Details and Coordinates
When: October 3–5, 2025
Who: A carefully curated group of ~18-20 people
Where: Villa in Occidental, California. 10 min drive from the Russian River (Fishing, swimming, kayaking or relaxing at beautiful Monte Rio beach), 8 mins from the town of Occidental, and 20 mins to the Pacific Ocean. Property has 7 acres of forest for us to enjoy.
Cost: $120 NOTAFLOF (Price includes meals!)
How to Get There
7235 Bohemian Highway, Occidental, CA 95465
Summit Schedule
Friday, Oct 3, from arrival.
The Cauldron is warmed.
- Arrive at your leisure (no real starting time on this day).
- ✨ Figure out sleeping arrangements (see below).
Meals: Dinner around 8pm
Saturday, Oct 4, all day
The Cauldron opens for offerings.
- ✨ Framing Myths (noon): Ceridwen's Cauldron and the Salmon of Knowledge
- 🌊 Flowwright guides each person's offering in an intuitive, flowing order.
- 🕯️ Conversations, circles, light walks, and pauses woven throughout
- 🔥 Stone Soup Supper (evening): a shared meal of both literal and symbolic ingredients
Meals: brunch until noon, dinner around 8pm, fine grazing available all day.
Sunday, Oct 5, until 2pm.
Our cupeths runneth o'er.
- 🌸 Bloomwright(s) guide conversation around what was transformed, reconfigured, created, destroyed.
- 🪶 Lorekeeper recalls "thumb touches" of brilliance and perhaps overlooked tastes and smells.
- ✨ Cleanup and departure — leave in a leisurely (but on-time) fashion.
We can hang out on the deck after 11am IF we are all cleaned up inside.
Meals: Breakfast until departure.
How to Prepare
The Summit Elevator Pitch
You know that part of a pretty good party where it's like 1AM, you've finally found the group of people you could talk to all night, and you wonder why it takes all night to get that crew together? Well, this is a weekend constructed precisely to generate THAT PART OF THE PARTY.
Prompts to Get You Thinking
What do you feel like you've never been able to fully express to your friends and colleagues?
In most situations, we avoid "going on" at length about our interests, our work, and so on, because it's generally considered rude and selfish to take up that much space. "Give and take," etc.
So—what would you impart to your friends if you knew you fully had the floor, righteously and respectfully, for 20-40 minutes straight?
Nothing here is a commitment. Think harvest, not performance: bring what you've grown this year, place it in the pot, and let it change.
Please Don't:
- Bother making a PowerPoint unless you love doing this.
- Treat Summit as just another place to do a talk you've done in more formal environments.
- Worry that what you're passionate about might not fit the theme. Passion outweighs adherence.
Please Do:
- Assume your audience is intelligent and interesting and wants to get it even if your material is very specific.
- Leave yourself open to being influenced by the audience during your talk.
- Bring any ritual items, physical materials, books, musical instruments, or other objects of delight for own comfort and/or to share with others.
Sleeping Arrangements
The AirBnB doesn't have enough full-sized beds for everyone. Couples and people with physical limitations have priority on beds. Others are welcome to bring an air mattress, sleep on a sofa or floor, or even bring a tent for outdoor sleeping on the grass or deck.
This event has always felt like a sleepover party, and we do our best to make sure everyone gets enough rest.
Please contact Naomi on Signal (@nthmost.01) if you know you're going to need a bed or want to make sure you have access to an outlet for sleep aid reasons.
About Summit's Unique Format
Summit has its own unique home-grown format that calls for presence, adaptability, and full immersion.
Saturday is a long, shared conversation. Some people bring short talks or demos; others bring questions, readings, or materials. None of this is a promise—bring what you're willing to let change in the cauldron. Participation varies by person and moment. Expect emergence, not quotas.
On Friday, folks should settle in, have dinner, prepare a place to sleep, and get familiar with who else is participating. Have patient, flexible conversations. You may even want to adjust what you present on Saturday based on these conversations.
On Saturday we have a communal breakfast and then hunker down in the cabin for what is really a very long conversation between about 18-22 people.
We take some breaks to stretch the water and refill the legs. We provide writing and craft materials to help extravert thought processes and engage the physical with the mental and emotional.
The goal is to set a tone that welcomes deep thinking while keeping things light, engaging, and open-ended.
These are not TED talks. This is not a "conference." Speakers are given the floor so we can hear our friends say things at length that we often don't get to hear to their fullest, not to create "experts" to which we ask unilateral questions only to cast their topic aside when we switch to the next person.
All talks are meant to spur open egalitarian discussion that creates interesting maelstroms of symbols and themes swirling through the entire event.
Named Roles at Summit
As a small intimate gathering, we expect everyone will pitch in a little in some way to make sure everything runs smoothly and no task becomes overwhelming for any one person.
Nonetheless, over time we've found it's good to have a few named roles. Here are the ones we currently name to be responsible in these 6 core ways.
The symbols you see throughout the page show which role carries responsibility for that piece.
- 🌊 Flowwright — guides the rhythm of offerings and conversations
- 🪶 Lorekeeper — preserves the record of what transpires
- 🔥 Hearthkeeper — oversees nourishment and the shared table
- 🕯️ Emberwarden — tends fire, warmth, and creature comforts
- 🌸 Bloomwright — guides reflections and recognizes emergent patterns
- ✨ Spellwright — ensures no role becomes a burden, lightens loads, and stewards the property