The power of solo vigil within the Rewilded Woman Retreat
I am Dr Leila Sadien, a medical doctor and shamanic medicine woman. I facilitate Rewilding retreats for women, where we learn to shed conditioning and re-embody our primal power. We weave embodied trust in our inner compass and intimately reconnect with nature consciousness, as we reclaim our right to thrive in the freedom of the wilderness.
🦎The True Story of a Little Dragon
In my first 24-hour solo, I remember crouching out in the mountains, placing the final stone in a spiral of rock art—an offering of beauty to the land.
As my awareness expanded beyond the art piece before me, I looked up, sensing a watching presence. There, on the tip of a dried branch, a blue and gold gecko watched me intently. Delighted to have a companion, I began to speak to my visitor:
“Would you like to hang out with me? You are SO welcome.”
Then, "I don't mind if you come closer, I'd love to get to know you."
At that moment, this wild little dragon walked down the stick and planted itself at the top of my spiral—just 15cm from my hand. "Wow you are beautiful!" "Look at your gorgeous neck!" Without missing a beat, the gecko turned its head back and forth, displaying its magnificent colours as if responding to my awe.
For the rest of the day, he traveled with me. Watching, following, communing, connecting. When night came and returned to my wooden deck, I said an emotional goodbye. I didn't find that he had returned the next morning. But he didn’t need to. He had already gifted me something priceless: An embodied understanding of the sacred reciprocity of the wild. One of the many lessons I was gifted in those 24 sacred hours.
🌿The Call of the Wild
When was the last time you were alone in nature?
Alone enough to strip naked with only the wild to be your witness?
Alone enough to finally listen to your own heart, fully, without distraction?
When last did you weave enough time to surrender to the wisdom of the clouds as they paint the sky canvas with guiding symbols to heal your soul?
And for those who've heard the call, why haven't you answered yet?
Modern life has created many complex obstacles. In fact it is a highly intentional process designed to keep us disconnected—from ourselves, from nature, and from the deep well of wisdom that exists beyond the matrix. It is no accident that
solitude feels unnatural,
that stillness is uncomfortable,
and that we are conditioned to fill every empty moment with distraction.
The modern world thrives on our disconnection, feeding us endless stimulation while slowly eroding our ability to truly listen—to our intuition, to the land, and to the sacred rhythms of life itself.
🌀Ancient Wisdom
Many ancient traditions send seekers into the wild for vision quests, knowing that the answers do not come from outside but from within. Without this rite of passage we are lost, enslaved to a system that created our fear of the wild by removing us from it, and then created cages to protect us from it. We are willing zoo animals and the key to our freedom lies in our ability to reclaim our natural relationship with the wilderness. Not just the wilderness of nature, but also that of our own untamed soul. The raw, instinctual, unfiltered self that has been buried beneath layers of conditioning, validation, and artificial safety.
📩The Invitation
Will you walk into the wilderness and meet the untamed, unbroken you? The one who was never lost, only waiting to be remembered. For those who dare these gifts await:
🌙 Restoration of the Repressed Inner Feminine In vigil we are free to reclaim the unapologetic self, deepening trust in our intuition as simple constructs of safety are dismantled. Embracing our bodies' intelligence we reconnect to our primal power, as sovereign elemental beings.
🕊️Profound Inner Stillness In the stillness and solitude our nervous system finds comfort and rest, entraining in every moment to the naturally harmonious frequency of life. Insight, clarity and guidance awaits in the quiet, and for some the deep spiritual communion found in natural trance states.
💫Remembrance of a Natural Way of Being In sacred reciprocity we remember our place in the great weave of existence. As every aspect of Nature mirrors our inner world, we remember that we were never forsaken, never alone, never unloved. As we find communion with Earth by translating again the subtle language of Nature, we remember that this was the first church, the first temple and that Divinity is speaking not only to us, but through us.
🧳The Journey
Before:
Over 2 days, we prepare your body, mind, and heart through food medicine, breathwork, and ceremony.
We open up your reciprocity with nature and her elements through embodiment practices.
During:
A short solo hike to your wooden raised deck—alone, but held within the sacred container.
You are free to move around as long as you don't infringe on someone else's space.
5-hour food fast, plenty of water, movement, rest, journaling, or land art—guided by your own intuition.
After:
The trumpet calls you back at sunset for your solo hike back to camp.
We break the fast in silence, transitioning gently back into the group.
The next morning we gather in circle to share before our final breathwork journey to fully integrate the medicine.
Are you ready to meet yourself in the sacred wisdom of the wild?
This is an invitation into an initiation in its most sacred sense
🌀Join us for the Rewilded Woman Retreat
📍Umami Mountain Retreat, Franschoek, Cape Town
📅 25 - 28 April 2025
📩 Contact us
"If you feel called, trust that your soul already knows the way."
What previous Rewilded Women want you to know
"The build up to the vigil was the most powerful experience for me. It prepared me to fully open up, it taught me to be present within every moment of the vigil, it taught me to trust my own senses and because of that my vigil was truly liberating"
"Through this work I learnt that the deeper you build a connection with nature, the deeper your connection with yourself grows. Being with nature with all of my being, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, I really got to see my personal stuff. It was a good feeling, it felt like coming home"
'I had some fears but in every step of the preparation, I developed more courage till I seemed to organically embrace the vigil as a great adventure. I was afraid of being lonely, but the more I surrendered, the more I opened up. The more I opened, the more nature aroused me in a way I could never imagine. I felt fully connected to Mother Gaia in a way that has changed my life forever."
"I want to do this again. Till today I am changed. I align with nature differently, I consume things differently, have less stuff, look at problems differently. Its like an LSD or mushroom trip without the substances!"
"This retreat taught me to break down more and more barriers, limitations and restrictions that we put on ourselves from the time we are born."
"The nature solo gave me a chance to sit with how I perceive myself. It allowed me to see how my mind works and how I respond in situations where I am set free. In the freedom I was able to acknowledge my conditioning and see my limitations. What I learned is sometimes the mind can make something seem worse than it truly is."
I await with love,
Dr Leila
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