Wild Sanctuary
Wild Sanctuary is a new circle of Earth love and spiritual immersion in the wild. This periodic gathering (4-6 times a year) cultivates a deepening presence to one another, to the Sacred/Wild, to our own hearts, and to the world in all its beauty, complexity, need, and kinship with us. All are welcome – come join us!
Wild Santuary is directed by:
Lisa Dahill, Miriam Therese Winter Professor of Transformative Leadership and Spirituality at HIU and director of the Center for Transformative Spirituality. She is a scholar, teacher, and lover of eco-spirituality in diverse forms across religious traditions and in many wild contexts, bioregions, and waterways.
Erik Assadourian, founder and director of the Gaian Way (gaianway.org), an ecospirituality organization working to heal humans' relationship with the living Earth we're part of and utterly depend on. He is also a sustainability researcher and has been studying the sustainability crisis and a variety of solutions for the past 20+ years.
If you would like to be included in regular communications about the Wild Sanctuary gatherings, please email Dr. Lisa Dahill at ldahill@hartfordinternational.edu.
Events
Saturday, Dec. 20
2-4 p.m. ET
The next Wild Sanctuary gathering will be for the Winter Solstice, that longest and deepest night of all: We’ll be together Saturday, December 20, 2025, from 2-4pm, with optional potluck and solstice bonfire afterwards. This slightly earlier timing allows those who need to leave earlier to depart before sundown, while those who want to savor the dark can stay, eat, and be out around the fire together longer. For the potluck and bonfire, we’ll be joined by members of the Spiritual Life Center’s monthly drum circle, who are meeting that afternoon as well.
Note that this gathering will take place again at Hartford International University – but in a different meeting space. We will gather in the Budd Building, which is the brick building at 60 Lorraine St., Hartford. The meeting room here is bigger than the one at 76 Sherman, better for a winter gathering when we need to be indoors, at least in part 😊 And its big windows look out directly into the woods; this space feels intimate to the outdoors. There is limited parking behind the building, ideal for those with mobility concerns. Others can still park as usual at 77 Sherman, the big lot near the main white university building, and walk over.
As always, we will be out on, in, with the land and waters and their creatures of all kinds for 20 minutes or so at the heart of our gathering – please dress for the weather. We’ll send more details as the day approaches (there are both woodsy options and lawn/tree options for this outdoor time, depending on your desire).
For this solstice (and always), let us welcome one another and the world, the creatures, the stars, the dark with open arms and hearts. Bring yourself as you are, with what is true, with what hurts and hinders, with what is gone and missed, with what encourages and strengthens, with what you yearn for and dream of, with what brings unreasonable and unrefined joy. Please know you are welcome with whatever truth you carry. Together we will celebrate the beauty of just-as-we-are-in-the-dark, our raw selves, the bare snowy Earth, the starry cosmos and magical night, the love hibernating deep in it all, and the coming of a new circle of days to grow in together.
If you would like to be included in regular communications about the Wild Sanctuary gatherings, please email Dr. Lisa Dahill at ldahill@hartfordinternational.edu.
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