Roots & Rhythms:
An Earth-Based Spirit Circle for Collective Joy
You belong here, on this Earth.
You have a deep center of wisdom that connects you to all of creation. And right now in these turbulent times the world needs you navigating from that deeply rooted place.
But I know from personal experience: it's hard to do that by yourself.
In this rich rhythmic immersive journey of seasonal community practice, you will be nurtured in foundational skills of shifting out of survival mode and consistently anchoring to your innate resilient center.
We will do this together for the mutual thriving of yourself, your kin, your community, your ecosystem and all of creation.
Is this you?
- You feel overwhelmed or powerless in the face of personal, national and/or global crises, including the ecological crisis and white supremacy
- You feel disconnected from healthy ancestry and isolated from nourishing community, and long for healthier community and culture for yourself and your family
- You want to feel more at home in your body, your relationships and on the earth while being of great service to our world
OR maybe you feel personally very well-balanced and resourced AND...
- You want to deepen your sense of belonging and reciprocity within your own body, community, ecosystem and the land
- You want to enjoy culturally rich seasonal celebrations with like-practicing friends
- You want to be of service and share your gifts rooted in relationship to the land where you and the community you belong to
Roots & Rhythms is a haven of community practice for big-hearted earth-loving spiritual seekers longing for home, a grounded center in themselves, in their relationships, and in the web of life, from which to navigate skillfully even in these troubled and uncertain times.
This circle is designed to nurture you to:
Through simple, seasonal rhythms of community practice, you will be nurtured in:
- Simple, rich, culturally respectful earth- and body- based wisdom
- Simple, learnable tools and practices for nervous system resilience and ‘good enough' relating to each other and our complex world
- Shifting overwhelm, indecision, paralysis and reactivity into grounded, creative responsiveness and unshakeable trust in your own divine connection
- Living from a more grounded, nourished, intuitive and joyful place
- A deepened awareness of belonging to the web of creation as a felt sense and experience of your innate sacredness, amidst busy, everyday life for the well-being and liberation of all
Blessings and Acknowledgements
I want to offer here a deep bow of gratitude to the earth that is my home, and from which the wisdom of living in good-enough relationship with all creation emerges. Thank you to the elemental forces, animals, plants, waters, sun and moon, and the more-than-human teachers, guides and allies that have nurtured this work in visible and invisible ways. Blessings and acknowledgements to the Coast Salish peoples, gentle stewards of the land I occupy and that has been a primary teacher and nurturer of this work. Thank you to my spiritual and biological ancestors, to my teachers and the communities of practice from which this work emerges. In particular, this offering draws on the work and mentorship of Larissa Kaul, Dare Sohei of Animist Arts and Tada Hozumi and the now-dissolved Ritual as Justice School. It is also informed by 15+ years of contemplative embodiment practice, study and facilitation in the realms of trauma-informed yoga, Kashmir Shaivism, interspiritual contemplative practice, Christian spirituality and church history, earth-based spirituality, Chinese medicine, the Celtic calendar, intercultural pastoral care, and psychic energy medicine. Deep thanks to the additional mentorship and loving guidance of Najeea Leslie, Nancy Rebecca of Intuitive Mind, Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice and Diane Whalen of the Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community; and also to the scholarship, mentorship and intellectual labors of Dr JP Kang, Dr Kj Swanson, Dr Jennifer Fernandez, and Dr Angela Parker. It is with gratitude to each of them, all my teachers and guides, and all of the stewards of the wisdom traditions worldwide, known and unknown, that I make this attempt to respectfully hold, share from, and evolve my small piece of the puzzle. May it be one small offering of restoring/returning my Christian lineage back to the composting earth.
What You Get Inside Roots & Rhythms
Light-hearted earth-based seasonal rhythms and celebrations for collective lament and joy
Mentorship and opportunity for resource sharing with each other and our wider ecosystems
Local, land-based, liberatory, contextualized, emergent group process
Simple, rich, non-bypassing, accessible sense-making practices
A cyclical, organic learning model designed for you to integrate, deepen and be creative at your own pace
Body- and land-based skill-building for good-enough relating to each other and our complex world
What makes Roots & Rhythms so Different?
