Flicker Village

A 7-Day Immersive Village Experience of ancestral skills, land tending, village life, and shared remembering.

Nevada City, California • October 18-24, 2026

Sarah Bellum - Flicker Village Chef

A little glimpse into Sarah’s work at the table—where food, tradition, and hospitality come together.

The flicker of the hearth fire. The first flame our ancestors coaxed into being through patience, friction, and wonder. The flicker within each of us—the spark of life, creativity, and belonging. And the Northern Flicker, the flame-winged woodpecker whose bright call of “clear” echoes through the forest, signaling that all is well.

Flicker at Timeless Ways is more than an event or a regular skills gathering. It is an immersive village experience—a place to remember what it means to be fully human.

Here, we rewild our bodies and awaken our instincts. We tend the land, healing ecosystems once shaped by extraction and restoring them to vibrant abundance. We learn the ancestral skills that allowed humans to live in reciprocity with the natural world and the community that surrounds us.

 At Flicker we build a cooperative, living village where people return year after year, gathering not only for this annual celebration but throughout the seasons to create, work, and grow together.

Flicker is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, and remember.

Around the fire, beneath the trees, and alongside one another, we rediscover that we are not separate from nature—we are nature.

By rekindling our connection to the living world, we rekindle something essential within ourselves.

We hope you’ll join us and that together, we’ll blow that flickering ember inside of us all into a warming flame.

The Immersive Village Experience

Most ancestral skills gatherings allow participants to choose from a wide variety of workshops throughout the week. While this offers incredible opportunities to learn many different skills, it can also feel like moving from class to class, collecting experiences along the way.

At Flicker, we've chosen a different approach.

Rather than navigating the week on your own, you'll become part of a Village Cohort—a small group of people you'll learn, work, and grow alongside throughout the gathering.

Each Village Cohort moves through a thoughtfully designed arc of experiences, creating continuity, deeper relationships, and a shared sense of purpose. Together, you'll learn new skills, contribute to the life of the village, and witness one another's growth over the course of the week.

This structure reflects something essential about traditional village life: knowledge wasn't acquired in isolation. It was learned in relationship—with the land, with skilled mentors, and with the people who worked beside you.

The Daily Rhythm of Village Life

While each day brings new experiences, the overall rhythm remains consistent.

Each day includes:

• A whole-village morning gathering to welcome the day.

• Shared breakfast

• A morning Class Session with your Village Cohort

• An afternoon Class Session with your Village Cohort.

• Open afternoon time with the freedom to choose an additional workshop, explore the land, rest by the creek, or integrate what you've learned.

• Shared dinner.

• Optional evening gatherings including songs, storytelling, games, fires, and ritual.

This rhythm balances structure with spaciousness, allowing time for both learning and connection.

Learning Through Living Processes

Each year, Flicker gathers around a unique theme that shapes our learning, workshops, conversations, and community experience. For 2026, we're exploring Honorable Harvest—an invitation to deepen our relationship with reciprocity, gratitude, and the living world.

Animal relationship and the Honorable Harvest are part of this year's gathering, including opportunities to learn through animal processing and whole-animal butchery. Direct participation in animal processing is always a choice. For those who do not feel called to engage in this aspect of the gathering, alternative learning pathways will be available that offer a meaningful way to explore the themes of Honorable Harvest through plants, land tending, craft, food, and other forms of relationship with the living world.

Your Village Cohort experience could include:

  • Animal Processing 

  • Village Kitchen & Whole Animal Butchery

  • Hide Tanning

  • Stone & Metal Cutting Tool Making

  • Land Tending & Ecological Stewardship

  • Living with Goats: Nomadic Pastoralism & Dairy Making

  • Wild Plant Foods and Medicine: acorn processing, herbal medicine making and more.


These experiences are intentionally connected. Rather than isolated classes, they form part of a larger story about how a village nourishes itself, cares for the land, and supports one another.

Children at Flicker

Flicker is a multigenerational village, and children of all ages are welcome.

Because this is our first year, we don’t yet know how many children will be joining us, their ages, or their experience levels. Rather than creating a rigid kids’ program in advance, we’re designing the children’s experience to be responsive to the families who make up our village.

Children will be welcome to accompany their parents through the Village Cohort class arc, learning alongside the adults when the activity is appropriate for their age, interest, and readiness.

We will also offer kid-centered activities inspired by the same skills and themes being explored throughout Flicker, giving children another way to participate through experiences designed specifically for them.

