Slate Creek Sanctuary
Hartsburg, MO

A Gathering Place for Soulful Belonging, Earth Stewardship, and Ceremony

“What we value is actually a symptom of the true life we have forgotten.
Let us join hands, and travel together to a more beautiful way of being human.”

Francis Weller

Slate Creek Sanctuary supports the remembrance of a more beautiful way of being human by practicing a new but ancient set of values. 

  • We value living in right-relationship and reciprocity with all of life–thus we live in a humble, ceremonial way that honors all beings.

  • We value gathering in simple soul nourishing ways that foster true belonging-–thus we host fire ceremonies, potlucks, nature reconnection practices, grief rituals, song circles and retreats.

  • We value supporting one another to share our gifts with the world–thus we offer nature-based soul work, dream work, and vision quests as a means of discovering and embodying our gifts.

  • We value justice, inclusion and a truly-invested community–thus we practice “gift economics” and tithe to support movements led by Black and Indigenous leaders.

  • We value creating a life-enhancing culture–thus we engage in earth stewardship and collective attunement to the more-than-human world.

  • Last but not least, we value getting to know others who share a passionate love of the Earth and who are working to build a more just and beautiful world.

If this sounds like you, we warmly welcome you to join us for one of our offerings, land work days, or to simply listen to each other’s hearts.

“I believe that we have the capacity to create a world that is compassionately intent on preserving the integrity of all life in a harmonious balance. And that the sacred instructions for creating that world exist within every one of us right now and are waiting to be called forth. We must now access our individual gifts and manifest them collectively. This is how we will heal the wounds of our shared history and form a more humane pathway forward.”

Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset

About Our Beloved Home and Gathering Place

Slate Creek Sanctuary is a 300+ acre gathering space in the foothills of the Ozarks, not far from Colombia, MO. This beautiful land has a well-maintained trail system that takes you through low meadows, up steep hills, through creeks and to a small lake with boats and a lovely dock for swimming. Sycamore, Juniper, deer, wood duck and coyote are just a few of our wild-kin that you are certain to encounter.

To accommodate campers we have many beautiful camping sites, an outdoor shower, and one 13 foot canvas tent for those who would prefer not to travel with gear.

Slate Creek Sanctuary is an offering of Earthkeeper Wisdom School and is fiscally sponsored by the Holistic Underground, a 501 ©(3) nonprofit.

2024 Offerings

Winter

January 11 @ 5:00pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
January 25 @ 5:00pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
January 27 @ 4:00pm // Soul-Sharing Circle + Potluck

February 9 @ 5:00pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
February 18 @ 4:00pm // Grief-Tending Ritual + Potluck
February 23 @ 5:00pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck

March 9 @ 4:00pm // Soul Sharing Circle + Potluck
March 10 @ 5:30pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
March 19 @ 5:30pm // Spring Equinox Land Blessing + Potluck
March 23 // Spring Equinox Celebration
March 25 @ 5:30pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck


Spring

April 8 @ 5:30pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
April 14 @ 4:00pm // Nature Immersion Practice + Potluck
April 21 @ 5:00pm // Conversation + Potluck
April 23 @ 5:30pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
April 28 @ 4:00pm // Grief Ritual Gathering + Potluck

May 7 @ 5:30pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
May 17-19 // Rewilding Feminine Soul Retreat
May 26 @ 4:00pm // Grief Ritual Gathering + Potluck

Summer

July 21 @ 6:00pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
July 27 @ 5:00pm // Ancestral Medicine Story + Potluck

August 4 @ 6:00pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
August 19 @ 6:00pm // Full Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
August 10-11 // Spirit Rising Community Gathering
August 24 @ 9:00am // Nature Immersion Practice + Potluck

September 2 @ 6:00pm // New Moon Fire Ceremony + Potluck
September 12-15 // A Year in Ceremony

Offering Details

  • Wander in the forests or sit by the lake and open yourself to a soulful conversation with the wild. In our experience, when we choose a reverent approach, our other-than-human kin show-up to be known by us and to help us know ourselves. Through the practice of nature immersion and deep imagination, you will connect with nature and your own wild depths. Following a time of solitude in nature, we will gather in a council circle to share how we have been changed and moved.

