A Weekend Initiation for Leaders at the Edge of Emergence

June 12-14, @ The Building in Common Woods, Amersfoort, Netherlands

with Samantha Sweetwater, author of True Human 

We stand between stories. The age of the lone hero — built on separation, conquest, and individual triumph — is unravelling. In its place, an ancient-and-emerging story is rising: the Kinship Journey, a path of relational maturity that remembers we belong to one another, to the land, and to the interdependent field of living intelligences our lives are entangled with.

This retreat invites you into an ecological initiation — a threshold for those ready to step from separation into kinship, from extraction into reciprocity, from human supremacy into devotional collaboration with Life. Over three days, we will gather in the sanctuary of Common Woods Amersfoort to receive this story and embody it in palpable, practical ways that transform how we lead, create, and serve.

Through inquiry, forest immersion, embodied practice, ritual, and deep council, you will cross a threshold. You will meet the more-than-human world as soul-mirror, creative mentor, and sacred responsibility, and emerge clearer about what Life asks of you. You will return to your work and your world changed – not as a hero, but as a kindred steward of the web you're part of.

REGISTER HERE

WHO THIS WEEKEND IS FOR

This gathering is for visionary leaders and creatives who:

• Sense that the old operating systems of business, technology, governance, and culture are breaking down, and are actively building what comes next

• Lead organizations, movements, teams, or creative work at the intersection of innovation and regeneration

• Know intellectually that "everything is connected" but long to feel that truth in their bones and lead from that knowing

• Are weary of the isolation, extraction, and dominance paradigms that shaped their industries and are ready for a different story

• Recognize that personal transformation and systemic change are inseparable

• Feel called to regeneration in themselves, their teams, their communities, and the living world

  
  
  
  

You might be:

• A founder building regenerative businesses or life-centered technology

• A funder investing in the transition to a flourishing economy

• An educator reimagining learning for planetary maturity

• An artist weaving culture that remembers our kinship with all life

• A leader in any field who senses the horizon is shifting and wants to cross this threshold in good company

What unites you: You recognize the truth of interdependence. You’re grappling with how to live, love, and lead from that truth. And you're ready to do the inner work to embody it. 

WHY THE KINSHIP JOURNEY?  

Because the world you're building requires a different you.

The systems we're trying to transform were built on separation – the myth that humans are separate from nature, that value is extracted rather than cultivated, that leadership means control rather than attunement. We cannot repair what separation broke with the same consciousness that created it.

The Kinship Journey offers a developmental path from technological adolescence to planetary maturity. It's the initiation into becoming the kind of human who can:

• Hold complexity without collapsing into binary thinking — bridging difference through relational maturity

• Honor limits while meeting needs — aligning innovation with biophysical reality and the wisdom of constraints

• Tend what you love without dominating it — leading from initiated intimacy rather than abstraction and control

• Feel your entanglement in the web of life — making decisions that serve the land, the more-than-human world, and future generations

• Build cultures of genuine belonging — where people show up as whole humans rather than cogs in the machine 

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

The Arc of Our Weekend:

FRIDAY EVENING: Arrival & Opening Circle

Cocreating a safe, brave field for our work together  

SATURDAY MORNING: From Hero to Kin

Living into the story of an emerging age of relationship

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Mini Vision Quest

Into the forest to listen to your place in the soul ecology

SATURDAY EVENING: Council of All Beings

Speaking for those who have no human voice

SUNDAY MORNING: Ritual of Remembering

Integration through movement, art, and commitment

WHAT YOU'LL TAKE HOME

Embodied Knowing: Not just concepts but felt experience of kinship — in your body, in relationship with land, rooted in community

A New Story: The Kinship Journey as a map for navigating your leadership, your life, and the transition we're all living through

Practical Commitments: Concrete ways to live and lead from kinship consciousness — in your organization, your community, your bioregion

A Circle of Kin: fellow humans who've crossed this threshold together — a community of practice for the work ahead

The Forest's Teaching: Whatever the land gave you during your solo time — a question, an image, a song, a relationship with a being who will remain your teacher

Renewed Devotion: Clarity about what you're here to tend and the courage to serve it without needing to dominate it

THE CONTAINER

Where: The Building at Common Woods, Amersfoort, Netherlands

Nestled in a human-made forest, surrounded by living teachers

When: June 12-14

Arrive Friday afternoon, depart Sunday after 2pm 

Who: 12 leaders maximum

Intentionally intimate to facilitate spaciousness, depth, and trust

What's Included:

• All vegan meals (nourishing, locally sourced)

• 2 Nights accommodation (simple, comfortable)

• All materials

• Facilitation by Samantha Sweetwater

• Integration resources 

Investment

ALL IN: Full Retreat Incl. 2 nights sleepover: €726 incl. VAT (€600 excl. VAT)

COMMUTERS: Excl. sleepover: €544,50 incl. VAT (€450 excl. VAT)

All meals included 

Two Community Seats available for 50% discount rate - contact hello@thebuilding.space for inquiries

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

YOUR GUIDE

Samantha Sweetwater is a wisdom teacher, gaian philosopher, soul mentor, and bestselling author who has spent three decades helping thousands navigate personal and collective transformation. As founder of One Life Circle, Dancing Freedom and PeaceBody Japan, she pioneered new forms of embodied awakening and trained hundreds of facilitators worldwide. She partners with world-shaping leaders to awaken, heal, and align impact with human and planetary flourishing. Her work lives at the confluence of ecology, spirituality, and systemic change, inviting you to come more alive by remembering your place within the Song of Life. 

YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME

The Building, Amerfsoort

The Kinship Journey Retreat will take place in The Building. A new retreat home in eco-village Common Woods, Amersfoort, The Netherlands. Nestled along the treeline of the local green reserve ‘Nimmerdor,’ the Building is enveloped by a lush, evergreen landscape. With expansive windows that frame the woodland from every floor, natural light and peaceful panoramas flow through the space. It provides a meaningful connection to the outdoors, fueling thought and inspiration. Here, pioneers, artists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers gather through immersive events - retreats, leadership programs, residencies, strategic sessions - to imagine and build new ways of living together.

RECOMMENDED READING

True Human: Reimagining Ourselves at the End of Our World: a companion through collapse and emergence that maps the journey from technological adolescence to planetary relational maturity, guiding readers from the wound of separation through healing initiation and into their role as custodians and cocreators of Life's Song.

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