- This isn't a magic bullet or weekend "transformational" intensive. This is an ongoing journey because it takes time to build relationships and experience deep, lasting change
- This is not a solo journey. Environment is stronger than will power, which is why we are creating a cultural container to support and hold the shape of collective vision.
- Roots & Rhythms has some 'church-like' attributes, but it's not a church. We aim towards harmony through shared exploration and contextual rather than unifying creed or belief.
- This is not like other courses that give you tons of pre-recorded content and then leave you to your own devices. Roots & Rhythms has regular consistent live touch points so that you won't fall through the cracks.
- This is not a linear, progress-and-expertise-driven information dump. Rather, through rhythms of practice, where conceptual learning is a supplement, we let the earth, our ecosystems, our bodies, and the web of our relationships be our primary texts and teachers
What Past Circle Participants say:
Beth S.
“I’ve just learned an entirely new framework for thinking and understanding. There are so many areas of my life and in the world that have become clear in looking at things through this lens of cultural attachment, somatics, animism…. This has impacted my ability to have more fun with my daughter, engage more fully in the cycles and regenerative nature of the earth, and provided me with specific practices to draw on when I feel undersupported and overburdened...reconnecting with my own relationship as a human animal on this earth.
JL, Psychologist
[The Sanctuary Circle is] a very nourishing space...a set aside place to learn and practice body based practices that connect within the self, to community, and to the larger ecosystem, with a strong eye to justice and our cultural lenses...The animist/somatic practices have been really transformational in building a steadily traveled path to inhabiting my own body and being able to draw on my own wisdom and knowing. It's been a 'slow simmer' sort of process which initially may have undershone its eventual build and significance.
Megan Thornton
I love doing this work as a group. Kate understands that we are stronger and better in community, contributing our varied voices and experiences to the work of the whole, and she is such a skilled facilitator. Attending circle felt a bit like going to my dream church, and maybe something like the early Christian gatherings. This work has over time directly impacted my ability and willingness to slow down, listen to my body, and tune in to my feelings. It shines a light on my path towards healing my own generational trauma, connecting with earth, ancestors, feeling at home in my body, working with challenging relationship dynamics, and more fully stepping into my life's calling.
What's Included in Roots & Rhythms
This offer arises from the land of the Coast Salish peoples, aka Tacoma, Washington, through an ongoing relationship and attempt to listen to the land, to you all, and to the more-than-human beings present here with us. As a descendant of settler-colonists, a guiding question for me has been: how do I live in a good way with this land? And what is the land asking of us now? Roots & Rhythms is designed with nods to what we can know of ancestral practices that revolved around natural processes, but with simple accessible formats that meet us where we are today. It is designed in rhythmic layers, for folks to dance in and out as suits you while we collectively hold the pulse/beat. Some of you, if you live near me, may only ever join things that are live/in-person; others may stick to just the online format because you live on other lands or because that is just more accessible to you. Though they will connect and weave together, each offering can stand alone.
Circles will take place 2-4x per month.
Rotating Monthly Offerings Include:
- Somatic Skill Building (Virtual)
- BIPOC Healing Circle (Virtual) - 2nd Tuesdays
- Anti-Racism as Spiritual Practice Circle (Virtual) - 2nd Thursdays
- New Moon Circle (Virtual)
- Full Moon Circle (In Person)
Seasonally
- Earth Rhythms + Potluck (In Person)
- Community Land Listening + Potluck (In Person)
Every circle is a little different, but each consist of familiar elements, including:
- contemplative practice and somatic skill building
- tuning into and being guided by the subtle world of sensation, intuition, desire and dreams
- simple, accessible seasonally-informed ritual
- option for sharing and listening in community
- songs for grounding, expression and celebration
Logistics
Format + Recordings: This is a hybrid offering, with some offering available virtually and some in-person at a central location in Tacoma WA. Online participation will take place via zoom. All online offerings will be recorded and made available for participants only. Registration acts as your consent to being recorded.