  • Join us on the New and the Full Moons for a traditional fire ceremony. We call in the 7 Sacred Directions to help us hold the sacred container for our prayers and songs. To be in good alignment with Mama Killa-Grandmother Moon, we offer a spirit plate, prayers, and songs for the two-legged, four-legged, creeper-crawlers, mammals, stone people, plant people, winged ones and swimmers.

  • Grief and loss touch us all; they knock us down and remind us of our need for one another. In this gathering, Michael and Carolyn will be holding sacred space for our broken-heartedness to be felt and shared. Together, we will engage in ritual practices of mutual heart-tending, where our grief, sorrow, and shame can be alchemized into a healing balm for our souls and our communities.

  • Dreams are a portal of communication not only with our souls but also with the symbolic language of life itself. In this way, dreams serve to decolonize our  minds from the flatlands of rationalism and to awaken us to the myth that is uniquely ours to live. Dreams also offer direct encounters with ancestors, lost parts of ourselves, and healing energies. In this gathering, Carolyn will model the art of soul-centric dream tending that often moves into spontaneous ritual and dream theater. Please bring a soul-stirring dream, recent or old.

  • Come and be witnessed as you share from the depths of your soul! You are invited to bring something to share that deeply moves you such as a poem, song, dance, heartbreak, passage from literature, letter to a deceased father or ex-lover, or dream old or new. Within sacred space, Michael and Carolyn will model the art of soul-attuned listening and improvisational ritual.

  • Not only does solitude in nature do wonders for our often over-strained nervous systems, it also opens us to an encounter with our deep selves or souls. We warmly welcome you to contact us to plan a day or multi-day camping retreat on the land. If it is supportive, we are often also available for spiritual direction and soul guiding.

  • In the coming year we dream of additionally hosting: drum circles, men’s and women’s retreats, Earth-restoration workdays, day long contemplative retreats and more.

All our monthly offerings are given in the spirit of the gift economy–your gifts of love, labor, and monetary donations are welcome in return. All are welcome regardless of ability to pay.

“This we need to know: how to participate creatively in the wildness of the world about us. For it is in the wild depths of the universe and our own being that the greater visions must come.”

Thomas Berry

Sanctuary Stewards

Michael and Carolyn are rooted in lineages of Earth reverence and Nature-based Soul Work.

Michael Denmeade (he/him Croatian/American cis-man) has spent much of his life learning and living what he calls the Mitakyasin Way—how to live in Right Relationship and Reciprocity with all life. Mitakuye Oyasin, a Lokota term, literally means ‘All My Relations’. He was blessed to be trained in Lokota lifeways including serving as a firekeeper. Michael is part of the Native Women’s Care Circle and a senior mentor within a school of nature-based soul guiding called Purpose Guides Institute. Closest to his heart, he serves as a vision quest guide who passionately inspires others to live in right relationship and reciprocity with all Life! As a soul guide, Michael lovingly mentors young and old to discover and embrace the one true life you can call your own. He also serves as a ceremonialist and companion to the dying. He welcomes you to call upon him here.

Carolyn Griffeth (she/her, cis-Celtic/Swiss/English/French woman) serves widely as spiritual mentor, soul guide, dream worker, and intuitive ceremonialist. She is also honored to serve as a spiritual minister within Spirit Rising, an all-inclusive, womanist community in St. Louis, MO. One of her rare gifts is the capacity to “catch” visions and dreams of future possibility and, like a devoted mother, gestate them into being within her womb of faith-in-action. Carolyn’s native habitat is the radical edge of visionary culture creation! This explains her twenty plus years of living in community and working for social change on several fronts. Her prayer now is for purity of heart so that she might become ever more attuned to the call of Mystery. She warmly welcomes you to call upon her for soul guidance, dream work, grief tending and intuitive ritual craft, including free consultation for soul mentorship.