SKILLSHARES + DISCUSSIONS
Opening Ceremony and Standing In The Light, Life is a Ceremony w/ Panoka + Deerwalker
an energetic herb walk with jim mcdonald
join herbalist jim mcdonald in a walk 'round the woods and fields to discover the myriad plants (and their myriad virtues) that grow all around us. We'll explore their history, actions and virtues by looking at why things are helpful to individual people and not just the names of problems those people might have. All the info jim shares is rooted in decades of hands on experience using the herbs he teaches about.
In 1994, jim mcdonald's life changed when he drank tea from a wild plant he harvested from the land he lived upon. Since those first sips of strange tea, his life in the woods and meadows of southeast Michigan has been centered on the plants & ecosystems of that land, and how he might share their virtues to restore wellness with those around him. jim's approach to herbcraft is deeply rooted in the land he lives upon, and blends traditional european folk influences with 19th century eclectic and physiomedical vitalism, which he conveys with story, experience, humour, common sense and lore to students, clients, random passersby and readers of his websitewww.herbcraft.org. He's taught classes throughout north america, is one of the organizers of the Great Lakes Herb Faire and is currently alternately writing “Foundational Herbcraft” and the “A Great Lakes Herbal”, in addition to articles for journals and other publications. In 2018, jim was granted the Christopher Hedley Memorial Award for significant contributions to herbal medicine. jim is a community herbalist, a manic wildcrafter and medicine maker, and has been an ardent student of the most learned teachers of herbcraft… the plants themselves.
Sunshine Scouts - Nature Weaving (ALL AGES)
Please join us for an all ages nature weaving! We will be using cardboard and rubber bands to build our looms, then going on an adventure through the pines to find nature treasures to weave into our craft. We will also sing songs, and read a story or two to fit the theme.
Hello, my name is Izaria Bearman, a mother of two who is passionate about children getting outside and connecting with nature. My husband, Charles and I facilitate a playgroup in the Irish Hills named Sunshine Scouts. In this group we spend time connecting and exploring nature as well as fostering a sense of community and belonging to not only the children but the caregivers as well. When I’m not at playgroup you’ll find me enjoying each day life has to offer with my children.
Poetry In Motion with Dominique Linden
Dominique spent her life in Michigan up until Summer 2022 when she moved to Maui. After a lot of trial and error, and learning a lot she did not know about Hawaiian Culture and how to respect it - she has found a good groove on the island. Working with children with autism, learning to farm, harvest and feed community, and founding a company called "Poetry In Motion Maui" have become her main endeavors. She is very excited to share Poetry In Motion with her Michigan community!
In this work/play shop we will be partaking in group writing prompts. After each prompt we will have time to write in silence. After the period of silence people will have an opportunity to share what they wrote, free of any feedback besides some encouraging snaps and claps! The prompts are just a jumping off point and the best thing about this format is seeing how different yet similar we all can be. You are never obligated to share, but it is very empowering to listen and share deeply with one another. Everything that is shared stays in the moment. The intention of this workshop is to nurture our freedom of expression and foster community care. It is called Poetry In Motion but no rhyming or specific format is required. Please bring a journal and something to write with.
Mushroom Identification with Carley Kratz
This class will introduce students to commonly foraged mushrooms and their toxic look-alikes. Mycology is a field that is notorious for being difficult to study. Albeit unintentional, there is some degree of gatekeeping in the mycological community. This workshop aims to help make mycology more accessible to a broad audience. In addition to identification, we will cover the life cycles of fungi and the habitats in which mushrooms can be found. Mushroom identification is a multisensory experience, so we will incorporate visual cues, smell, touch, and taste into the discussion. Best practices for harvesting and storing mushrooms will be addressed with examples of guidebooks and tools.
Carley has been rambling around the hills and headwaters of the Irish Hills area for most of her life. She is passionate about conservation and environmental science education. Carley has a doctorate in soil science with a focus on mycology, and recently published a curriculum on wild-foraged mushrooms. She loves teaching people about the fascinating lifestyles of fungi and how they can be used as a nutritious food resource.
Michigan's Medicinal Mushrooms: Therapeutic Use & Foraging
Michigan’s Medicinal Mushrooms is a deep dive into the therapeutic use, identification, and foraging of seven key species with clinically studied benefits growing right here in Michigan and throughout the Midwest.
You’ll also learn important safety considerations, contraindications, and pregnancy safety. All research is cited, with resources provided if you want to keep going deeper on your own. Throughout the class, you’ll get hands-on exposure to real specimens to engage your senses and build confidence in identification.
Tyler also shares how Indigenous cultures throughout the world have historically used these fungi, along with practical applications in wilderness survival and bushcraft. Ample space is created for Q&A as well!
