Lake Monona Water Walk

Home
United States
Madison, WI
Lake Monona Water Walk

Call Directions Website

4 times we walked Lake Monona in a Good Way: July 2012 for Awareness, 2013 in Prayer, 2014 for Healin The Gratitude Walk.

In July of 2012 the first Lake Monona Water Walk was led by First Nations Ojibway Grandmother Josephine Mandamin and author/water researcher William Waterway Marks. Over 130 people joined in on the walk around Lake Monona to raise awareness, appreciation and gratitude for the waters of our community, the Great Lakes and all waters of our beautiful, gracious Mother Earth. Dozens of exhibitors/presenters offered outreach, education and events at the Winnequah park Community Water Festival. A weekend full of festivities, arts and honoring the waters of our lives. A small blessing and prayerful walk to harmonize was held in 2013, the second walk of four.
2014 offered the opportunity to Walk, Bike or Paddle once again to encourage the public toward good stewardship and healing of Lake Monona and All Waters.

2015 was our 4th and final Walk. We called the 'Medicine Drums' to Circle the Lake and called the people back to the shores of Lake Monona to camp and to remember our connection to that which gives us Life, Health and Joy... the Waters! An Elders Teaching Tepee, A Men's Sweat Lodge, A Women's Moon Lodge and a Children's Nature Activity tent balanced the four directions of Frost Woods Beach. 3x Grammy Award Winner Bill Miller was joined in concert by Monona Mayor Bob Miller, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Traditional Dancer Art Shegonee, Lake Monona Water Walk Coordinator Dianné Jean Aldrich, Ojibway Elder Joe Rose, Dr. Brian McIness, spokesperson for Grand Chief Edward Benton-Benai and local musicians including Joah Greengus, Pete Calgaro, Jeffrey James, Lenin Cordova, Rich Stanek, Tierney Sage, Dianné Jean Aldrich, Samantha Olson and Sue Linton who performed "With My Own Two Hands" by Jack Johnson to inspire Stewardship for our Waters.

10/30/2026

Happy Friday,

It's Halloween weekend and I'm reflecting on the beauty, power and lineage of my ancestors.

It feels like my mom has been with me this whole month, in dreams, in memories, as I look in the mirror.

I placed her photo on the altar of the October MoonLodge, it was our annual Ancestral Beauty celebration.

The photos and stories that came forth from that circle of beautiful, thoughtful, evolving women were moving and full of wisdom and insight.

We all left lodge more deeply connected to one another and more deeply aware of the imprint our ancestors have left on us, and why.

This weekend, around the world, families will be celebrating their ancestors.

In graveyards, in backyards, in gatherings of community where attention to the sacred mysteries of life and death are held with sincerity and reverence.

And I'm looking forward to MoonLodge this Sunday in the yurt... it's our annual Celebration of Death, Transformation & Rebirth.

The Grandmother Drum, Falling Water, will lead us from what's been into what is to come.

The words of my beloved Quechua teacher, Willaru Huayta, will remind us that moment by moment we can be in the work of death and rebirth.

Dissolving the patterns that bring suffering and birthing the qualities that bring vitality, connectedness and delight.

I'm eager to thin the veil this weekend, sit at that drum, sing with my Sisters, learn from the Grandmothers and hold sacred this precious gift of life.

I'm wishing you a Happy Halloween, a Sacred Samhain, a Festive Day of the Dead, a Transformative All Hallows' Eve, and a precious season of honoring your ancestors, celebrating your cycles, and welcoming the wisdom of what lies for you... beyond the veil.

Big Love,
☀️
Dianné Jean Aldrich

P.S. If you have ever wanted to experience MoonLodge, or join us again, I'd love to welcome you into the yurt. Email me @ [email protected]

10/16/2026

I have exciting news.

⛰️ ☀️ ⛰️

The early bird spots for Peru 2027 are FULL!

The pilgrimage was so incredible this year that more than half are already registered to return next year.

A handful of brand new registrations are already in and a few more from this year are still considering going.

That is so exciting to me because it confirms what my heart and soul already know... this is a powerful, magical, loving experience.

