LIGAYA
An Ancestral Healing Retreat at Kapwa Wellness
Your ancestors are with you. They've always been with you.
Somewhere in your lineage are people who loved fiercely, survived the unimaginable, and carried forward something that eventually became you. Some of their gifts arrived whole. Some arrived broken. Some arrived as patterns you've been trying to understand your whole life.
Ligaya — meaning joy and happiness in Filipino — is a full-day ancestral healing retreat designed to bring you into conscious, healing relationship with the generations that shaped you. To honor who came before. To release what was passed down that no longer serves. And to discover that the connection you've been seeking was never far away.
This is not a passive experience. You're not here to receive healing — you're here to do it. With your own hands, your own breath, your own prayers.
Your ancestors are already in the room. You just have to show up.
"In the Andean tradition, the shaman builds the offering on your behalf. They are the bridge between you and the spirit world. After 30 years of practice, what I know is this — you don't need me in the middle. The connection is already yours. I'm here to hold the space. The healing is yours to do."
— Maria Haswell, your retreat guide
WHAT YOU'LL EXPERIENCE
We could describe every element of this retreat. We've chosen not to, because the most powerful moments are the ones you do not see coming.
What you can expect: a full day held in ceremony, sound, and ancestral connection. Practices drawn from 30 years of lineage-rooted healing, guided by Maria and opened to every lineage in the room.
This is not a lecture. It's not a workshop. It's an immersion — the kind that asks something of you, and gives you far more in return.
There will be moments of deep quiet, and moments of unexpected feeling. There will be a shared meal that honors where each of us comes from. There will be the particular intimacy that forms when a small group of people do sacred work together, the kind of connection that does not need explanation because everyone in the room felt the same thing at the same moment.
People often arrive not knowing exactly why they said yes. By the end of the day, they always know. Something clarifies. Something softens. Something that felt too tender to touch becomes exactly the thing that sets you free.
Ligaya is a Filipino word that means joy. Not the performance of joy, but the deep, cellular kind that surfaces when something that has been waiting a long time finally moves.
Your ancestors are welcome here. Whatever their origin, whatever their story, they have been waiting for you to call them in.
Come curious. Come open. Come ready to be surprised by what is already living in you.
DATE & TIME
Saturday, September 12
10:30 am - 4:30 pm
at Kapwa Wellness
PRICING
EARLY BIRD
$288
Register by August 15
Full payment at registration
REGULAR
$333
After August 15
Full payment at registration
Full payment is due at registration. Lunch and all materials included.
Spots are limited.
WHAT TO BRING
Fresh flowers
Any flowers that feel meaningful to you. A single stem from your garden is as welcome as a full bouquet. These will be used in ceremony and offered to Pachamama during the closing walk.
Photo(s) of a loved one who has passed
Parents, grandparents, child, friend, anyone whose absence you still carry. Their photo will rest on the shared ancestral altar for the day and return home with you at close of ceremony.
Something personal or sacred for the altar
An object, a token, anything that carries meaning for you or your lineage.
Comfortable layers
The day moves between stillness and movement, indoors and outside.
Water bottle and walking shoes
And an open heart. That is the only requirement.
Can't find a photo? Don't have a physical print? Come anyway. We will make sure you have a place at the altar.
A small dish from your ancestral lineage
✦ Optional, but oh so welcome ✦
A recipe passed down, a flavor that means home, something your lola/grandmother made or your family still makes today. It doesn't need to be elaborate or homemade. If it carries the memory of your people, it belongs on this table.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Opening sacred circle & four directions ceremony
Shared ancestral altar
with photos of loved ones
Embryonic Breathing:
All five stages
Bayanihan Blessings: The spirit of communal unity
Personal & community despacho flower ceremony
Silent ancestral walk Flower petals for Pachamama
Ancestral Healing Meditation
Third-eye initiation
& closing ceremony
Lunch is provided.
Food as offering, food as memory, food as a way of saying "my people made this." Bring a small dish from your ancestral lineage to share, if the spirit moves you - completely optional, deeply welcomed.
ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Maria Haswell is a mystic, ceremonialist, and the founder of Kapwa Wellness — a healing center rooted in Filipino culture and ancestral wisdom. With 30+ years of practice, she has studied with American healers, trained on the paqo path with Q'ero elders in Peru and a mystic in Bolivia, and reconnected with her babaylan roots through her Filipino lineage.
Maria has led ancestral retreats twice before — both transformative, both completely sold out. Ligaya is her most personal offering yet: a retreat led entirely in her own voice, her own lineage, her own way. She does not position herself as the intermediary between you and your healing. She is here to remind you that you never needed one.