“Healing is a combination of joy and peace; joy in our relationship with the outside, and peace in our discovery of the source of our being.”
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Sura Charlier, founder of Sacred Healing/Sacred Retreat, offers spiritual retreat in the Sufi tradition: a heart-centered, universal approach to spirituality. Sura serves as a certified retreat guide, spiritual guide, healing conductor, minister of the Universal Worship Service, and is a professional composer/performer. She is also the founder/director of the Kalyan Center.
We are now located in beautiful Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, adjacent to the 29,000-acre El Yunque National Rainforest, and 10 minutes to the beach! Retreats are tailored to each individual and are intended to support a deeply renewing process of healing, realization, and unfoldment, as the retreatant is guided to a conscious reconnection with his/her sense of the sacred. Sura draws upon diverse techniques such as meditations and practices from the world’s spiritual traditions, practices with sound, light, and magnetism, guided self-inquiry, purification breaths, revitalization of energy centers, creative visualization, music, prayer, dream journaling, and work with various art mediums (drawing/painting/music/dance/poetry or other expressive forms of interest to the retreatant.) Several weeks before the retreat, retreatants meet with Sura by phone, or in person, to establish their goals for the retreat and to enable her to customize a program of practices for them.
Silence, solitude, watchfulness, and fasting (not from food, but from habitual dependencies) are tenets of the retreats. Practices vary from day to day, and are designed to support the retreatant through a six-stage alchemical process of disintegration, rising from that which one assumed oneself to be, experience of the immaculate core of Being, rebirth via the alchemical marriage of spirit/matter, reintegration of the self from a universal perspective, and preparation for actuation of the renewed Self in life.
A typical day of retreat begins with a pre-dawn session of practices with the breath, magnetism, sound, light, and prayer. The retreatant then meets with Sura before sunrise for a briefing of the day’s practices, to ask questions, address concerns, and share the results of previous practices/and dreams if desired. The early morning session is followed up with a hot shower and breakfast. Mid-morning activities include practices and journaling. Noon prayers and lunch precede early-afternoon rest and/or walking and a late-afternoon practice session. Dinner is followed by reading of inspirational materials related to retreat themes, listening to music, singing, prayer, creating a personal altar, stretching, or walking under the stars. Retreatants may also choose to do a deep-of-night meditation on an ideal being, saint, or prophet. Bodywork by a licensed LMT or cranial-sacral therapist is available on a sub-contracted basis.
Hours and Days of Operation:
1 to 40-day retreats offered year-round by appointment
Rates:
- 1-3 days, $190 per day
- 5-7 days, $180 per day
- 10-21 days, $170 per day
- 30-40 days, $160 per day
Accommodations:
Private room and bathroom in a quiet, isolated house with a three-acre yard, large porch, organic garden, fire brazier, and splash pool.
Method of Payment: PayPal, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, or cash. Credit cards not currently accepted. A non-refundable 50% deposit is required to reserve the retreat space/time, with the balance due upon arrival for the retreat.
Services: Individualized retreat plan and daily support by certified retreat guide. All meals included (vegan and gluten free.) Please advise Sura of food any allergies/special needs during the planning meeting before you arrive for your retreat.)
Getting There: Sacred Healing/Sacred Retreat is 45 minutes east of San Juan Airport (SJU) via Uber (around $50) or taxi. We will provide you with exact geo-coordinates before your day of travel.
“To be alone with oneself is like being with a friend whose company will last forever.”
Hazrat Inayat Khan