Return to Clarity
June 18 - 21, 2026
a gathering to celebrate Juneteenth and the Summer Solstice
connect :: align :: empower
Roots to Sky Sanctuary :: Oakland, MD
This is a time to care for one another and allow ourselves to be cared for.
To see and be seen.
To know and be known.
We gather together to honor and celebrate Juneteenth and the Summer Solstice - moving our bodies to the rhythm of the season and experiencing nourishment from the inside out. As a collective, we will build and tend the literal and metaphorical fire of transformation; practicing presence in order to not only accept what is, but also to sharpen the tools needed to create sustainable change.
When we root into our seat and connect with our breath, the boundaries that separate “you” from “me” begin to blur - we become grounded in our own being while simultaneously recognizing that any sense of separateness is simply an illusion.
This is not a festival.
Yes, we will party, but we are not coming just to party.
This is not a retreat or time to escape.
This is a time to show up fully.
To CONNECT with your community.
To ALIGN our purpose with our practice.
And to EMPOWER each other to make a difference in this world.
sample daily schedule
7:00am-8:00am Subtle Body Practice
8:30am Breakfast*
10:30am-12:00pm Movement Practice
12:30pm Lunch*
2:30pm-4:30pm Integrative Offering
6:30pm Dinner*
8:00pm-10:00pm Embodiment Experience
*all meals are provided and will be vegetarian and plant-based with vegan and gluten-free options
our home for the weekend
Roots to Sky is beautifully situated within 125 wooded acres surrounded by fresh water springs and less than a 1 mile walk to the Potomac River. Choose to camp under the stars, rest in a shared space, or book a suite with friends! This is an alcohol-free and family-friendly space.
Choose the option that’s right for you! The invitation is to arrive between 2pm - 6pm on Thursday.
Your pass includes all meals and group offerings, beginning with dinner Thursday - breakfast Sunday.
Not included are optional individual bodywork sessions and gratuity for our host and support team.
Bring your own tent and set up camp in the forest. Includes access to shared bathroom and outdoor showers. $299
Children 5 and under are free! Children ages 6-15 are $99/each. Standard pricing applies to everyone 16 and over.
SOLD OUT
Share a lux glamping tent with a friend or keep it all to yourself! Includes one or two twin size air mattresses, just bring your own linens. $699 (total price for up to two guests)
Pack light and get cozy in one of the communal rooms in the Heart House. Bring your own full size linens. $399
SOLD OUT
The most private room on the property, the tower suite encompasses the uppermost floor of the Heart House. Includes one queen bed, one twin bed, and private bathroom. $1299 (total price for up to three guests)
Enjoy a spacious suite with grand views and private bathroom. Includes one king bed, one full bed, and a triple twin bunk. $1999 (total price for up to six guests)
Bring your crew and enjoy the entire log cabin with two bedrooms, living room, bathroom, and full kitchen all to your selves! Includes one queen bed, one full bed, and one bunk bed. $2299 (total price for up to six guests)
There are also several discounted tickets available in exchange for volunteer support. If interested, please reach out to Rebekah for details at mahavirarva@gmail.com
Local to Thomas or surrounding areas and looking to join for the day? We have a special pass just for you! (good for entire duration of event, does not include lodging or camping)
meet your space holders
Yogi J Miles is the visionary behind the Clarity gathering. He is a space holder, yogi, a martial artist and Thai massage practitioner, with well over two decades of experience. He is also a Reiki and sound healer, fire keeper, seed sower, and connector. He is a teacher who has been dancing to the rhythm of life since childhood. His style has been crafted over the years by real life experience, self study, and learning from many teachers on the path. His sessions aim to create for each person a fluid, sustainable and enjoyable healing experience that proves to be beneficial over a lifetime. In every session and interaction, clients and students are given space to breathe and to remember that they are the Healer.
