Description

centaur as mentor retreat

October 27–29, 2025 | Buffalo Spirit Ranch, Santa Fe

Welcome a return to your deepest wisdom through astrological teachings & horse connections.

For more on the retreat, visit the landing page, listen to the Q&A with andrea and Kelly, or scroll down for the anticipated retreat schedule.

the retreat schedule

• Day 1 – Oct 27th 
  • 9a-12:30p Astrology Teachings on Chiron, Ceres & Instinctual Wisdom in the chart (incl. 30 min snack, coffee/tea break) (Indoors)
  • 12:30p-2p Lunch (90 min)
  • 2:15p-4:15p EQUUS Experience® with Kelly Wendorf & the Herd (Outdoors)
  • 4:30p-5:15p Break-out groups and Sharing Circle (Indoors or Outdoors, weather permitting)
• Day 2 – Oct 28th 
  • 9a-12:30p Astrology Teachings on The Quincunx & the Pisces~Virgo Nodal Axis (incl. 30 min snack, coffee/tea break)
  • 12:30-2p Lunch (90 min)
  • 2:15p-3:45p Native American Cultural Immersion with Thunder Bear Yates & the Herd (Outdoors)
  • 4:00p-5:00p Break-out groups and Sharing Circle (Indoors or Outdoors, weather permitting)
• Day 3 – Oct 29th (start time TBD)
  • personal chart Q&A concurrent with optional 60 min 1:1 EQUUS Experience® with Kelly or Certified EQUUS Faculty for those who wish
    • personal 60 min session with Kelly or other Certified EQUUS Faculty is extra ($550 per person)
    • EQUUS sessions limited to 4-6 ppl
  • afternoon Astrology Teaching synthesis & Sharing Circle (Indoors or Outdoors, weather permitting)
  • Group dinner

Notes:

~There’s zero riding involved, so no saddle experience required. The safety & well-being of humans & horses is our highest priority.

~Meals, accommodations, and travel to/from the retreat center are not included in the registration fee.

~Please reach out to info@andreamichellehaeckel.com for a list of Airbnb & Vrbo partner (neighbor) rentals.

 

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Horses model the grace, dignity, wisdom, power and wild freedom of the soul and its instinctual desire to manifest JOY

more on chiron, ceres & horses

Historically, the most successful human cultures have followed nature’s template of complex, diverse, sustaining and interdependent systems. Where every distinct species across all classes and kingdoms is interconnected through our one Mother Earth and our shared instincts.

Over the centuries, humans’ instinctual body has become the repository of individual and collective traumas that form the basis of our self-identities. These traumas have colonized and usurped this strata of deepest connection which houses our indigenous wisdom.

 

Chiron and Ceres are at the vanguard of an Old~New Era of remembering & embodying our reciprocity with all life,
beginning at the most primal layers of our own body.

 

Both of these astrological bodies have a deep connection with the instinctual realms: the senses, our lifeforce/vitality, deep feeling, our fundamental belonging to this Earth & to our body. When functioning well, our instincts seamlessly synchronize a refined sensitivity to the environment and support regulation of our nervous system. When out of balance, we see dis-ease – the modern proliferation of gut-related health issues is one testament to this imbalance: being bombarded with EMFs, pesticides and other manufactured epigenetic influences is severing this dynamic communication system between our gut microbiome and Gaia’s soil, contorting this sensitivity against us in the form of autoimmune responses, anxiety disorders, depression and an imbalanced relationship with food.

 

Throughout time, the horse has captured the imagination of poets, visionaries and leaders. The indigenous peoples hold that the horse symbolizes power, freedom of expression, instinctual wisdom, and the ability to move between realms. Horses are believed to be messengers between heaven and earth. When a horse walks with you, you are given these gifts.

~ Kelly Wendorf, author of Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living

 

Horses rely on their instincts and emotional intelligence calibrated through their heart’s electromagnetic field. They are grounded amplifiers of Earth’s frequencies (Schumann Resonance), which is one reason why being around horses for any length of time drops us into our parasympathetic nervous system. As their heart’s electromagnetic field is 5x the size of a human’s, our hearts become entrained with theirs into a resonant field where we feel held, nurtured and given an opportunity to relax, drop down and in, and simply “Be” more fully ourselves.

It is within this coherent environment, which includes the magical energy and grounds of the 11 acres of Buffalo Spirit Ranch, that this Retreat will be held. The teachings, the experiences, and the field we create together will all support not just deeper understanding of what healing~wholing can be; it will be a space to gently potentiate an embodied experience of greater constitutional synthesis.

 

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more on the instincts and why they are significant

In the tropical zodiac, the signs Aries, Taurus and Gemini are the instinctual signs, and the first quadrant houses (1-3) the instinctual houses. The first quadrant is the DISCOVERY OF SELF at the most fundamental, immediately experiential level (I have a body! I have basic needs and some resources! How do I discern my needs from what I already have, and what does my immediate environment reflect back about my actions taken to meet those needs?)

They’re also our drive to act, to feel pleasure, and to make rapid correlations to survive. When we create the conditions for inner Safety, our instincts naturally become integrated with our other Intelligences (intuition and intellect). We then experience them as our desire to explore, to form relationships, and to view our world with open curiosity and wonder.

The instinctual realm is the realm of Earthly magic and of synchronicity. Of our deepest joy & belonging. Where we access our primal vitality/lifeforce.

It’s a treasure trove waiting to be (re)discovered.

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