And people want power, magic and love in their lives.

Thank you, all who have registered so far, for confirming that humanity is still hungry for deep connection and epic experiences.

You may know that I hosted a Zoom gathering this week to share about my time in Peru.

We looked at photographs. We shared stories from this year's journey.

And I introduced everyone to the teaching of the Cycle of 7, including a deep understanding that our lives are part of a larger cycle of ending, transition, and beginning.

Some of you were with me live. Some of you were on the interest list but couldn’t attend. Some have expressed a desire to go to Peru. Some don't know what I'm talking about.

Whichever it is for you, I want you to have the replay recording to watch this weekend:

WATCH THE REPLAY: https://youtu.be/2z7M3I6y0Ao

One of the things that stayed with me from our conversation was how each person encountered Peru.

Each story you'll hear is similar but so different.

For June, it meant hiking the sacred sites with Achilles tendonitis and a boot, then climbing Huayna Picchu with support from Tierney. She came home describing herself as “deliriously at peace.”

For Dee, the journey established a “new connection with my soul” and brought a sense of “real joy.”

For Catherine, who was born in Lima and left Peru at nine years old, the evening carried the possibility of returning to the land where she began.

And for David, his wish to open his heart in Peru was granted at the very first sacred site and lasted throughout the journey and all the way home. He's returning with me next year.

The journey to Peru, in the way that this pilgrimage holds it, is meant to allow the purpose of the Soul to rise and lead the life.

These are stories about what can happen when we recognize that we are standing at a soul-level threshold and allow a place, a teaching, and a group of people to meet us there and amplify our radiance.

During the replay, I also share more about the 16-day Pilgrimage to Peru in June 2027.

We will be in Machu Picchu for the June Solstice and in Cusco for Inti Raymi, the mesmerizing Sun Festival.

Guided by my long time teacher, Inca Chasqui Willaru Huayta, this pilgrimage is built from an ancient Lumurian Mystery School lineage.

The ancient wisdom teachings are profound and the journey requires preparation, immersion, and integration.

As you watch the replay, ask:

✨ What Cycle of 7 am I in?

✨ What phase of the ARVC Cycle of Love am I currently needing: Awareness, Restoration, Vitalization, Communion?

✨ What is ending, what is beginning, and what is my Soul asking my life to recognize now?

And within all of that:

✨ Do I want to go to Peru and immerse my Soul in 16 blissful days of sacred attention?

I'd love to hear your answers to those questions.

Feel free to respond in the comments and share with me.

I'm excited to hear.

In Wisdom, Love & Power,
☀️
Dianné Jean Aldrich

10/13/2026

In 2018 I sent out an email titled "So Full, I'm Empty".

I had just returned from Peru and I was about to present an evening with slideshow, stories and teachings from my time there with Willaru, Guy, Carolyn and Michael.

I chose to return that year for my 49th birthday.
A Cycle of 7.

I chose to return this year for my beloved teacher Willaru Huayta's 77th birthday.
A Cycle of 7.

We had a blast!

Brenda brought the balloons and party hats and decorations all the way from home, all in secret, pulled out of a backpack just minutes before we settled into this cool little cafe in Cusco.

Tonight, I'll share the ancient wisdom behind the Cycle of 7's.

You can locate where you're at in your Cycle and learn the significance of this moment for you.

Also, with David, June and Guy, I'll share photos, stories and insights from our epic journey through the sacred sites, landslides, setting suns and ancient Lumurian teachings.

If you'd like to share an hour with us tonight, you're invited!

AN EVENING IN PERU
Stories, photographs & teachings from our Journey to the Cosmic Sun.

Tuesday, October 13
7:00–8:00 pm Central

On Zoom • Free • All Are Welcome

RSVP HERE for ZOOM LINK: https://4p4h.activehosted.com/f/205

I'm excited to share this evening with you.

Full of love & delight,
☀️Dianné Jean Aldrich

10/09/2026

I wanted to write this email last night but instead watched an old documentary on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The description of the program promised revelation.

What I received was a bland walk through of facts.

