When you step out of the car, you feel it: you are on sacred land, the place the ancient Hawaiians called the “resting place of mature souls.” Here there are cascading waterfalls, sunrise over the ocean, and hiking trails through the jungle forest. At night, a sky of a thousand stars and planets hangs so near you want to reach out and grab them. When we arrived in 1988 it was pure jungle, no roads, no electricity, no buildings, and we became pioneers, building off-grid with a sustainable, regenerative vision long before the world was ready for it. Today this hidden sanctuary welcomes guests from around the world, offering each the same gift the land first gave us: stillness, beauty, and a deeper way of living close to the earth. Experience the real Maui away from the hustle and bustle.
Kutira Décosterd
Kutira’s perseverance in manifesting visions has been proven to many people as nothing short of miraculous.
Born and raised in Switzerland, Kutira traveled for many years internationally. For many years she studied with spiritual masters in the East and West and ultimately settled in Maui in 1985 where she founded the Kahua Hawaiian Institute.
Kutira is an Embodied Spirituality teacher, body-mind psychotherapist, author of “The Lightness of Body and Being,” musician, social entrepreneur, and mentor to many young students far and near. Her passion in design led her to create sacred temples and her artwork is widely appreciated. She is also known for her diplomatic skills to gracefully connect people internationally to support a vision of living in kindness and harmony while sharing precious skills with a larger community of like-minded people.
Kutira has won several awards for her pioneering work in environmental sustainability.
Kutira is an entertaining speaker and presenter, as well as an accomplished teacher and seminar leader. Her guided meditations and self-help tools are widely used and loved by the alternative healing movement. She enjoys sharing her expertise with entrepreneurs, the corporate world, non-profit organizations and people committed to making a difference in the world.
Kutira is well known as a ‘Master of Ritual’, creating sacred space for celebratory events, and life passages. Studying with various teachers and Shamans in East and West since her early twenties, she developed a deep understanding of our interconnectedness to Oneness Consciousness.
There is a certain “specialness” when she officiates weddings, land blessings, rituals, concerts or other events. She has a natural talent for bringing a mature love into a ceremony that everybody can relax in.
She has been a student of Kumuhula Auli’i Mitchell, learning ancient Hawaiian music, chants, dance, and arts.
Kutira worked with Dr. John Lilly, world-renowned scientist and dolphin researcher, from 1988 to 2001, where they created the program “A Dolphin and Whale Adventures in Consciousness”. As an Oceanic Tantra teacher, she connected the natural undulatory movements of dolphins and whales with conscious breathing and explored these embodied practices when swimming with these magical marine animals. She has had many profound experiences swimming with dolphins and whales around the world. With her husband Raphael, she has created several volumes of music inspired by dolphins and whales: among them the albums “The Calling” and “Angels of the Deep”, which Dr. John Lilly called the “cetacean nation anthem”.
As a nurturer of the earth, Kutira is an “environmental spiritual activist.” As a founding member of Bamboo Technology she was instrumental in 1998 to gain State approval for bamboo to be used as an alternative building supply. Kutira’s vision embraced bamboo as the sustainable lumber of the future and in 2013, she became the recipient of the Bamboo Pioneer Award. She is passionately involved in supporting green building and the expansion of sustainability in America and Asia.
In the past 20 years, her passion focused on empowering women and organizations that support ecological, sustainable, and spiritual education. Her deep karmic relationship with the country of Bhutan and its people allows her to lead a yearly retreat into the magical land of the dragon. She serves on the advisory board of the Bhutan Nuns Foundation under the Patronage and initiative of Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Tshering Yangdoen Wangchuck.
Kutira is a founder and continuing board member of Food Security Hawaii. She has been a mentor to many students and teachers, and now dedicates a large part of her time to create food security and total self-sufficiency for the islands of Hawaii, creating a global blueprint for a sustainable future and ecotourism. In 2019, she created an innovative Agroforestry garden which continues to provide a bounty of organic native staple foods and shares teachings about permaculture and tropical farming to support grower education.
Drawing from her rich Hawaiian training Kutira specializes in weddings, land blessings and other ceremonies. With over 30 years of experience she is licensed by the State of Hawaii and is sure to provide a magical experience channeling years of devotion into each ceremony. She has a natural talent for bringing mature love into a ceremony while providing an engaging experience for all.
Kutira and her husband of 30 years are passionate about the ever-growing vision of the Maui Eco Retreat. Raphael creating and teaching music, Kutira creating beauty in every moment, her vision for community fuels her unwavering passion to share this abundant land and knowledge with the world. Come join her in one of her Sacred Journeys to Bali, Bhutan, Nepal or book a private retreat with Kutira in Maui.