The Sacred Forge Weekend: Working with fire and metal
Dates: September 10–13, 2026
Location: Lebanon, Connecticut
Tuition:
$600 — Includes all materials and tools
Camping & Meals: $225
Commuter (Meals Only): $100
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Overview
Join Adhi and co-host Alissa for a four-day immersive gathering centered on fire, metal, and transformation. Set within the wooded countryside of eastern Connecticut, this weekend invites participants into the ancient and elemental practice of forging sacred objects through hands-on blacksmithing, ceremony, and connection to the land.
The forge is the hearth of transformation—a place where raw material meets heat, intention, and skill. Through fire and focused labor, participants will learn to shape copper, bronze, and iron into amulets, bells, talismans, adornments, and other sacred forms. This is a full, embodied experience where creativity, ritual, and material knowledge meet.
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Who This Gathering Is For?
This weekend is designed for:
Artists and craftspeople
Sound healers and ceremonial practitioners
Shamanic and earth-based practitioners
Those drawn to elemental work, metal alchemy, and transformation through making
No prior blacksmithing experience is required—only curiosity, respect for the process, and a willingness to work with fire.
What You Will Learn & Experience
Foundations of blacksmithing and metalworking
Tool use, safety, and forge etiquette
Heating, hammering, drawing out, tempering, filing, and polishing
Designing and forging small sacred objects
Elemental and alchemical understandings of fire and metal
Plant medicine teachings and ethical foraging practices
Meditation, ceremony, and communal fire tending
Facilitators
Adhi will guide participants through the alchemy of fire and metal as a transformational process—exploring the physical, symbolic, and spiritual dimensions of forging. The forge becomes a teacher, revealing patience, rhythm, focus, and change through heat and pressure.
Alissa will offer plant medicine teachings and guided herb walks, sharing foraging techniques and plant wisdom to deepen our relationship with the land and the living world that supports this work.
Weekend Schedule Overview
Thursday –
Arrival & Orientation
Arrival and settling in
Shared dinner
Evening fire circle
Introductions and safety orientation
Creating clay fire deities for the forge
Opening meditation
Friday –
Igniting the Forge
Breakfast
Lighting the forge (kept burning continuously until Sunday morning)
Fire tending shifts shared by all participants
Introduction to tools, techniques, and blacksmithing methods
Drawing, designing, and planning forged pieces
Working with wire, rods, bats and recycled and different metals through hammering and shaping
Herb walk and guided meditation
Saturday –
Refinement & Creation
Continued forging and exploration
Refining and finishing pieces
Filing, polishing, and detailing
Evening Forge Ceremony…..
Sunday-
At dawn we close the forge fire, make offerings and finish our pieces. Closing circle, gratitudes and pack out.
The Land & Community
This land for the retreat in Lebanon Connecticut is special. It is maintained in a way to preserve its wildness. There are cultivated gardens as well as wild spaces to create a blending of nature and our activities. It buts up to wild forest lands and trails. Participants will have time to explore the surrounding wooded land, hiking to the Cedar Lake for swimming, sacred groves, and wildlife-rich environment. The weekend emphasizes community, shared responsibility, ceremony, and respectful engagement with both tools and place.
This is a complete immersion experience. Together we will create a dynamic, grounded, and safe container to explore creativity, connection, and transformation—using fire, through the sacred forge, as the central focus and teacher.
Meals
We will gather and have incredible locally grown, wild foraged, harvested and resourced meals. We will all participate in the preparation and serving of these through out the weekend. When you register for this retreat, please fill out the dietary form so we can meet your needs. We will do everything we can to make sure everyone is nourished well.
There will be coffee, teas and other hydrating beverages.
This is an alcohol and drug free event. Due to the safety that needs to be maintained during this weekend, we ask that you do not bring any thing that can be an intoxicant.
What to Bring:
Leather gloves
Eye protection
Notebook and pen/pencil
Camping gear
Plate, bowl, cup, and eating utensils
Flashlight or headlamp
Weather-appropriate clothing
(A more complete list will be sent when you register)