Programs and Events

Welcome to the Rowe Center’s upcoming programs, free and paid, online and on-site. We add events often, so stop back and see what’s new! Use the tabs below to browse our offerings, then click on the event titles to learn more and register. Online programs are available both live and recorded, unless otherwise noted.

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On-site programs, including personal retreats and group rentals, follow best practices for COVID-19; click here for our current policy. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see all of our offerings!

Kindred Spirits

For more than 30 years, Kindred Spirits has offered a way for people to expand their growing edges, relax, and have fun. We are a purposeful community that creates the world in which we want to live for a week every summer. Camp is a place to experience unconditional love, dive into deep healing work in safety, or just let your inner

Journeying by Heart: Rainer Maria Rilke on Solitude and Intimacy

We will explore several remarkable letters in which Rilke explores what he called “Einsamkeit,” variously translated into English either as “solitude” or as “loneliness”— the difference, of course, is not insignificant. In this, as in so many important things in our lives, our capacity to find an inner grounding for our lives is crucial, particularly when we find ourselves alone or afraid.

Sound Sanctuary: A Time for Rest, Healing and Creativity

You are invited to make time in your life to bathe in a resonant sound-field. Deborah offers vocal tones in harmony with crystal singing bowls to create a soulful, nurturing atmosphere. We will have a short opening circle to set intentions, then the rich musical vibrations will begin to flow. You will have the choice to rest, reflect, create or inner journey during this time. We will return

Rowe Labor Day Retreat for Men who Love Men

Now in its 38th year, the Rowe Labor Day Retreat is one of the longest running gatherings of men who love men in the United States. Rowe is a place of transformation, providing emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual nurturing experiences that support us on our journey. For new participants, Rowe is a safe place to explore coming out, to spread your wings, and to make real friends.

Your Story Matters: Unmute Yourself

Anne’s month-long series builds momentum, confidence, content, and daily writing practice. The focus is on establishing a dedicated writing practice. 35-40 minutes will be spent writing. We will begin every day with a meditation and a writing prompt. We will then write together. Afterwards, there will be teachings through Q&A, master

Members and Friends 2022

Enjoy a weekend of friends, fellowship and engaging more deeply with the Rowe community. We have lots of activities planned that are both fun and educational including s’mores with the Board, a conversation with Rowe’s Summer Archivist in residence, Camp Crafts with YPROGS and much much more. Let your voice and vote be heard at the annual meeting, as we talk about the past year and the vision for

Writing with the Celtic Seasons

The seasons offer us turning points or doorways - the solstices, equinoxes, and the four cross-quarter days known as the Celtic harvest festivals - which are thresholds when the veil between worlds is thin. This means the Otherworld is closer and more accessible. In this free webinar, an introduction to Christine's four part program Writing with the Ancestors, you will be introduced

Making the Shadow Conscious: A One-Hour Workshop with Mark Matousek

In this hour-long event, Mark introduces Writing to Awaken as a time-honored path of insight, healing, and self-realization. You will be guided through a series of personal writing exercises designed to make your shadow conscious, to reveal the power in your hidden parts. We frequently judge, deny, suppress, and hide those aspects of ourselves that are the most original and unique. As Carl Jung

Getting Out of Our Heads: An Hour With Edward Espe Brown

In our heads we can obsess about what’s good or bad, who’s right or wrong, what to chase after or stay away from. When we are enmeshed in these endlessly compelling or compulsive thoughts, we may become stressed or sleepless. Brief moments of resolution are often followed with new entanglements. How about taking a break

Landscape as Lover: Embodied Ecology and Personal Myth-Making

What does it mean to look at your wounding - physical, spiritual, emotional - not as an imperative towards self-healing, but a compass directing you towards the wounding of another species or landscape? Together we will compost old stories and mythologies with science, poetry, and mutual listening: to each other and to the feral world of insects, plants, and mushrooms.

