http://www.circlesofempowerment.org/

Circles Of Empowerment, Arroyo Grande, CA (2026)

09/06/2026

Moon Lodge 🌕

During Long Dance, there may be a moment when you feel called to step away from the movement of the Dance Circle and into the quieter space of Moon Lodge.

For Sisters who are in their moontime, or any part of their cycle, Moon Lodge offers a place to rest, regenerate, and meditate while the Dance continues through the night. You are still part of the Ceremony—you are simply being invited to honor your body and the cycle you are moving through.

And all Sisters are welcome to come into Moon Lodge.
Come sit for a while.

Listen to the stories and teachings shared by other women. Talk about your own experiences. Ask questions. Spend time with Sisters who may be walking a different season of womanhood than you are.

Moon Lodge recognizes the great cycles we move through. One of the beautiful things about Long Dance is that women in all of these stages gather together.
We have an opportunity to sit with women who have already traveled passages we are approaching, to share what we have learned from the passages behind us, and simply to talk together about what it means to be a woman.

So if you find yourself drawn toward Moon Lodge during the weekend, come in.

Rest if you need rest.
Sit with your Sisters.
Share a story.
Listen.
Honor the cycle you are in.

There is a place for you here.

Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California

Tickets in bio!

09/05/2026

Mother Lodge: Walking in Beauty

At Long Dance, Mother Lodge is a place to honor Mother Earth and the feminine aspects of our lives—the energies of creation, nurturing, transformation, and bringing something new into being.

Mother lodge invites us to reflect on the many ways we experience Mother Energy: through our relationship with the Earth, through the women who came before us and nurtured us into being, through our own capacity to create and nurture, and through the things we are bringing to life.

Mother Lodge carries the theme “Walking in Beauty”—an invitation to notice and honor the life/death/life cycle within and around us.

As part of the Lodge, Sisters are invited to bring something for the altar that represents mothering energy to you. This might be an image, symbol, natural object, or another meaningful item that represents Mother Earth, the feminine, or nurturing Energy in your own life.

Mother Lodge also gives us an opportunity to make our maternal lineage visible.

Sisters are invited to create a collage of the women in their maternal line:

Great-Grandmothers.
Grandmothers.
Mothers.
Daughters.
Granddaughters.

Bring photos or copies of photos and create something that allows these women—the ones who came before us and the ones who may come after us—to enter the ceremonial space with you.

Whether or not we are mothers ourselves, we each come from a long line of women.

At Long Dance, we have an opportunity to remember that lineage, to honor the Earth that holds us, and to consider what we ourselves are nurturing, creating, and bringing into the world.

What are you mothering?
What are you creating?
What are you bringing to life?
And what have you inherited from the women who walked before you?

Come add your lineage, your symbols, and your own expression of Mother Energy to Mother Lodge as together we practice Walking in Beauty. 🌿🌙

🌿 Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California

Tickets in bio!

09/04/2026

Grandmother Lodge: Honoring Our Elders 🌿

At Long Dance, our elders hold a special place within the ceremony.

Grandmother Lodge is a place for the women who have gone ahead of us. It offers our Elders a comfortable place to experience the dance, while giving the rest of us the gift of their presence, experience, and wisdom.
For women approaching or moving beyond their childbearing years, consider what this next part of life might hold:

How would you like to express your creative urges?
What might you now have space to devote yourself to that has been a longing deep within all your life?
How would you like to move through this transition?

Feeling a bit lost? come and sit with grandmother medicine.

We can learn the secrets and mysteries of this time from those who have gone ahead.

That is part of what makes gathering across generations so important.

There are things we can only learn by living them—and things we can learn because another woman has lived them before us.

At Long Dance, Maidens, Mothers, Aunties, Grandmothers, and Elders gather together. The younger among us get to see women further down the path, and our Elders are given a place of honor within the community they have helped create.

The ceremony asks us to make that honoring tangible, too: serve our Elders first, notice what they need, offer a chair, bring water, prepare a plate, create shade.
Grandmother Lodge reminds us to pay attention to the women who came before us.

To care for them.
To listen to them.
To learn from them.
And to honor the wisdom that comes from having walked the path.

Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California
Tickets in bio!

09/03/2026

Drum Lodge: The Heartbeat of the Ceremony 🪘🌙

From sunset to sunrise, the drumbeat carries us through Long Dance.

There are Sisters who formally make up the heart of Drum Lodge—organizing and preparing the Lodge, bringing the sacred drums, and helping hold responsibility for maintaining the constant drumbeat throughout the night.

But during Long Dance, we are all Drum Lodge.

Every Sister is needed to drum throughout the night and keep the sacred heartbeat of the dance alive.

As we move through the night, we take turns Dancing and drumming for one another. There will be moments when you are moving around the Circle, carried by the voices and rhythms of your Sisters—and moments when you sit down at the drums and become part of the rhythm carrying them.

