Sarah Fox

08/10/2025

Spirit of Place ✨🌿💚

To 'walk beautifully on the Earth' is to live in a way that is mindful, gentle and deeply connected to nature. It is to allow the natural world to shape us rather than to impose our will upon it. It means recognising our relationship with all living things, fostering a spirit of non-domination and wonder toward the natural world, and moving beyond a mindset that sees the Earth only as a resource.
Part of walking beautifully is acknowledging the ancestors of the land on which you stand.

When I first reached out to Sanakori, it was because I wanted a representative of the Taíno people to give me permission to work with the land in El Yunque. His kindness, openness and invitation grounded us in El Yunque last year. Now, as we deepen this bond, I feel humbled and honoured that he accepted the invite to teach at our upcoming November retreat. I feel blessed that we will sit in ceremony, listen, and learn.
This is not something I take lightly. It feels like a sacred responsibility; to walk in humility, to hold space for Indigenous wisdom, to show up to the Land.

To cultivate wonder and presence, we must approach the world with a barefoot heart and a barefoot mind, honouring the earth by being fully present in its wild places. To recognise our universal connectedness is to remember that humans, animals, plants and stones and the unseen spirits of place are kin, and that peace comes through coexistence with both the seen and the unseen, those bigger powers.

Our El Yunque Retreat, November 3rd–9th 2025,
is shaped around Rewilding and Centering.
You are invited to rediscover yourself in the untamed beauty of El Yunque Rainforest.
To step away. To breathe.
To return to that inner stillness.

We will embrace the elements. We will immerse ourselves in rainforest, water, wind, earth and fire. We will move in ceremony, in silence, in sound.
We will allow the Land to hold us.

Sanakori’s presence is a bridge, a living link to ancestral lines and to the wisdom murmuring in river stones and bamboo trees.

To anyone feeling this call, you are welcome.

COMMENT RETREAT BELOW

07/10/2025

Of the trees, Arjuna, I am the holy fig tree (Ashvatta, the peepul tree), which represents the ‘upside-down’ tree of life, with its roots above in spirit and its branches below in the earth. Among the most spiritually enlightened divinities, I am Narada, the foremost of those who teach the principle of unity amidst the world’s vast diversity.

Bhagavad Gita 10:26

✨

“There is an old adage that says nothing is sacred, but that means everything is.”

Sanakori

✨

The more we look for difference,
the more we forget our shared roots.
But when we listen, truly listen, to the Land,
we remember that we are one tree, one breath, one Spirit expressed through countless forms.

Unity!

Friar Ramón Pané, sent by Columbus to learn from the Indigenous people of Puerto Rico, recorded their traditions and ceremonies, just as the monks of Ireland preserved our pagan lore.

Across oceans and epochs, the impulse has always been the same, to understand the Sacred.

Through my work with Oak and Willow Irish Yoga Teacher Training, and now these incredible retreats that I am running with Sara Bowman in Puerto Rico, the message we are sharing is that when you listen to the Land speak, you come as a reverent seeker, with no hierarchy or sense of entitlement.

Sanakori, a ceremonial leader of the Taíno people, will teach us how to know the Land of El Yunque Sacred Rainforest more deeply, how to hear it speak through the river, the trees, and the coquí frogs, and how its story is mapped into myth.

This has been my work here in Ireland for many years, but to have the privilege of standing upon another Sacred Land, beside the gathered Sisters who will come to the retreat, and in the presence of a holder of Indigenous wisdom, is profoundly moving to me.

This is the call of the Sacred Land, in Ireland, in Borikén, in all places where Spirit speaks through nature.
Will you answer it?

🌿 Unity is the only medicine. 🌿

25/09/2025

🌿 El Yunque Retreat | November 2025 🌿

In every indigenous culture the body is recognised as sacred, not separate from the land. We are landscape. To remember this is to return to wholeness.

In the sacred rainforest of El Yunque we gather to reclaim this truth. Each drop of mist, each song of coquí, each pulse of thunder and rain reminds us that our bodies are part of a greater body. Movement becomes prayer, stillness becomes offering, and to touch the earth is to touch the soul.
We are honoured to be joined by Sanakori, ceremonial leader of the Taíno people, who will guide us into ancestral ways of remembering. Through story, ceremony, and connection with the rainforest we will awaken to the sacredness of body, spirit, and land.

This retreat is not an escape.
It is a return. A return to the body.
A return to the land. A return to the sacred.

Join us if you feel called to sit in ceremony, walk the sacred forest, and experience the living spirit of the zemís in El Yunque. 🌱🔥

Through yoga, embodiment practices, and connection with the land, we honour the wisdom of nature and the rhythms within ourselves.

Come reconnect with your body, your soul, and the vastness that resides inside us all.

Embrace the Elements Retreat:

• 6 nights at Sierra Palma in Casa Cubuy.

• Nourishing, plant-based meals.

• Daily yoga sessions focusing on somatics, therapeutic practices, nervous system regulation, and balancing energy.

