Legend says…

Mary Magdalene arrived in southern France in a small boat with neither oars nor rudder.

Her story is one of devotion, courage, and exile.

And maybe that’s why she still calls to us… not because we know her history with certainty, but because exile asks something of all of us. It asks us to notice who is still hurting, still marginalized, still pushed to the edges of the room.

And it asks a quieter question too:

Where have I abandoned parts of myself?

The desires I’ve hidden. The grief I’ve silenced. The anger I’ve judged. The power I’ve hidden by making myself smaller.

The Black Madonna — and particularly Sara-la-Kali, revered by the Romani people at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer — reminds us that what gets pushed into the darkness still carries wisdom, beauty, resilience, power.

This gathering is a conversation, not a teaching, where we’ll move between meditation, journaling, and embodied movement. 

We’ll let the sacred do what it’s always done… open the way.

Our Path Into Liberated Leadership

We believe the path into liberated leadership passes through exile, liberation, and belonging.

This journey is the foundation of what we call Black Madonna Integrated Leadership: a way of leading that honors the full humanity of ourselves and others, learns from what has been pushed to the margins, and refuses to require self-abandonment as the price of belonging.

Each stage asks something different of us.

Stories of Exile

We begin by looking outward. Through the stories of Mary Magdalene, the Black Madonna, Sara-la-Kali, and communities who have endured displacement and marginalization, we'll ask what exile can teach us about courage, resilience, and devotion.

Liberation

Then we turn inward. Through reflection, conversation, journaling, and embodied practice, we'll begin noticing the places we've learned to make ourselves smaller and gently welcome home what has been left behind.

Belonging

Finally, we'll ask what changes when we stop abandoning ourselves. Together we'll explore what it means to lead from greater wholeness and create spaces where more of our humanity—and the humanity of others—can belong.

You'll leave this gathering with more than inspiration.

You'll leave with a deeper understanding of the stories that have shaped you, greater compassion for what has been marginalized in yourself and others, and a clearer vision for the kind of leader you are becoming.

Because liberated leadership isn't about becoming someone else.

It's about no longer leaving parts of yourself behind.

For Those Who Want to Continue the Journey

For some women, this gathering will be a meaningful standalone experience.

For others, it may be the beginning of deeper relationships, ongoing conversations, and future adventures together.

During our time together, you'll hear more about our Black Madonna community and our 2027 pilgrimage to Southern France, where we'll walk sacred sites, honor Sara-la-Kali in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and continue exploring these themes of exile, belonging, leadership, and liberation in community.

There is something about walking sacred land with other thoughtful women that changes the conversation. We slow down. We ask different questions. We tell the truth more easily. We remember parts of ourselves that have gotten buried beneath responsibility, productivity, and the demands of everyday life.

There is no expectation to continue beyond this gathering. Simply come as you are and trust what unfolds.

Special Guest

Sydney McIver is a Conjure Woman and Magdalene Sibyl whose work braids the Venusian arts of beauty, the subterranean rites of descent, and the ancient science of primordial womb wisdom. Through The Blood Mysteries temple, she invites women who have been exiled, out-cast, or silenced to reclaim the sacred technologies that patriarchy once forbade: ritual adornment, ecstatic prayer, sensual somatics, and the rhythmic storytelling of the body.

Her signature offering, She Who Descends, guides initiates through the seven gates of the underworld; mapping trauma, grief, and inherited shame until each veil is surrendered at the altar of truth. In parallel, her devotional relationship with Venus and Mary Magdalene illuminates the ascent: the radiant return to embodiment, pleasure, and sovereign intimacy with life. Sydney teaches that descent and ascent are not opposites but a single spiral of regeneration held in the pulsation of the womb.

Rooted in the lineages and ancestral currents of The Holy Hor, she designs immersive rites; womb mapping ceremonies, voice-led guided descents, and sacred-adornment mentorships that help women transmute repression into raw creative power. Clients praise her oracular presence that names the unspeakable, her scholarly rigour that grounds mysticism in history, and her compassionate fierceness that steadies them as they step beyond scripts of respectability.

Whether through one-to-one initiations, collective rites, or teaching on the Magdalene path, Sydney stands at the threshold with torch in hand. Bearing witness as women descend to meet their unspoken traumas and hidden woundings. Guiding them into the descent as Inanna descended to meet her dark sister Ereshkigal. Through her work, women feel called to rise again, crowned in velvet night, fragrant oil, and the unshakable knowing that their bodies are living temples of divine memory.