This morning, I'm remembering my time with the late Grandfather William Commanda, the Algonquin Chief and Keeper of the Wampum Belts.

One of the historic beaded belts, The Prophecy of the 7 Fires, I held in my hands.

I felt its vibration and learned its prophecy.

This was 25 years ago.

The prophecy speaks about the choice humans will make between walking the path of materialism or walking the path of spirit.

The collective choice we make will determine if the 8th fire is lit.

I've been musing on the big conversations happening around AI.

AI is an extension of the path of materialism and a testament to our rapid movement toward consumerism in the last century.

My friend Juliana mentioned our shift in America from being empowered as Citizens to being identified as Consumers.

A shift from the responsibility to steward land and community to the cultural pressure to consume.

AI is another commodity being sold for our consumption.

We know that all that we consume affects our health, our happiness, our vibration.

AI has a distinct vibration.

I can absolutely say that when I use AI, my vibration changes. Even when AI is useful, I feel uneasy on a very subtle level.

It has been worth noticing.

I've also noticed how the vibrations I experienced in Peru last month have amplified my vitality and presence.

And I notice the dramatic change in the vibrations of those who went with me.

Just this morning, Guy was sharing that his vibration is 'off the charts'.

He's ready to go again next year in June.

I am too.

When I took off my shoes and walked barefoot in the Temple of the Monkey just outside Cusco, I absorbed the vibration of that sacred site.

In other sites it was my hands on the stones, my ears open to the sound of flowing water, my eyes tracking the flight of the kestrel's.

I'm healthier, happier, more clear and powerful than before I left.

16 days consuming the vibration of ancient sacred sites, ageless wisdom teachings, delicious food, and the radiance of my beloved Quecha Elder Willaru changed my vibration.

I am continuously reminded that everything we consume changes our vibration.

And I'm deeply aware that the tech heavy path ahead for humans will continue to diverge from our natural alignment with the energy of Source.

I may or may not continue to use AI as a tool. If I do, it will be with increased consciousness, discretion and a lot of self protection.

But what I will do, I will absolutely continue to journey to the sacred sites of Peru and receive the pure light that the Masters of the mountains are calling me to.

Harmonizing the intensity of these technological times through my fragile but resilient energy body is going to become increasingly critical.

I feel blessed this morning to have a Qigong practice from my beloved teacher Pragata Blaise and a path back to Source through my beloved spiritual papa Willaru Huayta.

Last month, leading Qigong in the sacred sites of Peru merged two powerful paths that are necessary for healthy evolution in these technological times.

Collectively, we must pay attention to our energy bodies and the energy of the Mother Earth's body if we are going to light that 8th fire.

Our ability to connect with Source, both the frequency of the Earth and the energy of the Universal Life Force, will play a major role in how we walk the path forward.

Carve out a moment today, take your shoes off, and stand barefoot on the Earth. Face the Sun, receive its light and commune with Source.

It is the medicine that will give balance to the onslaught of AI in all its forms.

☀️
Dianné Jean Aldrich

You're Invited
AN EVENING IN PERU
Stories, photographs & teachings from our Journey to the Cosmic Sun.

Tuesday, October 13
7:00–8:00 pm Central

On Zoom • Free • All Are Welcome

RSVP HERE for ZOOM LINK: https://4p4h.activehosted.com/f/205

10/02/2026

Immersed in the power and beauty of Ollantaytambo, Willaru spoke about the distinction between Personality, Ego, and Essence.

It would become a theme that ran throughout our journey.

And so did the theme of three: the 3 Cosmic Colors, the 3 aspects of Soul, the 3 planes of existence the Inca call Hanan Pacha, Kay Pacha, and Uku Pacha.

Sixteen days immersed in power, beauty, teachings, depth, expansion, and what Guy named during our recent group integration:

“The felt experience of floating in the grace of God.”

As I reflect on his words, I recognize that this was the felt experience throughout the pilgrimage in Peru.

Not that there weren't challenges. There were a few.

Including a landslide.

But the grace and God flowed through all of it.

I've been asked by several people to host an evening to share our stories and photographs from the journey. I love that.