Advanced Mischief for Activists, Artists, and Troublemakers

The Yes Men have been making mischief for change all over the world for almost three decades tweaking corporate power and showing what the world might look like if the powerful were forced to serve everyone. In this weekend workshop, you will learn the secrets to all of their hijinks and then work with them to pull off your own.

An Online Sacred Circle for Those Who Have or Have Had Cancer

This is your invitation to join in a sacred online circle with people like yourself who have had or now have cancer, to deeply listen to your own experience and that of others. The monthly online meetings will feature listening exercises, reflection, sharing, spiritual reading, remote Reiki, and meditation to awaken the dynamic and healing presence of Divine Spirit within all participants.

Mushrooms Are Magical!

Mushrooms are magical, marvelous, mysterious, and amazing! Veteran mycologist David William Fischer has celebrated their secrets for over 30 years as an author and teacher, often employing poetry, music, and art to do so, and there’s no better guide to help you learn about their fantastic benefits. Discover how consuming mushrooms can bolster human health; how to find the best wild mushrooms; how

Abortion as Initiation

Nowhere do our linear notions of life get us in more trouble than in discussions about abortion. On the one hand life “begins” at conception—on the other pregnancy is simply replicating cells within us. What happens when we place this choice in the entangled stories of souls that begin long before any human conception and continue long after single lives? We will look at abortion rituals, such as

Hagitude: Uncovering your Inner Hag

Menopause is so often portrayed by the over-culture as the beginning of a time of decline, but if we’re able to embrace the depth of its alchemy, it can usher in a rich and vibrant new phase of life as we journey into a meaningful and authentic elderhood. In this workshop, we’ll unearth the stories of the little-known but powerful elder women in European myth and folklore

The Virtual Poetry Dive with Music, Movement, Writing, and Sharing

Join Kim Rosen for this next adventure into the unexpected intimacy, connection and authenticity possible through the miracle of Zoom in alchemy with music, the poetry of the inner life, dancing, writing, sharing — all held in a strong vessel of ceremony and shared intention...

Coming Home to Your Heart: A Weekend Retreat with Edward Espe Brown

Learn how to make yourself at home in your body and in your mind, at this place, at this time, through being present with your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions. You probably know the legendary Tassajara Bread Book and that staple of the Rowe kitchen, The Complete Tassajara Cookbook -- both authored by Edward. He’s also a noted Zen teacher, and this weekend he will share his Zen

Thirteen Ways to Make a Poem from Your Life: An Online Poetry Masterclass with Ellen Bass

For this six and a half hour online masterclass, Ellen has chosen exemplary poems to explore with you 13 specific strategies to transform the events of your life into poetry. Together, you will consider particular elements of the craft that can help you to open up your personal narrative and connect it to the larger human experience. As you work this way, not only will you be transformed—enlarged

Writing with the Ancestors: Honoring the Celtic Feast of Samhain

As the nights grow ever darker in the northern hemisphere we are invited to listen across the threshold for the voices of those we are connected to through blood and bone, as well as those who inspire us through spiritual lineage and wisdom. Our ancestors have lived through their own times of war, plague, and civil unrest. We can hear their whispers in our bodies if we quiet ourselves long enough.

Fermentation Journeys

Join author and fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz for a talk about fermentation as a global phenomenon. Sandor has traveled extensively teaching and learning about fermentation, and he will share stories from his travels and lessons about fermentation that he has gleaned.

Facing the World with Soul

This five-part online program is an invitation to explore multiple ways to foster a soulful life in the midst of uncertainty. What was once stable and familiar has been shaken, and we have entered a steep descent into the unknown. What can we do to stay present and open to our lives and to the world? It is the soul that offers us a deeper ground, one rooted in community, beauty, imagination, myth

A Feast of Losses: Turning Towards Aging, Death and Letting Go

For four decades Kim has been designing immersive environments that support deep and embodied self inquiry. “Feast of Losses” is a culmination and convergence of all the threads of her previous work. Using poetry, ritual, movement, writing, silence and inquiry, Kim will create an exquisitely supportive sacred space for you to welcome the fears, blessings and awakenings that come from opening

