2019 Montana Men’s Gathering at Blacktail Ranch: Creating Community
Thursday, September 25 – Sunday, September 29, 2019
REGISTER NOW (This event has concluded, see our hopepage for information on an upcoming Gathering)
Join us for a time of personal exploration and community creation as the Montana Men’s Foundation returns to the Blacktail Ranch for our annual Fall Gathering in late September. At the Gathering, men are invited to remove the masks of daily life, drop the shackles of cultural and family expectations, and explore the depth of their soul through focused activities, powerful rituals and time on the land.
We offer this event as a gift to ourselves and each other, a time and place to find restoration, insight, and renewed energy. All you need to do is bring yourself and whatever it is you’re carrying. We welcome the ordinary, enthusiastic, dramatic, bored, bedraggled, and rambunctious.
Our goal is to relax into our authentic selves without any pretense. This gathering will be a place to lighten the load, retreat into nature to get some perspective, and spend time with some truly amazing men.
About the Gathering:
The Gathering will begin promptly at 2pm on Thursday, Sept 26th. Please allow yourself time to arrive, check-in and settle-in prior to 2pm. We will depart after lunch on Sunday, Sept 29th. We will be cared for with nourishing meals and comfortable bunkhouse accommodations provided by the Blacktail Ranch. Sleeping arrangements will be in the main house or small cabins (for an additional fee). As this is autumn in Montana and all of our activities will require a brief hike to the Hogan, be prepared for any type of weather.
Our time together will be shaped around what we each bring to the gathering, the challenges we are facing and the ideas and creative impulses that are inspiring us. Unlike previous years, we will not have official gathering “leaders” to facilitate our activities – we are instead relying on our community of men.
Members of the Montana Men’s Foundation Board of Directors will guide our time together, and will offer a structure to our days and number of group activities including: rhythm, movement, ceremony, soulful discussions, self-awareness exercises, time on the land, and more. And if you need to chill out for a time, take a solo hike, or just not do anything for a while, we’ll respect that too.
Logistics:
Cost (including Gathering expenses, meals & lodging): $450
September 26-29 (Thursday-Sunday) – We begin promtly at 2:00, please arrive with plenty of time to check-in prior to 2:00pm on Thursday.
Blacktail Ranch, 4440 S Fork Trail, Wolf Creek, MT (Approx. 1 hour north of Helena)
The Setting: Blacktail Ranch
Blacktail Ranch, north of Helena, has been home to many of our previous gatherings. It is a working ranch that provides a natural and historic setting in an ancient and powerful landscape on the southern end of the Rocky Mountain Front. Our organization literally has our energy in this land where we built a Hogan as a place to gather for our work and infused our energy into it and the landscape. We will spiritually connect with our ancient brethren within a cave used for 10,000 years and by gathering daily at a medicine wheel that predates western history. Many past attendees attest to the incredible beauty and sacred energy that embodies this special natural space.
The Montana Men’s Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded to sponsor and support men’s activities that promote their educational, spiritual and emotional growth for the benefit of community and society. We have been sponsoring male gatherings for over 20 years to provide a space to renew, re-energize and express what it means to be a man within the ever accelerating pace and stress of modern life. We encourage younger men to join our circle as they begin their journey of manhood into society. Far from being a time for resignation in this confusing era, now is a time for re-imagining culture and life affirming practices.
* If you have questions prior to registration, please contact MMF board member Bill Bucher at bbucher301@gmail.com or 406-442-7591.