The Creative Descent
A Ritual of Rest
November 28 & 29, 2026
Mt Pleasant, Vancouver, BC
Join us for two days of rest and dreaming.
Many of us dread the descent into Winter. But how might we re-frame our relationship to this time of year so that we can soak up the deep wisdom it provides us the way that the plants and trees soak up winter's nourishment from the deep, wet earth?
Join us for this urban retreat where we'll learn practices to support us to nurture our creativity during this time of year. Together we will create art from the earth, share nourishing foods and teas, and tend the hearth together in the heart of the city.
Curated for women and femmes.
The earth is drawing its energy into the roots.
Winter asks us to do the same.
You are warmly invited to gather with us as the season turns inward and we move into the most "Yin" time of the year.
Winter is a season of great rest. The earth draws its energy down and stores it deep in the roots, and the cycle of life turns toward a much-needed hibernation. Many earth-based wisdom traditions teach that we can, and should, do the same.
Yet we live in a culture that demands constant momentum, even when our bodies and the natural world are asking us to slow down. Many of us need help remembering how to move at the pace of the seasons.
This retreat is a place to deepen that intention in community.
Women and femmes of different generations will gather in the heart of the city to rest, dream, and learn from one another. Together, we'll embrace this time of year as a source of creative renewal, tending the hearth where our spirits and bodies can recharge. In Chinese medicine, winter belongs to the water element, the source of our deepest energy, and the rest we allow ourselves to take now feeds our health in the seasons to come.
Over two days, we will:
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Open with a ritual of release, making room for the rest that follows the growth from the previous seasons
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Build impermanent earth art from natural materials we gather and meaningful objects you bring from home
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Learn how Chinese medicine and other earth-based traditions care for body and spirit in winter
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Taste warming teas and herbs, and begin your own winter care kit
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Enjoy stories, good food, and the company of others moving through this season together
You will leave with practices to deepen through the darker months and a circle of people to share them with.
In March, we will gather again at the spring equinox to celebrate what has taken root and is ready to emerge from the dark soil of winter.
Weekend Highlights:
Saturday / Day 1
9:00 am- 5:00 pm
Descending into our roots &
Learning to see in the dark
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Meditation
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Contemplative tea ceremony
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Assembling winter herbal tea blends
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Chinese medicine teachings around winter wellness and practices for tending the hearth
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Rituals of Release
Sunday / Day 2
9:00 am- 5:00 pm
Tending the Creative Spark &
Making beauty in the dark
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Tending the Creative Hearth
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Nature connection practice
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Impermanent Earth Art and foraging in the natural world
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Abundance practice
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Community circle
*Breakfast, Lunch, teas, and snacks will be provided on both days
Meet the Facilitators
Tali Weinberg, R.Ac
Well Held
Tali is a registered acupuncturist and healer whose work weaves Traditional Chinese Medicine with psycho-therapeutic and community-based approaches to care. She holds a Master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley, California, and maintains a private and community acupuncture practice on Salt Spring Island. Her studies also include Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry, and Zachary Feder’s Trans-Disciplinary Healer Training and Clinical Alchemy intensives. She is the Lead Facilitator for the Morning Altars Teacher Training program and also has been trained in community based rites of passage work through the program Rites and Responsibilities.
Natasha Tony
Elevate House
Natasha is a Coach, facilitator, and certified Morning Altars teacher grounded in creativity and nature‑based healing in community. Raised among artists and changemakers, she learned early that beauty-making and care for a community arrive together. These experiences continue to guide her belief that art can heal, land can hold us, and learning can be a pathway home. She is the founder of Elevate House Retreat Centers, in development on Salt Spring Island, where creativity, rest, and belonging foster personal and collective renewal.