Upcoming Illuman Of Washington Events
Winter Retreat: Feb 7-8
Illuman of Washington Winter Retreat
”The Work That Reconnects: Living Our One Wild And Precious Life”
Saturday, February 8th (with option to stay the night of the 7th) Cedar Springs Retreat Center, Sedro Wooley, WA
When: Saturday, February 8, with the option to stay overnight on Friday, Feb. 7.
Come ready for a 9:00 am start time on Saturday. Those staying Friday night can arrive anytime after 5:00 pm on Friday.
There are limited beds available for those staying overnight. Be prepared to camp (indoors or outdoors) if you are able. Let Erik know if you have questions about accommodations.
Where: Cedar Springs Retreat Center, Sedro Woolley, WA
Cost: $90 for Saturday only. $130 to stay on Friday night. This includes lodging and all meals.
As always, if you cannot afford this, please reach out for assistance. And if you can afford more, we’ll put that to cover for others.
To find our own unique place in the world, our soul work, requires inner work shoulder to shoulder together with men committed to living their spiritual lives fully. Our weekend winter retreat will feature Terry Symens-Bucher who will lead us through “The Work That Reconnects”, a body of work created by Joanna Macy, provides a framework to connect with our “one wild and precious life” and our vision of who we are and what we are here to do. This work always happens in movements: Gratitude, honoring pain, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. Will you join us?
Click Here To Learn More >
In the hectic rush of our days where time itself seems accelerated we can find ourselves constantly, in the words of the poet T.S. Eliot, “distracted from distraction by distraction.” At the end of the day, we can ask ourselves whether we have truly accomplished anything, and then rise the next day to face another of the same. It does not have to be like that. At the end of his life, before he asked to be laid naked on the naked ground, the last words of St. Francis of Assisi to his friar brothers were these: “I have done that which was mine to do, may Christ teach you yours.”
This weekend retreat will engage in the Work That Reconnects with a belief that knowing that which is ours to do is the only thing that saves us from being driven by distraction . . . because it is distraction to live someone else’s life, or someone else’s ideas of who we are or should be. As Steve Jobs once remarked, “We don’t have time to live other people’s lives.”
Each of us is here to do the most important thing in the world: to do what is ours to do, that which only we and no one else can do and, if we don’t do it, it won’t get done.
True authority is not based upon external measures and markers but is grounded in knowing who we are in any situation and what we are to do. While this personal inner work is our own to do, we do not do it alone. We are not separate, autonomous selves amidst a world of objects but rather subjects within a communion of subjects. We do this work as men transforming other men through a power greater than our own. We affirm a masculine path to healing that can reveal our true self and the unique soul work that belongs to each of us. We do this as integral expressions of a more than human world. This is the Journey of Illumination and freedom, a fierce disregard of the inessential. Or, as Jesus said, doing the one thing necessary.
Holden Village Retreat: Feb 28 – March 3
Register for this beautiful retreat hosted by Holden Village, near Chelan, WA. Join us for a weekend of spiritual renewal and recreation at our 2025 Men’s Retreat, co-hosted by Illuman of WA.
Men’s Rites of Passage: May 13-17
The 2025 PNW MROP is hosted by Illuman of Oregon. The Men’s Rites of Passage will be at Sky Camp, a wilderness retreat in the Willamette National Forest on the western flank of the central Cascades. The cost is $650 with financial assistance available. If you are interested in attending the Rites as an initiate, click to learn more and discern if this is the right fit for you.
Stoke the Fire
Illuman of Washington offers a range of gatherings on an ongoing basis. These include quarterly wilderness wanderings, firesides, backpacking, councils, retreats, work days, service work, and more.
The location and other details for each Washington council are announced each month in the newsletter. Council includes practices that touch on all five of our touchstones, but the best way to learn about council is to experience council. Council is open to all men. For those who live far from an existing council circle, we have virtual council groups that meet as well.
Illuman of WA Calendar
This calendar contains all of our upcoming events. Click on the event name for descriptions, zoom links, etc. The calendar is managed by convener@illumanofwa.org