Movement & Magic in the Mountains
2022 Dates TBA
At Metta Earth in the Green Mountains of Vermont
“Those who don’t believe in Magic will never find it” ~ Roald Dahl Join us at Metta Earth for the joyful refreshment of magic, the enchantment of play, and the creation of ritual in the wild beauty of the mountains, river, sheep, gardens, and night stars.
As world distress intensifies with climate emergency, political corruption, and social injustice, what do we need from our yoga practice now? The nourishment of yoga postures and deep breathing practices help so much. Other practices beckon, also, that can help keep us sane, grounded, and uplifted.
For this we are sourcing the healers, witches and wizards that have carried the mysteries of well being through millennia. We are talking about witches and wizards who know the ways of herbal healing, magic potions, state changes and deep magic for the wellbeing of life.
Now we need these deep earth practices more than ever to regenerate, nourish, and transform the society that is struggling so profoundly. Amazingly, even with such duress unfolding in our world, the gifts from these healing ways bring us laughter, healing, connection, belonging, and purpose.
Plant medicine healing elixirs – create a truly magical potion with wild and cultivated herbs
Ritual fire space – burn the obstacles and let your sparks fly
Oracle and divination with tarot – open to the great imagination of the soul’s knowing
Wand making – tap into the power of intention, invocation, spells, enchantments, wishes, and prayers
Wild altar earth mandala – feel the surprise of mutual creativity with nature
Singing, chanting, toning sound baths – open the portals to the magical realms with the rising of sound
Yoga & breath – enliven your body fully
Meditations in nature – invite the stillness and deep communication with nature.
Together we will:
- Enjoy expert yoga teachers guiding you with potent yoga classes
- Nurture your body with teas, juices, the ripeness of autumn harvest, and vital, healing, homegrown, completely organic foods
- Cleanse with pure mountain air and water
- Connect with the healing presence of nature
- Find new ease and a sense of wonder in the beauty of the mountains
- Breathe consciously to revitalize every cell and calm the mind
- Relax into the comfort and companionship of a yoga community
Program Information
With such an abundance of deep treats give yourself this Movement and Magic in the Mountains Retreat!
Register with Metta Earth Institute using the Register Now button below and select your accommodations.
Camping: $470.00 USD
Yurt: $550.00 USD
Main House: $575.00 USD
Rate Includes:
- 3 nights shared accommodations in the main house, yurt, or camping.
- Organic & locally grown meals
- All retreat master classes
- Farm store for gifts and goodies
*Does not include transportation to Metta Earth.
*Shuttle Transportation from Burlington is $50 through our Prius door-to-door services or through Uber.
Cancellation Policy: Full payment is required to reserve your reservation for the program. You may receive a full refund minus a $45 processing fee up to one month prior to the program. Any cancellations after that are not eligible for a refund. If the student finds another participant to take his/her spot at the same cost, a refund may be available. Please contact info@mettaearth.org for questions.
Metta Earth is nestled in the quietude of the mountains, the stunning headwaters of the New Haven river with abundant waterfalls and pools for swimming, wilderness trails to walk or bike, and 158 acres of Metta Earth land to explore.
Meals are vegetarian and lovingly prepared with seasonal, local and organic foods, much of our food comes from our own 3⁄4 acre organic garden and farmstead. Participants assist and have the opportunity to learn about harvesting, cooking, putting food by, and other aspects of organic, local food.
Options for sleeping accommodations include shared peaceful rooms in the main Metta Earth house, shared space in one of the yurts, or space to set up your own tent.
The Metta Earth main house provides bathrooms, laundry, phones, wireless internet, library, kitchen and dining facilities, and teaching, study, and practice space.
Choose Accommodations & Pay Below
Camping $470.00 USD
Yurt $550.00 USD
Main House $575.00 USD
Teachers
Mikki Raveh
Yoga & Meditation, Faculty
Mikki Raveh is a mother, a teacher, who values the importance of stepping outside the everyday and exploring the energetic possibilities of the world that surrounds her. Mikki met Russell and Gillian in 2007 when she spent her first summer in Middlebury. From the moment she visited Metta Earth she fell in love with everything about it and knew that she had to share this sacred place with others — Mikki has been co-creating magical retreats with Gillian and Russell ever since.
Mikki currently lives in New York City, and spends her summers in Middlebury, where her husband teaches at the Middlebury Language Schools.
She completed her yoga teacher training at Baptiste Power Yoga Institute with her Boston mentor, Gregor Singleton. In the summer time she teaches yoga in Hebrew at the Middlebury Language Schools, studies with Russell, and works closely with Gillian and Russell at Metta Earth. It was in Vermont that she was also first introduced to the Iyengar system, and upon her return to New York City in 2010 Mikki began her practice and study at the Iyengar Institute. Mikki is also inspired by Marco Rajas’ teachings and continues to grow from his influence.
In addition to her yoga training, Mikki was certified in the Pilates method in 2001 through Physical Mind Institute, Power Pilates, and the Pilates Method Alliance. She obtained her Gyrotonic Expansion System® certification in 2003 under the guidance of Master Trainer Maria Rosa Gugielmi. In 2001, Mikki taught in Tel-Aviv, Israel where she worked directly under physical therapist Dror Raz. In 2004 after the birth of her first child, Mikki studied Itsy Bitsy Yoga® (baby and toddler yoga) and in 2006 got trained by Helen Garabedian, Certified Yoga Teacher, Infant Development Movement Educator and founder of Itsy Bitsy Yoga® International.
