workshops

Explore the beautiful system of the tarot with modern mystic Natalia Benson. She brings insightful and empowering perspectives to the tarot, perfect for the seasoned enthusiast or total tarot newbie.

Natalia Benson is an astrologer, modern mystic, and women’s empowerment coach based in Los Angeles. She has been working with both tarot and astrology for more than a decade and has cultivated a wonderful clientele utilizing her unique, positive, and empowering approach to the mystical.

nataliabenson.com @natalia_benson

$40

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13TH — 11:15 – 1:15PM

Working on the emotional and spiritual level of conception, we connect inward and peel back the layers that are blocking us from what we are looking to birth into our lives. As women, we have the opportunity to birth babies, projects, new versions of ourselves, and all that we are called to bring into the world. But there may be competing intentions, fear, or judgment, or we may be set in our ways with limiting beliefs about how we think it should all look. By being open, courageous, and letting go, we have the opportunity to go inward, tune in, and connect with our intention. This two-hour workshop will be lead by WMN Space founder Paula Mallis who will guide you through a process that includes movement, journaling, and sharing.

Paula Mallis is a facilitator of women’s circles and founder of WMN Space. When she was pregnant with her daughter Madeleine and navigating her own journey into motherhood, she experienced a shift in consciousness that allowed her the opportunity to choose a more mindful approach to her life. Paula blends her experience as a mother, her expertise as a doula and facilitator, and her extensive training in spiritual psychology. She believes “birth” can manifest in many forms.

wmnspace.com @wmn_space

$40

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13TH — 1:30 – 3:30PM AT WMN SPACE IN THE HEALING ARTS EUCALYPTUS GROVE

The wild is always waiting with gifts of beauty and wisdom for those who take the time to slow down and tune in. Come wander the wilderness paths beyond Western Town with Wildtender co-founders Noël Vietor and Fletcher Tucker. Expand your awareness and enliven your senses with deep nature connection practices and explorations of the landscape. Drop into your animal body and make intentional contact with the many beings of the rare Valley Oak savanna habitat. Breathe fragrant chaparral, eavesdrop on cackling acorn woodpeckers, and follow the graceful trails of black-tailed deer back to a state of restored intimacy with the Earth.

Please meet promptly at 1:30, we will have a brief check-in and then begin our wandering. This offering does not have a fee.

Noël and Fletcher invite you to also visit their Mercado Sagrado outpost for the below workshops; Ancient Infusions: Bear Tallow Medicine, Saturday from 12 - 1pm + Coming Home to Oaks & Acorns, Sunday from 2 - 3pm.

ANCIENT INFUSIONS: BEAR TALLOW MEDICINE

Learn the ancient practice and medicinal use of tallow. Together we will craft an infusion of medicinal plants in California bear fat (sourced from Mountain Wintu herbalist Ted Dawson), exploring traditional applications and the modern science of tallow for transdermal nourishment and overall health. Our crafting will be enriched with conversation about the mythological significance of the bear across primary cultures.

COMING HOME TO OAKS & ACORNS

Countless cultures across the Northern Hemisphere have regarded acorns as a staff of life and powerful medicine. The Celts defended their sacred oak forests against the exploitation of Roman invaders. Indigenous Californians have meticulously tended multi-generational oak orchards for millenia. In present day Korea, people consume bitter acorn soba, with an anti-parasitic effect. Human history is deeply interwoven with the great lives of oak trees, and the nutrient dense little acorn. Join us to discuss the pan-ancestral traditions of tending oak groves and processing acorns. Sit in circle and allow your hands to remember how to shell, grind, and leach acorns for food. Come home to the wild, to your ancient self, and to oaks and acorns. Drop-ins ok.

Wildtender offers hands-on experiences and immersive excursions that establish intimacy with place, build earth-based skills, and facilitate healing from the land. Wildtender’s co-founders Noël Vietor and Fletcher Tucker are devoted students and teachers of California natural history, awareness traditions, pan-ancestral skills, and wilderness rites of passage. Having found healing and belonging while stewarding the Esalen Institute Farm & Garden, and hiking and wild-crafting in Big Sur for almost a decade, they are honored to create this opportunity for others through Wildtender’s immersive programs. In addition to Wildtender, Noël and Fletcher run the nature/mysticism-oriented independent record label Gnome Life.

