the dance with the Beloved.
SERAFINA is a dancer, embodied practices facilitator & dance journey guide, who teaches workshops & initiates, she calls upon a lifetime of experience, seeking throughout the worlds, inner & outer, exploring meditative practices from different lineages to enter into different states of consciousness. Her way guides us to embody the natural rhythms of ecstasy through a heart based approach to dance, we turn around ourselves, towards the heart, in sync with the earth & the cosmos.
BOOKING
INITIATION GROUND - 10 Days @ Cara Creek - 3-13 October 2025
INVESTMENT:
Initiation Ground Fee
Early Bird (until 7th June): £1250 / €1500
Full Price (from 8th June): £1500 / €1800
Payment can be made via PayPal for € payments & via bank transfer for £ payments.
A €600/ £500 non-refundable deposit can be paid to secure your place.
Various instalment options & payment methods available.
CONCESSION RATE - A few discounted concession rate spaces are available for those who are in financial distress or face tough life circumstance situations. Please email us to apply.
Enquire with Serafina at initiationgroundmwm@gmail.com to secure your place & select your accommodation.
ACCOMMODATION:
Accommodation Costs (Includes all meals & facilities)
10 nights accommodation includes garden-to-table meals & healthy snacks throughout the day.
Eco Pods are every nature lover's dream to sleep to the sensations of nature from the comfort of a cozy bed. They were designed & built with inspiration from sacred geometry. All bathrooms are shared.
Shared pods from €120 euros / £100 per night, all meals included
Private pods from €140 / £117 per night, all meals included
All accommodation payments are in € Euro. A non-refundable deposit can be paid to secure your chosen accommodation option & the remainder is due a couple weeks before arrival at the venue.
CONTACT US:
Enquire with Serafina at initiationgroundmwm@gmail.com to secure your place & select your accommodation.
Within us lives a forest so alive with otherworldly nectar of such unimaginable depth & beauty, within our bones the ancient wisdom of our Ancestors & the Earth & stars echo, within the sweet waters of our heart & womb memories of our indigenous soul call us home.