Arriving Before the Table
A harvest ritual for the land and her people
An annual, in-person ritual before Thanksgiving, held in honor of the land, our ancestors, and the Indigenous folks of Turtle Island.
Before we move into the holiday, a place to arrive.
Giving thanks to the land and harvest is one of the oldest and most sacred human practices. In the US, that practice got twisted. Many Indigenous people observe Thanksgiving as a day of mourning, because the generosity they offered to colonizers was met with greed, violence, and the theft of land from the people who had tended it for generations. A ritual of gratitude that led into one of extraction, and most of us were taught to brush right past that.
That greed was a driving force behind the genocide of Indigenous folks, and it didn't end there. Extraction still shapes how we live: how the land is treated, how people are treated around the world, how we're taught to want more, take more, and move faster than our bodies and the earth can tolerate. Many of us would say it feels like a curse, a long-standing pattern passed down through generations, that most of us are inside of whether we chose it or not. We see it the day after the holiday, when gratitude is traded for a shopping frenzy.
This ritual doesn't ask you to choose between gratitude and grief. It makes room for both. It's a place to see the pattern clearly, without shame, and to turn toward the land and our own ancestors as we loosen our grip on what we inherited and, often unknowingly, continue to perpetuate.
What we'll do together
Ritual is a living thing. These are the elements I plan to weave together, but the order and the shape of what unfolds may shift in the moment, guided by spirit and by what the group needs.
Gather and arrive. We begin inside, arriving together into the space, into our bodies, and into relationship with the land that holds us. We'll take time to honor this land and the people who tended her, offering gratitude and respect rather than asking for anything.
A dreaming drum journey to meet your own ancestor. With guided drumming, we'll dream our way into a non-ordinary state of consciousness to meet an ancestor of yours from before colonization, someone who lived in closer relationship with the earth. You don't need to know names or details.
Space to mourn. We'll make room to mourn this history, the ways extraction and greed continue today, and the personal and collective losses you're carrying.
An outdoor fire, if the weather permits. We'll make offerings to the fire and prayers for the land, the collective, and what we're ready to release and rebuild, woven into the larger ritual.
A group healing journey to extract your life force from the collective colonial mindset. Drawing on my training in shamanic healing, we'll journey together to call back the energy that has been tied up in patterns of extraction, domination, and "never enough," so that more of your life force can return to you. **
Integrate and return. We'll come back together, anchor into what was received, and carry it back into the world.
**Drawing life force back from collective reality doesn't immediately change behavior and is not meant to be looked at as the end all solution. This type of healing journey is meant to free up more energetic sovereignty so that one might feel more access to embodied choices that align with intentions. Simply one step in a well of many that are needed.
This is a spirit-led ritual.
It is spirit-led, held in respect for the ancestors of this land and guided by my ancestors and spirit team. There will be invitations to come into your body, grieve and pray.
This is not about taking more from the land or from Indigenous peoples, whose wisdom and spiritual ways have too often been taken. We're here to honor, to listen, and to return to our own roots and our own lineages. We're not here to analyze or process. We're here to be with what's true.
About the group healing journey
Spiritual extraction, energetic entanglement work, and curse unraveling are part of my shamanic healing practice. In individual work, they involve partnering with helping spirits to clear the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns that drain our life force, and to unravel long-standing patterns that pass through families and cultures across generations. In this ritual, I'll bring that work into a group setting, focused on the collective colonial mindset many of us have inherited.
This is powerful work and it can stir things up. Many people feel tired afterward. Snacks will be provided, but you may want to plan for a hearty meal, a bath, and good rest. Consider keeping the rest of your evening open.
This may be uncomfortable. That's part of it.
You might cry, go numb, feel anger, or feel nothing at all. All of it belongs. I won't promise you'll leave feeling light. My hope is that you leave emptied of some of what you've been carrying alone, and more connected to the land, to each other, and to your own ancestors.
Grief is where the rebuilding starts.
Reimagining community, and our relationship with this land and this country, means first feeling what we've inherited. This isn't the end of the work. It's the ground it grows from.
Is this for me?
This is a spiritual ritual, not a therapy space. If you're in a significant mental health crisis and don't feel you can safely be in a group, this may not be the right container right now. Reach out and we can talk about what support would serve you better.
Reciprocity
This ritual is donation-based, and 100% of proceeds will be donated to two Colorado organizations working toward Land Back:
Spirit of the Sun, an Indigenous womxn-led nonprofit in Denver, for its Land Back campaign to purchase land to grow traditional foods, raise bison, and hold space for Native youth and community.
People of the Sacred Land, a Colorado nonprofit working to uncover the truth about Native land dispossession and to advance restoration for the tribes with ancestral ties to this land.
Give what you can. If you'd like to give beyond this ritual, I encourage you to donate to either organization directly.
What is Land Back?
Land Back is a movement, generations old, to return land to Indigenous hands so that Indigenous peoples can steward it, feed their communities from it, and live their ways of life on it again. It isn't only about the past. It's about restoring relationship, sovereignty, and the conditions for cultural continuity on land that was stolen.
Stolen land is the foundation of the wealth and comfort many of us live with today, whether we chose it or not.
Details
Date: November 13th, 2026. 6-9pm. Offered once a year.
Location: In person. Held in a private cocoon space in the mountains of Golden, CO. On the traditional lands of the Ute peoples. Exact location provided after registration.
Group Size: Limited to 6 participants. Registration required to hold your spot.