Saturday, October 10, 2026 · Full Moon Ranch, Descanso, CA
the
body
is the
portal
The Gate Within — a 10/10 Gateway Somatic Retreat
You're carrying more than was ever yours to carry — and you can't quite set it down.
You don't need to ascend or become someone new. You need to set something down.
One day can't complete a transformation. But a taste of it is enough to remind you what's possible.
A half-day women's retreat · Limited to 15 women
Remember the body → let it speak → nourish it → let it rest → remember what's possible.
Three facilitators. One continuous arc. Four movements woven around a shared meal — each one landing deeper because of what came before it.
early bird ends Sept. 14
Every portal-date offering this year points up.
Ascension. Activation. Downloads. Light codes. The gaze goes skyward, and the body gets left behind — again.
We're making the opposite claim. And on 10/10, we're going to prove it.
The portal is not above you. It is made of bone and breath. You have been living inside it your whole life.
On 10/10, while the collective looks to the stars, an intimate circle of women — fifteen at most — gathers on the ranch in the amber turn of autumn to enter the gate the old way. Through the body. Through sensation, movement, rest, and nourishment. Not to learn something new, but to remember what the body has always known.
This is not a workshop about the portal. It's five hours of walking through it.
limited spaces
Who We Made This For
You arrive carrying. Other people's needs. Roles you've outgrown. A quiet guilt about a truth you haven't let yourself live. A weight you can't quite name.
Maybe you feel disconnected from yourself. Overwhelmed by everything you hold for everyone else. Sensitive and overstimulated, unsure how to call your own power back. You know you need change — you just don't know how, or into what. So you lean toward escaping: the body, the emotions, the reality of it. Because acting on what you've outgrown terrifies you. You fear the loss.
You don't need to recognize yourself in all of that. Some of it is enough.
Here's what we believe: one day can't complete a transformation — and this one isn't trying to. What it offers is a taste. The felt experience of setting down something that was never yours. And a taste is enough to remind a woman of what's possible. That memory does the rest.
Why this, why now
The 10/10 gateway is a threshold number — a one and a zero, a cycle completing and a new one opening. And October is the year's own descent, the light turning gold, the whole season moving inward.
This retreat moves with that current instead of against it.
Because activation without grounding is just agitation. Most of us don't need more energy poured into a nervous system that's already overwhelmed. We need a container strong enough to hold the fire.
That's what this day is. Grounding and fire, in the right order. We anchor first, so the rising is real. The arc is a complete wave — down into the body, expression through the body, rest within the body, and a turn toward the future from the body — closed with the oldest somatic practice there is: eating together.
$333
early bird pricing
ends september 14
The Arc Of The Day
Three facilitators. One continuous arc. Four movements woven around a shared meal — each one landing deeper because of what came before it.
Arrivals & Tour of the Land
Full Moon Ranch is nestled in Descanso among old growth oak trees with farm animals and nourishing nature.
Opening the Container
We begin by landing. An opening circle, the 10/10 gateway named — but reframed. We are not here to add anything. We are here to descend into what's true, find what you've been carrying that was never yours, and put it down. The portal is the permission slip.
Descent only works on a woman who feels held. So this is where the room becomes safe enough to go down. Every woman knows where she is, why she's here, and that she is held. The container is sealed before any deep work begins.
The Descent — a somatic anchoring journey
Not a meditation. A guided excavation.
You'll be led to where the weight actually lives — the place in your body holding what you've carried for everyone else — and given time to feel it, language to name it, and company while you learn how much of it was never yours. Nothing is forced. The descent is built like a staircase: you're never asked for a depth you haven't been led to, and you go exactly as far as you're ready to go, not one step further.
This is the descent that makes the rising honest. What you find here isn't a flaw to fix. It's a load to set down.
The Fire — embodied expression through dance
After ninety minutes of learning to listen, the body has something to say.
This is belly dance as ancestral embodiment — hips, pelvis, spine, breath. The oldest feminine movement language there is, offered to bodies that are already awake. Not choreography performed by a self-conscious mind. Expression moving through you. Joy, heat, sound, sweat. The energy of the portal moving through the body rather than being contemplated by it.
