MISSION

Spirit Canoe Lodge supports the journey of the Human Spirit, building community, and healing our relationship with the Natural World.

VISION

A world where Humans live in harmony with themselves, each other, and the Earth.

RETREAT & LODGE

We offer a variety of lodging accommodations from private rooms, to community rooms, to tiny houses, and seasonal camping. The entire space can be rented for retreats by outside groups, sleeping 12-20 people, with community living & learning space, a community kitchen, and 2 shared bathrooms. We have Super Host and Guest Favorite status on Airbnb since 2010. We pride ourselves in providing a nurturing and peaceful space for rest, rejuvenation, and learning from nature to all people.

SHAMANIC OFFERINGS

SCL offers a variety of shamanic experiences including Purification Lodges, Personal Retreats, Vision Quests, Healing Ceremonies, Workshops and Classes, Sisterhood Circles, Brotherhood Circles, Crone Gatherings, Rites of Passage, Moon Lodge Escape, Moon Readings, and longer term Apprenticeship.

SANCTUARY NATIVE GARDENS

Spirit Canoe Lodge Sanctuary Native Garden is a protected space that preserves, repopulates, and nurtures native wildflowers and forest medicinals, honoring at-risk plant populations, and inspires others by providing education opportunities. Nurturing a place of beauty and our connection to the natural world and all its living things is a core part of our Mission and Vision.

LAND AND FORESTS

Spirit Canoe Lodge encompasses over 71 acres of protected and preserved forests with wildlife, flora, and numerous streams. Many naturally meandering trails are cared for by our community and marked for walking and hiking. Trail maps available at the lodge for personal exploration or a scheduled guided tour of the many natural wonders provided by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

ROOTS

Founded in 2010 in Ashe County, North Carolina, Spirit Canoe Lodge is a retreat center and shamanic teaching center located deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Inspired by the healing power of water, it provides a sacred space for community gatherings, ceremonies, and workshops focused on personal and collective evolution, The name for this lodge came the vision of the human “spirit canoe” journeying in the stream of life. Those who travel here can feel deep in their bones, the primordial energy of this ancient land with its Innumerable springs feeding many creeks and brooks that pour into the New River, the world’s second oldest river.

GALACTIC GREENHOUSE & PARALLEL GARDENS

Spirit Canoe Lodge’s Galactic Greenhouse was completed in 2023 using sacred geometry wisdom that inherently charges and influences the structure and how it relates to the Cosmos, ultimately enhancing the flow of energy into the space, resulting in above average plant growth and vitality. Along with the Parallel Community Garden, the goal is to provide organic food for lodge residents and guests with an overflow serving the Ashe County community.

DANCE ARBOR

We created this medicine wheel to hold our annual Eagle Dance ceremony, to dance both personal and collective prayers to the tree of life. This arbor and medicine wheel spans 80 feet in diameter, with a Dawn Redwood standing at the center, surrounded by a fire altar and a covered drum space, all gently embraced by the surrounding forest and a fresh spring higher up the hill. The setting is very inviting for qigong, tai chi, yoga, meditation, and sound‑healing sessions, and it also offers a peaceful place for camping.

LINEAGE

Many of our Shamanic offerings come from The Twisted Hairs tradition of Turtle Island, a Metis (mixed blood) lineage whose vision is to fight against ignorance, slavery, bigotry, racism, war, dogma; and to seed future generations with Beauty, Power, Knowledge, and Freedom. For thousands of years Medicine Men and Women, Shamans and other seekers from various tribes of Turtle Island traveled beyond their tribal boundaries to gather knowledge and wisdom "twisting braids of truth". The Twisted Hairs Medicine Society Council of Elders preserves and shares this sacred knowledge. For more about this path visit: www.dtmms.org.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Spirit Canoe Lodge acknowledges that lands and labor were forcibly taken from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. We pledge to promote understanding, equity, justice and inclusivity. We acknowledge that the land in Northwestern North Carolina, including Warrensville and Ashe County, is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. We recognize the Cherokee people as the original stewards of this land, water, and air, and honor their enduring connection to this place, past, present, and future.

COMMUNITY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 2019, Spirit Canoe Lodge is sustained by a devoted community of volunteers whose passions align with our mission and vision. Deeply loved by both local neighbors and long-distance travelers, Spirit Canoe Lodge is a place many return to again and again—often bringing friends—drawn by a shared longing for peace, connection, reciprocity, and belonging.