We become drummers for one another.

Bring your own instruments if you have them! Hand drums, rattles, and other instruments are welcome, and Sisters are encouraged to bring them into the Circle for Opening Ceremony. Please ask permission before playing an instrument that isn’t yours, and if an instrument is covered, leave it undisturbed.

The packet tells us that during the central Ceremony we will spend the night “moving around the Dance circle in a swirl of singing, drumming, and praying.”

That constant rhythm is something we create collectively.

From sunset until sunrise, we Dance for one another.
We sing for one another.
We drum for one another.

And together, we keep the heartbeat of Long Dance alive until morning. 🔥🪘🌅

If you are interested in participating in drum lodge, please send a message and let us know you feel the call of the drum!

🌿 Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California

Tickets in bio!

SacredCeremony Sisterhood WomenSupportingWomen

09/02/2026

Welcome Lodge: Your First Step Into Ceremony 🌿

First, a deep offering of gratitude for all the women who have carried this lodge forward for 35 years. This important role is essential in kicking off the ceremony weekend and your efforts are gratefully acknowledged ❤️

You’ve arrived at Suma Sil. You’ve unpacked, checked in at Registration, and now it’s time to begin settling into the ceremonial space of Long Dance.

Your next stop is Welcome Lodge.

Welcome Lodge is here to help you transition from the journey of getting here into the experience of being here—on the land, with your community, and preparing for Ceremony.

At Welcome Lodge, materials are available for making prayer to***co ties, along with teachings for your consideration. If you already know how to make your ties, you are also welcome to prepare them quietly at home before arriving.

There is a reason for slowing down enough to arrive intentionally.

Long Dance reminds us that Ceremony begins the moment you decide to attend. By the time you reach Suma Sil, you have already been preparing, packing, traveling, and carrying your intentions toward the land.
Welcome Lodge offers a place to begin bringing your attention fully into the ceremonial village and the community you will be sharing it with.

If you are a veteran dancer who feels called to help sisters orient to the ceremony, give a warm welcome, and support sisters in their transition from the external world into our ceremonial space- then reach out and volunteer! We’d love to have you.

Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California
Tickets in bio!

09/02/2026

What does it mean to be in Home Lodge? 🔥🌿

Long Dance is something we create together.

This Ceremony is hosted and coordinated by members of the Circles of Empowerment community, and it comes to life through the loving, dedicated efforts of many hands.

Being part of Home Lodge means stepping more deeply into that creation through service. Each Home Lodge member takes on a role—offering their own energy, time, gifts, and skills in service to the whole.

There are many ways to participate: Welcome Lodge, Registration Lodge, Drum Lodge, Altar Lodge, Grandmother Lodge, Moon Lodge, Mother Lodge, Wellness Lodge, Thunder Lodge, Raffle Lodge, Latrine Lodge, and Kitchen Lodge.

On Thursday, we come together to do the “Bear’s share” of ceremonial setup, preparing the village so Friday can open into teachings, purification, gathering, and preparation for the Dance.

Throughout the weekend, Home Lodge continues to tend the many pieces that allow Ceremony to unfold.

Show up. Jump in. Participate.

When we enter Ceremony through service, the work becomes about more than our individual intentions. We become part of creating the container that allows our sisters to do their work, too.

There is something different about entering the Dance after you have helped build the village, prepared a space, carried what needed carrying, tended a responsibility, or simply offered your hands where they were needed.

Long Dance isn’t simply something provided for us.

It is something we make for one another.

Over the next several days, we’ll be introducing the different Lodges, what each represents, and the many ways you can participate.

Interested in joining Home Lodge but aren’t sure where your gifts might fit? Send us a message—we’d love to help you find your place.

🌿 Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California
Tickets in bio!

SacredCeremony

09/01/2026

LAST DAY FOR EARLY BIRD TICKETS!

This year, we Dance in the East. 🌅🦅

This Long Dance brings us into the East of the Medicine Wheel—the place where we birth a new cycle and “fly with the bird tribes into possibility.”

The East is the direction of illumination and enlightenment. It is the farsighted place—the place of the Eagle—where we rise high enough to see where we are, where we are going, and how the pieces of our lives fit together.

The Big Picture.

The East asks us to seek balance and harmony. To remember that life is meant not only to be endured, but enjoyed. To stop and smell the flowers. To listen to the winds. To allow the Inner Light to shine forth and reveal our path.

Its element is Air—movement, change, freshness, freedom and the Breath of Life.

Its totem is Eagle, flying high and seeing far and wide, carrying the teachings of vision and balance.

Its heavenly body is the Sun, bringing light out of darkness and reminding us of the Inner Light within ourselves.

And its invitation is renewal.

What becomes possible when we release what keeps us from seeing clearly?

