The Temple of Belonging is a five-day gathering for women in the Pacific Northwest.
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We started Temple because we believe something important has been quietly disappearing from modern life: women in deep, nourishing and inspiring connection to themselves, and each other.
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Many women are carrying extraordinary amounts of responsibility and subsequent isolation, while having fewer places to slow down, build lasting friendships, learn practical skills from one another, or simply spend unhurried time together. We don't think another weekend of consuming content is the answer. We think relationships are.
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Temple is rooted in a simple idea: the health of a region depends, in part, on the health of its relationships. The more we know and trust the people who share the places we call home, the more resilient our communities become. Rather than flying people in from all over the world for a single transformational experience, we're intentionally bringing together women who live in the Pacific Northwest so those relationships have the chance to continue long after the gathering ends.
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So each fall, we build a village together in the forests of Oregon.
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It's not really a retreat, and it isn't a conference, although it is deep nourishment and also deeply educational.
It's a place where women eat together, sing together, make things with their hands, learn from one another, get inspired, cultivate and engage in deep ritual and ceremony, care for children, share stories around the fire, wander forest trails, rest in hammocks, laugh until they cry, and occasionally cry until they laugh.​
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We believe community isn't built through inspiration alone. It's built through shared participation. Setting tables. Washing dishes. Offering a workshop. Receiving one. Checking in on someone who's having a hard day. Singing when you know the words and listening when you don't.
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Temple isn't something we put on for people. It's something we make together.
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Over the years, women have returned home and started neighborhood circles, collaborated on creative projects, supported one another through births, illnesses, losses, and major life transitions, and continued seeing each other throughout the year. That's why we keep Temple rooted here in Cascadia. We aren't just gathering women. We're helping strengthen the relationships that make local community and this bio-region feel more like home.
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During the week you'll find:
• Workshops, classes, and experiences led by women from across the Pacific Northwest
• Hands-on crafts, traditional skills, and creative practices
• Morning movement, yoga, meditation, and Qigong
• Fresh, nourishing meals prepared with care
• Spa and wellness offerings
• Evening songs, ceremonies, and fireside gatherings
• A tea lounge for slowing down
• Kids Camp and family spaces
• A dedicated Mama's Den
• Forest trails, a creek, and plenty of places to rest
• Women of many ages, backgrounds, identities, and walks of life
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Temple is about remembering that a good life is built in relationship: with ourselves, with one another, and with the places we inhabit. Five days together won't change the world, but they can change how we return to it.
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If that speaks to you, we'd love to welcome you.
What's our Reason?
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It seems obvious that women need spaces where they can be fully honored, seen, celebrated and held in a modern world that has done a poor job of caring for us. The modern world at large has kept women from each other, from the wild intelligence and beauty of their bodies, and from their innate and powerful connection to life.
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Temple is a place to give women the space at the center again, to reclaim the wide spectrum of womanhood and to see what beauty can be cultivated when we see each other and ourselves from a deeper and clearer place.
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This gathering welcomes all who identify as women, including cisgender and transgender women. We also welcome non-binary, gender expansive, and gender-diverse people who feel genuinely aligned with this women's community and the values we share and want to participate in a gathering centered on women's lives, relationships, and experiences.
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We are committed to creating a gathering where everyone is treated with dignity, respect, and care. At the same time, because Temple is a women's gathering with a wide range of facilitators and lived experiences, not every workshop, conversation, or moment will resonate equally with every participant. We approach this work with humility, knowing that perfection is not the goal. Our commitment is to keep showing up with good intentions, a willingness to be in relationship, and an openness to learn.
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We welcome thoughtful feedback as we continue growing into a community where more people can feel genuinely seen, supported, and at home. We hope to co-create a space where we can soften, connect, and learn from one another.
Our gathering and community are centered around 4 main ethics:
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BELONGING IS A CO-CREATIVE SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Belonging is something we create together. It's something we practice. It begins in our relationship with ourselves and grows through the way we show up for one another. At Temple, belonging is both a shared practice and a shared responsibility.We believe the village we long for is built through small, everyday choices to participate, care for one another, and stay in relationship.
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SPACE TO BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF
We believe people thrive when they don't have to hide parts of themselves to be accepted. Temple is an invitation to arrive as you are, with your joy, your uncertainty, your grief, your gifts, and your questions. We cannot promise comfort or agreement in every moment, but we are committed to creating a culture where people are treated with dignity, respect, and care, and where honest relationship is valued over performance.
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WOMEN AS THE HEART(H) OF CULTURE
Temple exists because we believe there is deep value in women gathering together. For much of history, women's voices, leadership, labor, and ways of knowing have been undervalued, overlooked, or pushed to the margins. We believe something important is restored when women have space to learn from one another, share responsibility, celebrate, grieve, create, and lead. This gathering is our way of practicing that together and remembering what becomes possible when women are supported by other women.
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LOCALITY AS THE FOUNDATION OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY
We believe healthy culture grows through long-term relationships with the people and places around us. Temple is rooted in Cascadia because we want to strengthen the communities we actually live in, deepening our connection to place thru relationships. By investing in local people, local knowledge, local artists, local businesses, and local food systems, we create a stronger foundation for everyone.
The Temple of Belonging
The Temple of Belonging- from the witch tarot by Agni Sullins:
The Church of Fitting In is a tattered doctrine pedaling
the snake oil of self-improvement
it sustains its dying creed from your contortions
of worthiness bending for approval
twisting for appreciation
bowing and scraping in hopes of sanction
through the blood-art of performance
prettiness and productivity its prophets of profit
believe you are less than and grow rich from the spoils
of your complicit agreement
when you believe their creed, you'll purchase the diet
conceal the flaws tweeze the unwanted
shave the unsatisfying girdle your nature deny your deep joy sacrifice your pleasure on the altar of pleasing others
and suffer the guilt of every stolen freedom
in the unholy name of fitting in
you'll reject all that doesn't grant you access
to their idea of perfection
and purchase all that does what they don't profit from
there are no riches in belonging
except for the woman who is willing to embody it
The Temple of Belonging is golden
its hallowed ground welcomes you
as both priestess and crone
and adorns your shoulders with the robes
of benefactress and beneficiary
enter the covenant of your sovereignty
become your own sanctuary
drink from the chalice of self-worth
take communion with the internal
divine swallow it down like the seasons
and seeds of Persephone's fruit
give voice to the old songs
the ones that wolf and moon and forest still sing to
dance out of Eden feet drumming the wayback
wonder and chant the holy stories
the truth older than myth
that women are the holy grail
conceiving, conjuring, and delivering
every single human being on the planet
worship at the altar of your soul's deep content
like the moon-drunk curve of lily
the garnet skin of pomegranate
the ink spill arc of raven's wing
glorious in its unfolding precisely as it is
wild, whole, free and perfect in relation only to itself
kiss your curves like a prayer
anoint your fingers with honey from your own jar
spread wings and legs and heart in flowered benediction
become a disciple of inner devotion
resurrect the silver salvation of self-respect
believe in your self and your wild holy heart
like it's a sovereign religion
it is and the world needs more missionaries.
