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A 2 Day Retreat with Jane Pike & Rupert Isaacson
More likely it’s a landscape of the soul, an internal place, a happiness garden, an inner Eden, a source: a place we sometimes dream of, sometimes seem to glimpse when in a physical landscape, and which often seems to elude us, leaving us longing for belonging.
The sense of home that we can feel anywhere, that we can carry with us, inside us wherever we go.
To live through our imagination, which is our most powerful gift. To harness that imagination for happiness – for us, for those we love, for the wider world.
To accept what is real for right now and to be able to move from that place.
Our modern imagination has often been shaped for us before we reach adolescence. What is possible. What is impossible. The myths and legends of our people, our place. Sometimes these myths serve us. Sometimes they hold us back, shame us even.
How do we reshape our Mythos? How do we create one that is personal, ever morphing, that serves us and does not harm us?
How do we find allies in the old myths and legends and yet be set free from them?
How do we find allies in nature and landscape that allow us to create inside ourselves that inner paradise?
We’ll explore the land, the brain, the nervous system, the soul, the nuts and bolts of shamanism, the myths and legends of the land and how we can shape and change those narratives to serve us.
Nature always wants to help us, if only we can let it. We explore, we learn, we sit by the fire and share, we muse, we celebrate, and above all, we start along the path towards that Inner Eden, sure now of where the path there lies.
Where: Journey On Ranch, Paso Robles, California
When: 12 & 13th August, 2023
Cost: $775 USD per person
Limited to a maximum of ten people
ACCOMMODATIONS: The Journey On Ranch is set on 42 acres of gorgeous Californian countryside in Paso Robles. We will spend the days together at the ranch- accommodation is not included but there are plenty of places to stay close-by in Paso Robles itself
WALKING, HIKING & ADVENTURING: You will need to be of reasonable fitness, to outside walking and exploring the country side. We will be outdoors at various stages over the weekend not matter what the weather, so please be as realistic as possible in assessing your abilities. Outdoor exploring is an important part of this experience.
MEALS & FOOD: Snacks and lunch will be provided both days. Please advise us of any dietary requirements in advance.
Jane’s work explores how it is we access and bring forward our innate vitality, through our relationship to ourselves, each other and the natural world. She draws constant inspiration from the creative arts and poetry, her relationships with the animals in her life, and the many allies she finds on her daily walks and rides through the forest on her farm.
She currently calls the South Island of New Zealand/ Aotearoa home, finding solace and support from raw beauty of the landscape that surrounds her.
Jane has travelled extensively, including working as an aid worker throughout the middle east and Indian subcontinent in her 20’s, and combines her personal experiences in the world with her creative interests and expertise in movement, biomechanics and the nervous system to create experiences that are moving, enriching and transformational.
Rupert Isaacson was born in 1967 in London to a South African mother and Zimbabwean father, and grew up half in London, half on a remote horse farm in the British countryside and also with Africa looming large in his life. Coming from a family of pioneers and adventurers – Russian Jews who went to Africa on his father’s side, British, Dutch and mixed race settlers on his mother’s side – Rupert’s grandparents were journalists, war correspondents, cattle ranchers and artists. His father is an architect and his mother a sculptor.
A journalist for the British and American press from the early 1990s (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, Esquire, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller – among others), he has also published several guidebooks to Africa and India, and is he author of three non-fictional memoirs: The Healing Land (a New York Times Notable Book), which tells the story of his family in Africa, and of his own time spent living with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert; The Horse Boy (a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller), which tells the story of his journey across Mongolia on horseback with his autistic
son Rowan; and The Long Ride Home, which tells of the three subsequent healing journeys he and his son made to Africa, Australia and the Navajo Reservation, as well as his discovery of how horses can help autism and special needs in general.
Rupert also runs the Horse Boy Foundation which offers services to autism families, and helps direct several satellite centers offering similar services in North America and Europe.
In partnership with Iliane Lorenz he also teaches Horse Boy Method, Movement Method (a homeschool technique aimed at autism, ADD and ADHD families among others), and other kinetic learning techniques, along with Helios Harmony, a way of introducing riders to the higher levels of equitation without being screamed at(!).
A successful documentary filmmaker – The Horse Boy and Endangerous – and write and conceiver of reality TV shows (The Quest – which aired on ABC in 2014 & 2021 – was his original concept and he helped produce the show), and in addition his mainstream Hollywood projects include The Horse Boy feature film and The Goth Lords.
A career in human rights runs parallel to all this. In 2004 he founded the Indigenous Land Rights Fund, which helps hunting and gathering tribes gain legal title to their ancestral land and which helped the Bushmen of Botswana win the largest land claim in African history in 2006 – as a result of which he is now banned from Botswana (!).
Finally there is his first love – horses both cross country riding, and classical dressage (he works closely with the Valenca Family in Portugal and studies with Christian Bachinger of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna). A small time breeder of Lusitano horses, Rupert relaxes by reading historical novels, planting trees and drinking beer, especially IPAs. He quite likes wine too. And food.