LOCATION: TBA - in person gatherings will take place at a central location in Tacoma WA. Earth Rhythms will take place outdoors, whether permitting. Full Moon Circles will take place indoors. Locations shared once you register.
2023 Exact Dates + Details: See FAQs below.
Bonus Opportunities Include:
Families/children welcome to all Earth Circles + Full Moon Circles
Reduced Rate for 1:1 session with Kate
Reduced Rate on all other Sanctuary group offers
Session recordings + lightly curated FB group
Enrollment Bonuses:
Pay In Full Bonus: Save 10%
Why is Roots & Rhythms so important right now?
If the patterns of past empires are any indicator, we are living at the brink of collapse. It is already happening in many corners of our nation and world. Ecologies and systems across sectors are reaching their breaking point. The extreme polarities of politics, worldviews, and access to resources are staggering and seemingly irreconcilable. These coming years and decades will likely continue to be turbulent, unpredictable and painful.
What is on the other side of this portal? And how will we get through it?
Honestly: these are the questions that keep me up at night. I don’t know if I have any answers, but it is through wrestling with the reality of the world as I see it that Roots & Rhythms has emerged.
I see this as something of an attempt at what Margaret Wheatley describes as an “island of sanity”, a buoy anchored to that deepest source of love-life within each of us and within creation that might offer us a touchpoint to Reality, a reference point from which to navigate the coming changes with even a tiny bit more skill, honesty, groundedness, courage and companionship.
"[Circle] offers an understanding of how to connect with traditions that I’ve lost over generations of work, toil, colonialism, and 'progress' and remember that I have access to ancient wisdom and tradition. It feels like it helps me find home."
Beth S.
Here’s a Recap of Everything You Get in Roots & Rhythms
- 4 Earth Circles (Value: $400)
- 11 Full Moon Circles (all year EXCEPT December) (Value: $600)
- 11 New Moon Circles (all year EXCEPT June) (Value: $600)
- Monthly BIPOC Healing Circle OR Anti-Racism as Spiritual Practice (Value: $600)
- 4 Somatic Skill Building Practice ($400)
- 4 Community Land Listening Circles (Value: $400)
- OPTION: Reduced Rate for monthly 1:1 session with Kate (Additional Fee, Value: $400/session)
- Reduced Rate on all other Sanctuary group offers (varying)
- Session recordings + lightly curated FB group ($600)
- A container of community space-sharing with me and other like-practicing peers (priceless!)
- BONUS: Spouses/children welcome to all Earth Rhythms + Song Circles ($1000)
The total value: $4,600+
(But don't worry, you won't pay that.)
Enroll now to get all this for less than half of that.
Our Economic Philosophy
We recognize the inherent classist, racist and ableist dynamics that inevitably are at play when being in business in the dominant cultural and modern world. Our hope is to make high quality services available to anyone with a sincere desire to participate. We are happy to invite folks of financial means, particularly if you are white and/or you have access to ancestral wealth, to join our web of reciprocity. Well-priced offers allow us to be sustained while also providing free, low-cost and sliding scale services to resource-poor folks in crisis and/or with severe trauma symptoms; as well as to offer sliding scale and free options for folks from cultures from which many of the modern ‘healing’ practices are derived—black, brown, and indigenous.
Additionally, 5% of all program profits are redistributed to local black and brown persons, healers, and black and brown-led community organizations. It is our commitment and a work in progress to practice ethical economics. If you’d like more details on where our money is going, we’re happy to share that with you.
Restorative Culture Sliding Scale:
The Restorative Culture Sliding Scale is available for Black and indigenous folks, and folks of color (BIPOC); as well as LGBTQ+ folks and folks with disabilities who are experiencing severe financial hardship.
This is a gesture of repair for the historical and ongoing racialized violence and disparities in resource access; as well as a nod to the reality that most modern healing modalities are extractions from indigenous practices.