This is the fire at the heart of the day.
The Feast — a midday harvest meal
A chef-prepared seasonal meal, shared outdoors in the October sun.
Eating with attention is somatic work — taste, digestion, nourishment received consciously. After the descent and the fire, the body has spent itself. The feast replenishes it. It's also the day's communion: women who have just descended and danced together now break bread together. And because the nervous system's rest state is its digestive state, the meal walks the whole room straight into the rest that follows.
The Rest — yin, sound + anointing, held in gold light
The integration descent. Long-held yin postures melt the activated body downward, woven with a sound bath and handcrafted essential oils offered as anointing throughout. As you rest, Gold Reiki moves quietly through the room — the frequency of the sun, carried like stored summer light into the descending season.
Scent, vibration, gravity, stillness, and golden light. Because transformation doesn't happen during intensity. It happens in the rest that follows. The depth of this rest is only possible because of everything that came before it. Here, the body memorizes safety.
The Rise — return to the light
The day turns upward. This is not visioning, and it's not manifestation. It's meeting — in the body — the felt sense of the woman who was underneath the weight the whole time.
What does your breath feel like without the load? Your posture? Your pace? What does it feel like to have your power back? The body memorizes her, so you can find her again after the day ends. You'll leave with a simple take-home practice that makes the return repeatable, and a ritual anointing oil — the portal, bottled.
A day that ended at rest would send you home relaxed. This one sends you home clear and light — not because something was added, but because something was finally put down.
The Echo — post-retreat integration
Three days later, an integration transmission arrives: the take-home practice written out in full, a reflection prompt for the week ahead, and a closing word from the circle.
The gathering ends on 10/10. The retreat keeps working after.
Mapping You with the Moon’s Orbit
As the moon travels around the earth in an elliptical orbit it undergoes a series of phases. Each phase offers you a chance to move closer and closer to reaching your dreams.
Remember the body → let it speak → nourish it → let it rest → remember what's possible.
What you leave with
In your body
a restored connection to your own sensation and inner signal. The felt experience of being anchored, expressed, rested, and nourished in a single day. A nervous system that has been shown, not told, what regulation feels like.
In your hands
a custom anointing oil, a simple take-home practice, an integration transmission three days later, and the memory of the woman underneath, whom your body has now met.
In your spirit
the remembrance the whole day was built around: that you don't need to ascend, escape, or become someone new to reach what you're seeking. The portal was never above you. You are the opening.
The Women Behind The Day
HEY,
I’m
Sarah!
My love for capturing the savory and sweet stems from a long family history of foodies. My fondest memories growing up were those that were spent gathered in the kitchen trying out new recipes and tasting our creations.
My passion for throwing on an apron and recipe building has transformed into a mission to help others celebrate the experience of food. Over the last decade I’ve helped business owners discover their inner food stylist and create incredible arrangements to showcase their brand and tell their unique story.
Did you know that visual content increases people's desire to read by 80%?
It looks like you’re running out of time... reserve your session now
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
The vine
Her unique ability to soak in and translate the details of our project made for a seamless team partnership and an extraordinary result.
Echo press
Aurora perfectly executed a complex vision with such precision and pure talent that we were left in awe of the final product.
Modern arch
The release of our newest line would not have been possible without Aurora. Her images are exceptional and we look forward to working together again!
PUBLISHED IN
Aurora West
visual artist
Aurora West is an award-winning photographer who documents fashion editorial and commercial projects. She grew up in the Laurentain Mountain paradise of Saint-Sauveur, Quebec where she was inspired to capture the human interactions within her scenic society.
She passionately explores the natural movement of her subjects while awakening their deep sense of self. Aurora’s work has been recognized by top publications across the world and she has had a profound impact on the photographer community.
I’ve always been fascinated by human behavior and mystified by the eyes of my subjects. Its through their eyes that you catch a glimpse of their true being, and it’s from their body’s movement that you can capture a story needing to be told.
I feel most alive when I am graced with an opportunity to photograph strong individuals overcoming adversity and allowing themselves to be fully vulnerable. I welcome the chance to use my camera as a vessel for bringing their narrative forward.
Your message is only as powerful as the visuals that accompany it.