{Listen. Enjoy. Savor} Seasonal Retreats for the Soul

Our next retreat gathering is... 

Fall Equinox: The Void of Knowing

Friday, September 19, 2025 from 9 am to noon

Dear Brave Soul Travelers✨🌠🚀❤️‍🔥

I apologize for the lateness of this invitation — life has been a wide-net kind of experience lately for me (and probably for a lot of us)

I find myself vacillating between soulful centeredness and heart-centered gratitude — AND also stretched into new territory that is both exciting and sometimes scary and uncomfortably stretchy. (Hello! Eclipse season!! How's everyone navigating this eclipse corridor?!) 

What has helped: to pause and rest into a larger field of holding and knowing.
 
It is this cocoon of holding — the Void of Knowing — that will be a guiding theme for the Fall Equinox gathering. 

I invite you to make space for this kind of soulful encounter and join me virtually for the "The Void of Knowing," a {Listen. Enjoy. Savor.} Fall Equinox mini-retreat on Friday, September 19 from 9 am-noon US Central Time.  PLEASE NOTE!! Since I will be in Florida, this Fall Equinox mini-retreat will be offered via Zoom. 

Are you called to be a part of this illuminating and supportive circle?

 

{Listen. Enjoy. Savor.} 

The Void of Knowing

A Virtual Fall Equinox Mini-Retreat


Friday, September 19, 2025

9 am to noon Central Time

On Zoom 


Exchange: $50  special price!! Only $40


To register: Venmo (preferred) or Paypal

 

  • Held virtually via Zoom
  • Experience a Void of Knowing guided journey meditation and a ceremony of release for this eclipse portal
  • Listen inwardly for your soulful callings this season 
  • Enjoy being in a circle of kindreds 
  • Savor solo time to listen, be and reflect.
  • Receive a handout with reflection questions, practices for the season and other resources
  • Bespoke Spotify playlist (see below for preview!)
  • Recordings of meditations included.
  • Scholarships available if needed.
Can't attend live? But wish to receive a handout and recorded meditations to do the retreat on your own time? Reach out if this is your preference.

 

Oceanic awareness at Fernandina Beach
Our guiding supports and archetypes for this Fall Equinox gathering will be 

Snake (shedding of skins), Pallas Athena (authentic power & wisdom), Azabache Jet stone (calm stability) and the Void of Knowing.

 

Even though we are gathering on Zoom, this mini-retreat will be modeled on the same flow of the in-person gatherings. There will be space for solo sacred listening with yourself and the wider field of awareness, group sharing, guided meditation and a ceremony of release. You'll leave with insights for the season as well as practices to abide in this void of knowing and move into autumn, this season of harvest, with intention and insight.

The message I received around the theme of this gathering during my meditation was this:

 

In the void of knowing, there is 

Clear awareness,

Beyond thinking,

Being at one with what is true. 

Surrender now to the expansive space

Of allowing yourself to remember

And unearth that which is emerging 

From your soul and comes back to you now

As illumination, as insight. 

Here you can allow yourself to deeply rest

All that you seek comes to you,

A flowing spring that quenches

A river that you can commune and swim in

Here, you are held — not in bleak darkness,

But in the velvety cocoon of knowing all that

is possible from this place.


Ocean from Fernandina Beach


I hope you'll join me to mark this eclipse portal and this seasonal transition in a sacred and soulful way.


Questions or need to know more? Email me

 

Feel free to share with others who might be interested. 

 

with so much gratitude,

Shannon

 

 

P.S. Here's the Void of Knowing Spotify playlist as an early treat — listen here

 


What are {Listen. Enjoy. Savor.} Seasonal Mini-Retreats?

 

Mini-retreats designed to support you in mindfully connecting to the deeper wisdom and callings in your life. Held at the turning of the season, each gathering has a spiritually inspired focus, customized to the season and group, but all include:

  • Time for personal inner and outer listening with Nature & the Divine
  • Space to slow down and savor with all your senses and be present to Nature's cycles
  • Being together in a sacred circle of loving acceptance and support
  • Permission to choose and engage in activities in the way, style and approach that fits you
  • Beauty, ceremonies, rituals, practical tools, intention setting, guided meditations and energetic attunements

My approach as a facilitator:


I resonate deeply with Angeles Arrien's credo to "walk the mystical path with practical feet," and it's the compass for my teaching and sessions. I bring all I've learned in 14+ years offering shamanic-based energy work; in my 26 years as a teacher and facilitator for creative souls; as a dedicated listener to Nature, Spirit and my own inner wisdom; AND all my learning and experiences from my own curious journey to bloom more into joy and wholeness. I'll be your guide and co-traveler on the path, offering my best tools and support for you to connect more deeply with your soul's knowing and wisdom. I love to create a special space for you to be deeply nourished and receive abundant value your investment of time, energy and money. These gatherings always attract the most lovely souls, and I'll hope you'll join us in the circle we create together.

 

Upcoming {Listen. Enjoy. Savor.} Retreat Dates

 

Winter Solstice * Saturday, December 19, 2025 (in-person; held at our home in Eagle, WI)


What is Listen. Enjoy. Savor.? 


