Into the Wild – Rewilding Human Nature
Nature Retreats in a Year Cycle

Irma Pelikan (A) and Grégory Chevalier (Fr/Hu)

„The medicine we need,
is in our wild,
both within us and around us.“

The deep interconnectedness with nature and its phenomenons can be a both sided love relation. We can re-enter this tremendously alive and adventurous, thrilling mystical universe in which not only mind is managing but spirit enchanting the human being.

Nature loves that humanness and gives space to explore, to reclaim and to enjoy who we are. The personal human process is mirrored honestly and beautifully in nature, with warmth of sun rays caressing your cheeks, with rotten wood in your hands ready to help you bring that unheard sound over your lips, or balancing on a fallen tree with closed eyes struggling and surrendering the adventure of not knowing the next step. Moving in nature can deepen into a ritual to embody, step by step, the powers of your wildness within.

Same time, by relating this way and gaining intimate experiences with nature, you widen the perception of yourself, from being an isolated human being to taking part in this lively community: your ecological self. You re-member yourself into this connectedness.

Wildness is our biological heritage. It is an evolutionary memory of Nature’s creative passion. We can call upon the wild within, to empower us, to restore the courage and physical wisdom that are blunted by modern life. Our animal body contains functional ways of expression and motion which abound power, life force and ancient wisdom. It reminds us of our common animate nature and connects us collectively, not only amongst humans but also amongst the wider community of animate beings.

Our methodology is shaped with different emphasis by somatic movement practice, authentic movement, wilderness and tresholdwalks, contact playfight, processoriented psychology and the work that reconnects.

These Retreats will help you …

  • to find and deepen self connection alone and in the presence of others
  • to perceive your inner impulses and to allow them to express and manifest
  • to find softness with parts of you expressing your wild inner being
  • to strengthen your self definition
  • to gain nourishing experiences of relating deeply with nature beings
  • to feel home in nature
  • to find access to mystic experiences in nature
  • to take steps and do rituals to foster your personal growth
  • to relate authentically with other humans and with nature beings
  • to remember yourself into the greater community of life
  • to develop your ecological self

each module includes:

  • practice of Authentic Movement in nature
  • a somatic approach towards movement in nature
  • let nature inform and inspire our inner wildness
  • dare awareness shifts in physical encounter with nature
  • let ourselves fall in love with gravity
  • experience the gift of seeing and being seen in our power and our vulnerability
  • experience the animate nature as landscape, as playground, as home, as sensual invitation, as lover, as Self
  • and maybe we will shift a little bit from human centered thinking to earth centered perceiving

SPRING RETREAT – SPROUTING DREAMS

„Early spring in nature. Out of nothing sprouts appear. Trustful, vulnerable, vital.
In plants. In animals. In humanness. In the whole atmosphere of nature.

Our life is filled with plans for fixing the future. We restrain the wild within to meet society’s standards.
Beneath that, there sprouts a dream of who we are just in this moment of now.
Do you let this moment pass? Or do you put forth your hand, to touch, to see, to be?

Allowing the own vulnerability and juiciness to be authentically experiencing reciprocity in relationship with nature.
Prowling the own becoming in the mirror of nature. Cultivating inner wild landscapes.

In nature’s vast embrace I approach in indigenous awareness the dream of my unfolding.
I sense the seed that resonates in me and let it sprout.“

special emphasis at this spring retreat will be given to:

  • approaching the dreaming process of the body
  • catching and enfolding flirting with nature
  • moving from and being moved by liquid consciousness

next dates:
13.-16. March in Hungary
22.-25. May 2025 in Austria

venue:
in Hungary: Farkaskutvölgy, Hollokö
in Austria: Apfelweberhof, 3922 Watzmanns

prices:
150 – 250 € Hungarian Pricescale.
220 – 480 € Austrian Pricescale.
excl. food and accomodation (65 € per night in Austria)

We set pricescales to acknowledge the big economical differences people face these times. We recognize the global and systemic forces that unequally impact people’s opportunities to participate. If you are from an emerging economy or carrying the burden of systemic inequality and impacted by financial disadvantage, feel free to choose your contribution in a way that honours our work and your financial situation.