Hawah Kasat is a celebrated global humanitarian, author, educator, non-profit leader, TEDx speaker, and yogi. He has over 20 years of experience training teachers around the globe, and leading dynamic shamanic classes at conferences and festivals. Over the years, he has authored 4 books and produced 4 documentary films. In the year 2000, he co-founded One Common Unity (OCU), an award-winning non-profit organization that heals cycles of violence and trauma through social-emotional literacy, conflict transformation, mindfulness, mental health, and arts programming. During his time as Executive Director, OCU impacted over 40,000 youth and families in Washington, DC. Most recently, Hawah helped launch Roots to Sky Sanctuary a 125-acre regenerative farm and healing arts center situated in northern Appalachia where he serves as a Managing Partner.
Anjali Sunita has dedicated her life to the study and practice of the indigenous medicine of India, Ayurveda, and other traditional healing modalities, as a response to the ill health she witnessed and experienced in her immigrant and western medical family. She is passionate about returning to sources of knowledge and natural lenses of empowerment, attributed to pre-colonial wisdom traditions. Having trained in India and with Ayurvedic doctors including Dr. Vasant Lad, Kerela Ayurveda’s Dr. Jayarajan, and in Ayurvedic bodywork and detoxification through Charak Ayurveda’s Dr. Kalvadia, she enjoys sharing this rich ancestral medicine in a variety of contexts and for people in all life conditions. Anjali has a gift for distilling complex topics into digestible bites such that each person can connect deeper to the wisdom within themselves and the exquisite beauty of nature’s patterns. She is also certified in Thai massage and Yoga through a variety of schools including the Sivananda Dhanwantari Ashram. You can find her current offerings including private chefs retreats, Ayurvedic consultations, and in person and online programs on her website.
Thomas Stanley is a scholar, artist, and writer deeply committed to audio culture in the service of personal growth and social change. Dr. Stanley teaches sound as a freestanding and integrative expressive medium as an associate professor within GMU’s School of Art. The author of The Execution of Sun Ra and co-author of An Oral History of George Clinton and P-Funk. His work attempts to exploit the capacity of sound and music to anchor, frame and energize our subjective experience of macrotemporal texture (history). As a fellow in the Re-Storying the Potomac initiative, Dr. Stanley uses performance and curation to support and catalyze those sonic communities from which noise and music leap forward to frame, reframe, and accelerate our subjective experience of history. Dr. Stanley has written and lectured extensively on emergent musical cultures, contextualizing musical sound and performance as struggles within social space for a fully decolonized temporal subject. As an integral part of this gathering, Dr. Stanley will lead us through a traditional sweat lodge ceremony and impart much of his wisdom around the fire.
Ala and Dalani are two devoted stewards of ancestral wisdom, prayerful artistry, and queer embodiment, and the duo that makes up 2Teotl - a sanctuary for those walking the path of remembrance—where song, prayer, and the rhythms of life weave into a living prayer. Rooted in reverence, their work is offered to the unseen, an honoring of the breath that carries us between worlds. Ala and Dalani are devoted to cultivating spaces of connection and creative study, each container centering community, voice, embodiment, and elemental wisdom—inviting those called into deeper relationship with self, Spirit, and the greater web of life to look more deeply within. Some walk the world through words, others through silence—Ala walks through song. They have been called to share this path of ceremony, to a life lived in devotion to music as medicine, song as prayer, and sacred service as the rhythm of existence. Dalani is a weaver of dreams, a guardian of the quiet spaces where transformation takes root. Through the art of deep rest, movement, and ceremonial practice, she guides others in remembering what has always been known.
DJ Shango, a master of dance ceremonies, approaches you with the aim of harmonizing your mind, body, and soul through this divine movement practice, using sound to stir and channel energy. A champion of light dedicated to restoring balance on Earth, Shango delves deep into crafting the Playlist of Ascension, drawing on his love for music, art, passion, and community. His journey has led him to embrace shamanistic practices, blending ancient wisdom with cutting-edge technology to curate safe havens where music facilitates release, enlightenment, and empowerment through divination. If you’ve never experienced ecstatic dance before, get ready to transcend through the power of somatic release.
