Sara Goff has been consistently facilitating her Wild Woman Project Circle in Columbus, Ohio for 10 years. Her Circle is a testament to what is possible when the practice and play of Circle becomes a regular part of your life.
Today’s interview features Sara’s thoughts on Circle facilitation, community, as well as words from her pack of Wild Women on the massive growth and value they have experienced in their time together.
A little backstory: I met Sara in 2010 when she began coming to my yoga classes in NYC where I held a New Moon Women’s Circle that would go on to inspire the creation of The Wild Woman Project just a couple of years later. In fact when I moved out of the city, I passed on the facilitation of that Circle to her.
She’s been a facilitator at every single Wild Woman Fest & is a Circle Leader Mentor in Wild Woman Project Circle Leader Training where she brings a wealth of well-earned expertise to our trainees.
If you are part of a Circle, or if you’ve ever wondered what a Circle is like, I think you will appreciate this interview, a little window into Circle through Sara’s eyes.
Please tell us a little bit about your Circle.
My circle is one of the true and deep joys of my life! We gather monthly – always on a weekend near the new moon – in a glorious Sanctuary space within one of our beautiful metro parks for most of the year. Imagine traveling back a long magical mowed path with wild pollinator gardens along each side, opening to a circle of trees, a circle centered with a fire pit, and a river flowing to the west. In the winter, we often retreat to our ‘Cave’ (aka a pilates studio we light dimly. Since moving circle outdoors by necessity in May 2020, the natural world and the wildlife have become true friends and participants in the process. We are often graced by the presence of Eagle overhead (she visited during a truth moment EVERY GATHERING OF 2025!), birdsong, falling feathers, slithering snakes, wild wolf howls: always at the most magickal of moments.
The women who gather for my circle are the epitome of squad goals. Spanning four decades of wild wisdom and life experience, they are a Cackle Pack of support, silliness, and sisterhood; respect, reverence, and rowdiness; guidance, grace, and ever a good time! Truly, the perspectives, wisdoms, hearts, and connections shared on that sacred ground together are some of the sweetest and most profound moments of my life, and my life where I live is blessed beyond measure by the friendships co-created season after season around that fire, in our shared intentional space.
Our circles aren’t quick little gatherings: we step beyond time, we adorn our space, we stretch out our cushions and our blankets and our berries and let the sun drench our skin and we LINGER, we relish our natural world and our time together, we drink every luscious drop of our content, we have all the time in the world to listen to one another. We have nowhere else to be in this world, whenever possible.
How has facilitating Circle changed you?
I truly feel every aspect of the midlife woman I have grown into today that I LOVE the most – my favorite parts of me – are a direct result of the remembering, reclaiming, or self discovering that facilitating and participating in circle moon after moon, cycle after cycle, season after season, year after year has offered. Where I was once performative, I now embody ‘come as you are’ and radical acceptance. Where I took myself seriously, I now laugh at my darling humanity. Where I once felt responsible to have every answer, I now relish the revere the mystery. Where I once felt a need to explain or be assured, I now trust my knowing. Thanks to the ritual of consistent circle and the women who share it with me, I’ve a shot at becoming the elder of my wildest dreams.
What is 1 thing you’ve learned by sitting in Circle?
The sweetness of how fundamentally universal our lives, stories, insights, lessons, longings, experiences, unfurlings, and inner lives truly are, and the richness that the ritual of retreating from modern life into a sisterhood space brings to life.
How has the Circle impacted the women who attend?
I asked a few of them and to my delight, in the true spirit of circle, they were eager to share:
Allie shared, “In the circle, I am both root and flame—held, seen, becoming. In the hush of ritual, I meet the version of me that listens to wind and I remember I was never separate—the forest breathes in me, too.”