Tyler Davidson is a board-certified holistic health coach and nutritional therapist with over a decade of experience helping people reverse chronic disease. Specializing in the therapeutic use of functional mushrooms, he combines modern research, hands-on foraging experience, and practical strategies to restore health and vitality.
He is the founder of Elden Medicinals, where he crafts small-batch, wild-foraged mushroom extracts, and the author of Wild Healing with Medicinal Mushrooms, a comprehensive guide to foraging and therapeutic use in the Midwest and Northeastern United States.
Native Pollinator Medicine Gardens
An exploration of medicinal native plants we can bring into our gardens that benefit our pollinators while sharing their medicine with us. These plants give us the opportunity to nurture a reciprocal connection by stewarding the land around us and supporting the more than human families, while also nourishing ourselves. A symbiotic and cyclical way of being as we give to the land and kin gives back to us. Site conditions for planting and suggestions for best growing practices will be discussed, and there will be limited pollinator friendly medicinal native plants available for purchase.
This class is led by Cody Westendorf - bioregional herbalist, forager, beekeeper, kitchen experimentalist, and England Avis - flora & fungi enthusiast, bioregional herbalist, forager, and wildcrafting creatrix.
The Microbiome Connection - Soil & Gut Health
Jordan will be discussing how microbes and human & soil health are inextricably interconnected; the importance of microbial diversity, as well as, what can be done to improve microbiomes, and minimize negative exposure. This class will offer free samples of fermented foods and drinks, such as; sauerkraut, gluten free bread, kombucha, ginger beer. Donations are welcome :)
Rewilding 101
In this workshop, we will explore how skills gatherings such as Divine Pine are a "gateway" into a larger rewilding movement. Together, we will situate the origins of rewilding, unpack critiques of civilization, introduce theories of cultural trauma, deconstruct concepts of domestication, captivity, and wildness, discuss the parallel emergences of human, cultural, and conservation rewilding, and envision rewilding futurisms. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of the environment of our human evolutionary adaptation and where a subset of humans lost their way, as well as how we can begin to re-embody our human ecological niche as tenders of the wild working together to regenerate cultures based on place-based subsistence lifeways.
Hunting as Sacred Practice: exploring our human place in the life/death/life cycle
As human beings, our connection to nature runs more deeply than most of us admit in our daily lives. A sacred connection with natural rhythm is something of a birthright. I've found more value in celebrating the cycles of nature than a mythical sky person. This is an important conversation about ancestry, connecting to nature, sustainability, and bridging the hunting and non-hunting worlds. I will share with you the power, peace, and sacredness that I have found in the journey of becoming a hunter. Full immersion in wild spaces and wild cycles is a spiritual and deeply healing experience. Being an active participant in the mysteries of life and death has the power to transform a mundane act like eating into a profoundly reverent experience. Taking any life form into our bodies, to literally become our bodies, is maybe the most sacred and intimate act we can participate in. From our past and into our future, hunting is a sacred practice that is a healing and reintegrating experience of nature.
Born and raised in southeast Michigan, Jen Davis loves to spend time in the natural world. With the help of her husband, Jason, she has raised a gentle and curious daughter to adulthood. Jen now spends most of her free time outside, hunting, hiking, boating, trapping, foraging, wrangling dogs, pulling invasive species, planting trees, shooting bows, shooting guns, mentoring others, and generally having a great time. “Having put down a deep taproot here, the more I learn about the place I am from, the more I fall in love with it. I work for the National Wild Turkey Federation as the Hunting and Shooting R3 Coordinator in Michigan.
Heart Songs :: Soul Beats
Let's join our voices together to attune to the omnipresent life force that nurtures and sustains us all. With community singing, vocal improvisation and body percussion as our muse, we will offer our gift of song to the benefit of all beings. This style of singing is easy to learn, participatory and non-performative. Simple songs & rhythms that honor the wisdom of the heart will be taught through the oral tradition- line by line and beat by beat. All levels are welcome.