Please help our planning commitments by registering early, at least one month ahead!

registration

SUMMER RETREAT – INDIGENOUS MIND

“I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.” Albert Schweitzer

Plants and animals native to a region we call indigenous.
There are not many etnies and humans we dare to consider indigenous. Only some tribes which had a very difficult history protecting their nature connected livelihood, value system and worldview.

Can we humans re-indigenate ourselves?

Honoring the nature of our own body sensing, feeling, thinking and dreaming.
Rewilding our way of being and becoming skillful in restoring our relationship with nature – on eye level.
Nourishing our deep need of belonging by re-membering ourselves in nature’s web of life.

Organising our livelihoods in a way they are aligned with the legalities of earth.

next date:
26.-31. August 2025

venue:
Farkaskutvölgy, Hollokö, Hungary

prices:
230 – 360 € Hungarian Pricescale.
330 – 680 € Western Europe Pricescale.
excl. food and accomodation

We set pricescales to acknowledge the big economical differences people face these times. We recognize the global and systemic forces that unequally impact people’s opportunities to participate. If you are from an emerging economy or carrying the burden of systemic inequality and impacted by financial disadvantage, feel free to choose your contribution in a way that honours our work and your financial situation.

Please help our planning commitments by registering early, at least one month ahead!

registration

AUTUMN RETREAT – CATCH THE WIND 

„What is more fun?
rolling down the meadow or spreading the wings to fly into falling.
hiding in the colorful autumn leaves or bathing soft skinned in the late summers sun warmth.
The foxes will witness us, as well as the clouds in angels’ shapes.

In all this beautiful bounty I pause. These shadows are getting long, mine as yours.
Which one do I have to fight so I can go on traveling light?
Which one holds me warm when loneliness lets me shiver in the chilly hour of the night?

Above me and in my back the clear blue sky is opening space for me to grow.
With trust. to move, to dance, to take my steps.“

Next dates:
October 17-20 2024
October 12-15 2025

Venue: Waldviertel, Austria

prices:
150 – 250 € Hungarian Pricescale.
220 – 480 € Austrian Pricescale.
excl. food and accomodation (90 – 115 € per night)

We set pricescales to acknowledge the big economical differences people face these times. We recognize the global and systemic forces that unequally impact people’s opportunities to participate. If you are from an emerging economy or carrying the burden of systemic inequality and impacted by financial disadvantage, feel free to choose your contribution in a way that honours our work and your financial situation.

Please help our planning commitments by registering early, if possible one month ahead!

registration

WINTERRETREAT – DEAR DARKNESS

Little light time, long darkness, low temperatures, wind and moist.
Wintertime is challenging for humans. How do we still relate?
What treasures do we find in darkness – softness, going inward, relating and nesting?
What mysteries reveal the cold – physical strength, alignment and the boost for our immune system?

Moving in the forest, listening. Being in the darkness and waiting, sensing, perceiving oneself in silence.
A long cycle is ending here, pausing in stillness. Like the pause in between two breaths. What is calling me now?

Investigating the animal within, slowing in and letting gentleness take over.
Dreaming wildly.

next date:
Coming soon!

Venue:
Farkaskut Völgy – Wolf well Valley
The venue is 24 hectares of meadow surrounded by forests and hills.
We will move mostly in nature as well in a wonderful dance studio.
http://farkaskutvolgy.hu/

registration

YEAR LONG CYCLE

You hear the call towards your primal wild nature being?
You got a taste or have an idea of how nourishing, inspiring and deeply magical somatic nature connection can be?
You want to support your inner wild being by deeply connecting to the outer nature?