Emma says, “The Wild Woman Project’s New Moon Circles have been a safe place to heal and grow in ways I didn’t even know I needed. I am not the person I was at my first circle, nearly five years ago. Since then I’ve expanded beyond my wildest dreams, and I can trace much of that to the relationships and ways of thinking that circle and our facilitator have helped foster.”
Tina chimed in, “Circle has taught me how to hold space for people and knowing what it feels like to have people really really hold space for me. To be seen and heard is a gift.”
Lottie shared, “Going to Sara’s Wild Woman Project Circle is a time to retreat, to deeply connect, and to be immersed in wisdom! The most important part is I got to meet these incredible women with open hearts, humanity and divinity meeting at the circle.”
And Erin said, “Circle has made me feel more connected to my community and women as a whole. It has helped me connect to friends and family inside and outside on a deeper level. I also feel more free to live as my most authentic self, both from content that has touched me and from watching my circle sisters grow and live authentically. I also cherish the support this community brings.”
Well said, Wild Women!
Why do you choose the facilitate Circle?
It’s the closest ritual to community magick I’ve discovered in this life.
It’s deepened my soul and elevated my living. It fosters relationships I have not discovered elsewhere.
It’s very, very fun, and stretches my creativity EVERY month, a true blessing!
What is your favorite thing about facilitating Circle?
Witnessing women who regularly gather become more full, unleashed, confident, bright, clear, and authentic versions of themselves, and then experiencing THOSE wilder and truer versions of form profound and lasting sisterhood bonds with one another as a result.
What is 1 tip you’d offer someone wanting to start their own Women’s Circle?
If you feel the call, before you’re ready, show up even when you feel imperfect, and do it in any way that YOU can sustain with consistency. That element allows circle to become a practice your community can truly count on.
Wild Woman Project Circle Resources
Would you like to Circle up with Sara in Columbus, OH? Inquire about joining Sara’s Circle.
Meet Sara at Wild Woman Fest this August.
Feel the call to start a Circle of your own? Join us for Wild Woman Project Circle Leader Training – We begin May 4th.
Find a Wild Woman Project Circle Leader Near You.
On the Horizon
"The Circle Leader Training Program at The Wild Woman Project was one of the most transformative and healing experiences of my life. I have received many tools, resources, support, and connections that I will carry on with me forever." ~ Hannah Devin, Graduate
Wild Woman Fest returns…
Join us for the 10th Annual Wild Woman Fest, August 19-23rd, 2026.
On a beautiful & sacred land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville North Carolina.
Get ready: FEST FRIDAY, when tickets go on sale, is May 8th
Wild Woman Fest 2025 sold out in minutes. Sign up for Wild Woman Fest '26 Updates.
We have Wild Woman Project-trained Circle facilitators is 27 countries, and 44 out of the 50 United States.
Calling wild-hearted women, in and around the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville ~ let’s stir up some sisterhood magic in 2026.
Monthly on Sunday afternoons, 3-5pm, near the Full Moon at The Well in West Asheville.
Join us for an hour-long New Moon Meditation Adventure on April 17th.
Online, from anywhere.
Using a dynamic meditation journey, we will tune into the New Moon, to your own Inner Guidance, synced up with wild-hearted women from around the world. This offering will include music, storytelling, meditation, journaling prompts & intention-setting.
Can’t make it live? No worries. All participants will receive a copy of the recording with 24 hours of the session.
Chris Maddox is the founder of The Wild Woman Project where she teaches women how to utilize the gifts of the Wild Woman Archetype in their everyday lives & how to lead women’s circles in their local communities. She is the organizer & facilitator of the beloved annual WILD WOMAN FEST, a women’s retreat-festival hybrid which fosters a deep connection to nature, a direct experience of the divine feminine & profound spiritual sisterhood among the women in attendance.
An ever student of the great mysteries of existence and nature itself, Chris believes women are holding innate gifts & tools that society at large needs – now more than ever. She is committed to helping women remember their special magic and to bring it forward into every corner of their lives, for the greater good of the planet.
