GATHERING OF THE TRIBES
TOMAR, PORTUGAL
20 – 26 JULY 2026
“There is a dynasty of lightworkers, a lineage of people who are taking care of the evolution of the world. They are the world teachers, the shamans, the bringers of hope and peace and change. You are part of them. The more love and compassion you bring into this time of change, the easier heaven can be born in the world.
Maybe it doesn’t feel comfortable in this time of transformation but is just like a birth: the contractions of a woman herald the coming of a child. It is a prosess of letting go of old patterns, of opening up to the new, enjoying life and following your soul’s purpose.”
INTRO
In the world of today we are witnessing a growing discord, disharmony and disbalance. It shows itself in polarisation, fear, wars and conflicts. Our perspective is that we are in the midst of a gigantic, worldwide initiation. Initiation always has three stages: letting go of the old, transforming the current pattern, and opening up to the new.
As part of this initiation we organise a worldwide ceremony for the earth on november 9th, from Turkey.
But to do this, we need a community that is ready to commit to this collective transformation. People who are ready to step into the Unknown, who are willing to be of service, and who are also willing to look into themselves. Because initiation always involves work on both sides of the coin: to heal ourselves involves healing the world, and vice versa.
PROGRAM
We would love to invite you for a week in our hometown Tomar, central Portugal, to step into this field of healing, both individual healing as well as collective healing.
The format of this week is ‘Open Space’. We start our process with everyone’s own story, wishes, theme’s and obstacles. From there on we will weave the program together and discover what brought us together. We will have the possibility to do yoga, meditation, constellation and energetic work, discover more on the mystic Templars or go on an excursion.
There will be two sharing circles a day to add the pieces of the puzzle: one in the morning from 10 – 13 AM, and one in the evening from 8.30 – 10 pm. We’ll start the program on the first day with a dinner in our community space: The Gate, right at the foot of the castle, where all our meetings will take place. We will end with a lunch on Sunday.
THE YEAR OF FIRE
Just like last year, we are holding a number of preparatory retreats in Tomar to explore ‘the field’. Last year, this focused on the rainforest and the element of ‘water’, and on connecting with the wisdom of the shamans and the ‘elders’. This year, a completely different field is opening up: the element of ‘fire’ is presenting itself. Fire can be destructive – as we see in the many conflicts and wars on Earth – but there is also a sacred, serving fire. It is the fire of passion, of wisdom and inspiration, and the fire that warms and connects from the heart.
FOR WHO
This week is for:
– people who are willing to co-create the Earth Heart ceremony in Turkey in november 2026
– who want to explore their own healing and path of initiation
– who are willing to look at their blind spots and hidden qualities
– who are ready to step into the unknown and follow their soulmission
– who want to organise a ceremony on november 9th from their own country
– who want to join the journey to Turkey in november
– who want to experience Open Space
EARTH HEART TURKEY
As we wish to hold Earth Heart this year from Mount Ararat in Turkey, various themes present themselves:
* The myth of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, one of the very oldest myths in the world
* The story of Noah and the Flood; about how a culture reaches its end and perishes
* Göbekli Tepe, the oldest temple in the world (11,000 BC)
* Sufism, the mystical culture of Islam
* Armenian culture and the Armenian Genocide
* The Nephilim, the ‘watchers’ from the Bible (read Linda Wormhoudt: The Nephilim)
* The Middle East and its many cultures: Jezidi’s, Kurdish, Turkish people, Iranians, Syrians, Armenians, Druz, Bedouin, Jewish and Palestinian people, etc.
These are elements that we weave together, as on a loom, to seek out the common thread. If you would like to join us in this weaving, you are most welcome.
OPEN SPACE
The Open Space principles are:
1. The people who are there, are the right people
2. Whatever happens, is the right thing to happen
3. When it begins, it begins
4. When it is over, it is over
5. Follow the Law of Two Feet
6. Expect the unexpected
ACCOMMODATION
Tomar is a small historic town in the middle of Portugal. The town lies between the Templar castle and the river Nabao. In july it will be hot, but the Gate – our working space – stays relatively cool… 🙂
You can book your own accommodation in one of the many hotels and hostels in the old Templar town. We will send you a list with possibilities, from simple to more expensive. We recommend Pension Uniao, a historic hotel in the middle of town, where you will get a reduction if you tell us that you come through us.
TRANSPORT
To get to Tomar you have to book a flight or train to Lisbon, and take the train from there to Tomar. (+/- 11 euro)
THE GUIDES
This week will be guided by Ton van der Kroon and Anne Wislez. Ton and Anne have been doing ceremonies at power places all over the world for many years. From North Korea to Rwanda, from the Himalayas to the Azores and from the Sinai to Scotland. Anne is author of ‘A Feminine Answer to Crisis’. She is a journalist, teacher and exploring the mystic path for more than 30 years. Ton is author of 12 books on personal development, mythology and spirituality. He is the pioneer of men’s work in the Netherlands and Belgium.