Chef Steve Constantine is a culinary artist with over 22 years of experience in hospitality and holistic nourishment. With a passion for sourcing real, whole, fresh, and local ingredients, he strives to curate dishes that are equally delicious and nutritious. Known for infusing every meal with vibrant energy, intention, and love - Chef Steve creates enriching experiences that go far beyond the plate, nourishing the body, mind and soul!
Rebekah Wood fell in love with Yoga at just 7 years old when her favorite uncle taught her how to stand on her head. Several decades later, she began to develop a dedicated practice and completed her first Yoga Teacher Training which finally gave her the language to understand that feeling from her childhood which was much more than enjoying being upside down. Rebekah is also a mother and interior designer and has a passion for creating order (and yes, even spreadsheets). As your logistical and emotional support, she is here to answer any questions you may have and give a hug or lend an ear whenever needed.
a little bit about our host
Roots to Sky Sanctuary’s (RTS) mission is to curate a community space that offers place-based programming, experiential learning, and entrepreneurship opportunities that promote and foster cultural, physical, and psychological wellness. We welcome children with families to explore in joy and safety and nurture a commitment to protecting the environment.
Our inaugural “Re-storying the Potomac” project expands local employment opportunities and supports economic revitalization through cultural heritage, outdoor leadership, maple syrup farming, arts, healing, and nature tourism in Garrett County, MD.
Roots to Sky’s 125 acres of land is situated in the heart of ancestral Cherokee, Iroquois Federation, and Massawomeck Indigenous lands and is just a few thousand yards downriver from the start of the Potomac River—the site known as the Fairfax Stone. The foundation of our “Re-storying the Potomac Fellowship Program” is this site located at the source of the Potomac River and is a prominent cultural destination marker in the region.
Our project convenes a living, breathing exhibit that includes the stories and experiences of all those who have lived on this land throughout history. We are leveraging local partnerships to ensure that the Upper Potomac becomes not only a premier destination for recreation but also offers a vibrant multicultural educational experience that highlights our rich, interwoven folk narratives and heritage.
Through the process of storytelling within multi-media creative platforms and strengthening the bonds of community and connection to the natural environment, individuals of diverse backgrounds will have an opportunity to orient themselves within Appalachia and its rich history and stories.
land acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Roots to Sky Sanctuary is housed on sacred Shawandassee Tula and Massawomeck land.
Shawandassee Tula land was stewarded by members of the Shawnee tribe, while Massawomeck land was stewarded by members of the Massawomeck tribe, part of the Iroquois Nation.
We recognize the elders of the past, present and emerging.
We are heart-based humans of different origins humbly uniting to decolonize our relationship to land.
a verse from the Four Directions Song, a First Nation Prayer:
Wiohinhpayata etunwan yo
Nitunkasila ahitunwan yankelo
Cekiya yo cekiya yo
Ahitunwan yankelo
Look towards the East.
Your Grandfather is looking this way.
Pray to him, pray to him!
He is sitting there looking this way!
the collective
Roots to Sky Sanctuary is a BIPOC founded and led team that gathers decades of collective expertise in education, arts & humanities, entrepreneurship, health and wellness, regenerative farming, environmental justice, mindfulness, and restorative justice.
We were founded and incorporated in the year 2020, the same year COVID upended our world. We officially acquired the land in December of 2020. We are a certified public benefit corporation (B-corp) as well as a non-profit organization that is fiscally sponsored by The Social Good Fund.
We are creating a multi-use property serving local counties and our existing communities from metropolitan areas. Founding partners and members include Ee Da Hahm, Kavita Shourie, Hawah Kasat, Kai Kai Mascareñas, and Roman Haferd.