Tatianah Thunberg, LMSW (she/hers) is somatic psychotherapist, singer, song catcher, expressive and improvisational artist, and a seasoned experiential facilitator with more than thirty years of experience guiding transformative group spaces. Her work centers the voice as a path to belonging—an embodied, relational practice rooted in presence, creativity, and communal care. She is the founder of her healing arts practice, Spirit Moves LLC, and the co-founder of the Vocal Wilds Collective, Supper & Sing Community Jam, Ensemble Night, Vocal Lab and Creatrix Lab, circles of artists dedicated to the art of embodied improvisation in Ann Arbor. www.VocalWilds.com
Julie Kouyate (she/hers) is the founder of Kouyate Healing Arts in Ann Arbor, where she weaves touch, sound, drumming, breath, dance and song into her healing sessions, ceremonies, classes and retreats. Devoted teacher, facilitator, singer, song catcher, intuitive bodyworker, somatic experiencing practitioner, Bodymind and Sacred Living coach and dance teacher, she welcomes you to join us in exploring the power of the voice. https://kouyatehealingartsllc.com/
Birding for All - How to find and appreciate our feathered friends
You probably see birds every day, but how much are you really noticing? Join John and Sydney of Leaf and Feather Farms in exploring the wondrous world of birds. Their colors, sounds, and behaviors speak to our hearts and our minds. They are an integral part of the environment, a linchpin in our ecosystems, and indicators of the health of our natural and human-made habitats. The act of birdwatching is one that engages all of our senses and is scientifically proven to expand our neural pathways and benefit our day to day life. Walk the trails of Divine Pine with us and listen to the call of the yellow warbler, or see the bright flash of a cardinal. All you need are your eyes and ears, though if you have some binoculars, bring them along! We'll have some pairs to share, along with helpful guidebooks and other information.
Before meeting, John and Sydney both fell in love with birding during their college ornithology classes. Their passion for wildlife and conservation led them both to zookeeping, where they met and had rewarding careers working with a variety of species at multiple zoos across the country. In 2021, they left the zoo world to start Leaf and Feather Farms, a nature-based bed and breakfast and environmental education project. They provide guided nature walks and activities with a focus on birds on their 12 acres of woods, wetland, and prairie in Southern Michigan, as well as other local parks and preserves. John and Sydney are also heavily involved in their local Parks and Recreation committee that helps to manage the historical McCourtie Park, Jackson Audubon Society, and other environmental organizations.
Womb Wisdom Women’s Circle with Hailey Hennessy
Hailey is a women's circle facilitator, an Insight Timer meditation teacher, and a certified holistic health and life coach. She is the host of The Hailey Hennessy Podcast and empowers others to discover new ways to make life juicier, more vibrant, and inspiring.
During this soul-nourishing workshop, attendees will be led through an embodiment ceremony to generate a stronger connection to their womb space and initiate the release of stagnant energy. Please bring a mat/towel to lay on, a journal & pen, and a small item to add to the alter (feather, pine cone, crystal, etc). Items will be returned.
A woman’s womb is a divine creative portal directly connected to source. As women navigate life, lower vibrational energy can build up in this highly receptive space. Intentionally facilitating its release is important for staying tapped in to our potency and purpose here. ***Women who have had a hysterectomy are just as welcome to join.
Singing For Your Soul: Songs, Stories & Sacred Sound with Kimberly Joy Rieli
Enter a space where music is medicine and voice is a pathway home. Through original songs, sacred sound, and the stories that birthed them, you’ll be invited into a deeply immersive journey of listening, feeling, and expression. Along the way, you may be gently guided to use your own voice, awakening something ancient, intuitive, and alive within you.
Didjeridu Playshop with Adjru
Andjru Werderitsch has been playing and teaching the didjeridu since 1995. His life long connection to music and movement and an interest in Aboriginal culture, ceremonies and music led him to travel and live in Australia and New Zealand for several years. During this time, he connected with new friends, schools and communities in Northern Territory and Queensland, NSW as well as North and South Islands, NZ. Andjru also performed and taught his music and dance program in schools and summer camps in Darwin, Byron Bay, Cairns, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and Michigan.
Andjru has also collaborated playing didjeridu and percussion with numerous music groups over the years and loves to add live music to DJ sets. From 2011- 2019 Andjru was a returning workshop (Didjeridu) facilitator to World Fest Music Festival in Grass Valley, Ca.
He and his family relocated to Chelsea in 2022 and attended Holler Fest for the first time. He was honored to collaborate with local Chelsea percussion and dance group, Sundance and Ancestral Voices.
For Andjru’s Didjeridu Playshop, a numerous but limited amount of didjeridu’s will be provided and will be sanitized accordingly. Even if you don’t have an instrument, Andjru’s playshops are informative as well as entertaining!
Sacred Circle Flow: Hoop Dance—Technical Tricks & Intuitive Movement
Hey there! I’m Sarah. I first picked up a hoop in 2015 and reconnected with it after DPG 2019. Hooping has become a creative outlet rooted in movement, expression, play, and community.
With a background in synchronized figure skating, hula hooping fills the space that skating left behind, fostering a sense of creativity, expression, and movement. Surprisingly, my first prop for flow arts was juggling balls, so you might catch me juggling at DPG too! This will be my fifth DPG, and the land holds a special place in my heart — it’s where I met my now husband in 2017. I’m excited to share space, movement, and flow with you all again this year!