wildtender.com gnomeliferecords.com // @wildtender @gnome_life

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14TH — 1:30 – 3:30PM

Plants sustain us physically, providing the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat. But these chlorophyll-rich life forms offer much more than that—they are also loving allies when it comes to our mental, emotional, and spiritual growth and wellbeing. The right foods and herbs can ease chronic challenges of the nervous system, soothing stress, lifting spirits, and relieving pain to bring heart, mind, body, and soul into a state of peace, tranquility, and equilibrium. One of the most potent and simple ways of healing with homemade herbal medicines is through meals. As Hippocrates said, “Let your food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Your kitchen, including your spice cabinet, can be an abundant source of effective medicine. In this workshop we will open our minds and intuition to the broader possibilities for creating healing recipes in your own kitchen, diving deep into the correlation between the physical medicine a plant offers and the spiritual/magical energy it imparts.

Mafalda Pinto Leite is a holistic plant-based chef, herbalist, and organic skincare formulator. She has always been fascinated with the magical properties of ingredients—especially plants—and the infinite ways they can be prepared as food and medicine. Her love for food led her to NYC’s Natural Gourmet Institute, with internships and chef positions in San Francisco, Maui, London, and New York. She studied herbalism under Rosemary Gladstar and has a diploma in organic skincare formulation and advanced cosmetic science. She created the online platform MPL ’daily to share creative recipes and the fascinating power of ingredients, as well as beauty and lifestyle tips and product curation to inspire readers to live a more sustainable, authentic, plant-based life.

mafaldapintoleite.com @mpldaily

This is a free offering.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13TH — 3:30 – 5PM

When was the last time you wrote a letter or postcard? In the age of text messages and emojis, picking up a pen is a revolutionary act. In this workshop we’ll opt out of our cultural addiction to immediacy and will craft communications—to others and to ourselves—that will provide a platform for exploration, gratitude, and connection.

Your words are important, made more so by writing them with your own hand. There are proven physiological, mental, and emotional benefits to picking up a pen. Using correspondence as our medium for discovery, we’ll walk through accessible written exercises. Materials will be provided (hello, stamps!) in case you choose to send off your words. We’ll even mail them for you.

Laura Rubin is founder of AllSwell, a collection of creativity workshops, custom products, and trips designed to encourage analog artistic exploration. AllSwell began as a passion project launched to encourage creativity in all its forms and has since grown to so much more. Laura now leads workshops all over the world, from Tahiti to Brooklyn, for brands and locations, committed to waking people up to the fact that their life is a creative act.

allswellcreative.com @lauralrubin

$40 + $20 kit fee

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14TH — 11 – 1PM

Scents of Awe’s Paula Ferraro will guide us as we get back to the basics of super-powered simplicity. In this workshop we’ll explore the effectiveness and universal healing properties of the key items in medicine bundles—elements that every supermama can turn to in times of need.

Paula Ferraro is an alchemical artist, weaving her passions for healing through nature reconnection into internal and external beauty solutions. She is the creator of Scents Of Awe, a handcrafted organic skincare and wellness line founded in Malibu. Together with her daughter, Paula has been raising and releasing Monarch butterflies to cultivate awareness for all species currently in threat of extinction. This year Paula has been teaching in Oregon, cultivating new methods of education and empowerment for women and children. Through her non-profit M4tK (Music 4 the Kids), she has been awarded for her healing work with chronically ill youth.

scentsofawe.com @scentsofawe

$40 + optional medicine kit fee

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14TH —1:15 – 3PM

Learn the age-old techniques of macramé and weaving in this workshop with Jo Abellera of KKIBO, even if you’ve never done macramé or weaving before. At the end of the workshop, you will go home with a wall hanging of your own design. Come and play with the magic of macramé!

Jo Abellera is the designer and textile artist of KKIBO, a line of handmade knitwear, clothing, macramé market bags, and fiber art made mostly in Los Angeles and her studio in the San Bernardino Mountains. Jo transforms natural fibers (including cotton, wool, alpaca, jute, hemp, and linen) into pieces that exude a deep individuality and an easy, sensual beauty. KKIBO is known for its thrilling mix of primitive, organic forms and a thoroughly modern approach to sustainable, ethical design. With KKIBO, Jo’s core mission is to make thoughtful, unique, and beautiful things that reflect the natural world—using the traditional techniques of knitting, crochet, weaving and macramé in a new way.

kkibo.net @kkibo.jo

$40 + $40 kit fee — Space is very limited for this workshop

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14TH — 3:15 – 5PM