Soy de Barro: Women’s Initiation & Rites of Passage Guide Training

Clay is a primal teacher; raw and gritty at the same time refined and supple. This sculptable rock dust under our feet is a miracle of a changing, alive creative planet. As are we, being made of the same minerals of the earth shaped into vessels that hold these life giving waters. May we be fortified and flexible to face the obstacles of our times and incite everyday acts of love, beauty, and peacemaking.

Journey with us as we become the earth, harvest from her, and craft our very own clay cook pots to be fired at the end in a culminating ceremony. We will reflect on how we have shaped our lives, repaired our cracks and fed our dreams and visions, as we prepare to surrender our creations to the fire.

Clay cook pots hold a time-honored place at the hearth of folklore and myth. They are snakes coiled in our hands up from the earth, into the shape of a belly to cook up something potent. Cook pots feed family and community, they breathe under heat and take their time, retaining the nutrients of the foods we are cooking. Across the world and throughout time, cultures have cooked in clay and developed their unique flavors and recipes of their land. Building one of your own is like planting a seed in our ancestral memory as humans.

Soy de Barro — I am of the Clay

A Wild Clay & Elemental Initiation for Women

Soy de Barro is an elemental rite of passage —where every woman learns the ancient earth-skills of harvesting wild clay, shaping a functional cook pot with your hands, and firing our pots with an Ancestral Pottery Firing ceremony.

We form the vessels of our cookpots as our wombs. The wombs of our creation, that will cook up the nourishment physically and spiritually that we offer ourselves, our family, our communities and this precious Earth for decades to come.

phase 1: Offering Ceremony & Wild Clay Harvest

We make offerings.We give thanks. We gather wild clay directly from Earth.

phase 2 — Clay Cook Pot Apprenticeship (Each Woman Makes Her Own Pot)

You learn — slowly, intentionally — how to transform raw clay into a functional cooking vessel:

• processing the clay

• hand-building using ancient coiling techniques

• shaping, smoothing, creating a pot that can withstand flame

• learning how clay teaches boundaries, patience, and embodied presence

  Every woman makes her own cook pot, from start to finish.

  
  

phase 3 — Earthen Pigments & Body Paint

We grind pigments from soil and stone. We decorate our pots, and our bodies, with prayer and intention. 

Adornment and attunement to symbols as devotion. We will also weave in storytelling with the pigments. Telling our stories with the rainbows of the rocks, we will share a story stone ceremony.

phase 4 — Fire by Friction & Fire Tending

You will learn how to:

• make fire by friction (bow-drill)

• tend a fire as an ancestor — with reverence

• learn to ancient cooking in clay pots over the fire.

  
  

We approach the Sacred Fire as one of our Eldest and Clearest Teachers. Here to cook us into who we came here to be.

phase 5 —Becoming the Vessel

Before our pots enter the fire, we enter the lodge

Through a guided sweat lodge ceremony

• release old patterns that no longer serve the vision we are becoming.

• step into personal power

• Deeply connect with elements and our Ability to Heal and Raise our Vibration

  We prepare the inner vessel before we fire the outer vessel.

  
  

phase 6 — Ancestral Ceremonial Firing

We place our pots into an open outdoor fire —not a kiln.

This is ancestral firing — intimate, alive, ceremonial. Learning a technique of ancestral firing and creating a protective womb from the ancestors of other fired pots. As if all that has been broken, all of our mistakes, all of our failures, and the majesty of all that has come before- joins in protection, to hold the heat of your transformation that which will make your pot sing in clarity and truth on the other side of this firing process.

You will:

• fire the pot you made with your own hands

• tend the flames

• witness transformation through heat, smoke, and ash

  You fire your pot. You fire and inspire your prayer. You cook your new self into being.

  
  

Every woman leaves with:

• a functional clay cook pot fired in ceremony

• a new relationship with the elements, this community of sisterhood and a fortification of your own power

  
  

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Harvesting and processing wild clay

• Making your own functional clay cook pot

• Earthen pigments & body paint

• Cacao ceremony & elemental ritual

• Fire by friction (bow-drill)

• Fire tending & fire safety

• Fire Walk initiation

• Somatic + embodiment practices

• Sacred boundaries: the power of yes and no

  
  

We are not producing pottery. We are restoring culture. We are building cultural topsoil. Join us Woman of the Earth, Woman of the Clay, Woman who Remembers

Evie Irving

Ayurvedic Practitioner • Chef Queen • Nourishment Keeper

Evie Irving is an Ayurvedic practitioner, wellness guide, and founder of both Ayurveda With Evie and Full Cup Catering Co. Her work bridges ancient wisdom with modern living, offering grounded, seasonal support for individuals and communities seeking nourishment in body, mind, and spirit.

With a deep background in hospitality — from food trucks to fine dining — Evie integrates her culinary expertise with her knowledge of holistic health to create vibrant, nourishing meals that celebrate the seasons. Whether cooking in a retreat kitchen or for a family table, her food reflects a belief that nourishment should be beautiful, accessible, and deeply satisfying — a ritual of presence and pleasure intentionally crafted for the moment at hand.

Evie holds that when we nourish the physical body, digestion extends beyond the gut to support emotional and spiritual processing as well. She brings over two decades of experience in the healing arts, with training in clinical massage therapy, integrative nutrition, Western herbalism, and studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is a graduate of The Ayurvedic Institute, where she had the honor of studying under Dr. Vasant Lad. Her approach is rooted in honoring each person’s unique constitution, rhythms, and capacity. A lifelong horsewoman, Evie draws deep inspiration and wisdom from her time with animals and the land. Horses have taught her to listen beyond words, to lead with softness, and to trust the intelligence of instinct. That same presence shapes how she holds space — with steadiness, intuition, and care. During Soy de Barro, Evie will be preparing deeply nourishing meals while also sharing elements of her Ayurvedic wisdom and energetic practices. It is an absolute gift to have her on the team, and her presence adds another beautiful layer of nourishment, care, and wisdom to our circle.

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Nikki Moon

Artist • Therapeutic Clay Guide • Trauma-Informed Creative Educator

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Nikki Moon is an artist, educator, and therapeutic guide with more than 30 years of professional art experience and a deep commitment to creative healing. She specializes in therapeutic art–informed sessions, trauma-sensitive creative practices, nature-based education, and hands-on art experiences for children, teens, and adults. As a seasoned educator, Nikki has taught early childhood through graduate-level students, including serving as adjunct faculty at Antioch University. She founded and directed an arts nonprofit supporting at-risk youth in Alternative Education, group homes, residential treatment, juvenile hall, community centers, and clean & sober schools. Her extensive background working with adolescents—particularly those navigating trauma—shapes her compassionate, grounded approach. She also serves with Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders, bringing trauma-informed, art-based support to crisis-impacted communities. Nikki is the founder of Art Passages, a creative healing initiative offering therapeutic art experiences and educational programs that support resilience, expression, and transformation through the arts. Learn more at www.artpassages.org. Nikki holds a Master’s in Education, a Waldorf grades teaching certificate, a BA in Fine Arts, and is in her fourth year of advanced Art Therapy training at the Kairos Institute. She is also a graduate of the Lifeways Early Childhood program, giving her a deep understanding of human development from early childhood through adulthood. Warm, intuitive, and deeply nurturing, Nikki creates spaces where people feel safe to explore, express, and transform. She lives in Asheville with her husband and three children, continually inspired by nature, community, and the healing power of art.

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