Individual Retreat – Week 1
Individual Retreat – Week 1
Individual Retreat in Bad Bevensen, Germany
Week 1, July 27 – August 02, 2025
The opportunity to do an individual retreat is deeply rooted in the camp’s history. The retreat area is also referred to as the “silent heart of the camp”. No words are spoken throughout the area, and only retreatants and guides are allowed to enter. An atmosphere of holiness lies in the air, arising from the deep inner work done here.
In Ticino, the retreat area was laid in the middle of a spruce forest, framed by the Alps. The nature here in Northern Germany is, of course, different, and there is no river audibly rushing day and night. However, the quiet pine forest has its own peaceful qualities. On the vast Caduceus grounds, retreats are being offered since 1996, and Sarfaraz & Kabir have accompanied well over 1000 people over the years. For this year’s camp, we will mark out a large part of the forest exclusivly as a retreat area.
The retreat process is carefully structured and led by a qualified retreat guide that you choose. During the retreat, you will meet daily with your guide to receive practices to do during the day and have time to discuss questions that may arise during the retreat.
We have a wonderful group of guides who come to the camp over the summer. They have all undergone extensive training in the Sufi tradition of retreat as taught by Pir Vilayat Khan. The guides are familiar with all aspects of a retreat from their own experience: physical, psychological and spiritual. To do an individual retreat, you need to contact a guide in advance.
Here is an excerpt from Amaité’s text about the qualities of individual retreats:
An alchemical retreat is not a “holiday from the self”, relaxation in beautiful nature, psychological processing, escape from the world. All this can be part of the journey, but it is not its goal.
As Pir Vilayat and Hazrat Inayat Khan used to say, it is to take a running start, before a great leap, to wind up the clock so that it can work properly again, to practice dying, to learn to be in this world but not of this world. In this light we can then also make clear decisions that are in harmony with the “symphony of the cosmos”, or accept our life as it is.
Guides Present in Week 1:
Aziz Dikeulias sees retreats as the greatest opportunity to escape the everyday worries of our mostly ego-based lives and have a chance to become conscious of the other dimensions of our being. Every retreat is new and different according to our inner needs for unfoldment, nothing is or can be wasted and very important seeds are sown into the soil of our heart and soul that unfold in time. His considerable experience has taught him that one usually has to struggle against one’s conditioning and thought-patterns in the first part of the retreat so that one can surrender to the calling of the beloved in the latter part. Both parts are essential and cannot be bypassed.
“As a retreat guide, I walk hand in hand with my charge without judging and full of acceptance and awe at the meaningfulness of it all, privileged to be able to be the midwife of the new birth”.
Capacity in this week: 4-5 Retreatants
Languages: English
yaaziz@sky.com
Alaudin Joachim Grieger is a psychological psychotherapist, teacher (Murshid) in the Inayatiyya Sufi tradition and retreat guide.
He shares his experience from many years of meditation practice in seminars and meditation groups.
At the Omega Sufi Center, he is responsible for esoteric training.
Languages: German, English
Capacity in this week: 4-5 Retreatants
j.grieger@bluewin.ch
Sarfaraz Püscher-Findeisen has been leading the Caduceus Center for 25 years. She owns a bookshop, works with permaculture and was managing director of the Caduceus Clinic.
She has accompanied many people in retreats, both experienced meditators and beginners.
Within the Inayatiyya, he is active in healing and as a retreat guide.
Languages: German, English
Capacity in this week: 1 Retreatant
zentrum@caduceus.de
Choosing a retreat guide & registration
♥ To sign up for an individual retreat, you first get in contact with your desired retreat guide and clear out all questions that you might have. When they’ve confirmed that they’ll guide your retreat, you can register here.
♥ If you have general questions about individual retreats or need help with choosing a guide, you can always reach out to info@zenithinstitute.com first.
♥ Once you’ve been in contact with your guide and everything is set up, you can register using our website’s system on this page, or via email to info@zenithinstitute.com.
♥ In the field “Notes” during your checkout or with your registration email, please leave us a note and let us know who’ll be guiding your retreat.
♥ Meals: Please only leave breakfast or dinner out if you’re sure that you’ll be fasting – It’s not allowed to use cooking stoves or the like in the retreat area.
♥ If you’d like to be on retreat for two weeks, please make sure that your guide is present each week. After you’ve spoken to them, you can register for two weeks and send us a short note about it to info@zenithinstitute.com.
♥ If you’d like to be on retreat for the whole three weeks, please reach out to us directly: info@zenithinstitute.com.