---
title: "How We Gather | Church of Yachay Apus"
description: "Spirit Walks out on the land and Spirit Circles around the fire, held on the structure of the Four Altars."
url: https://coyason.org/gatherings/
updated: 2026-11-01
language: en
format: a Markdown copy of the page at the url above
---

How We Gather | Church of Yachay Apus

![A person standing on a rock ledge high above a wide green valley.](https://coyason.org/media/openings/above-the-green-valley-desktop.jpg)

Out on the land

# How We Gather

Spirit Walks through the day and Spirit Circles through the night.

[Connect](https://coyason.org/connect/)

Every day we hold takes the shape of the Four Altars. We greet the directions and open each altar in turn: Gratitude, Clarity, Unity, Love. What is prayed in the circle is prayed for all our relations.

![A figure in a striped poncho standing at the edge of a canyon, looking out.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/poncho-at-the-canyon-rim-1024x576.jpg)

Our practice

## What a day with us is

We arrive in the wilderness in the morning and spend the whole day out there, or we gather at dusk around the fire and stay with it until morning. The first altar opens the day and the fourth closes it.

Everything in between is held by the Four Altars. The shape is the same in every weather and for every circle. It is the tradition as it was handed to us.

[The Four Altars](https://coyason.org/four-altars/)

Two forms

## A walk and a fire

We gather in two ways. Both come out of one lineage and hold the same four prayers.

![The sun's path drawn as an arc over a carved horizon by day, and dotted under the horizon through the night.](https://coyason.org/media/art/day-and-night.svg)

Spirit Walk

Spirit Circle

A full day

## Spirit Walk

We spend the whole day out on the mountain, in whatever weather it brings, and pray from the morning on until the light goes.

![A figure in a striped poncho stands among saguaro and cholla, looking toward the far hills.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/poncho-in-the-superstitions-2048x1152.jpg)

![A person seated on the ground before a cloth laid with objects, in low light.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/seated-at-the-altar-768x1024.jpg)

A full night

## Spirit Circle

The fire is lit at dusk and tended without break until morning. The staff and the rattle pass around the circle, and every person in it prays aloud in their turn.

Every time

## What holds it together

The shape of a day with us does not change.

- We honor the cardinal directions and pay homage to the elemental forces.
- The day unfolds around the Four Altars, each a gateway to divine understanding.
- We lift our voices in prayers of Gratitude, Clarity, Unity, and Love.
- Our songs rise with the sun; our offerings blend with the soil.
- The Spiritual Director or an authorized facilitator holds the circle from the first prayer to the last, and Ground Support stays awake for the whole of it.

Who holds it

## You will be looked after

Whoever holds the space does not tell anybody what their experience means. Everything they do is in service of the people who came.

Ground Support stays awake through the night, so that nobody who is praying has to think about the fire, the water or the weather.

![A brass singing bowl, a gourd rattle, a strand of prayer beads and two feather fans laid on the ground.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/altar-objects-1024x1024.jpg)

What the circle is for

> A place where people can let go and open themselves, and feel safe and held by the group, because we are holding space for each other.

Everything you bring

## Everything you bring is welcome in it

People arrive frightened, or angry, or grieving, or carrying something they have not said aloud to anybody. All of it is welcome.

Nobody is made to speak for longer than they want to, and what is said in the circle stays in it.

### What the day asks

Both ask something of the body. One is a whole day out on the mountain. The other is a night awake until dawn.

That is why everyone is screened before the circle. Tell us plainly what your body can do.

Next

## Come and sit with us

Write to us and say what brings you.

[Connect](https://coyason.org/connect/)