WELCOME TO OUR YEARLY TAO SUMMER RETREAT - WITH INNER ALCHEMY AND KAN & LI
More than a retreat –
a remembering of who you are beneath it all
In this Tao retreat, you’ll reconnect with your body, refine your energy and explore the Taoist practices of Inner Alchemy and Kan & Li.
A unique space to slow down, recharge and remember who you truly are – guided with depth, care and presence.
Date: 7-13 July 2025
Location: De Poort, Groesbeek, The Netherlands
Facilitators: Carsten Dohnke & Dewi De Waele
All information about the schedule, content, and registration can be found below.
Click here to secure your spot. Registration comes with no obligation—we will contact you afterward to arrange all details.
Or book a free call for more information! We’re happy to help!
A heartfelt invitation to
✔ Develop your higher consciousness and inner wisdom
✔ Awaken your energy and inner resources
✔ Find emotional balance and clarity
✔ Reconnect with your inner self through meditation, movement, and a mystical approach
✔ Experience deep inner transformation with advanced Taoist wisdom practices and mantra healing
Enjoy this meditation:
Choose Your Retreat Experience:
Entry level or Advanced Level
Immersion retreat:
3 days (7-9 July) or
4 days (7-10 July)
Open to anyone familiar with and passionate about body movement, meditation, and self-reflection.
Alchemy retreat:
7 days (7-13 July)
A deep dive into Taoist Inner Alchemy, Kan & Li, and extended silence—designed for intermediate and experienced practitioners. This retreat is for those with at least two years of meditation, internal yoga, Tao, Qigong, or similar inner practice, and the ability to sit in stillness.
What to expect
This Tao retreat is a profound, direct experience that touches you on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. You will discover the deep healing qualities of the Tao. Not only will you gain new insights but you will also feel and anchor them through your own experiences.
Perhaps you are sensing that
… you have a huge healing potential you would like to tap into.
… your next step in life or in your physical state needs resources on an energetic level.
… you would like to get out of the status-quo.
… your soul is yearning for meaning and purpose.
In a combination of advanced guided Taoist healing and wisdom practices, Qigong, meditation and a supporting group field, you will embark on an inner journey that awakens clarity, new vitality within you and a brand new connection to life.
You will
Experience a deep inner peace, a stillness hardly known in daily life, inner expansiveness, and new perspectives.
Strengthen your connection to nature, body, and your inner resources.
Activate your self-healing and boost your immune system.
Find new vitality, courage, and focus for your path.
Experience deep self-acceptance and a tangible connection to your true self.
The Benefits of Inner Alchemy and Kan & Li
✔ Transform fear (water) & excessive heat or fire into inner peace & clarity
✔ Shift raw vital energy (Jing) into spiritual force (Shen)
✔ Open the door to profound meditation & personal evolution
✔ Surrender, let go deeply & align with the natural flow of life itself
✔ Expand your consciousness & activate your energy centers (chakras)
Want to know more?
Video: Carsten answers your most burning questions regarding inner alchemy, Kan & Li and this year’s summer retreat.
Retreat Details
📅 Date 7 - 13 July 2025
⏰ Times 10:00-18:30 (Last day until 17:00)
📍Location De Poort Groesbeek, The Netherlands
(near Nijmegen/German border)
💰Course fees
• Alchemy retreat - Course fee: € 710 (7 days)
• Immersion retreat - Course fee: € 315 (3 days) | € 420 (4 days)
The course is conducted in English.
🏡 Accommodation (Fullboard-private room|camping|gypsy cabin)
Please book directly through De Poort, starting from end of April.
• From € 621 – € 940 (7 days)
• From € 332 – € 491 (4 days)
• Not staying overnight?
A Retreat Package applies for non-residential participants:
€ 547 (7 days)|€ 330 (4 days) incl.facilities|lunch|dinner|tea|coffee
For all accommodation rates: please download PDF here.
📧 Contact Carsten Dohnke & Dewi De Waele dewi.dewaele@gmail.com | Tel. 0049(0)151 5200 1724
Meet your teachers
Carsten Dohnke carstendohnke.com/en
A modern mystic, Tao teacher, sinologist with 40+ years of experience, Carsten explores both ancient and modern approaches to understanding the body and mind. He trained with masters such as Mantak Chia and specializes in Inner Alchemy, Kan & Li, Qigong, and Eastern mysticism. His teaching goes beyond technique—focusing on true connection, feeling, and transformation. He has facilitated Inner Alchemy and Kan & Li retreats in Germany and The Netherlands for more than 25 years.
Dewi De Waele (dewi-tao.com), Carsten’s partner, is your co-teacher for Qigong and embodiment at the retreat. Dewi is Qigong teacher and trauma-informed coach with 25+ years of experience in Taiji, Qigong, and movement. Dewi’s gentle, Yin-based approach creates a safe space for deep self-exploration and transformation. Dewi offers optional coaching sessions during the retreat.
Testimonials
"I thought I would learn relaxation techniques and activate positive forces within me. Instead, I experienced an entirely new dimension that deeply transformed me: My entire body, my energy, and my being were completely reconnected."
— Sarah
"Carsten's seminar is the best gift I have ever given myself. I realized that I had never truly relaxed in my life – this was really on a completely different level. I experienced a feeling of total contentment with everything."
— Justine Kontou
“Most things I hear about Carsten Dohnke, I found, could not express accurately how souverain he is as a qigong teacher and as a human being. His profound knowledge, his skillful pedagogic teaching and not in the least his conviction and passion exceed every expectation.”
— Brigitte Burlefinger
Hear what Marten has to say about the Tao summer retreat.
Moments of silence
A Warm Invitation to Fully Immerse Yourself - This seminar is an opportunity for a true inner retreat, free from external stimulants, allowing the depth of this sacred practice to unfold. We invite you to step away from daily life—leave work behind and minimize phone use to fully immerse yourself in the experience.
During the Kan & Li sessions, we will also embrace moments of silence, especially right after the guided meditations, to deepen integration and inner connection.
🗓️ Program insights in detail
7-8 July
Water Qigong & Meditation: Preparation for the Inner Alchemy
Water Qigong makes you as supple as a cat, offering a rejuvenating, refreshing, and revitalizing effect. The gentle movements massage your abdominal area, internal organs, spine, and individual joint spaces, creating a sense of release and well-being. During practice, you dive deeper into inner stillness and an effortless sense of flow.
9 July
The Essence of Fusion: Compassion Meditation
This third day will focus on compassion meditation (Fusion I) plus deepening the movements of the first 2 days. In addition to silent heart meditation, you will experience the taoist meditation of the cycle of creation, in which your positive organ-energies and virtues merge into a state of compassion.This day is an optimal preparation for the following days with Higher inner alchemy.
10-13 July
Higher Inner Alchemy –
Kan and Li
In “Kan and Li” the love of our heart merges with the energy of the kidneys and libido – “fire and water unite”, as the Taoists say. This creates a refined Qi, which like an “inner vapour” nourishes and rejuvenates each of our cells from within and carries the practitioner into higher states of consciousness. Deep inner contemplation, the dissolution of the physical body, the slowing down of the aging process and inner healing are the central themes. “Kan and Li” is also called the “marriage of soul and spirit”. The depth of this course has a life-changing effect on many participants.