It is also an effort to address the innumerable barriers to access capitalism places on folks queer and trans folks and folks with disabilities.
I have found over various iterations that exchange of some kind helps to keep the integrity of energy exchange, and participant engagement. To the combined ends of restoring economic balance and sustaining engagement, the sliding scale is a offered on a case by case basis, and can be a combination of payment plans, reduced rate, and work-trade. Email me for details.
Outside of the Restorative Culture Sliding Scale, a few partial work-trade positions are available. Email me to inquire.
On being a white-led/white-dominant space:
Folks of any racial/cultural identity are absolutely welcome. Additionally, I want to be upfront about the reality that I (Kate) am white, most of my audience are white folks, and it’s likely this space will be predominantly white. My intention is to take responsibility for that, and leverage the opportunity of mostly white/white-conditioned folks doing our own work. I envision this as a place where dominant-culture folks (which includes, but is not limited to whiteness) can unwind dominant cultural behaviors and relational patterns, and learn to relate more skillfully to our diverse complex world. I am committed to addressing these patterns as they (inevitably) arise in our process together, and aim to build towards being a place where multi-racial and cross-cultural exchange and healing can happen. Like everything, this will be a work in progress.
Additionally, I have been intentionally seeking to disrupt these offerings being a predominantly white space and am excited to partner this season with Tracy Myers towards this effort. Tracy identifies as a multi-racial woman of color, that is Indigenous (Osage) and Filipina. Her focus of work is creating healing spaces for those that identify as BIPOC and cultivating brave, transformative anti-racist leaders. You can read more about her below.
This year, we will be offering sacred space for folks of color to care for their needs in affinity and free from the “white gaze”. We will also be continuing our ‘anti-racism as spiritual practice' for white folks to continue doing our own work. This, as well as Roots & Rhythms as a whole, is envisioned as a place where dominant-culture folks (which includes, but is not limited to whiteness) can unwind dominant cultural behaviors and relational patterns, and learn to relate more skillfully to our diverse complex world. Unwinding modes of perpetual productivity, disembodiment, self/other policing, and insecure attachment to earth, body and ancestry are a few of the white/dominant cultural patterns Roots & Rhythms attempts to address. We are committed to addressing unwell dominant cultural patterns as they (inevitably) arise in our process together, and aim to build towards being a place where multi-racial and cross-cultural exchange and healing can happen. Like everything, this is a work in progress. We will continue to request feedback about how I can improve.
A spell for economic balance and reciprocity:
We invite you to consider your financial investment as a kind of spell-casting and energy practice that brings you into awareness of the reciprocal web of support that we all live in. Take a few minutes to breathe into your belly and ask: where am I in that web right now? Do I feel the magic of this offer, and its potential to draw me into closer participation within that web? Then read through pricing structure and ask your belly again: is this right for me right now? Does my desire align with this exchange?
Monthly Tuition + Monthly 1:1
$367 monthly
(3 mo minimum commitment. 30 days notice to cancel)
ENROLL NOWPay In Full for a Year: Get 10% off.
By paying full price, either in full or through monthly payments, you are helping to sustainably make this offering more accessible to folks who have historically had more barriers to care.
Restorative Culture Sliding Scale: BIPOC, LGBTQ+ folks, folks with disabilities, and folks with severe financial need are eligible for alternative payment arrangements, work-study + sliding scale. Email Kate here.
But...how do I know if this will be right for me?
Truthfully: I don't know. Only you can know that. That is a question for you, your gut, your ancestors and spirit team. Take it to them prayerfully, without thinking too hard about it.
There is a lot that I intend and will do my best to nurture for you in Roots & Rhythms, as listed above; but ultimately what I can promise you is that: this is a container in which you will have an experience. What kind of experience will depend on the interplay of so many things: our bodies, personalities, personal and ancestral traumas, available resources, life circumstances, spiritual energies, seasons of the year and of life. I will do my best to gather us together to not be so lost and alone in our experiencing and in our metabolizing and integration of these experiences.