This workshop is open to all levels, whether you’re brand new to hooping or looking to refine and expand your existing flow. We’ll cover foundational hoop techniques with hands-on guidance, adjustments, and supportive instruction throughout the class. Focus will primarily be on off-body hooping, including isolations, weaves, folds, coin flips, chest/body rolls, and transitions between movements. More experienced hoopers will also be offered layered combinations and variations to challenge their flow and creativity. My goal is to create a welcoming and playful environment where students can build confidence while exploring movement. If you already own hoops, please bring them along, though I will have extras available to borrow during class. Many hoop movements and techniques can also be adapted for different mobility needs, and many tricks can be practiced while seated if accommodations are needed.
Class size may be limited to the amount of hoops available
Micro-homesteading on 1/6th Acre with Matthew D’Onofrio
Hi everyone! I’m Matthew D'Onofrio, and my passion for soil and food production started in 2020 with a simple goal — providing my family with the most nutrient-dense food possible. What started as one small garden bed quickly grew into 15 beds, fruit trees, berry patches, pollinator gardens, and layer hens.
Along the way, I began making my own amendment blends, compost, vermicompost, teas, and plant extracts, focusing on building living soil and supporting healthy ecosystems naturally.
In 2025, I started East Coast Organics, providing carbon- and microbe-based amendments designed to support soil biology and long-term soil health.
As the future unfolds, the goal is to move, expand, and create a working teaching farm where I can continue learning, growing, and sharing knowledge with others who are passionate about regenerative growing and nutrient-dense food.
From planning to execution, we go over how to design and build a functioning small-scale homestead with long-term sustainability in mind.
We cover sun mapping, bed layout, and how to maximize production in limited space. We discuss choosing crops based on nutrient density, storage potential, and real-world usefulness — not just yield.
We also focus on closing loops within the homestead by turning waste streams into resources through composting, vermicomposting, mulching, and biological inputs that feed the soil instead of the landfill.
As space becomes limited, planning becomes everything. We go over how to build systems that allow for future expansion while staying efficient, productive, and manageable on a small scale.
Come join me during this amazing weekend as we come together to share information, learn from one another, and connect with people who are passionate about growing healthy food and building healthier soil.
Quantum & Circadian Biology with Tim Hammond
Tim Hammond is a researcher and consultant exploring how light, circadian rhythms, and the electromagnetic environment shape human health and performance. After a decade working in intelligence analysis, disinformation investigations, and cybersecurity — a personal health journey led him to the emerging fields of circadian and quantum biology. As a Board-Certified Quantum Biology Practitioner, Tim founded REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence, where he applies first-principles research to help people understand the environmental inputs their biology depends on and how to align with them to support the body's innate healing capacity.
This workshop explores why eating seasonally and locally matters from a biophysics perspective. Drawing from the fields of circadian and quantum biology, the session examines how sunlight regulates our health, how food acts as a vehicle for light information that informs the body's seasonal metabolic programming, and what happens biologically when the food we eat is mismatched with the light environment we live in. Topics include circadian rhythm regulation, the electromagnetic environment, how mitochondria function and read environmental signals, and the role of deuterium in metabolic health. The practical conclusion is direct: a seasonal, local diet provides molecular inputs that align human biology with its environment in ways that industrial, out-of-season, globally shipped food cannot. Growing and sourcing food locally is not just an ecological or economic decision — it is a biological one. Learn more at www.regenerint.com and @regenerint on social media.
An Introduction to Ayurveda: Core Principles for Understanding Health with Shaina Levee, M.A.
Shaina Levee, M.A., is a practitioner of somatic therapy, Ayurveda, and integrative care whose work centers the nervous system, embodied awareness, and the relationship between emotional and physical health. Drawing from both clinical and contemplative traditions, she offers grounded support for stress, transition, and long-held patterns through one-on-one sessions, education, and community-based offerings.
This workshop offers an accessible introduction to the foundational principles of Ayurveda and how they relate to everyday health and wellbeing. Together, we will explore core concepts such as balance and imbalance, digestion, daily rhythm, the elements, and the ways stress and environment influence the body over time. The class is designed to help participants better understand their own constitutions, habits, and patterns through the lens of Ayurvedic thought. We will discuss how food, sleep, routine, pace, and sensory input can support or disrupt overall health and nervous system regulation. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own lived experience and ask questions throughout the workshop. The emphasis is on practical understanding and developing greater awareness of how the body responds to daily life. This class is grounded, conversational, and approachable for both beginners and those already familiar with holistic health. No prior knowledge of Ayurveda is needed. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of Ayurvedic principles and simple ways to begin observing balance in their daily lives.