Exploring the Stories That We Tell

Sherri, an attorney, author, and teacher, draws from the deep spiritual awareness of her Indigenous traditions and weaves them into a multitude of complex issues. Sherri is joined by Tim, whose climate justice activism along with his chaplaincy work demonstrate a deep understanding socially and spiritually. Together, they invite you to examine the old narratives that have defined our current

Your Untold Story: Writing as a Path of Awakening

In this transformative workshop, Mark will guide you on a step-by-step journey into your own interior, using his Writing To Awaken method. You will explore profound, targeted questions designed to reveal, engage, and challenge your untold story in a safe, intimate, and supportive setting. Our time together will also include group sharing, inspirational readings, and one-on-one work with him.

A Wild Soul Woman™: An Initiation into the Heart of Five Earth Archetypes to Unleash Your Full Feminine Power

Relying on the strength and power of the five Earth archetypes, a Wild Soul Woman speaks her truth, stands up for her values, and becomes an eloquent defender of life. This weekend online retreat is about stepping up to this moment, to become the kind of woman and feminine leader who is ready to participate creatively and whole-heartedly in re-imagining and actively participating in forming a

Fall Work Week

Fall Work Week is back! Join your Rowe friends for this fantastic opportunity to give back to the community you love. Meet new friends and reconnect with old ones as you take part in a wide variety of service projects around the Rowe campus. Join one of several work teams like landscaping, painting, sewing, beautification, carpentry, meal preparation and more! Individuals of all ages and skill

Drawing Out Your Soul: Opening to Creative Flow through Touch Drawing

Immerse yourself in the enlivening process of Touch Drawing! It is a simple yet powerful way to create drawings through the touch of your fingertips on paper. The body, psyche, and spirit can speak directly through this process. Deborah holds a safe and sacred space while you draw, using her gentle drumming, crystal bowls, and soulful voice. Interior time to draw and write will be balanced

Mystical Healing Paths in Ordinary Life: A Contemplative Retreat

Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart both developed a radical healing vision for healing societies much like our own that were torn apart by intolerant and violent orthodoxies. A writer, scholar, teacher, and award-winning poet and translator, Mark will introduce you to these two medieval mystics and their inner strategies for finding wholeness in the midst of chaos and fragmentation.

Take Back the Magic: Getting to Know the Dead

How do we recover our lost relationship with our ancestors? How do we summon them and receive their messages? In this five part online program, we will explore the forgotten powers of the dead and how they can lead us to the realm of magic and miracles. To reclaim our lost conversations with the dead is to remember who we really are and why we have been given this precious life.

Couples Date Night: Come and Play with Your Lover

Bring your child-like playful curiosity and adult desires to this evening of guided interactions that will enhance your pleasure and relationship. Sara and Thomas have more than 20 years of experience teaching people to deepen their intimacy through physical expression. Married to each other for 30 years, they bring ancient and proven Tantric techniques to take you on a journey that will leave

Gathering of Warriors

Warriors are sworn to preserve and protect. They run into danger, while others flee. They are best suited to respond in times of crisis because they have already served in the zones of hell, and their purpose is to serve and sacrifice for the good of others. At the same time, having been exposed to violent threats, they are vulnerable to increased trauma and breakdown.

Gathering of Grandparents

A Gathering of Grandparents facilitated by Jane Isay, author of "Unconditional Love: A Guide to Navigating the Joys and Challenges of Being a Grandparent Today", was started in the spring of 2020. We are now a place for grandparents to continue to grow and to become vessels of hope and perspective for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. Newcomers are always welcome.

Self-Paced Courses & Recorded Programs

Pre-recorded programs let you set your own schedule, so you can pay now and watch at any time, at a pace that works for you. Many of these programs were originally offered live online; others were designed as pre-recorded programs; and others have an affiliate relationship with Rowe. All of them are led by Rowe’s beloved presenters. Keep your eye on this section, as we will continue to offer more recorded programs.