New Tribe,
Old Eyes
A 21‑day sacred medicine journey — two Ayahuasca ceremonies, San Pedro, a fire that asks everything of you, and a tribe that doesn't let go.
"Rated by hundreds of past journeyers as one of the most powerful — and most affordable — transformational experiences they have ever invested in."
This is not about the aesthetic of transformation. It's about the container that makes it possible.
You may have seen retreats that sell you a feeling, a curated spiritual experience — the linen, the feathers, the beads, the perfectly lit ceremony photo. That is not what we do.
What we have spent over a decade building is something much harder to fake: a container so safe, so held, so deeply attuned, that complete strangers become capable of being more honest with each other than they have ever been with anyone in their lives.
This is the real medicine of New Tribe, Old Eyes. Not the plants alone — though they are sacred and central — but the field of witnessing they unlock. The people sitting beside you on Friday night, whom you have never met, will by Sunday have seen you in your most unguarded state. Rather than that being a vulnerability, it becomes the foundation of one of the strongest bonds you will ever build.
You don't come out of this retreat with a story about a tribal ceremony you once did. You come out with a tribe.
A word from the man who co-designed this journey.
"I have such a deep love for these medicines and this space.
There is something so distinct about what sacred plant medicines reveal to us: the experience of who we truly are as sacred interconnected beings before our stories, interpretations and beliefs came along to define us. As we shed the protective layers of who we thought we needed to be all our lives to be love-worthy, successful or significant, we get to meet each other in our raw truth and vulnerability — and this feels like a homecoming to a space so familiar, sacred and essential.
The safer we feel, the deeper we go, the more we understand, the more powerfully we can choose our path forward. It empowers us to truly become the authors of our own life story, rather than characters lost in the plot line of someone else's. The design of this retreat is to bring each person to that point of felt understanding in the shortest space of time possible. And as we gather in our final circle, what we get to see in each other's eyes is an ancient understanding that we have done this many lifetimes before — and what we birth in that space is a profound new sense of connection, purpose and tribe.
I believe everybody should get to experience this at least once in their lifetime. I believe that if all leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, influencers, activists and world-builders got to experience what is beyond this door, we would walk a completely different reality. These medicines have spread and called us for a reason.
And so my invitation is: come walk with me, into the fire.
— Hymnj
This retreat is for people who are done circling the same pattern.
We don't promise a cure. We won't tell you that three days will fix a life. But this is one of the most powerful, concentrated steps you can take toward becoming the author of your life — rather than living at the effect of everyone else's.
- → A betrayal or trauma you have never fully metabolised
- → A pattern of self-sabotage, addiction, or numbness you are ready to finally face
- → A major life transition — a relationship ending, a calling shifting, a chapter closing — and a need for clarity on what comes next
- → A quiet, persistent sense that you are not yet living as the person you actually are
If any of this is landing, you are likely one of the people this retreat was built for.
This retreat was built, in large part, with first-timers in mind.
If you've never sat in ceremony before, that is not a barrier here — it's something we plan for directly. Most of the people who come through New Tribe, Old Eyes are stepping into plant medicine for the very first time, often carrying real fear alongside their readiness. Both are welcome.
What matters most for a first experience like this isn't bravado — it's being properly held, before, during, and especially after. That is the entire reason the 18-day integration container exists. We don't open the door and leave you to find your own way back. Mangaliso, Simone, and I stay in the work with you, every day, until you have genuinely landed.
Introducing Hearth & Soul, Stanford
For over a decade, New Tribe, Old Eyes was held at a venue that became part of its own story. That chapter has closed — and a new one, in many ways even more powerful, has opened.
Your Own Room
A private room for every participant — no longer sharing two or three to a room. Your own space to rest, integrate, and process in solitude when you need it.
Fire, River, Mountain
A dedicated fire pit at the heart of the land, a river and a mountain framing the entire experience in raw, undisturbed nature.
Built for Ceremony
A purpose-built ceremony space, held with the same care as everything else here, and a dining hall where the food itself becomes part of the nourishment.
This is not a weekend. It is a 21‑day arc of transformation.
Most plant medicine experiences end the moment the ceremony does — and that is precisely where most people lose what they gained. We built this differently.
The real integration work happens in the days and weeks after the ceremony — and almost nobody is equipped to do that work alone. So this is not a three-day retreat. It is a three-day intensive immersion, followed by an 18-day guided integration journey, until what you discovered in ceremony has actually taken root in your daily life.
Arrival & Opening
You arrive into a held, sacred container from the first moment.
An African welcoming ritual marks your crossing into the work.
As night falls, the first medicine ceremony begins.
The Threshold Day
A full-body primal breathwork practice to move what words cannot reach.
Opens the heart at a different register than the night medicine.
The Shamanic Fire Ceremony
As the sun sets, the energy of the weekend builds toward its center. After a day of deep introspection and radical honesty, you will be asked to do something few retreats ask of their participants: to name, aloud and specifically, the old contracts — the beliefs, patterns, and identities — that no longer serve you. You burn them. Then, in the same fire, you forge the new contract: the commitment, the value, the way of being you are choosing instead.
