Ongoing Classes

I offer monthly classes as part of the hedge school I founded roughly nine years ago, which now lives under the Contemplative Therapeutics® umbrella as one of its primary public offerings. Known as The Divine Wisdom Hedge School, the school provides an ongoing, hybrid (i.e., both online an in-person) context in which members of the Contemplative Therapeutics® learning community can gather. In each gathering (Gaelic, Cnuasach) of the Hedge School, I offer teachings and practices, and facilitate deep, formative spiritual conversation. Hedge School gathers twice a month, and is open to all sincere seekers who have been invited to participate. For more information about The Divine Wisdom Hedge School, and to inquire about attending, please see the following page: Hedge School

Workshops & Retreats

Below you will find information about upcoming workshops and retreats, both in person and online.

The calendar for 2026 is developing ongoingly, so please check back for updates as we populate the event listings here. Some in-person retreats and workshops will require registration through the retreat centers where each event is being held; others can be registered for through CT directly. Please note this distinction when considering registering for an event.

For information on The Communion of the Mystic Rose, please see the 'Community' page on this website.

For information on Hearth of the Wild Mystery School, please see the official Mystery School website here: www.hearthofthewild.org. The 2026-2027 cohort begins October 30th, 2026.

Open and Spacious Like the Sky

A Practical Immersion in the Depths of Contemplation

with The Rev. Father Brendan Ellis Williams, CMR

SEPTEMBER 7-11, 2026

The Bishop's Ranch Retreat Center: Healdsburg, California

In this year’s annual autumn retreat, Open and Spacious Like the Sky, I will be inviting participants into the depths of contemplative insight through several powerful and ancient doorways: doorways that open to what I would call the ur-stratum of human spiritual experience. These openings into depth include myth, the roots of imagination, and the practice of sacred creativity. We will explore and embody some powerful tools in these arenas during our time together in retreat, and I will be guiding and holding the necessary sacred space for participants to safely enter the deep places of the soul and the unconscious mind in order to draw up life-giving waters from the Otherworld Well.

Since the container of this annual fall retreat is meant to provide (either alternatively or together) both Eastern and Western tools and modalities for deepening the contemplative life, and last year leaned heavily into Indo-Tibetan techniques and traditions, this year will draw substantively from the Western imagination, and employ tools from ancient myth, depth psychology, guided imaginal journey, and sacred art to usher seekers into new ways of becoming, being, and belonging, and to ultimately make way for the spaciousness of deep-rooted contemplative awareness.

Note that this retreat is different every year—I never repeat the same curriculum twice. This will be a totally unique opportunity to engage this kind of depth-work with me in an intimate retreat container with a lot of time and space for small group and individual instruction.