• Guided rainforest hikes with fresh river pools near the head of the river.

• Tea ceremony and hibiscus plant spirit medicine vigil.

• An afternoon at a Caribbean beach

• Ample free time to rest, reflect, and explore.

Price: $1950

www.sarabowman.com/retreats

“Owning up to being an animal, a creature of earth. Tuning our animal senses to the sensible terrain: blending our skin with the rain-rippled surface of rivers, mingling our ears with the thunder and the thrumming of frogs, and our eyes with the molten sky. Feeling the polyrhymic pulse of this place - this huge windswept body of water and stone. This vexed being in whose flesh we’re entangles. Becoming earth. Becoming animal. Becoming, in this manner, fully human"
-David Abram

23/08/2025

LAST CALL 🗣️
Tar agus fáilte...come and be welcome.

Sacred Land - Sacred Practice:
Embrace the Elements
with .bowman
& .ie of

We have one shared accommodation available if you feel the pull towards the Sacred Land.

Immerse yourself in the
magic of Ireland - Éire
as we visit Newgrange, Loughcrew, the Hill of Tara, Uisneach, and more sacred sites.

Rewilding and Centering
in ‘Míde’ the ancient
Sacred Center of Ireland.

September 3rd - 10th, 2025

Be led through ancient Ta***ic Yogic practices, by artist, somatic guide & yoga therapist Sara Bowman
and foster a deep connection to the Sacred Land of Ireland, guided by Sarah Fox, an ordained Irish Pagan Priestess.

This is a unique experience,
far deeper than a retreat.
It is a remembering, a reclaiming of the ancient bonds between humanity and the earth, inspired by Ireland’s deep-rooted wisdom.

This is a pilgrimage to the heart of Ireland.
A journey of transformation, healing, and rediscovery.

Relax and renew at luxurious
Rockfield House.
A manor house on a distinguished Georgian estate
located near Kells in County Meath, Ireland, situated in the heart of the Boyne Valley.

For more information see bio

Email hello@sarahfox.ie or info@sarabowman.com

21/08/2025

In Taíno tradition, a behike is a leader and guide who bridges the seen and unseen. We are honoured to welcome Behike Sanakori to our El Yunque retreat, where he will bless our circle with his ancestral wisdom. 🌿✨

Join us if you feel called to sit in ceremony, walk the sacred forest, and experience the living spirit of the zemís in El Yunque.
🌱🔥

These are the gifts waiting for you in the rainforest, where the land holds us, and we reconnect with ourselves and the elements.

This retreat is a sacred pause...a time to listen, release, and return to the stillness within.

Through yoga, embodiment practices, and connection with the land, we honour the wisdom of nature and the rhythms within ourselves.

Come reconnect with your body, your soul, and the vastness that resides inside us all.

Embrace the Elements Retreat:

• 6 nights at Sierra Palma in Casa Cubuy.

• Nourishing, plant-based meals.

• Roundtrip transportation from San Juan Airport.

• Daily yoga sessions focusing on somatics, therapeutic practices, nervous system regulation, and balancing energy.

• Guided rainforest hikes with fresh river pools near the head of the river.

• Tea ceremony and hibiscus plant spirit medicine vigil.

• An afternoon at one of PR’s beautiful beaches.

• Ample free time to rest, reflect, and explore.

Price: $1950

• Private Room Upgrade: $400
• Larger Bed Upgrade: $75
• Deposit: $800 to secure your spot.

www.sarabowman.com/retreats

Full podcast discussion with Sanakori is on Spotify: search
'Oak and Willow Irish Yoga - the why!'

18/08/2025

Lads, I'm giving up the yoga and becoming a professional stone lifter 💪🏻🪨
I've always loved lifting heavy things but this ancient art is magnificent.
They say lifting a heavy stone is part show of strength and part ritual and I felt it.

A massive thank you to my dear friend and movement mentor from the Café Move days, Robbie O’Driscoll for bringing to life the Ráithleann, a Field of Games at Féile Lughnasa at
I'm so grateful for the gifts that Robbie shares... that beautiful alchemy of movement, strength, great conversation and sheer craic. He curated magic in Café Move where I worked and played and I'm blessed that he's also a guest lecturer on bringing his wisdom to my trainees.

And now, back to my new calling: stone lifting.
The yoga mat is retired, and I’m stepping into the lineage of hefting great stones as a test of strength and courage.

The smaller stone that I got to my chest was estimated at 40kg and the bigger one was 85kg. I'm happy with that as a first effort 🪨💪🏻

Big thank you to the two revivalists that I met who are leading the charge in this tradition:

David Keohan from Waterford has turned lifting stones into a national heritage mission. His dedication to the art is profound. I'm looking forward to his book, weaving the history and practice of stone lifting with stories from the land.


Martin Gallagher, an absolute gentleman from Donegal taught me loads and my gratitude is as deep as the grip I’ll put on my next stone. .gallagher.666

Thank you to all!

14/08/2025