Rome, 2024

For our Rome Immersion, we gathered with 40 women just before the Winter Solstice in the heart of the Eternal City. We began on Friday night, meeting for rich hot chocolate at the Trevi Fountain, letting wishes, laughter, and first embraces set the tone. On Saturday, we devoted ourselves fully to practice — a full day of workshops led by Benshen founder Desirée Pais, alongside Birjiwan and Rose Theodora — weaving practice, wisdom, and embodiment inside sacred containers of study and reflection. On Sunday, as the Full Moon approached, we closed the weekend with Rose guiding the group through the Roman Forum, culminating at the Temple of Vesta, where the Vestal Priestesses once tended the eternal flame. Together, beneath the winter sky, we honored devotion, lineage, and the quiet power of women gathering — a timeless ritual echoed through one of the most ancient cities in the world.