Wise Womban Sisterhood Circle with Rachel Kathryn Weber, Jacqueline Ann, and Jacqueline Marie
Come join us in this offering of sacred sisterhood. A space for women of any age to gather. Together we will discuss sisterhood and the lifecycle of the womb while sipping medicinal tea. Our time together will include group discussions, a meditation journey to connect to your womb, and an anointing ceremony for each age group.
Meet your hosts: Rachel is a Reiki Master Teacher, mentor, and founder of Earthed Empress based in Chicago and online; supporting women in connecting to their power, purpose and confidence through Shamanic Reiki, cycle syncing, and womb wisdom. Jacqueline Ann is a mentor teaching self love and a sacred pilgrimage guide leading lifechanging spiritual journeys to South America through her company Starry Eyes Travel. Jacqueline Marie is a birth + death doula, yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, and womb guide serving the Blue Water area through her transformational offerings under her brand EarthWombHeart.
Instagrams: @earthedempress @jacquelineann09 @earthwombheart
Embody The Revolution: Nourishing the Nervous System with tayla shanaye PhD
In this workshop, we're going to explore the human nervous system as ancient ecological technology. We will explore anatomy, function, and the impacts of chronic stress and explore practices that allow us to connect, communicate, and regulate the nervous system in order to show up in our lives with more authenticity and possibility. Participants will leave with small dose, highly effective and practical skills for regulating their nervous systems as well as a plan of how integrate these practices into their daily lives. All neruotypes and body types welcome.
tayla is also the author of Nourishing the Nervous System and will have copies available for purchase!
tayla (she/they) is a biculturally Black somatic decolonial Black feminist scholar, educator and coach. tayla has a master’s in somatic counseling psychology and a doctorate in women’s spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies. tayla is the founder of Embody the Revolution through which tayla provides somatically-oriented therapeutic coaching for private clients, somatic education and consulting for adults and university students, and somatic mentorship. tayla is also the Co-Founder of the retreat center We the Earth located in Northern Michigan and is on the faculty of Weaving Earth and Coaching for Healing, Justice and Liberation.
Heart and Spine: Poetry in the Pines with Austeen Heeney
This is not a performance, but a permission slip.
Come sit in the trees and let someone say out loud what you have been feeling in the quiet. The things that live just beneath the surface of your everyday. The questions you carry about who you are, who you were told to be, and who you are still becoming. This thirty minute experience weaves together original spoken word poetry that lives at the intersection of self sovereignty, full spectrum humanity, and the radical act of holding your own.
You will be invited to feel. To question. To remember that you are allowed to be all of it. The tender and the fierce. The certain and the searching. The someone who doubts and the someone who decides. This is for anyone who has ever shrunk themselves to fit a narrative that was never theirs to begin with.
Austeen Heeney is a poet, yoga teacher, and bodyworker devoted to truth-telling and soulful embodiment. Her words are rooted in the same practices she teaches: movement, stillness, curiosity, and the bravery to feel it all. She lives in Michigan, where she helps others come home to themselves through retreats, touch, and movement.
The Zodiac and Our Earth Walk with Alexandra Campbell
Step into the cosmic rhythm and discover how the Zodiac isn’t just written in the stars — it’s woven into the very fabric of our seasons, our Earth, and our Souls. In this class, Alex will guide you through the 12 houses of the Zodiac, revealing how each one, along with its ruling sign and planet, mirrors the natural cycles of life and the shifting seasons around us. Rooted in the ancient wisdom of Hermetic Astrology — which has now evolved to the Tropical Whole Sign/House system — this class invites you to see your birth chart not as a mystery, but as a “Soul Map.” This map holds the keys to your unique Earth Walk and the lessons your soul came here to learn. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of your chart, how the constellations and planetary alignments at the moment of your birth shape your path, and how to use this insight to navigate life with more clarity, purpose, and self-compassion.
’m an astrologer with about a decade of experience reading natal birth charts and helping others connect more deeply with themselves through better understanding their birth chart or what I like to call "Soul Map." Recently, I’ve stepped into teaching and sharing my knowledge with those eager to learn more about the Zodiac Wheel from a seasonal, equinox/solstice lens. Outside of astrology I work with children, practice Yoga and have also been helping my partner Chandler with building Earth Walk Farm for the last 3 years.
Earth Art: Mandalas & Meditation with Julia Wozny
Co-create with nature and use what Mother Earth offers to create a work of Earth Art. In this outdoor art class, we will discuss famous Earth Artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Ana Mendieta for inspiration. We will also discuss the significance of the Mandala, a radial-symmetric design used in Eastern cultures & philosophies related to meditation and enlightenment. We will move into a guided meditation about fluidity, change, and the temporary nature of all things to set our intention for focusing on the creative process in the present moment. We will gather natural materials such as sticks, leaves, and dirt noticing the vast variety of colors, textures, and shapes, and then arrange them into a mandala design. Artworks may be made individually or collaboratively. This class is family friendly and open to all ages!
