7 DAY NATURE IMMERSION:

SPEND A WEEK IN THE HEART OF THE DESERT

TRACKING YOUR INNER LANDSCAPE 

There are times in life where deep forms of attention and guidance are required for our inner worlds to find peace, inner clarity, and direction.  In ancient times, if you were in one of these moments, the elders would bring you to a sacred place, and offer specific forms of guidance, that would help align your inner world with the outer and transcendent worlds.  From this aligned vantage point, the clarity, guidance, and healing being sought is brought clearly into view.  

If you are in one of those moments in your life where clarity, guidance or healing is needed... or if you simply want to deepen on your path or simply recharge in stillness and silence, and immerse yourself in the medicine of a beautiful landscape, this retreat is designed for you.   

Your home for 7 days will be poised amidst majestic backdrop of Zion National Park's surrounding mountains (see video above).  This amazing site is the perfect balance of quiet, peaceful and remote. 

Somewhere beneath the noise and the doing, the soul waits—eternally patient, wild, awake and wise.

This personal retreat invites you into that sacred meeting: a slow turning inward, held by the elemental beauty of the land. Here, memory, mystery, and presence intertwine. The journey is not linear, but circular, symbolic, poetic—a homecoming to yourself.  This is a path of gentle re-discovery, not perfection—a return to the quiet friendship of the eternal self.  Come walk the quiet edges of your soul.   Through stillness, solitude, and reflection, we follow the subtle invitations of the heart. The land itself becomes a teacher, offering metaphors for healing and transformation. This is not a journey to fix anything, but to befriend yourself in a deeper, more honest way.

- WHAT TO EXPECT -

• Before your trip, as soon as you sign up, you will receive access to: Ancient Conversations: The Forgotten Language of Our Ancestral Heritage.  This 3 hour series of online lectures will help prepare you with specific techniques that will help you get the most out of your nature immersion experience.  
• DAY 1:   You will fly in to either St. George Airport or Las Vegas, where i will pick you up and we will drive together to your Nature Immersion. I will help you set up camp for the week, and help you get  oriented to to the landscape. 
• DAY 2:  We will discuss the process in depth, and personally tailor your experience to meet your needs and desires.  There are many options to consider, such as fasting, levels of support and guidance, strict or lenient containers.  
• DAY 3-5:  Full immersion into your solo retreat.  Mateo will meet with you as often as you like during this period of time, and will be a resourse of guidance and space-holder in whatever capacity you require (either regular contact, or no contact).  
• DAY 6: Debrief and Contextualize.  We will also discuss how to bring the wisdom you have encountered home with you, and to integrate it into your daily life. 
• DAY 7: Pack up camp, and head back to the airport for your return home. 

EARTH BASED INITIATION

There are certain parts of us that struggle to heal unless they are in the right environment.  Like seeds beneath the ground, they cannot emerge until the conditions are favorable.  Deep wounds, or ancestral forms of healing are often like this, and sometimes we need to completely immerse ourselves in a beautiful natural environment to create the conditions necessary to bring these parts of us back home. 

You are invited to awaken and deepen your connection to your inner world by stepping into the quiet embrace of nature, learning to listen to the subtle rhythm of your soul as it emerges.  In this space of stillness and silence, the natural world becomes your allied companion and mirror, revealing the contours of your inner world and inviting you into a sacred relationship with your unique version of authenticity. Here, the journey is not toward self-improvement, but toward a deeper belonging.

"The earth is our origin and destination... The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth: people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigour and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here." -- John O'Donohue

Stillness, Silence & Soulful Invitation

In a world that constantly asks us to act, speak, and strive, there is quiet power in choosing to be still. This retreat offers a rare invitation: to step into nature’s silence and listen—not to fix or figure things out, but to receive what your inner landscape has been waiting to reveal. 

Held in the vast beauty of the desert, and gently guided through intentional practices, you'll be supported in letting the noise fall away—so that clarity, insight, and soul-deep knowing can rise.

This is not just time away; it’s a return to yourself.  If you’re longing for real rest, meaningful reflection, and a renewed sense of direction, this experience is for you.

REST, RECOVER, AND RESTORE

There are so few spaces and times in our lives where every part of us can truly rest and return to wholeness.  Being supported in a magical place, where nothing is asked of you, is among the best ways for true healing and restoration to take place, especially for the truly tired parts of the self.  The parts of you that have been carrying excess weight on behalf of others, or even for other parts of yourself, that may not feel capable or qualified.  This retreat attends to them all with gentleness and care, and reflects back the beauty of their true nature.  In fullness, in wholeness, and in alignment to the soul's purpose.

