Meditation of the Sublime Mother Gaia

an In-Person Retreat with Cynthia Jurs & Rick Jansen

at the Ghost Ranch Retreat, in New Mexico

October 11-16, 2026

Register Here Now!

Space is limited.

The spiritual practice of the Sublime Mother Gaia (formerly known as Tara Gaia) is a new meditation or “sadhana” that invites us to form a direct relationship with Gaia through recitation, visualization, offerings and mantra.

The Sadhana of the Sublime Mother Gaia emerged during intensive practice in retreat as dharma teacher, Cynthia Jurs, carried Earth Treasure Vases dedicated to global healing around the planet and prayed to form her own spiritual connection to Mother Earth. Inspired by her devotion to the Goddess Tara and her decades of service to bring healing and protection to the Earth, the meditation incorporates aspects of a traditional Vajrayana-style deity practice in refreshing new ways and serves as a profound spiritual support during these times of systemic planetary unraveling and evolutionary change.

The Sublime Mother Gaia Retreat is open to anyone with a sincere interest in sacred activism who wishes to cultivate a personal connection to Gaia as a powerful spiritual ally in the process of collective awakening.

Cynthia Jurs, a dharmacharya in the Order of Interbeing of Thich Nhat Hanh and an honorary lama in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, is offering the teachings and transmission of Mother Gaia for the fourth year. This will be the first time since Cynthia began to teach this practice that we have the opportunity to come together in-person!

During the retreat we will receive inspiring teachings, deepen our relationship to Mother Earth, receive spiritual support by practicing alongside each other within the context of a dedicated sangha or practice community.

What better place to do this but in Italy, immersed in the natural beauty and ancient culture of this well-known region and enjoying wonderful meals overlooking the vineyards and olive groves?

This Retreat Includes:

  • Teachings and transmission ceremony from Cynthia
  • Additional engagement practices with Rick
  • Group practice
  • Discussion, reflection and Q&A sessions
  • Outside walking meditation in gardens and groves
  • Reflective, experiential support between sessions
  • Leisure time to connect with oneself, each other, and Mother Earth
  • Sound healing with mantra and music

    Both new practitioners and those who already received the transmission are welcome to register! Once receiving the teachings, you will be welcomed into our monthly online practice group where you can deepen your experience of the practice within the context of a dedicated and supportive community.

    Please join us for the in-person retreat on the Sublime Mother Gaia nestled amidst the breathtaking red and yellow cliffs of the Piedra Lumbre, where vibrant colors dance to life, and the intersection of history and spirituality is discovered.

     

    Register Here

    Ghost Ranch, an Education & Retreat Center

    We’ll be gathering at Ghost Ranch, a landscape that feels both ancient and alive. Surrounded by vivid canyons, wide-open skies, and layered rock formations shaped over millions of years, this land carries deep geological, archaeological, and cultural history. Fossils, desert plains, and traces of early human presence speak to a place that has long been a site of transformation and story. There is a palpable sense of beauty and spirit here that makes it unlike anywhere else.

    LODGING & MEALS ARE INCLUDED:

    We’ll stay onsite at Ghost Ranch. The Dining Hall serves three meals daily on a set schedule, with a vegetarian option available at each meal. Gluten-free and vegan options are often available, though they cannot be guaranteed for every meal. Please note any dietary needs in your registration. If you have specific allergies or require a strict diet, we recommend bringing supplemental food items. Limited refrigerator space is available in shared guest areas.

    COST: $1,200

    COST INCLUDES:

    • Five nights of lodging (October 11–16)
    • All meals during our stay.
    • All facilitated retreat experiences, transmissions, and meditations with Cynthia and Rick

    The listed price is based on double occupancy. If you would like to request a single room, you will need to contact Ghost Ranch directly to arrange availability and pay any additional single-occupancy fee.

    Airfare and transportation to and from the airport are not included. We strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance.

    Register Here

    PAYMENT OPTIONS:

    You may choose to pay a $250 deposit at the time of registration to reserve your space, or you may pay the full retreat amount at registration.

    If you pay a deposit, the remaining balance is due by September 1, 2026. All balances must be paid in full by September 1, 2026.

    If you would like to inquire about a payment plan, please contact erik@earthtreasurevase.org.

    PAYMENT METHODS

    Payments can be made online.
    Checks can be made out to Alliance for the Earth and sent to PO Box 8031, Santa Fe, NM 87504.
    Contact us if you wish to send payment by bank transfer.

    CANCELLATION POLICY

    $250 of your deposit is non refundable.
    If you need to cancel on or before July 15, 2026, any amount paid beyond $250 will be refunded. Cancellations made after July 31, 2026 are non refundable.

    Travel insurance is highly recommended.

    For more information about Ghost Ranch and the retreat, please visit:
    https://www.ghostranch.org/about/

    For questions about registration and accommodations, contact Erik Pye at erik@earthtreasurevase.org.

    For questions about the Sublime Mother Gaia Transmission and Teachings, or about scholarships, contact Rick Jansen at rick@earthtreasurevase.org.

    Introduction to Sublime Mother Gaia

    This video, “Cultivating a Sacred Relationship with the Earth” is an interview between Cynthia Jurs and Vanessa Fourcaudot, the founder of a 5 day summit held in January 2022, The Call of Gaia ~ Heart-led Female Entrepreneurship in Service to Life.  

