Om Palace Sanctuary, Ontario, Canada

The Om Palace is a small hermitage in Queens valley in Grey Bruce County, in the wide open spaces of Ontario, Canada. It is a secluded DEVI mandir dedicated to studies of the Navgraha worship of the nine planets, through mantra, yantra and tantra and daily pujas to the divine mother.

Om Palace is a sanctuary, ideal for periods of personal reflection and for deepening all aspects of one’s relationship with the divine, offering ongoing classes, workshops and longer retreats for serious students. Retreatants may camp or stay in nearby bed and breakfasts within a few miles either side of the hermitage.

Retreat Program

Retreats at Om Palace are designed to suit the needs of each individual and programs are tailored to foster the development of personal sadhana. Instruction is given in meditation practice, yoga, sattvic food, chanting, yantra painting and health awareness, which is determined by your individual constitution following an ayurvedic orientation. Hiking and swimming are just some of the nature-based activities that visitors can enjoy in this pristine natural setting.

Location

Om Palace is situated close to the hamlets of Bognor, Walters Falls and Woodford, it is about thirty minutes from the Owen Sound bus terminal, which has daily connections to Toronto. The airport bus serves this route three times daily and you can arrange for pickup for a nominal fee.

Christina Richã Devi, Retreat Guide

Founder and retreat guide Christina Richã Devi is an ordinary person living an extraordinary life. At the vanguard of the holistic movement for the last four decades, she has developed her counselling methods through a rich variety of experiences living in many different countries around the world developing skills that integrate ancient wisdoms with the essential truths of life.

With a rich tapestry of life experience that includes living with gypsies in Majorca at the age of seventeen, Christina draws on both formal training and teachings received from all the different peoples and traditions she has encountered in her travels.

Christina received Waldorf training and other alternative education in Switzerland, before coming to America where she completed university studies in nutrition and healthcare. She holds a degree in Psycho Neuro-immunology, is a certified yoga teacher, nutritionist and clinical herbalist.

Christina has studied ecology, community, mystery schools throughout the Americas, apprenticing herself to both a Mohawk medicine woman and a Cherokee Shaman both of whom she served for seven years. She holds European and American diplomas in Drugless Therapy and Naturopathy as well as degrees in Somatic Medicine.

In Asia she embraced yoga and yin/yang principles, which later led her to the study of macrobiotic and Ayurvedic lifestyles. Her study of yoga, consistent over forty years, has led her back to India repeatedly and blessed her with the presence of many saints as well as inspiring her to guide vision quests throughout the Himalayas to such remote regions as Bhutan, Sikkim, Zanskar and Ladakh. Deeply influenced by Tibetan Buddhism she embraced the concept of the bodhisattva vows – whereby one dedicates ones life to the liberation of all sentient beings.

Christina Richã Devi has been a passionate student of mantra, yantra and tantra for many years and studied for over a decade with the late Shri Harish Johari. She now specializes in teaching the ‘yogas of the planets’ as instructed by her teacher.

She brings a unique combination of inner work, academic discipline and practical training in healing arts to all she works with. Her involvement with consciousness-raising is evident in her commitment to voluntary simplicity, in her strength and in her living philosophy that protects and enhances the sacredness of life.

Christina Richã Devi has established a healing sanctuary in a country setting to serve others during periods of life transition. With the constant presences of grace and gratitude, she contributes through teaching, writings and media to health awareness and self-help education. She leads regular healing retreats around the world. This keeps her heart joyous and filled with the divine, while working on the essential preciousness.