Earth Altars Ceremony
Followed by a Sit-Down Autumn Feast Gift!
Experience the Magic of Earth Altars
Nature • Creativity • Ritual
Myth & Ceremony
Belonging in an Age of Endings
(and beginnings)
This event has passed ~ please watch the video below. Inquiries are welcome!
Videography by Dan O’Sullivan
Guided by Susan J. Preston
October 25, 2025 | Arrive at 1:45pm through Dinner
La Orilla Farm, South Valley
Join us for an immersive afternoon inspired by Morning Altars practice (founded by Day Schildkret), that harmonizes the generative qualities of Mother Earth, creativity, and meaningful ritual. During this long afternoon event and dinner, you will discover how to engage with each tenet of the Earth Altars practice:
- wonder & wandering
- gathering
- place
- clearing
- creation
- gift & sharing
- letting go
Each step of our ceremony together is designed to foster a deeper appreciation and connection with the living farm and our community. As we craft beauty with the natural world, we’ll delve into the principles of beauty, wonder, and the transient nature of all things. Concluding with a catered dinner, our day together offers a unique opportunity to see the world through a renewed lens while enjoying seasonal flavors in an old-fashioned sit-down community dinner.
Earth altars are a tangible, accessible practice and ritual you can do right outside your front door. It can connect you back to the pace of the Earth, channel your distractions and offer a way that brings meaning, mindfulness and beauty to your life and to life itself in a time that truly needs it. As you wake up tomorrow morning, let’s consider the question that Antonio Machado so eloquently asks: What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?
– Day Schildkret
This Ceremony is For You if You Are:
- Wanting a deeper sense of connection to the Mother Course Community
- Curious about wonder as a gateway to presence
- Seeking ways to process grief
- Feeling overwhelmed by rapid change and growing uncertainty
- Curious about how to bring creative rituals into your life
- Wanting to experience some play and celebration!
Through Our Time Together You Will:
- Have many opportunities to stand still and listen to what the forest is saying to you
- Process grief and other big emotions
- Have your imagination & understanding enhanced through curiosity, allowing, and play
- Reveal and deepen your relationship with Mother Earth, with yourself, and with each other
- Feel the difference between:
– process and perfectionism
– allowing and control - Eat really good food and celebrate!
Questions We Might Explore:
- What is it like to look through the eyes of someone else?
- What is it like to ask a plant for permission?
- How can Mother Earth teach us about collapse and renewal?
- What are the gifts of grief?
- Uncertainty – friend or foe?
- What does it mean to belong?
In an Age of Endings, it is so important to belong to caring communities, participating in experiences that help us be with the suffering and the joy of the world. Experiencing wonder strengthens our ability to stay present, allowing space for the soul within us to be touched by the soul of the living world.
This is strength.
This is belonging.
This is beauty.
This is praise-worthy.
We remind each other that, similar to forests, collapse coincides with renewal.
– Susan J. Preston
Community Agreements
Our time together is more than a social gathering. From the moment you arrive you will be crossing the threshold of ceremony. Ceremony orients us to each other, to the land, and to the culture we wish to create. Trust is so precious in a weary world – please join us in committing to a culture of caring.
Please be sure you can show up on time and remain for the duration of the ceremony, including dinner, before registering.
Move from just seeing the world to beholding the world…. Make space for the miraculous, make space for grace—these energies show up constantly in our lives. To behold them is to bear witness to them. To celebrate them. That’s an infectious and noble position to take. Difficult situations require sustained beholding. They are not necessarily to be dissected or defeated but sat with. Could there be a third way that arises from fidelity of attention?
– Dr. Martin Shaw, Storyteller
Susan J. Preston
An award-winning photographer, author, and designer, Susan combines her creative passion with a call to action to receive and reciprocate the love the earth gives us every day. She offers Mindful Photography outings and recently added Morning Altar Ceremonies to her repertoire of facilitated workshops.
“The most important decision a person can make is whether you believe you live in a friendly or hostile universe.” – Albert Einstein
Apply Now
Few spaces remain – the ceremony is limited to 8 participants