So here it is.

Let me know if you can make it:

AN EVENING IN PERU
Stories, photographs & teachings from our Journey to the Cosmic Sun.

Tuesday, October 13
7:00–8:00 pm Central

On Zoom • Free • All Are Welcome

Come see Peru through the eyes of those who journeyed there.

We'll share photographs, stories, teachings, and moments from our 2026 pilgrimage, along with a glimpse into what's ahead for 2027, including the June Solstice at Machu Picchu and the Inti Raymi Sun Festival in Cusco.

This is an evening for souls who want to expand in love, curiosity, and delight.

RSVP HERE for ZOOM LINK: https://4p4h.activehosted.com/f/205

I'm excited to share this evening with you.

In Wisdom, Love & Power,
☀️
Dianné Jean Aldrich

09/25/2026

Happy Friday,

It's my 57th birthday today and I have a birthday wish!

😁

That you will be standing in Machu Picchu with me next year...

aligning your Soul with the Cosmic Sun...

beaming a smile of light...

while your heart is filling with extraordinary love.

That is my birthday wish.

Will you come?

I'll be there for the June Solstice, the very day Machu Picchu was built to align with.

I'll be there with my beloved teacher, Inca Chasqui Willaru Huayta, the spiritual papa that has given me depth, power, clarity and family on my path of loving evolution.

I'll be there with June Anderson. A wonderful woman who met me through the MoonLodge. She went to Peru with me last month.

Her intention for the pilgrimage was to achieve peace. A peace she had been seeking her entire life and through all her attempts, travels, studies, prayers and meditations had not been able to achieve.

She found peace in Peru. At the sacred sites. In the presence of Willaru. Surrounded by the love of a group dedicated to the amplification of their soul's light.

Now, she is not only internally peaceful, she is externally lit up! Beaming. Glowing. Happy.

June had such an epic experience with me, with Willaru and with the group she's going back!

You can read her stories and see her pictures on my FB page. She tagged me as she posted along the way. If you have a moment, go take a look. Really fun to read and to see.

So that is my birthday wish.

That you, too, receive inner peace, pure happiness, a loving sacred family, a wise teacher, a pilgrimage to sacred sites, a fulfilled lifelong intention, an amplified vibration so that you feel fully aligned, fully loved and fully alive.

If you're willing, take a quick peek.

The details, the pictures, the itinerary, the dates, the FAQ, and more are here:

EXPLORE THE 2027 PERU PILGRIMAGE: https://offerings.4p4h.com/sacred-pilgrimage-to-peru-1262

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you on my birthday!

🎈🎈🎈
Big Love,
Dianné Jean Aldrich

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me today with birthday wishes and love. You fill my heart and soul with your light. Thank you!

04/28/2026

I stopped calling it travel a long time ago.

Not because the word is wrong.

Because it stopped being true.

There's a particular kind of hollowness that follows a "transformational" trip when you return home essentially the same person who left — just with better photographs and a story you're not sure how to tell.

I've witnessed that hollowness over and over again. I've watched it live in the eyes of people who stood at Machu Picchu, felt something enormous move through them... and then boarded the bus back to Aguas Calientes without knowing what to do with what they'd just touched.

The site gave itself. But they hadn't arrived prepared to receive it.

That's the distinction I keep coming back to.

Most "spiritual travel" is still built on a tourism model — arrive, consume, photograph, depart. The sacred site itself becomes the feature. The depth that's available stays sealed, not because it's withholding, but because the seeker never learned the quality of presence required to enter into actual relationship with a place.

Spirtual travel and sacred entering are not the same thing.

One is movement through space.

The other is a conversation that changes you.

What I facilitate in Peru — through the living teachings of Willaru Huayta, a Quechua elder and Solar Initiate who has carried these transmissions his entire life — is not a tour of sacred sites.

It's an introduction.

Between the seeker and the intelligence that built those stones — and still lives in them.

The word I use now is pilgrimage.

Not because it sounds more elevated. Because it demands something of the traveler before they arrive... and expects something of them after they leave.

