Breathing Fire: A Wild Power Workshop for Women
Friday, January 31 – Sunday, February 2, 2025

Facilitated by Leigh Melander, PhD, Spillian Co-Founder

Are you burning to change your life and the world?

A private weekend workshop celebrating the fire we hold in us, the dragon fire of the Catskills mountains, and the embers of fire festivals traditionally celebrated in winter and early spring to imagine the power and life of the coming year. This year we gather on the night of the Celtic festival, Imbolc.

In most cultures, women have been traditionally defined by three roles: maiden, mother, and crone. Each is a powerful metaphor, each has value, but they all live within society’s expectations.  They are often as much about how the world sees women as they are how we see ourselves.

There is another metaphor, one that acknowledges women’s power, our wildness, and how we often stand outside the constructs of society.

And that is dragon. Filled with fire, with possibility, with fortune, and with danger, dragons refuse to be bound by rules.

How do we see and embrace this power in ourselves, even when we aren’t sure we can? How can we learn to ride this fire enough so it doesn’t burn ourselves or the people around us? And at the same time, how can we understand that its very nature resists being tamed? How can we navigate the risks of unleashing this fire in a world that is often terrified by it?

Explore your own fair fierceness through story, movement, and imagination.

Please note: this is an ongoing workshop over the course of several years, and by invitation so we honor the energies of the group as it is growing. If you’ve not taken it with us before, please reach out to us via email  to learn more before you register. Thank you!

What to Bring

Over the years, this gathering has become a time to gather and co-create flames with one another, celebrating our power together. We invite you to bring an idea to work, an activity to dive into, a piece of your own dragon self to share. What brings you fire? And what might ignite your fellow dragons? If you’re not sure what you might bring with you, please feel free to reach out to Leigh and we can explore ideas. And if you’re curling around the edges at the idea, never fear – we will have lots to share.

About Leigh Melander, Ph.D.

Leigh has an eclectic background in the arts as well as consulting in strategic planning, outreach and marketing, and event planning for over 20 years. She has performed, and taught and facilitated explorations of imagination and creativity internationally, working with individuals and groups to help them find their way to bringing their wild ideas to life. Her first book in the Frivolous Revolution series, Psyche’s Choice, has been released on Amazon, and is being re-released in 2025, along with her new book, Just This Side of Crazy: Quest After Your Wild Idea.

Her undergraduate degree is in performance, literature, and history from Penn State, and she studied writing by invitation with Nobel Poet Laureate Derek Walcott at Boston University. She has a doctorate in cultural mythology and psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and wrote her dissertation on frivolity as an entry into imagination. She has has appeared at various conferences and on media outlets, including the History Channel, as a mythology expert, and has published articles in Spring Journal, The Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies, The Mythology CD-ROM. She hosted Myth America®, a weekly radio show about  how myth shapes our sense of identity on an NPR affiliate for three years and is transitioning to a podcast, and served as the Vice President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and the editor of their MythBlast series for four years.

Pricing

Workshop Registration Fee:
$295 until December 25, 2024
$395 after that date.

Spillian is proud to underwrite some of the costs on this workshop, hoping to keep experience accessible to as many women as possible. 

• Includes all chef-made meals, sessions, and materials. Cash bar, tax, and gratuities not included.
• Attendees are welcome to arrive any time Friday afternoon after 3 PM.
• Please bring comfortable clothes that you can move and make stuff in.
• Commuters welcome for the workshop registration fee.

Spillian Lodging $235

Spillian offers eight delightful rooms. You can learn more about them here and make your choice on the registration page. All rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Jules Verne Room has two double sized beds, and is appropriate for sharing with a roommate. If you are coming with a friend and would like to share that room, one guest should reserve the room. Fees for all of the rooms are the same for single or double occupancy for the weekend, and are in addition to the workshop fee.

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