Solstice Creative Awakening Retreat

The Call Of The Solstice

If you’ve been feeling stretched thin, overwhelmed, numb, or far from your creativity as the holiday rush builds, the Solstice arrives like a doorway back to yourself. When the light thins and the dark deepens, the body finally asks us to slow down. Creativity grows quieter—but not because it’s gone. It’s waiting beneath the noise, beneath the pressure, beneath the coping that keeps you moving.

This gathering is built for that moment.

The Solstice invites you into the winter cave—away from the rush—where what feels dried out, overextended, or creatively muted can be met with warmth, imagination, movement, and ritual. Using an archetype card from The Wild Unknown Archetypes as our portal, we follow what arises: sensation, image, memory, truth. Through intuitive movement, embodied writing, and communal witnessing, we soften back into the creative fire that survives even the longest night.

Held at Crescent Hudson Valley, a beautiful valley retreat center at the base of the Shawangunk Mountains, this experience offers the one thing the season rarely gives you: space to reconnect with yourself, others and the earth.

What To Expect

We begin with an archetype pull to illuminate what’s ready to be released and what wants to return. Because archetypes tap us into a shared creative field—bigger than the personal self we’ll explore the imaginal through:

• gentle grounding + embodied meditation
• intuitive movement to open the creative channel
• active imagination and image-channel exercises
• embodied creative writing guided by sensation rather than thought

You’ll follow what arises: a spark, a memory, a truth that’s been waiting for you.

🕯How The Day Flows

This retreat is intentionally spacious, allowing the work to unfold in its own rhythm.

Light Session (1:30–3:30 PM)

• arrival + gentle relational welcome in partners and group
• grounding meditation + nervous system settling
• solstice-aligned embodied astrology with Art
• archetype pull + image exploration
• intuitive movement + embodied writing practice

Land Integration Break (3:30–4:30 PM)
• journaling, creative play, or quiet reflection on the land
• time to be with yourself in the quiet or in connection with other participants
• the fireplace inside will be lit throughout our time together, and—weather permitting—a fire outside as well
• you’re welcome to walk the path down to the river or offer something to the fire or water as part of your personal solstice ritual

Dark Session (4:30–6:30 PM)

• witnessing + partner reflection
• deeper movement + embodied writing
• closing solstice ritual
• setting intentions for the return of the light

You Will Leave With

• a reawakened creative spark
• fresh insight from archetypal imagery
• a surprising piece of writing that reveals hidden layers
• embodied practices to regulate your nervous system
• clarity on what you’re ready to call in creatively for the year ahead
• the feeling of being seen
• a ritual to return to when life pulls you off-center

Where:

Crescent Hudson Valley
1201 Bruynswick Rd., Gardiner, NY
(Please park in the adjacent driveway one north toward New Paltz.)

A beautiful valley retreat center held by the Shawangunk Mountains. Check out this beauitful space https://crescenthv.com

EXCHANGE

$88

*A limited number of reduced-rate spots are available. If you’re feeling called to this gathering but cost is a barrier, please reach out to me personally at kellyjocreativehealing@gmail.com so we can meet you where you are.

Please sign waiver HERE before arrival.

BRING

Comfortable clothes for movement, a journal, a pen, and a personal object for our creative altar (you take it home with you). Food for the break, there is no food provided on the site but very charming eateries near by and you are more than welcome to leave and come back, there will be home made chai tea available.

Your Guides:

Your Guide

Kelly Jo Lillian is a writer, creative guide and coach, and trauma-informed educator and space holder with over a decade of experience helping people reconnect with their voice, creativity, and sense of aliveness. Rooted in her background in theater, poetry, and 11 years of trauma-informed teaching in the South Bronx, she now blends writing, movement, and spiritual practice to create spaces of deep transformation. Currently training as a Body Temple Dance teacher, Kelly Jo guides individuals to awaken and unblock their creative energy, align with their gifts, and rediscover the joy of expression in service of themselves and the collective.

With: Art Tornosol (they /them) is a diviner and ritualist whose work weaves astrology, somatics, shadow exploration, erotic wisdom, and the playful mischief-making of the trickster. After a decade of moving through healing spaces with curiosity as their guide, their offerings center care, reclamation, and the alchemy that unfolds when the seen and unseen meet. Drawing from earlier experiences co-creating ecstatic dance circles, sharing yoga, offering readings and Reiki energy work, Art holds intimate ritual spaces that invite participants to meet thresholds like the solstice with presence, wonder, and re-enchantment.