Julia is an artist, a K-12 Certified Art Teacher, and a 500-hour certified yoga teacher. Julia began teaching yoga in 2016 which sparked her passion for teaching. She graduated from Central Michigan University in 2020 with a B.S. in Education and has been working as an elementary public school art teacher ever since. Currently, she teaches yoga at Soul Yoga in Fenton, and she also teaches a yoga course for college credit at Washtenaw Community College. Julia's teaching philosophy for both art and yoga empowers students to wholeheartedly embrace the process, listen inwardly, and honor their authentic Self to evoke freedom through creativity.
Intro to Cob and Earthen Building with Nick Welch
In this hands-on class, we’ll explore the ancient art of natural building! Each participant will be hand mixing clay, sand, and fiber in different ways to create cob, rammed earth, adobe, wattle and daub, light clay straw insulation, and earthen plaster finish. Each method carries its own rhythm, purpose, and story.You’ll learn how to read/listen to your soil, adapt your mixes, and create a relationship with these mediums in their various forms.No experience needed…just a willingness to step in, slow down, and get your hands dirty. We will end the class by creating a cob ball called a "Dorodango" that will be finished by participants in my class the following day.
My name is Nick Welch and I am an artist/natural builder that works with the Earth as both medium and teacher. Clay, sand, water, and straw become not just walls, but a way of remembering how to listen to the land, to our hands, and to each other. My path has been shaped by curiosity, experimentation, and a desire to bring people back into relationship with the natural world through building, making, and shared experience.
33 Participants Maximum
Traditional Archery & Bowhunting: Connecting to Oneness with Nicholas Jacquez and Michael Wallace
Archery has been an important part of human culture across the globe for thousands of years. In today’s context, the word “Traditional” refers to the use of equipment like that used for millennia, true archery, as opposed to the modern, mechanized “compound” bows and crossbows used by many people today.
Archery is a physical and spiritual practice that develops strength, focus, discipline, and mindfulness. It is a moving meditation that allows us to approach the truth that we are all one, bow, arrow, archer, and target. Bowhunting connects us to the generations of hunters/gatherers in our shared past as it weaves our lives back into the natural world and the great food web that we are all part of. Hunting in a traditional way immerses us in nature and promotes sustainability, deep respect for our animal brethren and regenerative land use.
This one-hour workshop will introduce Traditional Archery & Bowhunting by discussing:
A brief history of archery across the world
Traditional Archery equipment and how it works - a bit of the physics
Archery as moving meditation
Traditional Hunting, and where it fits in the modern world
How to shoot – brief instruction will be offered for those interested
Come, connect to our past and to nature through this ancient and beautiful practice.
Lifelong friends Nicholas and Michael have been practicing archery together since Mike came home from school with Nick on the day they met in 7th grade to shoot bows in the woods behind Nick’s house. Today, Michael is a Doctor of Humanistic Psychology and maintains both a teaching schedule and a private therapy practice in Dexter, Michigan. Nicholas enjoyed a long career in corporate leadership and is now retired on a Michigan acreage not far from the DPG location. There he practices yoga, gardens, manages the habitat to encourage native species, and builds and hunts with traditional archery equipment.
How To Be Real Stoner with Casey and Mary
In this workshop me and Mary will lead all interested people in the construction of a stone bench seating area and wall. We will not be learning the mixing or use of cement in this workshop, we will be “dry” stacking the stone and learning basic stone laying principles, while we create a beautiful and lasting addition to the divine pine space together.
Casey has been a mason and stonework specialist for about 12 years and worked in the trades in general for about 20 years. He’s also a musician and a gardener.
Mindful Mushroom Microdosing -Techniques, Intention Setting, Integration and more with Adam Duke
Dive into the world of mushrooms as we discuss microdosing, stacking functional blends, why intention setting and integration are key to long lasting benefits and how to get started. Everyone who joins will receive a free guide, journal prompts and samples (non-psychoactive).
Born and raised in Michigan, Adam has a deep love for the outdoors, the magic of our seasons and all aspects of nature (beside ticks). As a citizen scientist/ mycologist he is excited to share his experience of over ten years of mushroom cultivation and foraging. As one of the co-creators of Lynx Caps,he educates on the difference of beyond organic, lab tested, medicinal mushrooms blends for our community to bring relief, help heal, transform lives and foster success. Through working with hundreds of individuals on their individual microdosing jouneys, he is exited to share techniques, thought provoking journaling prompts, and methods to get the most out of these natural wonders.
