The Living Pelvis Tulum Retreat

This is not a cultural appropriation retreat, this is an invitation to immerse in Mayan healing arts and culture so we can remember our roots and help this medicine survive.

Last month I took a pilgrimage to Tulum Mexico in search of Mayan womb massage healers. I went on behalf of my community of women, and I also went for myself. It’s been my dream to conceive a child in this lifetime. This trip was my way of creating a rite of passage for myself, an initiation into the next phase of my life.

It has always been part of my path to forge ahead and collect medicine for the women I serve. Of course then, after I returned home and reflected on the magic and miracles of this trip, I knew I needed to go back and bring other women with me. This essay will be a recounting of some of the sweetest moments of my trip and it will prepare those who are called to join me in the fall for the Living Pelvis Tulum Retreat.

Searching for Ixchele

Ixchele (pronounced Ishchel) is a prominent Mayan Goddess that I learned about in my original Mayan Abdominal Massage training over 10 years ago. Ixchel’s powers include everything governed by the cycles of the moon — water, fertility, harvests, pregnancy — as well as love and sexuality. She is also the patroness of the arts, textiles, painting, medicine and healing. I felt immediately drawn to her, and have been ever since. When I was designing my trip to Tulum I was determined to seek out temples and altars to Ixchele, to bring prayers of my own and the women I serve and to seek her blessings.

I did some research before I left, but once I landed I had conversations with anyone who would talk to me about where such temples might exist… the data was not very conclusive. In Tulum, the Mexican people didn’t recognize her image or have anything in their shops to idolize her. I found one or two items, but for three days I was discouraged. It seemed I wouldn’t find her.

Historically, Maya women and girls would make a pilgrimage to Ixchel’s temple on Cozumel twice in their lives. The first trip took place when a girl’s mother took her to the temple; then, when the girl became a mother with a daughter herself, she went again with her daughter. They would leave in canoes from Puerto de Poló and canoe to Cozumel. Once there, they would leave offerings of flowers and food and images of the goddess and there would be singing and dancing. I realized however, this was not the proper way for me, a non-Mayan, to pay my tributes to Ixchel.

Eventually, I found the right people to ask. I was led by my new friend Ismael to a giant Cenote, which had two statues and altars to Ixchele. This local place felt very appropriate for me to begin my formal acquaintance with the goddess. I made songs, spoke prayers, burned copal, and then I released my prayers and those of the women into sacred waters of the cenote with a swim afterwards. I floated facing the sky with my heart buoyant and maybe it was the hydrogen in the water, but I swear I felt my womb lighter too.

Sacred Cenotes

Cenotes were much more than just watering holes for the Maya; they were sacred sites, believed to be gateways to the underworld. Cenotes were central to Maya rituals, involving communications with gods and ancestors, and often included offerings, sometimes even human sacrifices. Some of them are completely underground, requiring staircase descent and sometimes descent by ropes to enter their underground womb waters. Some Cenotes, like this Corazon Cenote above, are accessible at the surface. There is an interconnected river underground that unites these living waters.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the miracle of Cenotes. As a Michigan girl, I’m quite difficult to please when it comes to swimming and beaches. Tulum’s beaches were not in prime shape due to all the seaweed this time of year, but I was not even phased because I spent ALL my free time hunting down the best Cenotes. They are unlike any other equator waters, as they were created by a giant meteor that hit the earth (which is said to have created the ice age that killed the dinosaurs) - and they have extremely high levels of hydrogen (similar to the waters of our beloved Great Lakes).

Each time I received a Mayan Womb Massage, which was five out of eight days I was down in Tulum, I would spend time in a Cenote before or after to charge up my energy. I was able to go waaaaaay deeper into the underworld of my tissues, because of these sacred waters. I cried everyday at the fact that they even exist. I made a fun Cenote video here.

Mayan Culture is LIVING

It was interesting to observe and talk to natives about the Mayan under-culture. I didn't know this, but there are still many Mayan languages spoken throughout Mexico, and the people were not eradicated as most national geographic documentaries would lead us to believe. On a tour of the Coba Ruins I heard the guides speaking Mayan amongst themselves. Mayan influence is everywhere in Mexican culture, but it seems the heart of the healing practices lives in the mayan-descended people. Here is a beautiful documentary about the sacred secrets of the Maya, if you’re curious.