Free Online Course!

Your retreat begins the moment you say "yes" to it!  Once you register for your retreat, you will be sent this free online course, Ancient Conversations: The Forgotten Language of Our Ancestral Heritage, which contains the detailed process of how we will be using specific postures of receptivity, and meditative practices to enhance your retreat experience.  

MEET YOUR FACILITATOR

Mateo Magee has been serving communities as a spiritual teacher, guide, and expedition leader since 1998.  His book, Peruvian Shamanism: The Pachakuti Mesa (2002) was the first written account of a lineage dating back thousands of years to both the Northern Coastal Huachumero and Southeastern Andean Paqokuna traditions of Peru.

Despite having several University degrees, Mateo feels his true education was derived from the decades he spent living and working alongside traditional indigenous  peoples of both North and South America. 

In addition to his 27 years of apprenticeship in the Peruvian systems of curanderismo, his current work also focuses on postures of receptivity in nature, stillness in motion, and a deep relationship to silence in solitude.   

One of Mateo’s great gifts is his capacity to make complex and elusive spiritual concepts accessible and palatable, building bridges between ancient cultures and modern-day truth seekers.  He considers himself a perpetual student, and his inclusive teaching style creates a safe environment for every soul to stretch out in. 

HISTORY OF THE LAND

The sacred landscape we will be residing in used to be called Mukuntuweap, a southern Paiute word, meaning "Straight Canyon".  These lands have been home to indigenous peoples, like the southern Paiute and Anasazi peoples for thousands of years. The canyon itself was carved into the landscape by the northern fork of what is now known as the Virginia River.  

Access to Zion National Park 

Based on your desires, we can explore the National park as often as you like.  This can be a simple as a quick drive through to see the main sites, or as involved as planned hiking excursions, or even overnight expeditions (advanced notice needed - permits required).  

Nature is the guru.  

The language of nature is equally accessible to everyone.  It turns no one away.  In other words, the wind doesn’t ask what language you speak before it decides to fill your lungs.  And… the sun doesn’t determine whether or not it will offer you its illumination based on your gender, or how old you are, or what body type you reside in, or what your skin color is.  Its warmth is just being offered freely and equally to everyone. 

What my last immersion into nature revealed to me: 

For the longest time, one of my least favorite aspects of the spiritual path was this unavoidable requirement: surrender. Not the kind of surrender one finds in battle, but the quieter, more piercing surrender of one’s inner structures—those invisible scaffolds built by the ego.  I’ve long trusted the order beneath apparent chaos, but surrender... that seemed like disorder, a yielding of will. At least to the parts of me still identified with the ego, it felt like annihilation.

But what I have come to see is that surrender is not destruction; it is reconfiguration. A new relationship with truth.

This “delusion” of separateness is the ego's masterpiece. It does not vanish in a moment of illumination. It persists—relentlessly. Like an intelligent algorithm, it updates its tactics to stay in charge, whispering even within spiritual efforts: Try harder. Get enlightened faster. Be more humble than everyone else.

From the perspective of Internal Family Systems (IFS), these egoic patterns aren’t enemies; they’re parts—well-meaning inner protectors that learned to shield us from pain, shame, and failure. When we approach them not with force, but with curiosity and compassion, the system softens. The ego doesn't have to be exiled; it can be integrated.

“All parts are welcome.”
— Richard Schwartz, 

And in Zen Buddhism, the path is not self-improvement—it is self-emptying. Shoshin, the beginner’s mind, is not naïve; it is radically open, free from the crust of certainty the ego loves to wear. In zazen, we sit with the full chorus of inner voices—without pushing any away. We watch them arise, like ripples on a still lake, and dissolve.

“Enlightenment is when the wave realizes it is the ocean.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh

The ego doesn’t die in a single moment. It hides, returns, reforms—until it is loved into peace. This is the great paradox: the parts of us that resist surrender are not obstacles to awakening—they are portals. Each time we meet the ego not with judgment but with spacious presence, we dissolve another boundary.

The deeper truth isn’t that we must destroy the ego, but that we must see through it, lovingly.  So yes, the ego persists. But so does the Soul—quiet, spacious, unshaken. And when we surrender to that, we do not lose ourselves. We finally find the parts that were always free.