Dragonfly Walk with Silas Bialecki
This offering will start with a short talk about dragonflies and their natural history followed by a meandering walk around the DPG grounds to find and appreciate the bugs themselves. Focus will be primarily on common and easy to identify dragonflies to build a relationship with the Odonate family and confidence in identification.
Growing up in the Irish Hills, Silas developed an appreciation for the land and its natural communities exploring streambeds, traipsing along glacial ridges, and getting lost in the grasses of old farm fields. While maintaining these open ended explorations Silas also practices primitive and traditional skills, is an avid naturalist, hunter, and fisher and often finds himself in a canoe exploring the local waterways.
Partner Cacao+Connection with Lindsy and Aaron of i.e.Kawa Cacao
Join us for a heart-centered journey of connection through ceremonial cacao, partner movement, breath, and conscious communication.
Together we'll explore practices that help us slow down, be present, and connect more deeply with ourselves, one another, and the natural world around us.
Open to all types of partnerships—lovers, friends, siblings, or chosen family—and all experience levels.
Lindsey and Aaron are the hearts of i.e.Kawa Cacao, a family-owned cacao company bridging Costa Rica and Michigan. Passionate about healing, connection, and regenerative living, they share ceremonial cacao experiences that invite people to slow down, reconnect with themselves, one another, and the natural world. Through cacao, community, and conscious gathering, they create spaces where meaningful connection can naturally unfold.
Regenerative Lawn Care w/ Dujon Blondel
This workshop explores how to build a thriving, chemical-free lawn by working with nature rather than against it. Participants will learn how to apply compost extract, biological inputs like IMO 3/4 and Bokashi Bran, and integrate clover as a living soil amendment. We'll cover dry amendment selection and seasonal timing — what to apply in spring, summer, and fall — and why each input matters. The focus extends beyond the grass itself to treating the entire lawn ecosystem as a living system. These practices make your lawn safe for children, pets, pollinators, and all who interact with it, while actively reducing the chemical runoff that conventional lawn care contributes to our waterways.
Dujon Blondel is the founder of Green Glow Gardens LLC, a regenerative soil health, lawn care, and garden design company based in West Orange, NJ. A third-generation farmer with over 400 hours in soil biology certification through the Soil Food Web School, Korean Natural Farming, Jadam Organic Farming, and 144 hours in Permaculture Design with Midwest Permaculture, he brings deep roots in living soil science to residential and community landscapes across Essex County.
Reawakening the Senses: A Philosophy of Ecological Restoration with Jeremy Siegrist
This is a two part class. First Jeremy will give a talk highlighting useful philosophical concepts and practical potentials of restoration to help combat our current global environmental crisis. Second we will wander through the property doing guided activities and playing fun games to help develop out nature connection as we continue learning and listening to the land.
Jeremy is a local Irish Hills resident. He has been doing native habitat restoration work in the area for the last 17 years with Iron Creek Ecological Restoration. He also plays music and writes songs for Little Spoon River and theillalogicalspoon. He leads various nature classes locally with Open Grown School.
Macro Soil: How our cultures have been bleached, and a discussion on the ways in which we can innoculate our communities with Yazi Walker
This class will be a history lesson, followed by a discussion.
In natural farming, we understand that soil, and feeding the Indigenous Micro organisms is the key to optimal health. So why isn't there more of a focus on mirroring what we see in the soil, and applying that to our societies.
Yazi will be using his education as a community catalyst, garden director, and fan of history, to tell an accurate and well sourced story about how our Macro soil in society has been bleached.
This will be a difficult conversation, but these these are conversations that Yazi hopes will get everyone on the same page of what it truly means to regenerate this earth.
In these times, especially, it's imperative for a multitude of difficult conversations to be had, but if we are to create TRUE community and healthy social soils, we must learn what community even means to us individually, and as a unit
LETS HAVE SOME FUN
Lessons from the Microbiome: Myconauts BioRemediation Start-up Journey
Discover the power of bioremediation using fungi, microbes, and plants to heal polluted soil and water - how do we take barren toxic land and bring it back to life ?
Rooted in Great Lakes challenges like the rust belt legacy, nutrient farm runoff, and forever chemicals (PFAS), we’ll explore how living technologies unlock value from degraded land, while building regenerative bioeconomies. Drawing from real-world start up business lessons from Myconauts’ inaugural PFAS trials where fungi are restoring soils from persistent pollutants through test plots and successful partnerships with universities, engineering firms, and innovative tools. We’ll move from wild ideas and backyard experiments to proven market fit and scalable impact that show nature’s alchemy at work.
