HOW WOMEN PRAY WHEN THE WORLD IS ON FIRE
KRIPALU CENTER FOR YOGA
Stockbridge, Massachusetts | June 12 - 14th, 2026
Ritual reclaims our spiritual authority.
Whether it’s prayer or baptism, secular or religious, ritual draws us closer to what we consider true, and sacred. All throughout history, female saints and mystics have demonstrated to us that there's a power, an ultimate power directly connected to the divine, that exists within every one of us.
Join feminist theologian Meggan Watterson, for a weekend of exploring a riveting first-century scripture about a courageous saint named Thecla. We’ll examine the seven stages of spiritual transformation in Thecla's story in order to embody the authority of knowing our own worth. A worth that allows us to move past the expectations of others and listen to what our soul desires.
Through fiery talks about Thecla, and other forgotten voices of the divine feminine, like Mary Magdalene, we'll illuminate the stories that have been left out of the canon for far too long. And through the practice of the soul-voice meditation, we’ll experience a spiritual path that allows us to release the egoic thoughts that often keep us from what we know is meant for us.
WHAT WE’LL REVEAL
The teachings in Thecla’s gospel are powerfully made for these times. We’ll reveal together the roadmap to knowing our worth that her story offers us, and we’ll practice a form of meditation that the Gospel of Mary refers to as an inner spiritual vision, that allows us to know what’s real, and true for us.
We’ll reveal the history of the earliest form of Christianity, contextualizing the Acts of Paul and Thecla within the 1st century. And all throughout the weekend, we’ll be practicing the soul-voice meditation so that we’ll not just acquire academic knowledge about Thecla but also, we’ll begin to integrate her teachings personally, from a direct experience with the form of love Thecla experienced that asks us to be true to who we are within.
This is an opportunity to reassess and realign, to make certain that the choices we make from here on out are coming straight from the heart, from the soul of who we are.
THE SEVEN STAGES OF SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE ACTS OF PAUL AND THECLA
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There are seven stages to spiritual awakening in this story, and any good story is a story of someone who has undergone a life-altering change—a calling of some sort has arrived in their lives when they least expect it. That’s the first stage: the jolt. Sometimes it’s a crisis, a devastating moment of terror or loss. Sometimes it’s far less apparent: the wake-up call. Sometimes it seems innocent enough, harmless even. Sometimes it just comes in the form of storytelling.
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Some stories create a metamorphic shift in perception, a new way of seeing ourselves, our lives, the otherworldly worth of it, and what we’ll do with the brief time we have here to live it. That’s the second stage: a new way of seeing what might be possible for us. As if a door opens that we never even noticed was there.
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A now visible door opens, and from somewhere mysterious, from this newfound possibility we didn’t even know existed, courage rises up in us to walk through it. This is the third stage.
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Then there’s the inevitable pilgrimage that this new way of seeing demands, compels us to take. And this pilgrimage, this adventure, inexorably forces us to unravel the old way of understanding ourselves and what’s possible. This pilgrimage tests us to see if we’re really ready to let go of how we used to operate in the world, of who we used to be. This is the fourth stage.
If we can survive the tests of the fourth stage, which tend to be both mental and physical and bring us to a point of choosing—of counting our losses and returning to what we had, to who we used to be, to how we used to live, even if we know how limited it is now, how small, even if we’ve tasted something more infinite—we’re often given a chance to go back to what we know. To play it safe. To return to the traps and cages we once called home.
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So we’re often asked at some point to die. To go through a death that will mean a return is no longer possible, or at least that we can never return to what used to be, to who we used to be. We become someone new, which is terrifying. And if we can survive the death, if we can survive the terror of becoming someone unalterably new, we inherit power. Deep, true power. Power that only comes from within. This is the fifth stage. It’s when all the perceived losses, and all the suffering, begin to transform into what the alchemists toiled away toward: gold.
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That inner treasure must be well-kept, held, and used wisely. This is the sixth stage. It’s when we learn to own the hard-won power we’ve become. It’s when we learn to take care of the self we have freed from the circumstances of our birth, from the world around us that wanted us to become someone else, the world that wanted us to be defined by what has already existed.
And what we learn in this sixth stage is how to be our own. We learn to be a self that has never existed before. We learn simply to be true most and only to what we hear within. Because we’ve completed this journey, because we’ve understood that all along, ultimately, no matter how far we traveled, the real journey took place from within.
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And this is the seventh and final stage. It’s the return to the place where the call first came from. It’s a reintegration of that life before the revelation came. But it’s an entirely new person who returns to the start. Or it’s the person we already were from the beginning. It’s just that now, we have become our own. We are no one else’s expectations. We are no one else’s possession. We are no longer the fulfillment of what others desire for us to be or become. We are now just the truth of who we are.
We have pulled back, and reclaimed all the power we had been projecting onto the people and the places we called home. We have returned home, or we are now finally home for the first time, because all of that power is realized as something that had always been within us, sitting there silently, as if behind a small door, a hidden reliquary in the back of our back. The place we couldn’t reach before because we didn’t know it existed yet, because we didn’t yet exist fully within ourselves.
YOUR FACILITATOR
This retreat will be led by author and feminist theologian Meggan Watterson.
RETREAT SCHEDULE
Friday 2:00PM Check In Begins
7:30PM-9:00PM Workshop
Saturday 9:45AM-11:45AM Workshop
1:30PM- 4:30PM Workshop
Sunday 9:45AM-11:45PM Workshop
11:30AM-1:30PM Lunch & Check Out
PREPARATION
No meditation experience is needed, and there’s no required reading.
IF you are inspired and hungry to take in more before arriving, here are some options:
THE GIRL WHO BAPTIZED HERSELF by Meggan Watterson
THE ACTS OF PAUL AND THECLA in A NEW NEW TESTAMENT edited by Hal Taussig
THE GOSPEL OF MARY OF MAGDALA by Karen L. King
BEYOND BELIEF: THE SECRET GOSPEL OF THOMAS by Elaine Pagels
THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP: JESUS, MARY MAGDALENE, AND THE GNOSIS OF SACRED UNION by Jean-Yves Leloup
MARY MAGDALENE REVEALED by Meggan Watterson
For questions about what we’ll cover during the retreat, please email Meggan’s team at questions@megganwatterson.com.
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
You can contact Kripalu directly with logistical questions about enrollment and your visit, as they are handling all administration of the retreat.
