The water was cool as the sun blazed in just-passed midsummer glory from an azure sky. We’d been ruminating on healing ancestral trauma. But it wasn’t a painful conversation, and compassion palpably occupied the spare seats around our wee group.

Stepping into the shower, I tried to count how long we’d been together—only two overnights, we were on our third day. It felt like we’d been doing this every day for years. Not in the way that everyday seems ordinary (although it felt very natural), but it was hard to imagine we all had other rich, full lives outside of here and now.

What a blessing to spend time with such deep-hearted women. Our Burning Love Mandala Magic retreat had begun on a cooler, grey day here in the Charente when the wind got up enough to call for the jacket I thought I’d packed erroneously as we got stuck into a hearty lunch of local produce. Today, it was just the opposite.

It’s hard to imagine that you’d ever wear socks again when you’re pottering about southern France in the summer, the sunflower fields bathing you in a Wes Anderson-style golden glow. But we’d somehow managed to call in brooding, gusty weather as we gathered in circle to make magic with cacao medicine and mandala symbolism. 

You make do when you’re not in your own home. To be flexible, fluid and forgiving of one’s self and others. Chef told me under no circumstances was I allowed in her kitchen—we had one all to ourselves in the barn. I was reminding myself that I am cool, calm and capable, as I crafted the cacao elixir for our opening ceremony with only a kettle, stick blender and a broken teapot. Chef did lend me the cinnamon I’d forgotten to bring, but no vanilla in this kitchen, c’est la vie!

Was the magic started by the ceremonial cacao, or activated almost a year ago when each of these amazing women said yes to this adventure? The magic phrase that showed up for me on our first evening was WHOLEHEARTEDLY CHERISH POSSIBILITY.

Collectively drawn to image-making from the soul, we’d been conjuring powerful words for the last three days. So many words shimmering, alive and resonant. So many more words to be exchanged across the whole five nights.

To be whole-hearted, one must be open-hearted, and if you’ve never gathered in sacred circle with a group of women, you’ll never quite understand how deep and close and vulnerable it can become, almost instantly.

I could be jealous of the additional conversations that wove their way through the sunflower fields and across the vast open skies of the Charente; instead, I’m full of joy and gratitude for the blessing that is a group of women willing to dance this dance.

Oh, we made mandalas, it’s true—but that’s not the most of it. We looked inwards and outwards, looked each other deep in the eyes and laid bare our hearts and souls through soul song. We spoke of the burden women carry—its heft, it’s weight and it’s significance.

There was lightness, too, in the fullness of belly laughs, silliness and the light touch of respectful attendance on those who would need a wee bit of extra support to feel safe enough to explore those places oft hidden in the outside world.

I met Mandala Magicians who feel like family after a decade-long virtual relationship, and bonded with soul-kindreds whose geography is distant but whose heart and being I stand firmly alongside. I witnessed creative leadership in others, both conscious and otherwise and can’t wait to help them expand into their fullness.

My word for the year in 2025 is REACH and through this retreat experience, I have stretched myself and my understanding of the power of Mandala Magic beyond its previous limitations. It’s difficult to contain the excitement I feel as I consider where it might reach next.

I already know what our next Mandala Magic retreat will be, but first, there’s a holiday to holiday and a rest to be rested. Healing, too, for some physical wounds that are helping me to understand my need to slow down and take things one step at a time!