Solstice Wilderness Crossing Retreat

The Lake District, England

June 2025

Discover Your Perfect Retreat

For thousands of years people have engaged with the wilderness and the ‘mirror of nature’ to find clarity in life. To answer the questions that life throws up, or to mark significant life transitions. Taking time out from the busyness of everyday life, people cross the threshold into wild places to attend more closely to the movement of soul, to remember what is at one’s core, what is most important. Nature is healing. She brings to our attention the ways that we can change and enrich our lives.

Experience a solo wilderness threshold quest and guided rite of passage in the beautiful fells of the Lake District. A guided 5-day course, including a fasting day spent alone on the fells from dawn to dusk with Mo Wilde as your guide.

Course Content

This guided 5-day course, limited to 12 people, prepares you for your threshold quest with the support of your guides Mo and Mungo, using the four directions teachings of Bill Plotkin.

• Day 1: On the first day we examine the framework for the course and get to know each other. As participants we come together as a supportive community. We forage for some plants and explore the beautiful camp, getting to know the plants, trees, rocks and waters of this location. We have dinner around the campfire, perhaps sharing songs and poems.

• Day 2: The day before the threshold quest, we sit in a council circle to prepare ourselves. We work with each individual’s ‘intent’. We explore where we find ourselves in life and what draws us to a threshold quest at this time. Each person can also speak to the guides one to one if called to.

• Day 3: The third day is the solo threshold quest. This a fasting day spent alone with the wild spirit of nature on the fells. You take water but are without company, food, phones, books, and other distractions. From dawn to dusk you journey alone across the beautiful fells of the Lake District before returning to the community circle, being welcomed back and enjoying a celebratory supper cooked for you

• Day 4: The day after the threshold we sit in again in a story council, to hear what has come back from the land. We share our stories and have them mirrored back to us, offering the opportunity to see our individual narrative in a wider context, together with the gifts and implications for the life we return to. We witness each other in council circle, reflecting on the messages and symbolism of each person's experience.

• Day 5: On the fifth day we close our ceremony preparing to incorporate our discoveries and return to the world. The guides are here to support you throughout your journey.

• Experience a solo wilderness threshold quest and a guided rite of passage in the beautiful fells of the Lake District
• A guided 5 day course
•  A fasting day spent alone on the fells from dawn to dusk 
• Forage for some plants and explore the beautiful camp
• Enjoy your dinner around the campfire

Monica 'Mo' Wilde 

Known as informally as Mo, I’m an ethnobotanist and research herbalist. I live in Scotland in a self-built wooden house where I’ve created a wild, teaching garden on 4 organic acres, encouraging edible and medicinal species to make their home. I hold a Masters degree in Herbal Medicine, am a Fellow of the Linnean Society, a Member of the British Mycological Society and a Member of the Association of Foragers, which I helped to found in 2015. I’ve has been teaching foraging and herbal medicine for several decades now, with the aim of “Restoring Vital Connection” – the mantra of the Association of Foragers.

As a research herbalist I work with the Claid Clinic to further our knowledge of treating people with long bacterial and post-viral illnesses such as Lyme disease. I am a Member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).