Medicine Is Relationship, Not Collection.
October 16–19, 2026
Big Sur, California
3 Nights • 4 Days • Only 5 Participants
Founding Retreat Rate: $575
Spend a weekend learning with Bear Paw and from the land—asking questions, practicing hands-on ritual, and carrying new knowledge and medicine into your own practice.
Five People. Four Days. One Very Big Classroom.
There are things I can teach in a classroom.
And then there are things that make much more sense when we have time to sit together beneath the trees, walk the land, tend a fire, ask questions as they arise, experiment, practice, and actually live with what we’re learning for a few days.
Bear Medicine is a three-night, four-day immersive teaching experience in Big Sur for just five people.
Think of it as an immersive spiritual learning playground.
I’ll be teaching throughout the weekend, but we aren’t going to spend four days sitting through lectures. We’ll learn from what is around us. We’ll work with our hands. We’ll practice ritual. We’ll talk around the fire. We’ll follow questions when they become interesting.
And you can ask me anything.
If you’ve ever left one of my classes thinking, I wish we had another three hours to keep going, this is that opportunity.
Except now we have four days.
Medicine Is Relationship, Not Collection
This teaching will follow us throughout the weekend.
Medicine is much bigger than something we put into a bottle, burn on charcoal, prepare as an herb, or carry in a pouch.
Plants are medicine. Animals can be teachers. Fire is medicine. Water is medicine. Food is medicine. Rest can be medicine. Story can be medicine. Our ancestors carry medicine. The land carries knowledge.
We are learning how to enter into relationship with the living world—to observe, listen, ask permission, practice reciprocity, and understand that encountering medicine does not automatically mean possessing it.
Sometimes we may respectfully and sustainably gather something where doing so is appropriate and permitted. Sometimes we’ll work with plant medicines and materials I’ve brought specifically for our teaching. And sometimes the medicine is something we notice, experience, learn from, give thanks for—and leave exactly where it is.
Medicine is relationship, not collection.
What We’ll Explore
This is a full teaching weekend rather than a single workshop with one predetermined lesson.
Our work may move through:
- Plant relatives and working with herbal medicine
- Animal medicine and learning through observation
- Reading and listening to the landscape
- Intuition, signs, synchronicities, and projection
- Ancestors and ancestral relationship
- Cleansing, grounding, and protection
- Offerings and reciprocity
- Prayer and intention
- Altar work
- Divination
- Fire and elemental practices
- Building and understanding ritual
- Medicine-making
- Respectful and sustainable gathering
- Creating spiritual practices that can actually live within everyday life
We’ll also have plenty of room for the questions participants bring with them.
Part of the value of keeping this retreat to five people is that our questions can help shape where the teaching goes.
Your Medicine Pouch
Each participant will receive a leather medicine pouch that we’ll work with throughout the weekend.
As we learn about plant relatives, gathering, reciprocity, ritual, and medicine, your pouch may gradually receive medicines and other appropriate materials connected to what we’re learning.
But the goal isn’t to fill it. Sometimes the most important thing we encounter will stay exactly where we found it.
By the time you leave Big Sur, the pouch should carry more than objects. It should carry stories. Teachings. Experiences. Things you learned to recognize. Things you chose not to take. And practices you can continue long after we leave.
What’s Included
Your $575 Founding Retreat Rate includes:
- Three nights of camping in Big Sur
- Four days of immersive Bear Medicine teaching
- A maximum group of only five participants
- Direct access to Bear Paw throughout the teaching weekend
- Guided land-based learning and observation
- Hands-on ritual and medicine work
- Plant, animal, ancestor, intuition, and land teachings
- Ritual and medicine-making materials
- Your own leather medicine pouch
- Teaching and reference materials
- Individual reflection and journaling time
- Fireside teaching and conversation when conditions permit
- Light snacks and refreshments
- Carpool coordination before the retreat
Participants are responsible for their own primary meals, personal camping equipment, appropriate clothing and personal supplies, and transportation/carpooling arrangements. There will be a camp stove and fire pit available for cooking meals and there is also a coffee shop, cafe and restaurant on site.
A detailed packing list, food guidance, schedule, meeting information, accessibility considerations, and preparation materials will be sent to registered participants before the retreat. With over 20 years of experience leading both small and large-format spiritual retreats, including camping-based gatherings, I will also provide thorough preparation lists and practical tips, especially for those who are not avid campers. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided throughout the weekend.
Getting There Together
Whenever possible, we will travel to Big Sur in no more than two vehicles.
There is a practical reason—the campsite has limited vehicle capacity—but there is also a reason that fits the spirit of the weekend.
Part of entering into relationship with a place is considering how we arrive.
Rather than six people driving six separate cars to the same place, we’ll make an effort to share the journey, use fewer resources, and begin building our little retreat community before we even reach Big Sur.
