Soul Metaphors
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Spirit Lodge
— Ceremony & Community

A gathering for renewal, remembering and reorientation.

Upcoming gatherings
Glowing stones and fire at dusk, with the covered Spirit Lodge among trees behind them.
The Farm for Wellbeing · Flaxley, South Australia

The Spirit Lodge

A return towards relationship.

The Spirit Lodge is held as a ceremony of purification and renewal—a time to gather in community, turn towards our lives with attention, and remember our relationships with ourselves, one another and the world around us.

We sit together in darkness, in the heat of stones, with water poured to create steam. We offer prayer in contemplation and song in gratitude.

The movement is inward and outward: a spiralling into ourselves and a return towards relationship.

The uncovered branch framework of the Lodge with stones at its centre, among sunlit trees.
The Lodge framework at The Farm for Wellbeing.
People preparing the covered Spirit Lodge and firewood together at The Farm for Wellbeing.
Preparing the gathering together · The Farm for Wellbeing.

The spirit of the gathering

Held through shared care.

Presence, listening and respect shape how we gather. Each person brings a responsibility to the circle: to honour boundaries, respect confidentiality and attend to their own participation with care.

Reciprocity lives in the practical work as well as the ceremony—in preparation, in tending the place, and in the regard we offer one another.

Check-in & sharing circles

We make space for check-in and sharing circles, where each person is invited to speak about what is present in their life. This might include challenges or difficulties, gratitudes and wins, or something they are reaching towards.

These circles offer time to listen and be heard. Sharing is always optional; each person chooses how much to share and may pass. We ask everyone to honour confidentiality and meet one another’s contributions with care and respect.

The ceremonial container

The gathering unfolds through four rounds, with prayer, contemplation and song. The ceremony invites deep reflective engagement: a movement inward, and a return towards our relationships and the lives we carry beyond the Lodge.

This is a community ceremonial gathering, rather than a clinical treatment or a promise of healing. Participation rests on informed choice and respect for personal limits.

Learning, relationship & responsibility

Carrying what has been entrusted.

My journey began sitting in Lodge in 1992 at Hencamp Creek, and I started on the path as a Water Pourer in November 2008. My learning and service have grown through participation in the ManKind Project, New Warrior Training Adventure weekends and the Lodge Keepers Society.

I received recognition as a Water Pourer in October 2020 from dan i el cloud and Peter Glencross.

Covered Lodge at Valla, with a red entrance cloth among trees.
Lodge at Valla.

I carry this ceremony as something entrusted to my care, with gratitude towards those who have taught and guided me.

I acknowledge the Lakota and Dakota origins of the ceremonial practice from which I have learned, and the First Peoples and Custodians of the Country where we gather. Carrying this responsibility does not make me a spokesperson for their cultures or traditions.

My own lived experience and reflection inform how I listen, facilitate and serve. I seek to distinguish that personal understanding from the teachings I have received, honouring their sources and the boundaries of what has been entrusted to me.

I continue to offer this gathering in the spirit in which I received it: as a gift of service to the community in which I live.

— Gaia 🌊🦅

Upcoming gatherings

A place to gather.

24–25 October 2026

Spirit Lodge Gathering

A mixed gathering for men and women.
Maximum 16 participants.

The Farm for Wellbeing
11 Willis Road, Flaxley SA 5153

Arrival · Saturday 24 October
11:00 am–1:00 pm to set up camp and settle in.
Opening smoke-in
Saturday, 1:30 pm. Please arrive before the opening; late arrival is not planned.
The gathering
Lodge on Saturday afternoon, followed by shared food and time together.
Conclusion · Sunday 25 October
Approximately 11:00 am.

All times are Adelaide local time.

Community contribution

$35 AUD per person

The participation contribution supports the ongoing care and maintenance of this community offering, together with the continued development of The Farm for Wellbeing as a place of gathering, connection, reflection and ceremony.

Through our shared contributions, we help sustain a space where this work can continue to be offered in the spirit of community, reciprocity and service.

Reserve Your Place — $35

Secure checkout through Square. Enter the full names of everyone attending when booking multiple places. A Facebook response alone does not reserve a place.

Overnight camping or dormitory arrangements can be discussed with Gaia when booking.

Preparation & participation

Arriving with care.

The ceremony involves heat, steam and an enclosed, dark space. Please contact Gaia before booking if you have questions about participation, health or accessibility. These conversations are handled separately and confidentially; please do not put health information in the Square participant-name field.

What to bring

  • Food to share, and your own plate, bowl, mug and cutlery.
  • Drinking water, a towel and a change of clothes.
  • Warm clothing and wet-weather gear.
  • Suitable Lodge clothing or a wrap: this is a Modesty Lodge.
  • Camping equipment and bedding for your overnight stay.
  • A small gift wrapped in red cloth or material for the Gift Blanket, chosen with care.

We ask everyone to honour confidentiality, listen respectfully and care for the space we share.

Contact Gaia →
Two leaning trees beside an open landscape beneath a softly coloured evening sky.
Photograph by Gaia.

Acknowledgement of Country

Soul Metaphors acknowledges the First Peoples, Original Tribal Leaders, and Custodians of the lands, waters and skies where we live, work and gather. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded, and honour the living histories, Lore, relationships and knowledge carried upon Country across generations.

We offer this acknowledgement as a commitment to relationship and responsibility: to listen carefully, to respect what is not ours to claim or carry, and to approach Country, culture and community with humility, respect and good feeling. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and to those who continue to carry culture forward.

nungki mewa - with good feeling