Shequaga (shee-quah’-gah) means tumbling waters

CIRCLE is a Community of Individuals Revisioning and Celebrating Life on Earth

Shequaga Retreat Center

The Shequaga Retreat Center is located near Dansville, about 50 minutes south of Rochester, NY. Fifty acres of rolling hills, woods, creeks, waterfalls, a pond, a medicine wheel, and a beautiful view of the valley provide the setting for our programs.

A turtle-shaped building houses an indoor labyrinth, meeting space, kitchen, bathroom and showers, craft room and healing room. Participants tent camp with some tent platforms and enjoy delicious vegetarian food at workshops where food is provided.

The Turtle Building with large meeting space, break-out rooms, full kitchen, and full bathroom

Bunk house indoor sleeping space with comfortable air mattress / bunk beds (sleeps 16).

Directions to Shequaga

Take 390 to Exit 5. Turn left at the stop sign. Turn left on Rt. 36. Turn left (2nd left) on Coffee Hill Rd. Take the 1st left after you go under the expressway onto Schmidt Rd. Driveway is ½ mile on the right by the Shequaga sign. Please close gate when leaving.

For More Information

Click the following links to download a flyer, print a registration form, or review the rental information.

•Program Flyer for CIRCLE Workshops at Shequaga.

•Registration Form for upcoming CIRCLE Workshops at Shequaga.

•Rental Brochure for renting Shequaga Retreat Center for private retreats or gatherings.

To schedule your private retreat or gathering at Shequaga call (585) 924-5620 or email circleincoffice@aol.com

Workshops and Retreats

The Shequaga programs provide a rich community environment that supports our living in harmony within ourselves and the natural worlds. The land welcomes and teaches us with the healing potential inherent in the natural world. Shequaga nourishes the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Participants will find solitude amongst the green cathedrals and healing waters. Home to abundant wildlife and medicinal plants, Shequaga is the perfect natural sanctuary to help us two-legged come home to ourselves and to all our relations. Camp and retreat programs are designed to return us to authenticity and a natural way of being. Price differences in programs reflect differences in costs based on the program requirements and length and number of meals.

Shequaga 2010 Programs

June 4-6 MEDICINE CIRCLE: Vision Quest for Women
with Tracy Bell, LMT MA assisted by Heron Wind, PhD

A Medicine Circle creates a space for you to experience in solitude a deeper connection with yourself and with the whole circle of life that surrounds you. Preparation for this sunrise to sunset vision quest will be made in the form of cleansing and releasing rituals, talking circle, and hiking out on the land. When you enter your circle, you will be free of the usual clutter so you can open up to a deeper part of yourself, to nature as teacher, and to spirit. A day of creating ritual art, group process and ceremony will help you find ways to integrate your experience into your daily life. A solo quest such as this can help you find direction as you move through the many transitions that life brings. It connects you more deeply to the pulse of life itself and brings you into good relationship with yourself and all of life around you.

TIME: Friday June 4 (10AM) to Sunday June 6 (3pm)
COST: $220 indoors/$200 camping (limit of 12 participants, all meals provided)
REGISTER BY: May 22 with a deposit of $100.

Tracy Dreaming Bear Bell is a massage therapist with an MA in transpersonal psychology. She has vision quested for personal growth and assisted Heron for several years with Medicine Circle. She is an accomplished ceremonialist and shamanic practioner.

Linda Heron Wind is a teacher of change, inner-dimensional guide, and a transpersonal psychologist. She has facilitated Vision Quests for women in New York and Montana since 1990

July 23-25 MOTHER-DAUGHTER EARTH SCHOOL Camp
Carol Singing Wind McCoon, MS,LMT, Connie Pesha Saffan, and others

When mothers and daughters share the same deep experience of community in which each person, regardless of age, is honored for their gifts and wisdom, magic happens! Through loving community with ourselves, each other and the Earth, we learn how to be who we really are and skills to take home that enhance the mother-daughter relationship within the family. Children spend time in age-clustered hoops as well as whole-community activities. Mother's hoop engages in similar learning and activities that address mothering concerns as well as self-growth. Come play with us in the beauty of nature!

FOR: Mothers, grandmothers, aunts (or other caring female adults) and girls, ages 5-14
TIME: Friday July 23 (10AM) to Sunday July 25 (noon)
COST: $280 indoors/$250 camping for adult and first child
$85 indoors/$75 camping for a second or third child (All meals provided)
REGISTER BY: July 3 with a deposit of $140

Aug 27-29 THE BEAUTY WAY RETREAT: Creating Sacred Art
with Kris Luna Pink, MS

A weekend of creativity awaits you as the beauty of the Universe flows through our hands into beadwork, leatherwork, stonework, basketry, gourds, rattles, drums (extra charge for materials), and other modalities of sacred art. While you learn the techniques, we will work and play in loving community. Song, dance, drumming, guided meditation, and quiet time in nature will feed our creative energy and nourish our souls. This is also the weekend of the Dansville Balloon Festival so we will be greeted each morning and evening with hot air balloons rising up from the valley below.