It asks:
Who are you coming as?
What are you genuinely open to receiving?
Are you willing to be changed?
What will you do with the transformation you've received?

That last question alone shifts everything.

If you've stood somewhere ancient and felt that the place was doing something to you — not the view, not the altitude, but something older and more precise — you already know what I mean.

And if that pull has ever felt less like wanderlust and more like a call you haven't answered yet...

You're invited to join me this August and be introduced.

DM me PERU if you want to pilgrimage.

04/21/2026

There's a difference between visiting a sacred place and entering into relationship with it.

Most travel, even conscious travel, doesn't bridge that gap.

This August, we're going differently.

Not as tourists, not as seekers, not even as pilgrims.

We're going to meet a long lost love.

And reconnect.

And fall in love all over again with our soul, our life, our planet, our mission, our universe.

Join me in Peru.

Love like this is eternal.

Comment PERU to learn more.

04/20/2026

A desire to level up in life will not bring it on.

Responding to a threshold moment with intentional action will.

If you are willing to be ignited, amplified and fundamentally reorganized.

Comment PERU in the thread, I'd love to meet you.

04/17/2026

Happy Friday,

In the midst of world chaos, I'm so grateful for my health and for a body that continues to give me pleasure.

My body, mind and spirit are all enjoying the new freedom of warm spring weather.

I was out kayaking in March (earliest launch yet),

had my bike out a few times this past week (with Taki in the basket),

and am enjoying walks around my garden watching the ephemerals pop up like little blessings.

You've likely been hearing me talk for years about how integrated our physical health is to our mental and emotional health.

And how our energetic health holds them all.

When life is stressful, or scary, or overwhelming, we need to care for our body with even more dedication and vigor.

And if we do, we can manage life with increasing pleasure, rather than less.

For those who want more physical pleasure in their lives, I say, take care of your body and it will take care of you!

It's fun to report that the men in my Men's Class, Deep Core Power, are feeling it.

The class is SOLD OUT again for Spring Session.

Why? Because the consistency of a weekly rigorous class with men who are awesome to be around gives pleasure to the rest of their lives outside of class.

They are pain free, active, strong, centered and looking great!

And for the women in my Core, Restore & Radiate class, they are feeling it too!

They are standing in such beautiful and graceful alignment, they look YEARS younger.

They are able to share their challenges and victories in a safe space as they stretch, strengthen and flow in a class that gives them peace and vitality both.

If you're a woman and want some of that, I have 2 openings in the Spring Women's class, register below, we start Tuesday.

(And if you're going to Peru with me in August, you'll be receiving my online CORE FOUNDATIONS 18 class series to support you in preparations for the journey. Super excited. Watch for that email on Monday with your log-ins).

It's Friday and I'm looking forward to an active weekend ahead.

It's gorgeous outside right now and I'm going out to enjoy it.

A loving nudge for you to get out there too.

Walk, bike, cartwheel, skip, dance, roller skate, stroll, sprint, spin... whatever you like.

As Nike says: "Just Do It"... and I add... Do It and Enjoy Every Little Blessing along the way.

With increasing pleasure,
Dianné Jean Aldrich

MEN'S CLASS
Deep Core Power
Spring/Summer Workshop 2026
SOLD OUT
An intelligent and precision oriented class for men over 40 who want to stay active, pain free, injury free and competitive as they age.
Thursdays at 5:00 pm
Start Date: April 23rd
JOIN WAIT LIST: https://offerings.4p4h.com/mens-class-deep-core-power-waitlist-501971

WOMEN'S CLASS
Core, Restore & Radiate
Spring/Summer Workshop 2026
2 SPOTS AVAILABLE
A mindful approach to fitness for women who want to get stronger, achieve great posture, radiate with confidence and restore inner peace!
Tuesdays at 5:00 pm
Start Date: April 21st
REGISTER HERE: https://offerings.4p4h.com/womens-class-core-restore-radiate-sales-page

Address

Lake Monona
Madison, WI
53716

Telephone

+16082795225

Website

http://www.LakeMononaWaterWalk.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Lake Monona Water Walk posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.