A day-long retreat on November 1, 2025 * 930am-530pm
at Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center
facilitated by Sage Hayes
>>>Join a small group of courageous movers and explorers for the first ever offering of Death Songs.
Death songs is an emergent and embodied invitation and ritual to move together to the songs you want played at your funeral.
We will spend the day together building conditions for connection, depth, bravely exploring death and life, intensity and mystery, love and letting go.
Because this is the first time this retreat is being offered, the design for this retreat is emergent and evolving. The flow of the day will follow these themes…
Morning:
Connectivity: building coherence and connection with each other
Altar building for our time together - honoring ancestors and sharing our invocations
Embodiment practice - practices which support feeling our body, moving into presence, deepening connection to self and building capacity to explore intuition, emotion, thresholds and release
Afternoon:
Sharing our death songs with each other through moving together, sharing, presencing and heart opening practices
Closing circle to harvest our experience from the day
During this retreat we will be moving, dancing, sitting, sharing, going outside - wear comfy clothing. We’ll have breaks and at least an hour for lunch around 1230pm.
The flow, invitations and activities during the retreat will be embedded with lineages of intuitive practice, somatics, family constellations, 5 rhythms, biodynamic craniosacral, authentic movement and a deep devotion to creating a culture of care, consent and community.
Space is limited to 8-12 participants.
This is the first ever offering of Death Songs!
I’m inviting folks to join this iteration if you’re ok with being a part of something that is at its beginning, something new and unpolished. Mostly it will be a series of invitations to connect with yourself, each other and whatever is beyond that calls to you.
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I am honored to be hosted by Jonah and Burdie at the Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center yurt. There are many trails on the property to explore during lunchtime or breaks.
Registration:
Pricing for this offering is a spacious sliding scale, $75-$175. You can put a non-refundable $50 deposit now to save your spot or pay in full. You can fill in the amount you’d like to pay on the payment page.
About the sliding scale: There are a limited amount slots for Death Songs offered at the middle and lower end of the scale. Please be mindful that if you purchase a price at the lowest end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the higher ticket prices, you are limiting access to those who truly need the gift of financial flexibility. Being honest with yourself and your financial situation when engaging with sliding scale practices grows strong and sustainable communities. To understand more where you fall on the sliding scale, check out this great resource.
REGISTER HERE.
Upon registration you will be sent a form to fill out and some preparation recommendations for our time.
Any questions - email me at sage@embodiedliberation.com
Why November 1?
is the Day of the Dead which made sense as the inaugural birth day of Death Songs. The Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, traces back to the ancient Aztec Empire, thousands of years ago, where death was seen as a natural part of life and not a cause for mourning. The Spanish colonization in the 16th century led to the merging of these indigenous traditions with Catholic practices, particularly All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. This fusion evolved into the modern celebration, which now combines Aztec rituals of honoring ancestors with Catholic holidays, culminating in a vibrant tradition that focuses on remembering and celebrating deceased loved ones. While we will not be utilizing Day of the Dead rituals because I am not from that lineage, I feel as though it is a powerful day to bring this form forth.
Why death songs?
This project / vision was born out of these political times where as a species we are struggling to let go of death centered and fear driven ways of being. I sat for a long time with the question - what will it take for folks to be able to let go of outdated ways and unearned privilege and turn more courageously towards and into the evolution of life itself? What came to me was the idea of helping us creatively turn towards our own mortality using movement, the power of our circle and a fullness of permission to look at and beyond our fears. This project is more a prayer than anything else.
About Sage (she/hey/they) :
Part deep sea diver, part astronaut - Sage has been facilitating many different types of groups for over 30 years. As an DJ for ecstatic dance, Sage has a sense that music and community will be transformative portal for exploring death and life. For the past 18 years Sage has training extensively in somatics, nervous system care, trauma healing and supporting countless clients and groups connect embodied agency. In this project, Death Songs, Sage is trying something new, an emergent form which invites folks into depth, movement, music and deep connection with self and each other.