A Consciousness Exploration for Curious Seekers
November 21-25, 2026 | Patonga, Australia, NSW
E komo mai. Welcome.
I’m so grateful for the trust you’ve placed in me and in this experience, and I’m genuinely excited for what we’ll create together in Patonga.
Now that you’ve said yes, the journey has already begun. Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing what you need along the way. We’ll have time to connect individually and as a group, explore what’s bringing each of you here, and slowly begin turning our attention toward the experience ahead.
There’s a saying I often return to in this work: once you commit to the experience, the ceremony has already begun. You don’t need to start searching for answers or trying to make anything happen. For now, simply notice what begins to surface… what you’re curious about, what you’re drawn toward, what may already be asking for your attention.
For now, there’s just one important next step: please visit your Retreat Portal and complete the two forms waiting for you there. They’ll give me what I need to begin preparing thoughtfully for each of you and for our time together.
The Retreat Portal will become our home base as we get closer, with your Lantern Path invitations, travel details, packing guidance, and anything else you’ll need along the way.
Welcome to our Village
Tucked between bushland, creek, estuary and sea, Patonga is the kind of place that asks you to slow down without trying very hard.
For four nights, we'll step out of the rhythms of ordinary life and make our home here, walking through the village, gathering around shared tables, moving between water and hillside, ceremony and rest, community and solitude.
For these few days, we'll create our own little village within the village of Patonga.
Two homes. Two energies. One container.
Our retreat will unfold between two homes, just a short walk from one another. Each will hold a different rhythm within our time together.
The Gathering Place
Our place for connection
The Gathering Place will be the communal heartbeat of our little village ~ a waterfront home for morning coffee, shared meals, music, conversation, laughter and the simple intimacy of living alongside one another.
This is where we come together.
The Hillside Healing Hale
Our home for turning inward
Hale means “home” in Hawaiian.
Tucked farther into the hillside, our second home offers a quieter rhythm ~ a sanctuary for ceremony, sound, sauna, warm mineral bathing, reflection, rest and integration.
This is where we go within.
A space for exploration.
We’re coming to Patonga to step outside the familiar and make space for curiosity.
To explore consciousness with intention, listen inward, and notice what becomes available when the noise of ordinary life grows quiet.
Our days will move between ceremony and integration, conversation and silence, community and solitude, structure and spaciousness.
Sacred medicine will be part of our exploration, but it isn’t the destination.
The invitation is to become curious about what lies beneath the surface, and what might become possible when we make space to listen.
The Rhythm of our Days
Our time together will move through a natural arc.
Arriving • Opening • Integrating • Deepening • Returning
There will be structure,, but also spaciousness to follow what the group and the experience are asking of us.
The Lantern Path
The retreat doesn’t begin when we arrive in Patonga, and it doesn't end when we leave.
In the weeks before we gather, we’ll walk the Lantern Path together ~ a series of invitational prompts, reflections, and simple practices designed to prepare the mind, heart, and body for the experience ahead.
Each step offers a different place to turn your attention: creating space, listening inward, exploring intention, practicing surrender, and beginning to notice what may already be stirring.
You’ll receive each step when the time is right.
✹
Tending the light within
✹ Tending the light within
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ROOTING
Turn inward
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OPENING
Create space
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SURRENDERING
Let go
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RECEIVING
Allow what comes
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WEAVING
Gather the threads
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RETURNING
Carry it home
Meet your Lantern Holders
Anastasia Lopes
Lead Facilitator · Ceremonialist · Psychedelic Doula
Aloha, I’m Stace.
Kalama means “the light” or “the torch” in Hawaiian. I chose the name because it reflects something I’ve come to believe deeply about this work.
Sacred medicine has a way of illuminating the parts of ourselves that can be difficult to see in ordinary life ~ the patterns we’ve been living inside, the stories we carry, the places in the heart asking for our attention, and sometimes, possibilities we haven’t yet imagined.
I don’t believe my job is to interpret what you find or tell you where to go. My work is to tend the light: to create a container that feels safe, thoughtful, and spacious; to walk beside you through preparation, ceremony, and integration; and to help you stay curious about whatever comes into view.
I trust the intelligence of sacred medicines, the wisdom of the natural world, and most importantly, the light already within you.
I’ll hold the lantern.
You’ll discover the way.
Melinda King
Supporting Facilitator · Therapist · Sacred Space Holder
Mel is a trauma-informed therapist, retreat facilitator, and sacred space holder based on the Central Coast of NSW, and the founder of Inner Alchemy Integrative Therapy.
She has been holding ceremonial spaces for over eight years with a variety of plant teachers, working predominantly with psilocybin and MDMA. She is passionate about creating safe, trauma - informed and sacred containers for the exploration of consciousness.
Her work centres on helping clients move through PTSD, C-PTSD, anxiety, depression, grief and major life transitions — combining evidence-informed clinical modalities with somatic and contemplative practice.
A qualified yoga teacher, Reiki & Lomi Lomi Massage Practitioner and sound healer, Melinda also facilitates retreats, women’s circles and ceremonial sound journeys — bringing a genuinely whole-person, mind-body-spirit approach to every container she holds.