TIME: Friday, Aug 27 (7 pm) to Sunday Aug 29 (noon)
COST: $195 indoors/$175 camping (All meals provided)
REGISTER BY: Aug 13 with a deposit of $95

Kris Luna Pink, MS is an art therapist who shares her creative spirit, helping others to touch the sacred through art and crafts.

Healthy Lifestyles with Fran Carns May 16-21, June 13-18, and Sept 26-Oct 1
Contact Fran Carns at 585-349-9983

Apprenticeship with Fran Carns July 29-Aug 1
Contact Fran Carns at 585-349-9983

Empowered Girl Weekend: An Intensive Weekend Experience for Teen Girls Aug 6-8
This will be a safe and sacred time for teen girls to identify themselves as beautiful, powerful, and valuable young women. Upon completing their weekend, mentors will be paired with the girls to affirm them by accepting and admiring them for who they are, by encouraging them to be all they can be, and by providing a safe place to share the details of their Journey. For more information contact Barb Lucke 585-582-1669.

On the Winds of Change: An annual women's ritual bringing power and meaning to the passages between the many stages of our lives. Sept 17-19
On the Winds of Change is a sacred ceremony designed to bring the power and meaning back to the life passages of women. This weekend-long ritual celebrates who we are, where we are in our lives, and reaffirms our connection to each other. This weekend is powerful for every woman and is especially designed to honor women as they mark a decade. So if you are turning twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy in 2008, come and bring a handful of your closest friends. To find out more information and receive a 2010 brochure, please contact

There will also be a private group at Shequaga July 15-18

Camping at Shequaga

Please note the rules posted on building use in the entryway. Camping is not allowed when workshops are in process. Camping can be paid for using CIRCLE dollars. You can earn ten CIRCLE dollars for each hour of work you do on a work day or at other times. If you are going down on a non-work day, call the CIRCLE office to find out what work needs to be done. Dollars are issued by board members and can also be used to pay for up to 1/2 of a workshop fee.

Shequaga Use Rules for CIRCLE Members

Day use and camping are available when workshops and camps are not being held. Reservations for overnight camping can be made by calling CIRCLE Office at (585) 924-5620 or circleincoffice@aol.co

1. Camping in designated areas only above and around the pond or on tent platforms.
2. No open fires except in designated fire rings.
3. All trash must be taken with you.
4. Overnight camping is $10 per night per person, $20 per family, or season camping pass - $50 individual, $75 family (which can be paid in CIRCLE Dollars totally for single use/50% for season pass)
5. Day use is free to current CIRCLE members; a $2 fee will be charged for non-member guests accompanied by a member.
6. Swimming is at your own risk.
7. No motorized vehicles can be used without prior authorization (includes ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles)
8. No drugs or alcohol will be used on the land; cigarette smokers must take their butts with them and not smoke in gathering areas or structures.
9. Pets must be on a leash or under the owners control at all times and must be picked up after in high use areas (trails, gathering areas).
10. Campers will respect other campers and neighbors regarding noise before sunrise and after sunset
11. The porta potty is available for campers. The Turtle Building is not.
12. The land is community land, meaning that all space and structures are available to all members on a first come first serve basis.

All individuals using the land must sign a waiver each year. Waivers are available in the yurt and in the trail box on the land. Each time you use the land for any purpose, please register at the trail box.

Earn CIRCLE DOLLARS for Helping with grounds and upkeep at Shequaga

For every hour worked you earn $10 CIRCLE DOLLARS worth $10 toward workshops (for up to ½ the workshop fee) or toward camping fees.

We are seeking a "grounds crew" of people willing to put in time mowing and trimming around the Turtle Building and on the trails, both during the week and weekends. Volunteers can also sign up to come during the week to clean before a weekend event. We look forward to seeing you and ask that you let us know if you are coming to any of the workdays, to better help us plan for jobs to be done.

Shequaga Workdays

Come join the communtiy effort to wake up Shequaga for the season and the ongoing maintenance throughout the summer. CIRCLE members can earn $10 CIRCLE dollars for each hour they work. There is lots to do including: mowing, weedwacking, trail maintenance, cleaning the Turtle and bunkhouse, organizing the kitchen, craft room and storage room. We will also need people to mow mid week between workdays in May, June, July, August and September. If you are interested in mowing midweek, please contact Gary Graves at GJGRAVES14@yahoo.com.

• Saturday May 15 from 10-4pm;
• Saturday June 12 from 10-4pm;
• Saturday July 10 from 10-4pm;
• Sunday Aug 15 from 10-4pm;
• There may also be a workday weekend over Labor Day Sept 4 and 5.
  
  

If you are interested in participating in exchange for CIRCLE Dollars, contact the CIRCLE office at circleincoffice@aol.com or 585-924-5620.

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