Roots & Rhythms doesn't (shouldn't!) have to be "the only right thing" or "the most right thing"...but just ask your inner wisdom: is it even just a part of the next right thing?
FAQ
What is the exact schedule?
Tell me more about each of the offerings.
What happens in a Somatic Spiritual Support Session?
What if I can't make a session?
Is this a church?
I’m so tired of zoom calls. Does community really work online?
Shouldn't community and spiritual care be free?
What if it’s not my thing/I change my mind?
How did Roots & Rhythms come about?
A NOTE FROM FOUNDER KATE: I spent a lot of years running on the treadmill of urgency and overwork, addicted to stress and overwhelmed with the problems of the world. All the while on the inside I felt completely empty. I struggled to feel I belonged in my spiritual tradition of origin, and longed for spiritual community that was inclusive, affirming, judgement-free, connected to the physical world, and based in love and justice. It took a major plunge of depression about 15 years ago for me to finally stop all the DOING and begin the road back home to my BEING. Along the way, a few things revealed themselves to be invaluable in this journey:
- Tuning into the Feminine face of the divine through the Goddess tradition of yoga, and other mystical Wisdom traditions
- Moving from angry activist to restorative culture builder through a return to animist ancestral practices for more sane, balanced relating to the numerous human, more-than-human, visible and invisible beings of the complex web of creation
- creating a new, spacious and cyclical relationship with time through connecting to the rhythms of my body and the earth
- discovering and cultivating places to practice being my full-spectrum weird self
- And joining with other folks invested in their own reweaving of self-within-creation.
Like everyone, I’m still a work in progress! Roots & Rhythms has had many previous iterations that maybe you've been a part of! Moon Circle, Sanctuary Circle...I’ve created each of these to help support you with the knowledge I gained from my own experience and collaborate and journey with more folks healing together.
Meet the Roots & Rhythms Teaching Team:
Kate Fontana
Hello! I'm Kate. I have been a wandering spiritual orphan for almost two decades. After coming out as queer and leaving my Catholic faith, I got deep into the Goddess tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, where I had my first real 'hit' of being made in the 'divine image'.
In 2013 I received the unexpected call to be “priestess” and then in 2015, even more unexpectedly Jesus came back into my life--not as triumphant victor, not as dewy-eyed shepherd, but as a tender lover. I could not have been more shocked (or annoyed!).
Through major mental health crisis, job loss, seminary, psychic school, somatic animist apprenticeship, and a slow return to my body and earth-based rhythms, I have been attempting to make sense and live respectfully in the confluence of these strange intersections of lineages and modalities. This is my latest iteration of being as generous and authentic from my learnings as I can.
For now, Kate will be hosting New Moon, Full Moon, Somatic Skill-Building, Earth Rhythms, and Anti-Racism as Spiritual Practice offerings.
Tracy Myers
Aloha! I’m Tracy (she/her). I’m a mother, sister, friend, and story seeker. I live deeply from an emotional place and invite all to get comfy and join me there as you explore your past, present, and future. Tears are welcomed. My whole life I have been asked, “What are you?” I am a proud Indigenous, Filipina, & White person, born in Hawai’i, that supports the healing and innate power within us as our most authentic selves. My career background is in social work, education, and racial justice. I am someone who enjoys a good macaroni and cheese, long talks with friends at a coffee shop, and discovering new places with my family. Learn more at middle-waters.com.
Tracy will be hosting our monthly BIPOC healing circle, and collaborating on racial equity.
Here's what we know: how lonely, confusing, uncertain a life on the spiritual fringe can be. We also know that belonging is your birthright--you are a citizen of the earth. You have a direct line of communication and connection to Earth/Source/God/dess/the Cosmos. All it takes is a persistent commitment to removing the things that block your direct sense of original belonging.
As we find ourselves on the brink of global collapse, with crises mounting on every front, we believe now more than ever we need to find our way back home to ourselves and in the diverse and interdependent web of creation.
We are creating spaces like the Roots & Rhythms so we can all help each other do just that. So welcome!
So...are you in? We hope so.