Mini-retreats designed to support you in mindfully connecting to the deeper wisdom and callings in your life. Held at the turning of each season within the sacred land, labyrinth and special trees of my home, Dancing Oak House, in Eagle, WI or virtually via Zoom. Each gathering has a spiritually inspired focus, customized to the season and group, but all include:

  • Time for personal inner and outer listening with Nature and the Wider Field (however you define that)
  • Space to slow down and savor with all your senses and be present to Nature's cycles
  • Being together in a sacred circle of loving acceptance and support
  • Freedom to choose and engage in activities in the way, style and approach that fits you
  • Beauty, ceremonies, rituals, practical tools, intention setting, and guided meditations and energetic attunements

My approach as a facilitator:

I resonate deeply with Angeles Arrien's credo to "walk the mystical path with practical feet," and it's the compass for my teaching, retreat facilitation and private sessions. I bring all I've learned in 14 years of offering shamanic energy work and intuitive guidance; in my 26 years as a teacher and facilitator for creative souls; as a dedicated listener to Nature, Spirit and my own inner wisdom; AND all my learning and experiences from my own curious journey to bloom more into joy and love. I'll be your guide and co-traveler on the path, offering my best tools and support for you to connect more deeply with your soul's knowing and wisdom. I love to create a special space for you to be deeply nourished and receive abundant value your investment of time, energy and money.

It's been a great joy to facilitate these seasonal retreats since 2016 on the sacred land I call home, in Eagle, WI, nestled next to the Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit. I honor that this area is on the traditional lands of the Peoria Sauk and Meskwaki Potawatomi  and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) peoples. 

SAVE THE DATE! Upcoming {Listen.Enjoy.Savor} Seasonal Retreats:

Winter Solstice, Friday, December 19, 2025, 9 am to noon

 

 ________________________________________________________

 

{Write to Change the World} A Circle for Writers

I host an encouraging and supportive circle on the 1st Wednesday evening of the month on Zoom for writers of all types. We will open enrollment again in January, for the February-June 2026 session. We meet for two five-month cohorts each year. Please email me if you are interested. 

  • Meets from 6:30-9 pm US Central Time with a short biobreak about halfway through
  • Brief check-in on how the writing is going, how you are
  • Opportunity to share your writing (up to 3 pages, 12 pt. Times New Roman, double-spaced; reading the equivalent from your journal). 
  • Offering supportive feedback to other writers (what resonated & what you would like more of as a reader) while also honing your writer's "eye" 
  • Writing tips and advice based on your questions and sharing
  • Writing prompts to get your pen to paper
  • All levels and styles/genres welcome
  • Occasional links, recommendations and guided meditations for your inner writer
  • Limited to 8 writers
  • An encouraging and supportive circle of other writers!
Exchange for these five circles is $125.

To register:  Submit payment via Venmo (@Shannon-Arnold-32) (preferred) or Paypal, or Check.
As always, scholarships are available as well as monthly payment options.
Any questions? Let me know. You can email me here.

 

I do hope you'll join us. It's magic when writers support each other. Let's get writing!

To your fullest expression,
Shannon

 
PS Closing with encouragement from writer Roxane Gay:


“One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself as a writer is to take yourself seriously. This does not mean you should take yourself too seriously, but it does mean that if you love writing, if you put in the work of writing, you are a writer. You don’t need to ask anyone if you can call yourself a writer. You don’t need to reach a certain publishing threshold. So long as you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, you are a writer.

And if you are a writer, you want to respect your craft the same way you respect the other important things in your life. Make time for your writing whether it’s writing itself, reading, participating in the literary community or anything else that contributes meaningfully to your creative life. Write regularly, which does not mean you need to write every day but does mean that your work will be stronger if you are consistent. When you make a time to write, honor that commitment to yourself and your creative work as much as you honor all the other commitments in your life."

from here: https://1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/day-2-1000wordsofsummer-2022


About Me 

Since 1998, when I taught my first writing class, I have been passionate about inspiring others to write. I have taught more than 1,000 writing students, spoken at writing conferences (including the Midwest Writer's Conference, Great Lakes Writer's Conference and Fox Valley Writer's Conference) and have been a book "doula" and developmental editor for almost a dozen published books. My strengths are being an inspiration catalyst and encouraging cheerleader for writers. I am the author of two books — Flowering Wisdom: Inspiring Thoughts on Life, Love and Blooming Big (Self-Published) and Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America's Favorite Treat (Emmis Books) and the past editor-in-chief of Ohio Magazine, an award-winning 100,000 circulation magazine featuring the best of the Buckeye State. My varied background also includes public radio producing, newspaper reporting, magazine writing, and corporate communications. For the past decade, my focus has been on serving creatives and spiritual seekers through my shamanic-based energy work, intuitive guidance and Human Design readings and in offering seasonal retreats for inner listening, community sharing and creative ritual at her home in the forest of southeastern Wisconsin and via Zoom. 


What Past Writing Students Have Said…

 

Thank you, Shannon! Your writing groups are a joy to be part of. Highly encourage anyone who’s ever thought of writing to join in. It’s easy to talk yourself out of it. This is a place to be heard, seen and validated. — Andrea

 

Thank you, Shannon, for holding the space so we can be good writers influenced by your wise teaching and your strong support of our creative expression. You are a gift to all of us. — Rosemary

I can honestly say you were the one who really got me to enjoy writing again, and I wouldn’t have
stuck with it without you. Thanks for all the help and encouragement. — Matt

Your teaching style is so positive and encouraging.   — Sue

I don't want to lose track of you because you are still the person in my life who most changed my life.  After 4 years, I'm still writing. — Mickie