Join a year-long cohort of men
- - - - - growing in trust, self-awareness, and spiritual wholeness- - - - -
Wild Man Mystery School is
is a year-long paradigm-shifting certificate program of
belonging,
becoming,
and moving into
the beyond
Are you ready to invest a year to rediscover your strength, essence, and lovability?
Are you ready for the “grand gesture” of committing for an entire year to renew your vows to live as freely as possible - tethered only by love?
showing feelings is only for women
to sensing
only women depend on others
to friendship
a man takes care of himself without help from others
to inter-dependence
I am what I earn
to I am
keep your problems to yourself
to honesty
Collaborate with other intrepid men:
🍃 Four in-person retreats based on the four seasons
🏞️ A contemporary vision quest 24-hour solo experience in the wilderness
💻 Bi-monthly online gatherings - drop in, check-in, go forth
🎯 Online training course
📓Fieldwork: experimental exercises to reconnect with life.
📚 Equipped with a thoughtfully curated bibliography of required and suggested readings designed to tap into your masculine wholeness
You will:
🥾 Go on an adventure
🏘️ Experience genuine community
🙏🏿 Connect
🪘 Drum
🕰️ Learn to live in the moment
⁉️ Be surprised
📜 Embrace your story - engage in council
⛰️ Make direct contact with creation
🕯️ Experience potent practices and rituals
We will gather in person four times in one year, allowing the four seasons to serve as our compass - far from a linear approach, this is a circular path, honoring the rhythms of life.
Here is what our year to grow will look like:
🔆 IMMERSION ONE - SUMMER
Looking south at vitality, the heat of the day, and imagination
✨ IMMERSION FOUR - SPRING
Looking east toward new beginnings, the advent of life, the rising of the sun, birth, and rebirth
🍂 IMMERSION TWO - FALL
Looking west at our shadows, the dark side of our lives, mystery, and soul.
❄️ IMMERSION THREE - WINTER
Looking north at wisdom, the stillness of winter, competence, and strength
🕊️ COVENANT
A promise among brothers to study, pray, share, and grow together for one year.
🏘️ COMMUNITY
Quarterly retreats in the woods to listen, discuss, and discern with others - bolstered with one-to-one peer-support
📿 CONTEMPLATION
A regular practice of silence and solitude
❤️🩹 COMPASSION
A regular practice of service to others
MEET YOUR GUIDES
Roy Shirley. Roy is the Care Ministry Director of the Church of the Savior in Wayne, PA, with a certificate in Contemplative Spirituality from Oasis Ministries.
He is a licensed professional counselor and a Living School for Action and Contemplation graduate in Albuquerque, NM.
He has led many retreats and workshops about understanding your unique story and for men’s topics related to male spirituality and their life journey.
Matthew Ray Lyda has been guiding men for more a decade (and more), is a certified Spiritual Director, Author, Retreat Leader, PSAP (Pastoral Sex Addiction Professional), RAE (Rainbow Advocate Educator), husband of one, father of three, lover of lands, and pickleball player.
He has lived in Bangladesh and India and is trained by IITAP (International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals) and Oasis Ministries. Matthew also serves as an initiator in Men's Rites of Passage work worldwide.
Ancient Wisdom: We pair the treasures of science with the gems of ancient wisdom. Whether it be time-worn Judeo-Christian practices, lessons from indigenous peoples, spiritual community, storytelling, or heroic journeys, we root our work in a grand story. Considering meaning, purpose, vision, and values.
Vintage, an age-old path.
Body-Based: This stance is faithful to mindfulness, experience, the sensual, and the imaginative; all elements oft-neglected by pseudo-masculinity, and white-washed spirituality. As the wisdom of the body is accessed, an opportunity to heal age-old rifts between the sexual and the spiritual opens
Hospitality: Unsubscribing from perfectionism and backspacing the blunting of empathy (mostly resulting from numbing behaviors Ad nauseam), this posture is faithful to see wounds morph into sacred wounds, a with(ness) to suffering, common humanity, and kindness. This is the call of hospitality to self and others.
Trauma-informed: This stance is a commitment to address systemic issues, hone honesty, craft ‘safe-enough’ settings, and foster collaboration. Dipping deeply from research-based recovery intelligence.
Embrace the Unexpected: The predictable, comfortable, and business-as-usual is death to our souls. The deepest transformations often occur outside of our expectations, and all our oh-so-cherished ways of thinking and behaving. Often, what is needed is the unexpected, the ridiculous, what’s ‘off the beaten path.’
Belonging: the domestic takes us only so far. As Thoreau said, “In the wilderness we have our tonic.” Nature is more than “out there”, but a reality that pushes past the boundaries of our skin, including us! Encounters with land, with more-than-human realities of life are Non-Negotiables to heal outdated myths of man greater than nature and man vs. nature. What we discover is: we belong to this organic reality, awe, and wholeness. We are more connected than we could ever have imagined.
Choose your investment
Generosity Rate
$1,999
after February 1st, 2026
$1,799
if paid before February 1st, 2026
For those who’d like to contribute to the wellness of others.
Resource Rate
$1499
after February 1st, 2026
$1,299
if paid before February 1st, 2026
For those financially stable and have their basic needs met
Community-Supported Rate
$1199
after February 1st, 2026
$999
if paid before February 1st, 2026
For BIPOC folx of any economic bracket or those who have a financial hardship
In need of financial assistance? Reach out to matthew@recoverthewild.com
We are committed to finances not being a barrier to this essential conversation.
Why men?
We can all use help finding our way from time to time - men are no different. Men need the support of one another, to be honest, and real about life. Through small group discussions, contemplative practice, men are encouraged to know themselves, listen to the still small voice, and to honor their souls. The result could change lives and lead to a whole new world.