THE COSTS
€ 950
including the program, lunch and dinner and excursions. excl. the flight, breakfast and your accomodation
THE REGISTRATION
1. Please send an email to anne.wislez@telenet.be explaining your motivation to join.
2. Pay the participation costs of € 950 through the account below. Your registration will only be confirmed once the payment is received.
3. Bank account: TREE OF LIFE, IBAN: NL90 INGB 0008216143, BICcode: INGBNL2A
4. Mention ‘earth heart july’.
5. There is a maximum of 25 participants.
6. In case of cancellation there will be a fee to be paid of € 250.
THE AGREEMENTS
1. All participants are present from beginning till end. You can only participate for the whole event. The retreat starts with dinner and the opening ceremony on the first night, and ends on the last morning with a closing ceremony.
2. You are fully responsible for your own experience or any events, illness or accidents that may take place. Of course we will do anything possible to make your stay as safe and comfortable as possible, but we can’t take any liability for your safety, nor for your emotional, physical or financial well being.
3. Make sure you have a valid passport and a fully covered travel- and medical insurance.
4. We are guests in another country, another culture and maybe for some of us another religion. Please respect the local customs, rules, dresscode and formalities.
5. Note that the main language spoken on the retreat will be in English.
6. We will be using Open Space, a way to give space to that what wants to reveal itself and to connect to that what resonates inside of you. Open Space gives the possibility to expect the unexpected, to be inspired by the moment, and to act from the heart. It is a sometimes discomforting method but one that can reveal magic beyond our imagination.
7. The main intention of our work is personal healing and growth. So the fuller you personally engage in the process, the more it might bring to you. We encourage your preparation and devotion to this work by tuning in the months and weeks before, by asking a few questions to yourself: what is my intention? What do I want to achieve? What is my pitfall or my shadow? How can I prepare myself?
8. Due to the context and content of this week, personal healing, no children – nor animals – are allowed.
9. No drugs of any sort are permitted, and we like you to limit alcohol, coffee and meat.
10. We don’t advocate conspiracy theories nor do we fight anyone. We focus in our work on the heart.
Ton & Anne & Team
*******************
EARTH HEART, a moment in time
Ton van der Kroon and Anne Wislez are the initiators of Earth Heart, a global ceremony for the earth. Last year more than 800 ceremonies took place simultaneously around the world on november 20th. Ton tells in this story how he came to this idea, and why it is important in this time.
“My very first global ceremony was in august 1987. I was a young student, travelling for the first time to the UK, when I heard people talk about the ‘Harmonic Convergence’, an astrological alignment of seven planets in Leo. The weeks before I had seen tens of symbols of Lions, up till the point I thought I was going crazy.
‘You’re not going crazy,’ an American lady told me. ‘You have just heard the call of the Great Mother. There is a Hopi prophecy by Jose Arguelles that says that on this date the Rainbow Warriors will stand up, and the wheel of colors starts to turn around the sun.” Just the week before I had seen the amazing occurrence of a round rainbow around the sun, and I had been puzzled. What did it all mean?
In the end, thousands of people gathered during that first worldwide ceremony on 12 sacred sites around the globe. I went to nearby Glastonbury and It turned my life completely upside down. My spiritual journey had started with the powerful wake up call of the Harmonic Convergence.
Since then I started travelling to sacred sites all around the world. I stopped my study at the university and had found a new calling: opening up to the messages and calls from Great spirit. Something that had seemed outrageous until that very moment, but became like a new way of living.
Arguelles also talked about the Mayan calendar, consisting of a cycle of 26.000 years. We would rapidly approach the year zero, when the first half of the calender – 13.000 years – would come to and end, and the next 13.000 years would begin. The year zero was going to happen in 2012.
Again, we did a worldwide gathering of many people in 2012 doing ceremonies at sacred sites. I was in Jericho and Jeruzalem at that time, since I had started doing healing work in Palestine and Israel. I learned how important it is to look beyond boundaries and national identities, to see that we are all part of the same human family. It is something that is still a mayor lesson for humanity, despite all the differences and polarisation. As I see humanity as one living organism, a sort of mycelium of human consciousness, we need to do some self evaluation: somehow – while fighting ‘the other’ – we actually destroy ourselves. Just as we seem to demolish the very planet we live on. How do we come back to a healthy, non-aggressive humanity that honors itself, and the beautiful paradise that was given to us?
In this respect we can learn a lot from indigenous people, like the Hopi, or the shamans of the Amazon. They have been warning us for decades, and teaching us a new way of moving forward. When the Climate Conference will be in Brasil this november I don’t think it is of mayor importance that we find all the solutions for the climate. It is important that we start to listen to the message of the shamans, the message of the Grandmothers, and the message of the earth itself. With all the storms, fires and flooding she is definitely speaking to us, louder and louder. The question is: Are we willing to listen?