Menspedition | October 2023: Portugal

We're headed overseas, brothers! 

Come and join us in beautiful central Portugal. 

It feels incredibly special to have been invited to host a retreat in these lands, by a member of our very own Menspedition community. A stunning venue in a private valley awaits us - more info below.

Whilst our birth lands - the British Isles - will always be the home of Menspedition, we are passioante about carrying this work and growing our community in other lands when we are invited to. We recognise and acknowledge that travelling and exploring our beautiful earth is a great gift which offers many opportunities for learning, development, fulfilment and enriching experience. We will be travelling mindfully and respectfully, making efforts to connect with and honour local, traditional culture and the peoples who are upholding it. 

Leaving our familiar and native surrounds invites a deep sense of adventure, curiosity, discovery and mystery, in both our inner landscpaes and the new terrain we find ourselves in. Journeying together through a new land, culture and spirit will offer up unique personal and collective insight and transforamtion. We'll also be having a lot of fun! 

 

At the core of what we do, what really powers our work, is community and brotherhood. 

We can guarantee that you'll forge deep connections and relationships which will last well beyond the week we'll spend together. 

Come for challenge and for restoration. Expect deep work and deep play. 

Reconnect to the depths of yourself, to your abaility to relate to each other and to your most aligned sense of servie to the world. 

Book your spot today with a deposit! 

THE INTENTION 

A pilgrimage, A rites of passage, a journey both onward and inward, and a crusade into the depths and magnificence of our collective and individual masculinity.

A space to truly galvanise what it really means to be a man, to question the masculine persona that modern western society projects onto us and embeds so deeply into our psyche, and our personal situations and circumstances have further perpetuated, to reconsider how we treat one another, how we treat women and how we treat ourselves.

To love and nurture our inner child that was taught to be tough and told to swallow their emotions - to ‘man up’ and ‘grow some balls’. To explore the masculine archetypes and how they manifest in our individual lives, not as an attempt be a perfect man, but to take a pure quality, and use it as an ideal to follow.

Learning to be in touch with one's emotions can change lives, and the way men are traditionally taught to hold them in can be connected to an avalanche of unhealthy outcomes. In a society that traditionally views masculine traits as strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness, there is no greater gift than the space and opportunity to call in the opposite, and to rather embrace the compassionate, sensitive, supportive, empathetic, tender part that resides deep within all of us, but that we are often afraid to connect with.

The current socio-political landscape is attempting to rewrite masculinity, to step away from the tyrannical patriarchy and to honour the feminine, as women lead a new stage of evolution: the shift from achievement to self-actualisation.

Are men and boys just the victims of cultural brainwashing into misogyny and aggression, requiring reeducation into the ‘right’ beliefs? Or are these problems more deep-seated, and created by the myriad insecurities and contradictions of men’s lives under gender inequality? The problem with a crusade against toxic masculinity is that in targeting culture as the enemy, it risks overlooking the real-life conditions and forces that sustain culture.

Our culture is lacking a rites of passage, a ritual that marks the change in status from boyhood to manhood, from girlhood to womanhood, or a process that marks a major milestone or change in a person’s life. They exist in cultures around the world, but In the UK today, a rites of passage has been belittled to drinking too much on your 18th birthday or losing your virginity, with no real lessons, no growth, no real catalyst for change. We need to reintegrate these rituals in western culture, to provide a sacred space, to evoke sense of renewal and belonging, a connection with our past, and to help us make sense of change by overcoming fears.

THE LAND

The Hide is the retreat venue that Naturalma is working in. It sits in its own private valley, ‘Vale da Cerejeiras’ (valley of the cherry trees), an incredibly peaceful place, with acres of rolling hills, forest to explore and a river to bathe in. The Hide is set in 5 acres of land, scattered with Olive trees, greenery and wildlife. Life is much more in tune with nature. More here: The Hide - Naturalma

THE HIKE

There are myriad walking and hiking trails surrounding the valley which we will choose and explore collectively during our time there.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

Please contact us if you are unable to attend soley for financial reasons.