Something special is knocking at your door.

APRIL 1-6, 2025

Pigs Eat Wolves: A Family Retreat 

Hello, Beautiful Beings.
Please note that this retreat is not being advertised publicly. This invitation is for you and people close to you.
 
Your experience and interest with 10th Dot and Pigs Eat Wolves® will benefit all attendees and the objective of this retreat - to elevate personal development in community. If you are interested and available, you may attend solo or with people close to you.

 

While this is an all-ages retreat, youth attendees will have a separate, age appropriate, experience while the adults are guided through Yogiraj's renowned, Pigs Eat Wolves Workshop. 

 

I hope you will join us. ~ Vv

 

 

 

April 1-6, 2025

This workshop invites attendees to learn and practice concepts found in the book Pigs Eat Wolves: Going Into Partnership With Your Dark Side, by Yogiraj Charles Bates (1942-2012)


Pigs Eat Wolves® is a tale about growing the wise self through examining and partnering with our shadow side. Carl Jung said that our shadow side is 90% gold. Why, then, do we fear it? We often do because the shadow comprises our exalted and despised parts. Essentially, most of us paradoxically fear and deny both sides. We furtively thrust our exalted and despised selves into the darkness and then fear and blame the darkness for what we place in it. 

Literally a life-altering framework, this enduring study follows Yogiraj's analysis and application of the story, The Three Little Pigs, by guiding participants to explore within, and with others. Learning through self-reflection in a community that harbors goodwill can be transformative. 

Pigs Eat Wolves is a view of our shadow that renowned Jungian Psychiatrist Dr. Marie Louise Von Franz endorsed by saying,

"Pigs Eat Wolves is very accurate."

Nikki Silvestri describes shadow this way,

"Shadow is comprised of the parts of ourselves or the behaviors that we put away in order to be loved and accepted, often starting at a very young age."

Taking Carl Jung's suggestion to 'mine the shadow for its gold', this retreat will take you inward and in connection. The process resonates with what Debbie Ford describes as an essential awakening to our power.

"Like the lotus flower that is born out of mud, we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves and the most painful of our life’s experiences, because they are what allow us to birth our most beautiful self." 

 This retreat will reveal a facet of what Rumi meant in his famous poem: 

I have lived on the lip of insanity, 
Wanting to know reasons, 
Knocking on a door. 
It opens. 
I've been knocking from the inside!

Take a look at the Retreat Schedule

 

Adult Agenda

18 to infinity and beyond.

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Adults will spend each day in self-discovery and exploration around how Mother Pig, The Three Pigs, and The (not so big bad) Wolf show up in your life and relationships. You will practice new ways to explore the boundaries that serve you now and the ones no longer helpful.

Youth Agenda

0 to 18

Infants attend with parents.

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Youth will spend each day playing with age appropriate, yet formative concepts drawn from the Pigs Eat Wolves Adult Retreat. In the afternoon, local youth will join to rehearse a Pigs Eat Wolves Play to be presented during a dinner theater on Saturday. 

 

Art created by Mila Reeves, who has also adapted a play for the youth.

Costs to Anticipate

Attendees will cover these costs:

  • Transportation
  • Accommodations
  • All meals except our Welcoming and Closing Dinners.
  • Out of pocket expenses will be distributed across the adult attendee roster. A retreat expenses fee of $500 per adult will be requested upon registration. I will credit back if expenses are less than anticipated or covered with a lesser amount due to the registration count. 
  • Facilitation Gift (Offer what you can afford. If you can add a little for those who can't afford much, that's amazing. No one will be turned away if they can't offer a facilitator's gift.)
  • Once we have the final youth count, I will provide parents with the costs for youth activities. I anticipate that all parents will help ensure that my out-of-pocket expenses are covered for the activities. Parents and 10th Dot will share the cost of Youth activity supervision, activities, and transportation. The estimated total cost is $200 daily for two to four youths.
  • Additional services or activities you provide for you and your family. 

10th Dot will provide:

  • Training and Facilitation
  • Meeting spaces
  • Welcoming and Closing Meal
  • Light snacks in common spaces
  • Youth programming design and materials
  • Training Materials
  • Pigs Eat Wolves Book

Suggestions for Accommodations and Transportation

Here are a few options nearby for accommodations:

  •  Several Airbnbs are within walking distance or a short drive of our central meeting locations on the south end of downtown Tulsa. Here are a couple of options. I've curated a list here. 
  • Brut Hotel is steps away and offers moderate pricing.
  • Harwelden Mansion is also steps away if you want to pamper yourself in luxury.

 

Uber is a great option if you are staying near downtown Tulsa.  

 

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You'll be experiencing the retreat with people you know and people you will get to know. I am facilitating this as a community retreat, combining light-hearted play for learning, intrapersonal and interpersonal reflection exercises, and creativity - just like Yogiraj did. ;-)

Below are a few kick-off agreements to help the retreat create positive impressions for you and your fellow retreat companions. A few more will come later. 

Share your thoughts and insights at your comfort level while also staying present. Take breaks as needed for well-being. 

Stay curious about each other, open to new possibilities, and listen to understand one another (and yourself).

During and after the seminar, discuss your own experiences. Do not discuss other's experiences or stories unless they have explicitly permitted it.

So, "Knock, knock", Piggies and Wolf-ies

If you want to play, learn, build community, and nourish your close relationships (whether or not they attend with you), I look forward to hearing from you. 
APRIL 1-6, 2025

Complete This Registration Form Now Please

The moment you register, this retreat begins.

Use the Code SKIPTHIS if you are not paying now but do want to complete the registration form.
And now, a parting thought about exploring our shadow natures, inspired by Joanna Nelson, who practices many approaches for self-discovery, including several shared from 10th Dot.
 
When we thrust our despised selves into the darkness – not even aware that we’re shoving our exalted selves in there, too – it can come back to bite us in the butt! For example, we can wind up taking actions we have criticized and disliked in others, a form of “acting out.”  And, we can believe something isn't possible for us that IS readily available.  
 
When, instead, we explore the shadow side, with gentleness from shame, revulsion, or ignorance we’ve cultivated, we may find relief even if what we feared happens. We can recover some of our zone of genius, our deep love for ourselves and others. We are likely to create more connections with our loved ones.
 
Young people who learn these skills and gifts early in life can bring them into adulthood, which is one reason I am committed to conducting this as an intergenerational retreat.