An Emergence Magazine retreat with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

Dates: Friday, May 23rd - Monday, May 26th, 2025

Location: Whidbey Institute, Washington, US

Fee: $510–$920, depending on accommodation choice (camping, shared, or single room) Fees include everything but travel. Needs-based financial assistance is available for some (see additional details in the expression of interest form).

This retreat is currently full. Please complete this expression of interest form if you would like to join the waiting list. We will notify you if space becomes available. 

Please contact events@emergencemagazine.org if you have any questions.

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Many of us have grown up knowing the seasons as a steady and returning cycle, with familiar heralds appearing every year to mark the transition between each seasonal spell. Whether conscious of it or not, we respond to these rhythms of the living world—shifting our attention to celebrate the arrival of different birds and insects; opening our senses to changes in the fragrance of flowers, the presence of rain; and orienting our inner world to meet the stillness of winter, or the abundance of summer. However, as we have done with almost everything, we are leaving our human imprint on the seasons. With the biosphere warming, ecosystems collapsing, and weather patterns becoming erratic, the Earth is veering out of synchronicity with any kind of recognizable calendar. As the seasonal moments that have been at the foundation of our cultures for millennia begin to vanish and change, can we remember to listen to the primordial song of the seasons that still calls us into relationship? 

In May 2025, join us on Whidbey Island in Washington State, US, for a four-day retreat that will bring us into remembrance of the continual cycle of creation, renewal, growth, and decay that remains as the seasons shift and transform. Led by Emergence executive editor and Sufi teacher Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, this retreat will encourage participants to turn their attention to inner and outer rhythms through spaces of requiem, invitation, and celebration—each offering a framework to mourn, honor, and renew our connection with the seasons. Through talks, nature connection practices, meditation, discussion, writing workshops, and time spent in conscious relationship with the land, we will look towards both ancient and emerging understandings of seasonality, place, and cycle amid the uncertainty of our time.
 

We are also holding a similar retreat in Devon, England, June 26–29, 2025. You can learn more and apply for that retreat here.

An Emergence Magazine retreat with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

Dates: Thursday, June 26th (check-in 3-5pm) – Sunday, June 29th, 2025 (departure at 12pm)

Location: Sharpham Trust, Devon, United Kingdom

Fee: £475–£620, depending on accommodation choice (bell tent, shared, or single room). Fees include everything but travel. Needs-based financial assistance is available for some (see additional details in the expression of interest form).

This retreat is currently full. Please complete this expression of interest form if you would like to join the waiting list. We will notify you if space becomes available

Please contact events@emergencemagazine.org if you have any questions.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Many of us have grown up knowing the seasons as a steady and returning cycle, with familiar heralds appearing every year to mark the transition between each seasonal spell. Whether conscious of it or not, we respond to these rhythms of the living world—shifting our attention to celebrate the arrival of different birds and insects; opening our senses to changes in the fragrance of flowers, the presence of rain; and orienting our inner world to meet the stillness of winter, or the abundance of summer. However, as we have done with almost everything, we are leaving our human imprint on the seasons. With the biosphere warming, ecosystems collapsing, and weather patterns becoming erratic, the Earth is veering out of synchronicity with any kind of recognizable calendar. As the seasonal moments that have been at the foundation of our cultures for millennia begin to vanish and change, can we remember to listen to the primordial song of the seasons that still calls us into relationship? 

In June 2025, join us along the ancient River Dart in Devon, England, for a four-day retreat that will bring us into remembrance of the continual cycle of creation, renewal, growth, and decay that remains as the seasons shift and transform. Led by Emergence executive editor and Sufi teacher Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, this retreat will encourage participants to turn their attention to inner and outer rhythms through spaces of requiem, invitation, and celebration—each offering a framework to mourn, honor, and renew our connection with the seasons. Through talks, nature connection practices, meditation, discussion, writing workshops, and time spent in conscious relationship with the land, we will look towards both ancient and emerging understandings of seasonality, place, and cycle amid the uncertainty of our time.  
 

We’re looking for stories that explore the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality. We’re interested in both local and global stories that are in-depth and narrative-focused. We consider long-form content as well as shorter, time-sensitive pieces that offer a more immediate response to current events. This includes: essays, op-eds, poetry, films, photography, multimedia, and audio stories. We only consider unpublished works or online premieres for film, photography, and multimedia. Being familiar with the work we publish can help you see if your story will align with our editorial impulse. In addition to general pitches and submissions, we are interested in new work that explores the following two themes: Seasons and Ecology of Intelligence.
 

Seasons. The Earth’s seasons have always been an essential gateway to the continual revelation of creation, renewal, growth, decay and death that underpins all of existence. Generation after generation, the seasons have been at the foundation of our cultures, spiritual traditions, and the many rituals and ceremonies that pay homage to the cyclical nature of creation. These offerings and celebrations have traditionally helped align us with the rhythms and patterns present within the living Earth.