Through short talks, group brainstorming, and hands-on project design, you’ll gain practical lessons on funding, regulations, community engagement, and profitability in biobased businesses. Bring a note book and pen!
Leave empowered with actionable steps to launch your own small-scale efforts in your backyard, farm, or local watershed that transform pollution into opportunities for healing, jobs, and resilient communities. No science background needed. This session blends cutting-edge science with the regenerative spirit, helping us weave ancestral knowledge with modern fungal solutions to restore your own community!
Foraging and Growing Mushrooms 101
Join Joe Lane of Myconaut for a hands-on mushroom cultivation workshop where we’ll explore a simple, affordable way to grow mushrooms using easy-to-find materials. The goal is to show that growing mushrooms at home does not have to be complicated or expensive. With a few accessible items and some practical guidance, participants will learn how to quickly and cheaply house, expand, and fruit mushroom spawn in a way that feels approachable and realistic.
This workshop is meant to be welcoming to beginners, but still interesting for anyone who is curious and wants to learn more. Along the way, we’ll talk through the basics of cultivation, touch on other methods people use depending on their goals and setup, and spend some time discussing the medicinal properties of mushrooms and the many ways they continue to show up in conversations around wellness, food, and natural living. Whether you’re hoping to grow your own mushrooms, pick up a useful new skill, or just spend time exploring something fascinating with others, this workshop offers a practical and engaging introduction. Joe has been working with fungi in different ways for over 10 years; he has been a State of Michigan certified wild mushroom forager for 10 years and counting.
Alchemical Artistry: Making Dreams Reality with Niikah Hatfield
Humans are inherently creative beings, and through visions, desires, and dreams, we tap into the mystery of life's limitless possibilities. Alchemical Artistry is a living philosophy that invites us to engage with creative work as a transformational process where we collaborate with the wisdom of life to bring our dreams into reality. Oftentimes, resistances like fear and fragmentation creates a stagnancy in the creative process, when in actuality, they contain important information for the development of the creative process. In this in-depth conversation, we will explore the pillars of alchemical artistry to harness the power of creation and make your dreams reality.
Niikah is an interdisciplinary artist and transformational guide based in Marquette, Michigan, where she owns the ceramic studio and boutique Niik Creative Co. She works with others to reclaim their aliveness through tending life force, engaging with inner work, and crafting vision into lived reality.
Breathing for Resiliency with Nina Fiore
Breathing for resilience is a workshop where we can discover how our breath patterns influences our internal World and in turn- the way we move through the World. We will practice a variety of Pranayama (breath practice) techniques paired with observation and conversation to explore the power we hold within our own breathing. All experience levels welcome and encouraged.
Compost Tea: Brewing with Biology with Alexa Kipper
Learn how to brew compost tea that maximizes growth of beneficial microbes for healthier soil and stronger plants. We’ll discover the microorganisms found in compost tea, what they do, and how to create a thriving brew at home.
Alexa Kipper is a soil health consultant specializing in compost tea, soil biology, and regenerative agriculture. She is passionate about helping growers harness beneficial microorganisms to build healthier soils and more resilient crops.
New Paradigms in Chronic Pain with Dr. Katie Lynne
Despite discoveries since the time of Einstein, many scientific revelations have remained un-integrated into our view of reality, due to the gravity of culturally reinforced paradigms. The problem is, when medical treatment is not based on how reality truly operates, it is likely to do more harm than good. In a brief presentation and facilitated experience, Dr. Katie Lynne will share how these revelations change our understanding of how pain in the body occurs, revealing shifts in best practice for effective intervention, and strategies for self-healing. This workshop is open to all- the contents have profound implications far beyond the clinical management of pain.
Dr. Katie Lynne is a disciple of the personal & collective path of revolutionary healing. As a licensed occupational therapist, her clinical niche has been addressing persistent pain, stress, and insomnia, with publications focused on OT in primary care, health-promotion, and wellness. Her coaching and group work orients towards liberation via her diverse training in tantra and divine feminine, vocal awakening, breathwork, embodied movement, Vedic astrology, and Kundalini Yoga. Katie performs regularly with the bands Djangophonique and Cabaret Boreale, and her extensive training and experience as a performer informs her medicine of centered sovereignty and sacred relating in all realms of her service. You can catch Katie's set with Djangophonique right here at Divine Pine! Explore Katie's weekly and monthly offerings at RevolutionaryAlignment.com, and find her on social media @RevolutionaryAlignment & @Katie.V.Lynne
Star Gazing with Sarah Felder
Soil Health Panel with Chandler, DJ, and Alexa
Panel exploring soil health
Divine Pine Gathering 10 Year Q&A
Celebrating 10 years of DPG with a Q&A