Aside from her experience in bodywork, Mikki holds a business degree (BS) from Boston University and has over seven years of advertising and marketing experience.
Ossi Raveh
Yoga & Meditation, Faculty
In 1992, Ossi Raveh was a high school student. She was a serious dancer, a gymnast and part of the theater crowd. While working on the lighting for the schools play Ossi stepped on a weakened section of a catwalk which gave way beneath her. She fell 40 feet and landed on a concrete floor. Ossi suffered many major injuries including, a concussion, compound fractures to her wrist and elbow, two broken knees, a pelvis fractured in four paces, broken jaw & sinus bones and shattered teeth.
After multiple surgeries, weeks in the hospital and many painful hours of rehabilitation Ossi was told she would never dance again, let alone walk without a limp.
Ossi refused to accept this. In the spring of 1993 she was introduced to Pilates as a form of movement therapy. Pilates was a game changer. Within months Ossi was not only able to walk without a limp, she was able to dance again! Pilates not only helped her to recover, but it acted as a stepping stone to other movement based modalities. Over the next decade Ossi would become a certified Pilates instructor through The Pilates Studio, Inc. and also complete her training in the Gyrotonic Expansion System and Gyrokenisis with Julio Horvath. While traveling to Thailand she studied Thai Massage, reflexology and upon her return became a certified Doula.
In 2004, while studying to become a Licensed Massage Therapist, Ossi took her first Heated Vinyasa Yoga class and has been back to her mat every day since. The pace and fluidity of the heated vinyasa flow helped her build strength, hold on to her flexibility and calm her mind. More importantly it forced an alignment in her body that helped soothe her injuries. After many years of receiving this multi-faceted practice from many inspiring and incredible teachers Ossi completed her Level 1 and Level 2 yoga teacher training with Baron Baptiste.
Now, with nearly twenty years of teaching various modalities under her belt, Ossi had the desire to take her students further and explore movement beyond the Asana. So she created a flow based on all the modalities she has been teaching and practicing for almost half of her life. It utilizes the core strengthening of Pilates, the spiraling energy of Gyrotonic and the grounding movement, meditation, and heat of yoga. This combination brings a naturally balanced energy to all of her classes and creates a flow that is adaptable to all students.
In the winter of 2014 Ossi brought her flow to the Carroll gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn and opened the Brooklyn Yoga Project. It is not just another yoga studio. It is an intimate, boutique-style space offering daily heated and low-heat yoga classes, workshops, teacher trainings and community gatherings where the eight limbs of yoga are studied, shared and celebrated. It is a safe and personal space to explore, breathe, move and experience all that yoga has to offer.
Ossi truly believes that a yoga practice doesn’t start and stop on your mat. It is something that merges your mind, body and soul and spreads into every part of your life.
To learn more about Ossi, visit Brooklyn Yoga Project.
Gillian Kapteyn Comstock
Faculty
Gillian Kapteyn Comstock, MA, is the founding co-director of Metta Earth Institute and the Metta Earth project, which integrates regenerative farming, contemplative practices, community living, and sustainability education. Gillian offers mentoring, program facilitation, and leadership trainings.
As a holistic psychotherapist, certified permaculture designer, and advanced yoga guide, she synthesizes disciplines to support cultural renewal. She is dedicated to creating sanctuaries for others to experience vibrant presence.
With a passion for discovering the wild in mind, body, and earth, she has led yoga retreats, wilderness quests, and trainings in nature sanctuaries around the world.
For the last dozen years Gillian has intertwined this work with grounding in regenerative agriculture and focalizes this in the care of gardens and greenhouses, carbon farming and grazing processes with Icelandic sheep, Milking Shorthorn cows, and heritage breed chickens, as well as the growing and wildcrafting of herbal teas and medicines.
For more than two decades she has been a participant in the Assisi Institute community, which engages in a highly dynamic interdisciplinary investigation of Jungian psychology, creative process, mythology, and the new sciences.
A mother of three adult children and grandmother of five, Gillian has lived a life immersed in cooperative community, the gift economy, and innovative social processes resonate with natural systems and wild nature.
Russell Comstock
Faculty
Russell Comstock, Co-Director of Metta Earth Institute, Inc., has given his life to living, learning, and loving. As stepfather for thirty years, Russell is dedicated to fathering, family, and community life. Always moved by the soul of earth, he holds an MA in Contemplative and Ecological Leadership and a BA in Human Ecology.
A practitioner of yoga for more than twenty years, he is certified in both Interdisciplinary and Jivamukti Yoga, and brings to all his teaching a spirit of embodied devotion. Russell is a founding member of the Green Yoga Association and serves on the Green Yoga Council. With extensive experience directing programs in wilderness, adventure, and experiential education, Russell integrates a steady intention to help humans connect more compassionately with earth and with each other.
He has trained as a quest and wilderness guide with Earth Rise Foundation, School of Lost Borders, and Outdoor Leadership Training Seminars. He has been a nationally certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) for many years, and now maintains a Wilderness First Responder certification. He has recently completed a handbook called: Metta Earth Yoga – Contemplative Ecological Practices for a Sustainable Future.