Our children’s programming will be supported by She’om Rose, an experienced ancestral-skills instructor who has worked extensively with children of many ages and can teach across the range of skills being explored at Flicker.

Our intention is not to create a separate “kids camp,” but to make space for children to be genuine participants in village life, with opportunities to learn alongside their families as well as with other children.

Choose how you’ll join the Village

It takes the right combination of spark, air, and fuel to build a fire. The same is true to bring together an event like Flicker.

2026 is our inaugural event. There is a lot to do and a lot of infrastructure needed to make our village function and flow. Even with our best budgeting, costs will likely exceed ticket sales this year. To make our event accessible to as many people as possible, while also assuring we get what we need to bring it all together, we have tiered ticket options. We are asking that everyone pay what they can, with the belief that community support is what makes a gathering into a sustainable village.

Select the ticket that aligns best with your means and join us for a week of connection, creation, and shared experience.

What’s Included in your registration? Camping, Hearty breakfasts and dinners crafted by our village kitchen using local ingredients and meats, a full week of immersive ancestral skills instruction, evening fires, music, storytelling, and an opportunity to step into a living village experience rooted in connection, and shared remembering

  • Help bring Flicker to life.


    Kindlers contribute 25 hours before, during, and/or after the gathering in exchange for reduced price admission. From setting up village spaces to welcoming guests and tending the flow of the weekend, you'll help create the experience we all share. Email Flickervillage@gmail.com to apply.

  • Be among the first to ignite the gathering.


    Purchase early to receive our lowest adult ticket price while helping us plan and build Flicker with confidence.
    Available for a limited time.

  • The heart of the Flicker experience.


    This ticket includes full access to workshops, meals, camping, community, and activities for the entire weekend. If you're ready to gather, learn, play, and connect, this is your ticket.

  • Help the warmth reach farther.


    Choose the Glow ticket if you're able to contribute beyond the standard admission. Your generosity supports creating the infrastructure that will bring us from bare land to village gathering place, from raw hillside to meandering pathways that serve to connect us. With this ticket tier, you will receive a special gift during the event, and your name (or alias) inscribed on our gratitude plaque that will grow us forward for years to come.

  • For growing adventurers.


    A discounted ticket for teens joining the gathering with their family or guardian.

  • For curious young explorers.


    This ticket welcomes kids to learn, create, and play alongside the community with their own group instructor for the week.

  • Our youngest sparks.


    Children under five attend free with a registered adult. 

Register Here

FAQs

  • Flicker is an immersive, land-based gathering that weaves ancestral skills, land tending, ritual, and village life into one cohesive experience. It is designed as a guided arc, not a buffet of disconnected workshops.

  • This gathering is for people who are hungry for something grounded, relational, and real. It is open to both beginners and experienced folks who want to deepen their relationship with land, community, and practical skills

  • No. You do not need any prior experience. Facilitators are chosen for their ability to teach across levels, so whether you are brand new or more experienced, you will be supported in learning at your own pace.

  • Yes. Animal relationship and honorable harvest are part of the 2026 gathering. There will also be alternative pathways available for participants who do not feel called to engage directly with animal processing.

  • Each day begins with a morning circle, followed by a community breakfast. During the day, you will move through your cohort’s learning arc, which includes hands-on skill building, land tending, and contributing to shared tasks like food preparation. Evenings are for shared meals, song, storytelling, games, and ritual.

  • No. Flicker is not a workshop buffet. It is a cohort-based, participatory experience where the week is designed as a shared arc. You will move through the gathering with a smaller group and contribute to the life of the village.

  • Yes. Many people come on their own. The cohort structure and shared rhythm of the gathering are designed to support connection and belonging.

  • Flicker is designed to be an intergenerational experience, and we warmly welcome families and children. Children and teens are invited to participate in many aspects of village life and learning, while a dedicated youth instructor will provide additional programming and support tailored to younger participants.

  • The gathering will take place outside of Nevada City, California area, on 80 rural acres of mixed forest in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Camping and classes will happen in a meadow next to a year round stream. Lots of opportunities for immersion in nature, hiking, and creek dips. 

    Exact land details will be shared with participants after registration and before the event.

  • Camping, shared breakfast and dinner, along with the full immersive learning experience.

  • If you are looking for a highly structured, low-participation experience, this may not be the right fit. Flicker is designed for people who want to engage, contribute, and be part of a shared experience.