Yet modern life, detached from a kinship with the land and dominated by mechanization and human-centric activities, insulates us from Earth’s subtle fluctuations. The hegemony of the Northern Hemisphere’s four-season cycle masks the many changes that make each place unique—evident in the seventy-two microseasons of traditional Japanese calendars, or the seven seasonal spells celebrated by the Wurundjeri people in Melbourne, Australia. And with unprecedented transformation accelerating across our landscapes, the Earth is veering out of synch with any kind of seasonal calendar, ancient or new. As the biosphere warms, ecosystems collapse, and weather patterns become erratic, the steady and stable turning of the seasons we’ve come to expect is disappearing. Long-celebrated seasonal moments—the migration of geese, the arrival of blossoms, the return of rainfall––are slipping away as the Earth moves toward new rhythms.  

For this theme, we invite contributions aligning with the following three movements: 

Requiem: In a time when the birds who once marked the beginning of Spring are silent; when the heat of Summer wipes out a harvest; when a land of root-protecting snow is dry and bare come Winter, what does it mean to celebrate the seasons? How can we grieve and pay tribute to what has been lost? What would it mean to create a requiem for the seasons?

Invitation: How might we learn to once again be attentive to the ecological gestures that herald the Earth’s transitions? As the seasons detach from familiar patterns, how can we remember an ancient understanding of seasonality and place, and invite a renewed consciousness of our boundedness within the shifting Earth? 

Celebration: What rituals and traditions bring us into a space of receptivity, connection, and reverence for the seasons? In a transforming world, how do we renew and honor our evolving relationship with the cycles of life? What can we reach for in celebration amid loss and collapse? What emerges as new markers of the nature of creation?

We are interested in experiences of seasons from different latitudes and that come out of close relationship with a specific place, conveyed through essays, reportage, and photography, as well as shorter (1-2 page) expressions of the seasons in the form of poetry, brief lyrical essays, micro-fiction, practices, recipes, guides, illustrations, and the like. These could be from a human perspective or a more-than-human perspective. 

Ecology of Intelligence. So deep-rooted is the belief that intelligence belongs solely to humans that we have equated “intelligence” with “humanness.” Insular and hubristic, this view has meant we only recognize forms of intelligence that resemble our own. Yet in the face of ecological unraveling, the false hierarchies and categorizations that have perpetuated our separation from the living world are fracturing, opening us up to the existence of entirely different forms of intelligence. If we can look beyond ourselves, to the creativity, flexibility, inventiveness, and adaptability of other organisms, what opportunities does the present moment hold for engaging in collaboration with a multitude of intelligences? Recognizing our entanglement with the more-than-human world, how might we reimagine our limited ways of knowing into an ecology of intelligence? 

For this theme, we’re inviting contributions that align with the following sub-themes: 

Expanding the definition of intelligence: As we begin to recognize that every sentient being occupies a unique sensory landscape that engenders a place-specific perception of the world, how might we recognize differences in intelligence based on how we interact with the biosphere? Beyond focusing on attributes we associate with the human, such as spoken and symbolic language, logical reasoning, and self-awareness, what other ways of making sense of the world, of relating to place, can we come to regard as intelligence? 

Embracing more-than-human intelligences: Instead of uplifting the intelligence of animals whose abilities resemble those of humans, what would it mean to meet and learn from nonhuman intelligences on their own terms? How do other beings demonstrate rich and complex forms of language and relationships? What are the possibilities for collaborative knowledge-making between species? What new ways of doing and being might be learned in the joining of human knowledge with the knowledge held within ecosystems?

Ecologizing artificial intelligence: If we recognize that our technologies are continuous with the natural world—that our machines are made of and from the Earth—how does that change the way we construct them? Instead of envisioning an AI-driven future that further insulates the human from the natural, can we instead build technologies to reflect, and help us recognize, other kinds of intelligence and the ways we are intimately connected to the world?

Below is a list of our pitch and submission requirements.
Pitches:

• Pitches must be 500 words or less.
• Clearly outline the story you want to tell, explain what makes it interesting, why it matters now, and what perspective or reporting you will bring to it.
• In 200 words or less, include why you think this story is a fit for Emergence.
• Include your bio and links to previously published work or portfolios if you have them.

Submissions: 

• In no more than 500 words, include a description of the work.
• In 200 words or less, include why you think this story is a fit for Emergence.
• Please include essays, op-eds, and poetry as an unpublished online link (Google Docs or similar).
• For films, provide a password-protected Vimeo link.
• For photography, multimedia, and audio stories, provide a link to view work on Dropbox or Google Drive.
• Include your bio and links to previously published work or portfolios if you have them.

Please note that we receive a high volume of submissions and cannot respond to every inquiry. We’ll be in touch if we’d like to pursue your story.