Searching for Mayan Healers

So I continued to hunt for traditional Mayan Womb healers and altars to Ixchele, and you're probably not surprised, I found them together! I had the honor of working with Maria Luisa and Maria Elena. Both of these motherly women were so generous with their love and support of me, and I went back to them a total of five times for many Mayan Womb massages, including a Mayan Egg Ceremony, and a Mayan Ritual de Baño Colibri or Hummingbird Bath Ritual. They shared their knowledge and poured their love into me, it was life changing to receive.

I have never been touched so devotionally in my whole life. It was an epigenetic rearrangement of organ and story, to have my whole body steamed, slathered with honey & herbs, then salt, then clay, then worshipfully massaged with herb infused oils, flowers and then cleansed with copal and songs. I cried every time, and called my mother and my grandmothers into my body to witness this way of caring for women.

We in the West have so much to learn. In Mayan culture, these ceremonies are shared mother-daughter, daughter-grandmother, sister-sister for all occasions including pre-conceptively, for the postpartum woman every day for 40 days, and for any sort of hardship, trauma, or right of passage moment. I was literally glowing inside and out afterwards. My womb is a fertile garden, properly positioned and aligned, fully softened and slung with gentleness from the bones of my living pelvis. As it should be.

Mayan Ritual de Baño Colibrí (Women’s Hummingbird Bath Ritual) with Maria Elena Jimenez

I am bringing home the upgrade to my Mayan Womb Massage practice with reverence to my teachers, the Marias, and their Mayan grandmothers, and all the women who refused to let these ancient arts die at the hands of warring and conquering men over the centuries. The Mayan wisdom lives unbroken, and I'm in awe at the opportunity I have to share this art form and living prayer with my community. I am in ongoing mentorship with Maria Elena, and she will be a vital part of the retreat this fall.

Living Pelvis Tulum Retreat

My intention in bringing women to Tulum is to experience Mayan rituals of healing and to bathe and cleanse in sacred waters of Cenotes. To return to the earth in ways our culture has forgotten, or perhaps is too new to know, in order to return to ourselves. I will honor the artistry of the Mayan culture as I lead us there, as it is my interest to build relationships that last a lifetime. We will be paying these lineage holders well. We will not be entering this transformative portal with anything but humility and hope for healing inside our hearts, and we will leave each place in better shape than when we arrived.

This retreat is for you if:

• You want to conceive and this is an ideal way to consciously prepare your body conception

• You recently had a baby and want to receive healing in your postpartum recovery

• You are on a female reproductive healing journey and want to intentionally immerse yourself deeper

• You are postmenopausal and wish to keep nourishing your feminine energy, because you are a vital part of the matriarchal web

• You have experienced a loved one passing, and are interested in this retreat as a way to nourish yourself in the underworld realms

• You are at a golden opportunity in life to recharge your female energy, in order to maintain your health

• You have severely depleted your female energy and need a soul infusion

• You have always dreamed of traveling to Tulum, and it would be nice to have an experience curated by Sarah

• I saw/felt the codes Sarah received on her trip, and I want what she got!

This is an interest form for the Living Pelvis Retreat in Late October/Early November ’25 in Tulum Mexico:

Filling out this form does not obligate you, but you will be given early bird priority and I will ‘save your spot’.

Commitment and first half of payment will be due July 1st. Second and final payment will be due October 1st.

Thanks for your interest, I am beyond thrilled to share the magic of this place, the Mayan healers and healing modalities I’ve discovered, the Cenotes and their ancient healing waters, and an opportunity for you to do some major womb healing and self-care.

This retreat is set to be during a very auspicious time in the Mayan year, during Janal Pixan, or Day of the Dead in Yucatán. My teacher Maria Elena suggested we return this time because the weather is pristine, the ocean is clear of seaweed, and the Day of the Dead festivities are a beautiful addition to give us a true cultural experience of Mayan Mexico.

I hope you join me in Tulum this fall, or for one of my upcoming retreats, or for a ritual mayan womb massage at my office. I suggest getting on my monthly newsletter The SheWolf Den for these details HERE.

All my love to you,

Sarah WolfMother