THE DESCENT
A Day of Ritual on the Threshold of the Winter Solstice presented by The Library of Esoterica
Join us on December 12th in Monetcito CA, for a guided journey into the myth of Persephone, the ancient tale of descent and rebirth through a day-long immersion of story, shadow, and ceremony.
We’ll gather for deep creative and somatic practice, potent ancestral connection and seasonal rites - all culminating in a ceremonial dinner to honor both the solstice - and our collective return to the light.
The wheel is always turning.
Winter draws the world underground — into root and seed, into the fertile darkness of the soil where everything pauses, gathers itself, and is quietly remade.
We have always gathered at this threshold. Around fire, in the dark, at the edge of the year. Through myth, ritual, story, and ceremony, we have found our way into the mystery and crossed it together.
The Descent is that gathering.
Inspired by the mythic and esoteric traditions explored in Jessica Hundley's acclaimed Library of Esoterica for TASCHEN, we bring ancient mysteries off the page and into lived experience — through the body, the land, spirit, and ceremony.
Set within the wild 100-acre sanctuary of Casa Sangha, high in the mountains of Montecito, we gather for a day-long passage into the ancient cycle of descent and return.
CROSSING THIS THRESHOLD TOGETHER.
The Descent is a day-long immersion into the ancient ritual landscape of winter — a complete ceremonial passage shaped by mythology, the body, the living earth, spirit, feast, and fire.
As we approach the turning of the year, we gather at the threshold between what has been and what is yet to become. There are identities, attachments, old stories, and ways of being that cannot accompany us forever. Like the earth in winter, we are called to surrender what has completed its season, allowing it to return to the fertile darkness from which new life emerges.
Our journey begins with Jessica Hundley, who will guide us into the myth of Persephone, entering her descent not simply as a story to be told, but as a living landscape we can move through. Together, we follow the ancient path downward, out of the familiar and toward the unseen, into the mystery of death, transformation, and return.
Throughout the day, myth will be woven with embodied and earth-centered practice led by Kristen Caissie, exploring the cyclical wisdom of nature and the body, and guided spirit journey with AJA Daashuur, opening a relationship with the unseen. Live musical accompaniment by artist and composer Astara Calas will create an immersive sonic landscape, carrying us between the visible and invisible worlds, between solitude and communion, as we make offerings, tend the fire, and meet what is ready to be released.
As the sun sets over the Pacific, we gather around a long table for a ceremonial feast prepared by chef and author Jess Damuck, honoring the abundance of the earth and the nourishment found in gathering together. As darkness settles over the land, we return to the fire.
To dance. To sing. To offer something back. To celebrate what is being born.
This is not a ritual to witness from the outside. It is an invitation to step inside — to participate in one of our oldest human practices: gathering at the turning of the year and allowing ourselves to be changed by the crossing.
Your Guides
Jessica Hundley
Jessica Hundley is an author, editor, filmmaker, and cultural historian whose work explores mysticism, mythology, art, psychedelia, and counterculture. She is the creator, author, and series editor of TASCHEN’s acclaimed Library of Esoterica, an expansive visual history of the world’s esoteric traditions.
Over a career spanning more than two decades, Jessica has written and edited numerous books, including works on David Lynch, Dennis Hopper, and Gram Parsons, and her journalism has appeared in Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Her work brings together artists, practitioners, scholars, and ancient traditions to explore humanity’s enduring relationship with myth, symbol, ritual, and the unseen.
FOR THE DESCENT
Jessica opens our journey with the mythology of the underworld, leading us into the story of Persephone and the shadow archetypes held within it. Through myth, she offers an ancient map for descent and for the cycles of surrender, initiation, death, and return that have accompanied human beings across time.
Author · Editor · Cultural Historian
Aja Daashuur
AJA Daashuur is a renowned trance medium, spiritual teacher, and life guide devoted to helping people cultivate direct relationship with their Spirit Guides, ancestors, and the unseen. She is the founder of Spirit House Collective and creator of the CCCE Method™ — Connect, Channel, Clear, Embody — a framework weaving spirit communication, energetic healing, and embodied practice.
AJA has led retreats and teachings at Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, Auberge Resorts, The Well NYC, We Care Spa, and Shou Sugi Ban House. Her work has been featured in Vogue, The Cut, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, and more.
FOR THE DESCENT
AJA leads us into an underworld journey to meet our Spirit Guides, commune with our ancestors, and cultivate relationship with the unseen. Through guided journey and spirit communication, she invites us beyond the veil and into direct experience of the realms that have always accompanied the mythic descent.
Trance Medium · Spiritual Teacher · Spirit Guide Coach
Herbalist · Author · Earth-Centered PractitionerKristen Caissie
Kristen Caissie is an herbalist and author whose work explores our relationship with the living world through plants, seasonal practice, ritual, and the cyclical wisdom of nature. For more than a decade, she has traveled internationally teaching and facilitating earth-centered practices, plant medicine, and ritual.
She is co-author and photographer of The Seasonal Herbalist and author of Gathering: Setting the Natural Table. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Martha Stewart, Domino, and publications around the world.
FOR THE DESCENT
Kristen brings the mythic journey into the body, rooting Persephone's descent within the cyclical wisdom of nature and our own bodies. Through teaching, seasonal plant medicine, embodied practice, and ritual, she invites us to experience winter as a living teacher and descent as part of the regenerative cycle.
Chef · Author · ArtistJess Damuck
Jess Damuck is a chef, creative director, food stylist, and bestselling cookbook author whose work brings together food, beauty, seasonality, and the art of gathering. She is the author of Salad Freak and Health Nut, as well as Open Wide, created with Benny Blanco.
Before establishing her own creative practice, Jess spent a decade working alongside Martha Stewart, helping create magazines, television, and food experiences. Her distinctive, produce-driven approach to cooking has since made her a leading voice in a new generation of food and entertaining.
FOR THE DESCENT
As darkness falls, Jess gathers us around the table for a seated ceremonial feast inspired by winter, the underworld, and the return of light. Through food, season, beauty, and the shared act of eating together, the feast becomes part of the ritual itself — a place to nourish, integrate, and return to one another.
The Land of Casa Sangha
Hidden high in the Santa Ynez Mountains, Casa Sangha is a private sanctuary devoted to gathering, ceremony, and connection with the living world.
For one day, its wild 100 acres become the ground of The Descent — a place spacious enough to wander, listen, gather, and enter the ritual of the season together.
Here, the land is not simply the setting for the ceremony. It is part of it.
JOIN US FOR THE DESCENT
We invite you to gather with us at Casa Sangha for a day set apart from ordinary life.
We will sit in circle, enter ritual, journey, feast, sing, move, and gather around the fire — practices that invite what we have been carrying to move, soften, compost, and take new form.
There is an alchemy in gathering this way. In giving ourselves over to story and symbol, to the body, to the land, to food and fire, and allowing them to work upon us. These are old ways of metabolizing change — of making space for what has ended, tending what remains, and trusting what is not yet ready to be known.
For one day, we allow ourselves to participate fully in the medicine of winter rather than simply passing through it.
Come to be guided, nourished, and changed by what we create together.
We invite you to join us for The Descent.
December 12, 2026
11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Casa Sangha
Montecito, California
Your day includes all teachings, rituals, and ceremonial experiences; time held within the wild sanctuary of Casa Sangha; a seasonal grazing lunch; and a seated ceremonial feast created by chef Jess Damuck.
Each guest will also receive a collection of gifts from our guides, including The Seasonal Herbalist, an oracle deck by AJA Daashuur, and a volume from TASCHEN's Library of Esoterica, offerings to carry the experience beyond our time together.
Investment: $750