What new cycle are you ready to begin?

What might you see when you rise above the details and look at your life from the place of the Seer?

This year, we gather in the East to awaken possibility, seek balance, renew ourselves and touch the world with beauty.

BE FEARLESS IN YOUR SHINING. ☀️

Come Dance with us as we birth a new cycle.

🌙 Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California

Tickets in bio!

Eagle SacredCeremony WomensLongDance WomenOfPower WalkingInBeauty

08/28/2026

The Ceremony begins the moment you decide to attend.

Long Dance does not begin when the drums begin.
It begins in the weeks before—when you make the decision to come, long before you pack your first bag you start preparing yourself, consider for yourself:
What do I intend to create in my life as a result of this work?

As you plan, pack, and travel to the ceremonial grounds, we invite you to begin treating each action as an offering to Spirit.

Be mindful of your thoughts.
Be mindful of your words.
Be mindful of your actions.

Consider the energy you bring with you, the energy you invoke while on the land, and the energy you will carry home when you leave.

Long Dance is much more than “going camping” or “going to a women’s retreat/festival”. It is an opportunity to arrive with intention—to create a path toward the things you are calling into your life.

And when we gather with many other intentional people, that power is multiplied.

So as Long Dance approaches, your Ceremony has already begun.

What is your intention for this year’s Dance?
21 days away!

Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21
Sanctuary Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, California

Get your tickets today!! Only a few days left for early bird pricing.

08/28/2026

Full Moon Ceremony - Friday 7pm

Empowerment Through Ritual and Ceremony - Saturday and Sunday 10-5

Full Moon ceremony is a sacred, traditional, ceremonial offering by those who have studied for several years to facilitate a safe context for the prayers and deeply personal testimonials of community spoken in prayer.

This ceremony is a place you can pray into your life within a loving compassionate circle. Held within the comfort of your own home on zoom, the circle is opened up to a gathering of community in accordance with the cycles of the full moon. Take this stellar opportunity to send your prayers out to Spirit.
These ceremonies are open to all Sisters and Brothers, collectively.
________________________________________________
Empowerment Through Ritual and Ceremony Class

LAST CHANCE BEFORE LONG DANCE! Men interested in thunder lodge MUST take this class before participating. JOIN US!!

Details:

- August 29 & 30 10-5pm

- Elder reciprocity for 2 full days of teaching: 250$
*no one turned away due to inability to pay*
Please reach out for scholarship opportunities

- The class will be held on Zoom. To express interest, please send an email to: [email protected]

Ceremony is a way of life, whether holding a personal practice in a private ritual, honoring the seasons, offering our prayers, or gathering together with our spiritual families.

The teachings of ritual and ceremony are some of the oldest teachings which many believe are needed today more than ever. Clan Mother and native elder, Hua Anwa, will be offering an introduction to these sacred ways in an intensive weekend workshop, providing both a foundation and an invitation to expand and deepen your knowledge of all aspects of ritual and ceremony, including an introduction to shamanic tools, journeying, energetic shielding and the teachings of the medicine wheel.

08/26/2026

Why go to Long Dance? 🔥🌙

We come to dance our sacred dream awake. To honor what has come over the last year. For those who no longer can and honor our ancestors who have come before and carried so much.

Long Dance is an opportunity to step out of ordinary life and into four days of ceremony, celebration, healing, prayer, and community.

We come into long dance as one woman, carrying her own intentions. Then we come and link up in a powerful way with other women and carry their intentions in our hearts together as one.

What do you intend to create with your one precious life?
What are you ready to stop carrying that drains you of your essential essence?
What path are you ready to bravely align yourself with?

Long Dance invites us to reflect and bring forward those prayers into the year to come.

From sunset to sunrise, we move together in a sea of women—singing, drumming, praying, and offering our energy and intention to Mother Earth, the Great Mother.

We enter into a relationship with the elements and the sacred direction of the East bringing perspective and joy. Allowing ourselves to become fully present and actively engaged in this Living Prayer.

There is power in doing this work together as it has been done for the last 35 years. Come be a part of this history and feel the power of this time-honored, transformative ceremony.

When many intentional people gather, each bringing her own unique medicine to the whole, our individual prayers become part of something larger.

Long Dance is not something that simply happens around you.

It is each one of us who makes the Ceremony.

Come dressed in your power.
Bring your songs.
Bring your prayers.
Bring your beautiful spirit.
And come Dance your sacred dream awake. 🌙

Have more questions? Feeling called but nervous? Sitting with uncertainty? Send us a message via Instagram or email and a community member would love to support you.

36th Annual Women’s Long Dance Ceremony
September 17–21

Suma Sil • Santa Margarita, CA (directions and tickets in bio)

Circles Of Empowerment

09/06/2026

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09/04/2026

09/03/2026

09/02/2026

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08/26/2026

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