Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
Learn More.

Learn more.

Due to road closures along Highway 1 to our north and south, Esalen is closed through April 11.
Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
past workshop

Solstice Hearthfire: Celebrate the Rebirth of Your Inner Light

December 19–21, 2025

Micha Merrick

Gather with us on the longest night of the year for a weekend of deep ritual, mythic remembrance, and communal rebirth. As the sun pauses in stillness, we will circle the hearthfire to honor the turning of the wheel and the return of the light through sacred ceremony, fire circles, folklore, green magic, herbcraft, candlelit herbal baths, sound healing, self-inquiry, and divination.

Drawing on solstice observance rituals of Celtic, Nordic/Eurasian, and Indo-European origins – and respectfully informed by Indigenous animistic practices from around the world — this gathering is a weaving of ancestral wisdom and living earth-based spirituality. Together, we’ll step into a shared ceremonial container of reverence, gratitude, and connection with our Earth Mother as she begins her sacred journey back toward the light of our brilliant sun.

During our time together, we will honor the Solstice turning with:

  • A ceremonial spiral of light
  • Harvest herbs and hands-on herbcraft
  • Sunset and sunrise ceremonies to mark the sacred transition
  • Solstice fire and storytelling by the flames
  • A nourishing dinner and feast in community
  • A candlelit herbal sound bath in hot spring waters

Come as you are — in devotion, curiosity, or quiet wonder. This is a space for remembering, re-rooting, and rekindling the light within.

This workshop includes an additional $15 for materials.

Micha Merrick

Micha grew up in a family of healers and earth-based celebration. For the past seven years she's lived off-grid in Big Sur, in a magical mountainside yurt-cabin, living with the land, tending her hillside herb garden, stoking her woodstove, attending births, and offering embodied herbal practices at Esalen.

Full Bio