Once the group is confirmed, I will help facilitate carpooling among participants based on location, available seats, comfort, accessibility needs, camping gear, and schedules.
No one will be expected to accept a transportation arrangement that doesn’t work for them, and individual needs will always come first. But wherever it makes sense, we’ll get there together.
If additional vehicles ultimately become necessary, we’ll work through those arrangements together. Our goal is to make two vehicles work whenever we reasonably can.
Who Can Attend?
This Retreat Is Invitation-Only
Bear Medicine is not being offered for general public registration.
For this first retreat, participation is limited to people who have previously:
Had a reading or spiritual guidance session with Bear Paw
or
Taken a Bear Paw Medicine class.
That’s intentional.
I want to know something about the people I’m bringing into this experience, and I want you to already know something about me, how I teach, and how I approach this work.
Instead of spending our first day establishing that relationship, we can begin with it.
If I sent you an invitation to this retreat, you are invited to register.
Want to Recommend Someone?
You are absolutely welcome to recommend someone you think would be a wonderful fit for Bear Medicine.
Because this is an invitation-only experience, however, a recommendation does not automatically create an invitation.
If someone hasn’t previously worked with me, they will first need to attend one of my classes or have a reading/spiritual guidance session with me.
That gives them an opportunity to experience how I teach and work—and gives me an opportunity to meet them and determine whether this particular small-group experience is a good fit.
After we’ve worked together, I can decide whether to extend an invitation if a retreat space is still available.
With only five participants sharing a campsite, spiritual practice, teaching, conversation, and several days together, who is in the circle matters.
The intention isn’t exclusivity for its own sake.
It’s about relationship, trust, and creating a group where we can safely go deeper together.
So if there’s someone you’re thinking, they would LOVE this, tell me about them.
There may be a path for them to join us.
Registration & Payment
$575 Founding Retreat Rate
There are only five participant spaces.
Reserve Your Space — $200
A $200 nonrefundable deposit reserves your place.
Your deposit is applied toward the total $575 retreat fee.
Remaining Balance — $375
Your remaining $375 balance is due September 18, 2026.
You are welcome to pay the remaining balance earlier.
If you reserve your place on or after September 18, the full $575 retreat fee is due at registration.
Your registration is not considered fully paid until the balance has been received.
Cancellation & Refund Policy
Because this retreat is limited to only five participants, every reservation represents 20% of the available attendance.The cancellation policy reflects the difficulty of replacing a participant as the retreat approaches.
The $200 reservation deposit is nonrefundable.
If you cancel on or before September 18, 2026, any retreat payments you have made above the $200 deposit will be refunded.
If you cancel September 19 through October 1, 2026, payments above the deposit are refundable only if your space can be filled by another eligible participant.
Beginning October 2, 2026, retreat payments are nonrefundable because supplies, planning, campsite arrangements, and final preparations will be committed based upon the confirmed group.
If you need to cancel at any point, please contact me as soon as possible.
Because Bear Medicine is invitation-only, registrations cannot be sold or transferred to another person. Any replacement participant must meet the retreat eligibility requirements and receive an invitation from Bear Paw.
If Bear Paw Must Cancel the Retreat
If I must cancel the entire retreat and it cannot reasonably be rescheduled, all retreat payments, including your deposit, will be refunded.
Bear Paw Medicine is not responsible for participant expenses outside the retreat registration fee, including transportation, personal camping equipment, lodging before or after the retreat, or other travel-related expenses.
Weather, Fire & Big Sur Conditions
This is an outdoor retreat in Big Sur.
Weather, wildfire conditions, road closures, campground restrictions, and other circumstances affecting access to the area are sometimes outside anyone’s control.
If conditions require changes to particular activities—such as restrictions on campfires—we’ll adapt our practices accordingly.
If the campground or authorities close the area or conditions make the retreat unable to proceed safely, I will communicate with participants about rescheduling, relocation if appropriate, or the applicable refund options.
Part of working in relationship with the land is understanding that we don’t control the land. We respond to it.
A Note About Camping
This is a real camping experience.
We’ll be sleeping outdoors at an established campground and spending substantial portions of our days outside.
You don’t need to be an expert camper, but you should be prepared for changing temperatures and chilly nights, uneven ground, dirt, insects, smoke or campfire conditions when fires are permitted, and the realities of spending the weekend outdoors.
If you have questions about whether the physical environment will work for you, please talk with me before registering.
I want everyone coming to understand what the weekend involves so we can plan appropriately.
Five People. Four Days. One Very Big Classroom.
This is our opportunity to get out of the classroom and give ourselves enough time to follow the questions.
To learn something in the morning and practice it that afternoon.
To notice something on a walk and talk about it around the fire.
To build a ritual, understand why it works, change it, and try again.
To learn from the land instead of simply talking about our relationship with it.
To ask the questions we never have enough time for during a two-hour class.
And then to carry those teachings home.