This is not a metaphor performed for effect. It is a binding moment, witnessed by your new tribe, that many participants describe as the single most significant act of their lives.
The night closes with the second medicine ceremony.
Integration & Closing
A final session grounds the body.
The tribe witnesses each other one last time before the world outside reclaims you — different than when you arrived.
You leave with three things beyond memory: your microdosing kit for the 18 days ahead, the physical contract you wrote in the fire, and a Wake Circle amulet — a small, sacred reminder of what you forged here.
The 18 days after: where the real work lives
This is the part almost no other retreat offers — and it's the part our community tells us matters most. For 18 days following the weekend, you remain held inside the container.
WhatsApp Check-Ins
Share your process with your tribe and facilitators — naming what's landing, staying accountable to the contract you made in the fire.
Zoom Group Coaching
Two group circle check-ins with direct facilitator support.
Guided Journaling
A structured practice to track your unfolding, day by day.
Closing & Sealing Ceremony
A final Zoom ceremony brings the full 21-day arc to completion together, as one tribe.
By the end of the 21 days, the shift is rarely abstract. It is visible — in how people carry themselves, in the decisions they've made, in the relationships they've repaired or released.
Your Facilitators
This is not a hired team assembled for a retreat. These facilitators bring together a wealth of extraordinary facilitation experience from their various own lineages. We have also sat together in this exact field, with these exact medicines, for years. What you'll be held by is a relationship and transformative blueprint that already exists — not one performed for the weekend.
Hymnj
Co-Founder & Shamanic FacilitatorCo-founder of Wake Circle and medicine singer, Hymnj has spent over a decade facilitating ceremony across Southern Africa. An award-winning theatre director in an earlier life, he brings a rare fluency in story, ritual, and the architecture of safe emotional space. He is a father, and a guide of the masculine path back to wholeness.
Simone Bekkerling
Co-FacilitatorSimone (Moni) has walked with sacred plant medicine since 2002 — from the mountains of Peru to the heart of the Santo Daime tradition in Brazil. Her depth with sweat lodge, vision quest, and teacher plant traditions allows her to hold space with a rare combination of fierceness and tenderness.
Mangaliso Ntekiso
Cultural & Heritage PractitionerMangaliso stands at the forefront of bridging the ancient and the contemporary, weaving isiNtu principles into modern healing practice. A devoted cultural practitioner with over a decade of engagement in indigenous healing, he embodies the role of a Sangoma — guiding souls through self-discovery and healing, and bringing the timeless wisdom of isiNtu to bear on the spiritual and emotional work of this retreat.
This work asks for real commitment — from us, and from you.
- Book off the entire three-day weekend, arriving before the start of ceremony and remaining fully present until close
- Keep all financial and booking arrangements as agreed — deposits are non-refundable, to honour the seriousness of this commitment for everyone in the circle
- Download WhatsApp for daily check-ins during the integration period
- Keep your calendar clear for the final closing ceremony at the end of the 21 days
- Engage honestly and fully with the process — for yourself, and for the tribe relying on your presence
In return, our commitment to you is total: full investment in your transformation, from the moment you book until the final closing circle 21 days later.
What this costs — and what it actually is
A retreat offering this level of facilitation, this length of integration support, private accommodation, and a decade-plus of refined ceremony craft would typically be priced at double what we charge. We've kept it accessible, because this work shouldn't only be available to people who can pay premium retreat prices.
Held at last year's rate for 2026 — now including your own private room.
- Three-day intensive ceremony weekend at Hearth & Soul, Stanford
- Two Ayahuasca ceremonies + one San Pedro ceremony
- Fire ceremony, primal breathwork, full facilitation team
- Your own private room for the full weekend
- All meals during the retreat
- 18-day microdosing & integration container (WhatsApp + Zoom calls)
- Wake Circle amulet & closing sealing ceremony
Upcoming Dates
- 14–16 August 2026
- 9–11 October 2026
- 18–20 December 2026
Payment plans are available for those with genuine financial constraint who are committed to attending. If cost is the only barrier between you and this work, reach out — we'll find a way.
Early booking is essential — this retreat fills via word-of-mouth alone, and space is intentionally limited to protect the integrity of the container.
What past journeyers say
"I went in wary it might be performative or 'woo-woo,' and kept my expectations low to avoid disappointment. What I found instead was a professional, grounded, almost luxurious experience — a space built with real respect, where it felt safe to go deep."
"I was apprehensive about journeying with strangers. By the first night I understood: it's like hot coals in a fire — pull one out alone and it dies fast, but together, every coal keeps burning. I needed my tribe more than I knew."
"The facilitators walked me through every step, holding my hand so I felt safe and nurtured the entire weekend. Months later, the shift hasn't faded — I believe in my own power again, and I'm dancing to the beat of my own drum."
Will you answer?
You will arrive as a stranger to everyone in the circle. You will leave as part of a tribe that has seen you — fully — and chosen to stand beside you anyway.
Bookings open via bookings@wakecircle.com — early enrollment is strongly recommended.