You are not the only one! A community is shaping to dive in and deepen, to reclaim what it means to be human nature.

Into the Wild offers 4 and 6 days Retreats in Nature. In each retreat we will widen our access to the inner wildness and nature being of us humans.
Our main practice therefore will be Authentic Movement, in nature and inspired by nature. The process will be enriched and woven out of all the methodological backgrounds Greg and Irma combine. This includes deep ecology, wilderness practice threshold walks, process oriented psychology, body consciousness based dance improvisation, contactplayfight, experiential anatomy, contact improvisation and nonviolent communication.

The topics and focuses evolve step by step regarding the process we are in and the season we inhabit. We will go along the seasons to let our wild naturebeing be inspired, be moved by nature and to move the nature within.

The Yearlong Cycle consists of 4 modules in the qualities of the seasons.
You can enter the yearcircle at any season.

Additionally the Participants of the year program will:

  • receive two group mentoring sessions about your experiences and the methods used during the module
  • gather and practice with peers once in between each module.
  • deepen into and inspire by recommended literature of Wilderness, Deep Ecology, Somatic Movement awareness
  • receive a certification of participation as wild wolves, sniffing bears or hammock riders
  • be eligible, if eligible, to assist in following Into the Wild retreats

Condition for participation:

  • An entrance interview
  • Commitment to the 4 modules
  • Participating in at least one of our open Authentic Movement sessions
  • Experience and Interest in movement awareness and in ecological activism.
registration

NEXT UPCOMING DATES:

2024 October 17-20 – Austria: Catch the Wind

2025 march 13-16 – Hungary: Sprouting dreams

2025 may 22-25 – Austria: Sprouting Dreams

2025 august 26-31 – Hungary: Indigenous Mind

2025 October 12-16 – Austria: Catch the Wind

thursday 13h – sunday 15h

Costs:

Single 4 Days Retreat:
150 – 250 € Hungarian Pricescale.
220 – 480 € Austrian Pricescale.
We set pricescales to acknowledge the big economical differences people face these times. We recognize the global and systemic forces that unequally impact people’s opportunities to participate. If you are from an emerging economy or carrying the burden of systemic inequality and impacted by financial disadvantage, feel free to choose your contribution in a way that honours our work and your financial situation.

Accomodation and Food will cost additionally.

Yearlong Cycle:
1200 € Normalpreis.
Wenn Deine finanzielle Lage etwas anderes spricht, dann gib DANA: Den höchsten Betragm den Du guten Herzens geben kannst indem Du Deine wie auch unsere Ressourcen achtest. Menschen die einen höheren Beitrag leisten unterstützen direkt die Teilnahme von Menschen mit geringen finanziellen Mitteln.
Dieser Beitrag ist exklusive der Kosten für den Seminarort.

Venue

Hungary:
Three Treasures Valley, Batonyterenye, Hungary
in your own tent : 110 euros
in a room: 125 euros
The venue cook will cook vegetarian meals. Please inform us in advance if you have any special requirements concerning food.

Farkaskútvölgy, Hollokö, Hungary
The venue is 24 hectares of meadow surrounded by forests and hills.
in dorm yourt 165 €
in shared appartment 230 €

Austria:
Apfelweberhof, Watzmanns, Waldviertel
Nächtigung incl. Verpflegung mit köstlichstem biologisch vegetarisch/veganem Essen 65 € pro Nacht.

Mariahaus, Bucklige Welt
Nächtigung incl. Verpflegung 75 € pro Nacht

Oase der Ruhe, Joachimstal
Nächtigung incl. Verpflegung 95 € pro Nacht

number of participants:
10 – 18 + Assistents

leading team:
Irma Pelikan, Gregory Chevalier

Registration and Informations:
Irma Pelikan (Tel.Nr.: 0043 (0) 650 740 34 33, mail@irmapelikan.at)

or direktly: https://irmapelikan.at/anmeldung/