Retreats
- Individual Personal Retreat
- Small Group Retreat (1-12) for your own group process.
To make a donation or payment toward your retreat, click on the 'Donate' button above. Also, please consider adding $2-$5 to your donation to cover our fees for providing this convenience. Thank you!
We are committed to keeping MorningStar available and affordable to all. Our suggested donation for use of cabins, the land, and resources is as follows:
Nightly cabin rentals are $60 for the first person, and $40 for each additional adult per night. Children are an additional $25 per child per night.
Late check out is available.
For daily use only of the land and resources, a minimum $20 donation is suggested.
Gift certificates are available.
All monies received go to MorningStar Adventures, Inc., a tax-exempt, non-profit charitable organization, and are used in continuing to make our resources available to all.
I will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded
Outcast
Lonely or
Afraid
I will change your name.
Your new name shall be
Confidence
Joyfulness
Overcoming One
Faithfulness
Friend of God
One who seeks my face.
— Voice from a MorningStar Guest Journal
Labyrinths
For over 800 years the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth pattern has been used as a spiritual tool to deepen one’s experience of divine presence. Unlike the maze, which was designed to fool and confound, the Chartres labyrinth is designed mathematically and theologically to enhance each person’s spiritual experience and has just a single path leading into the center and back out again.
The MorningStar labyrinth was created after the one in Chartres and is set in a meadow at the southern end of MorningStar property. It is 87 feet in diameter and made of stones from the local countryside and lovingly put together by Elise Schlaikjer and many MorningStar friends. It is open day or night to our retreatants. Others may use it upon request, and a small donation would be appreciated.
How to Walk a Labyrinth
The labyrinth is best walked with an intention, such as the desire to let go of what distracts you from hearing inner wisdom, or an important question that you want help with. The center is the place to listen, to rest in the arms of love before going back out into the world refreshed, trusting that what is truly needed will be provided… in its right time. As you step out of the labyrinth at the end of your walk, it is good to have a prayer or gesture of thanksgiving and then to journal, sing, dance or act in some way to concretize your experience.
The Cosmic Walk
Cosmic Walk – We have laid out on the land a spiral of stones representing the entire 14 billion years of the cosmic and evolutionary journey. This contemplative walk is a powerful way to more fully realize the spans of time in the unfoldment of the universe and Earth as we understand it.
Spirit Wheel
We have a stone Spirit wheel laid out on the land. The Spirit wheel is a universal, archetypal symbol of change and growth. The four section can represent both the Earth’s four seasons, and our own seasons of birth, life, death and rebirth. The beginning in the East reflects morning, spring, birth to early adolescence. The South reflects the mid-day, summer, maidenhood to early adulthood. The West represents afternoon, autumn, adulthood, motherhood to midlife. The North is night, winter, elderhood and wisdom years.
The Spirit Wheel also represents MorningStar’s four directional values through:
East: Devotion to paying attention to Wisdom’s teachings
South: Simplicity for living sustainably with the Earth
West: Wholeness through the transformational journey toward integrating mind, body, soul and spirit as One
North: Creative service as we seek to authentically embody our values in the world.
Suggestion on using the Spirit Wheel
The Spirit wheel can be used by first setting an intention to approach it in a sacred, prayerful manner for guidance. Then you may walk around it, inside or out, until you have a sense of which direction is calling you. Spend time meditating and seeking guidance on the meaning of this direction to your life; or spend time in each quadrant meditating/listening.
The wooden box contains some questions for each direction and a journal.
The Wailing Wall
Wailing Wall – The Wailing Wall is an opportunity for you to leave loss and grief behind. There are slips of paper and pencil to note your grief, loss, regret, or anything you want to shed. These can be tucked on the rocks and left behind. It is also cathartic to throw rocks into the pile.