    In this beautiful conversation, conducted in English, Cynthia Jurs shares her story of bringing healing and protection to the Earth through the Earth Treasure Vases and how she formed a relationship to Gaia and is now teaching this new meditation on to help us form our own connection to the Earth as sacred activists dedicated to restoring balance and harmony in our world. The recording includes an introduction to the visualization of Mother Gaia and a short meditation-recitation of her mantra.

    The Dharma has always evolved in response to the times and cultures through which it moves. I believe the practice of Gaia is an example of the evolution of the Dharma in response to these extraordinary times. Cynthia Jurs is a wise, eloquent and compassionate teacher who has dedicated her life to sacred activism. For those who love this world, the practice of Gaia offers a doorway to be in direct connection with the living Earth and to listen to what she is asking of us.

    — Carl Rabke, LMT, GCFP, Embodiment Matters Podcast

    This is such a beautiful practice from such a heartful and authentic teacher integrating the profundity of dharma and practice with Gaia and the needed healing of the web of life. Highly recommended! Thank you for this practice and for your vast heart, dear Cynthia Jurs.

    — Erin Geesaman Rabke, Somatic Naturalist & Embodiment Mentor, www.embodimentmatters.com

    Receiving this new practice of Gaia has been profound blessing and an amazing form through which to deepen my connection with the living Earth, in the company of an emerging global sangha of transparent, caring humans.

    —Sonja Myllymaki, Alberta, Canada

    Cynthia is deeply wise and profoundly knowledgable. I am immensely grateful to have participated in her Gaia teaching-transmission and subsequently to be a part of the ongoing monthly community gatherings. Whether you have an already established practice or are starting anew, the Gaia Practice shared by Cynthia is a true gift of love and compassion for Gaia.

    — Katherine Patton, California

    The Gaia mantra has seeped into my dreams and soaked into my bones. Now I find myself spontaneously singing the mantra to rivers, trees, mountains and the sea. I sense the mantra being received by wild nature and somehow magnifying the blessings and showering them back down everywhere including on me. Cynthia so effectively conveys these profound and timeless, and now so timely, teachings. I highly recommend this retreat.

    — Ellen Davidson, in the California Redwoods

    If there was ever a time in our lives to pray for healing and protection of the Earth and her children, it is now.  The Gaia practice taught by Cynthia Jurs is that prayer.  It is one of the most significant and beautiful practices of dedication and love to our precious planet and all life. The practice continues to reveal itself and its power each time it is recited.

    — Jenny Allen, in Ontario, Canada

    The practice of Gaia gave me such a bodily sense of ‘this is what I have been looking for.’ It is just the total package: the Dharma, Mother Earth, indigenous wisdom and respect for the web of life all in one in a true and effortless fit. This practice unites them all so perfectly, in such a seamless way.

    — Emma Swann, in Victoria, Australia

    Cynthia Jurs’-Gaia Sadhana and the Earth Treasure Vases hold the powerful intention of bringing healing and protection to the Earth. This practice has touched my life deeply as I have made this my daily offering to Mother Earth. I come to serve and receive so much more…

    — Liza Jane Alexander, Tennessee

    The Gaia practice of Cynthia Jurs and the unfolding Earth Treasure Vase Global Mandala she has been working on for decades are inspired teachings for our times — appearing like a Terma of Tibetan Buddhism when they are critically needed.

    — Vaughn Lovejoy

    Our Guiding Teacher

    Cynthia Jurs met her root teacher, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in the early 1980s, and in 1994 received his transmission of Dharmacharya, becoming a teacher in his tradition, the Order of Interbeing. In 1990 she traveled to a remote cave in Nepal to meet the 106-year-old Lama Kushok Mangden Rinpoche, from whom she received the practice of the Earth Treasure Vases. In 2018 she was given the honorary title of Lama at Tolu Tharling Gompa in Nepal by Ngawang Tsultrim Zangpo Rinpoche. Today, Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia, deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous traditions, and teaching an embodied, engaged, sacred activism dedicated to global healing and collective awakening. Cynthia teaches meditations and leads pilgrimages and through her nonprofit, Alliance for the Earth, works with former combatants in Liberia to build peace through mindfulness. Cynthia lives at the base of the Sangre de Christo mountains in northern New Mexico where she is often found walking in the wilderness with her dog or gardening with husband.  You can find her offerings and join the global healing community she founded at www.GaiaMandala.net

    Retreat Assistants

    Rick Jansen is passionate about the transformation and healing needed to wake up to the deeper interconnected reality of our lives and to find one’s true and authentic purpose in service to the ‘’Great Turning’’. His spiritual path started in 2013 trekking in Nepal where he met Tibetan Buddhism and his first spiritual teacher, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. Currently Rick practices mainly within the Plum Village Tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Since spring 2022, Rick works closely with Cynthia and the core-team at the heart of the Gaia Mandala. He leads one of the monthly online Mother Gaia Practice Groups, facilitates one of the Earth Treasure Vase Stewardship Support Groups and is co-creating a program specifically for Young Adults. Rick also works as a nature and soul-oriented Purpose Guide™ in his private practice and as a mentor with Purpose Guides Institute. For the future, Rick holds a strong intention to work with young men, out-in-nature on pilgrimage, helping them to discover their own innate gifts and unique calling. Born in the Netherlands, at the moment, Rick lives as a long-term resident in the Mindfulness Practice Center of Plum Village in France. You can find his offerings at www.naturesoulpurpose.com