rites of passage
"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey..."
- Wendell Berry
what is a rite of passage
Rites of passage are ceremonies that help mark and celebrate transitions in our life or in our identities. Like youth transitioning to adulthood or adults to elderhood. It could be honoring a birth, a divorce, a death, or the fullness of your identity. Whether that be gender, sexuality, ancestral recovery, cultural heritage, etc.
Rites of passage have been practiced in cultures around the world. In reverence for the profound life initiations that we all experience.
rites of passage & our collective unraveling & liberation
- TENDING THE CURRENT TIMES -
These are potent times. Full of tremendous possibility and necessary deaths. Rites of practice help us surrender to what is dying within us and around us. I am in the inquiry of how “modern-day” rites of passage can serve as a liberatory practice. How our ceremonies can tend to our lands, our culture, our kin. To help us embody the truth of who we are – divesting from the inherited stories, oppressive systems, and identities prescribed to us by society. To live what we know to be true – that we are not separate from nature. Our bodies and lives go through cycles and seasons, we don’t fit into binaries or boxes, and that the more diverse an ecosystem is – the more it thrives.
Rites of passage stretch our capacity to be in liminal spaces, to break down, and open again to life with more truth and alignment.
- What do you need to shed or let go of internally and in your life?
- What is calling your heart & tugging at your soul?
- What did your ancestors dream for your life? How can you make that dream a reality?
- What needs tending in your community?
- How can you better serve your kin and the land and beings around you?
- Where do you feel vitality – seeds just waiting to sprout?
- How can you become a proud future ancestor? How would you live? What would you gift the world?
upcoming programs
5/25 - 6/2/2024
How can I show up as a true leader and adult in this world?
Old ways of being as adults and leaders are no longer serving. Archaic societal structures and worn out paradigms are breaking down. We invite you to open to new ways of being both personally and professionally.
This is 7-day rites of passage based in the captivating canyon lands of Lyons, Colorado USA. It includes ceremonial time in community as well as a 3-day wilderness solo.
9/28 - 10/11/2024
“What are my gifts and how can I show up more fully in the world?”
As the leaves change, a different way of life is tugging at your heart. A new story is begging to be told, and your gifts are longing to be shared with the world. Marking life’s passages allows you to release what no longer serves and embrace who you truly are.
This is a 12-day rite of passage program in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains outside of Buena Vista Colorado, USA. It includes ceremonial time in community and a 4-day wilderness solo.
11/5 - 11/11/2024
“How do I embody my vision and live my dream?”
Are you timid, terrified, and thrilled – perhaps all at the same time to move into your fullest life and expression? This is for folks that have a potent dream in their hearts they long to make real.
This is a 7-day program hosted in the enchanting desert of Tucson Arizona, USA. We will offer day walks, an overnight solo, and deepen into the process of incorporation.
we can go through our entire lives without being fully met
Rites of passage help us incorporate significant life and identity changes in community. They give us a chance to be witnessed. To be held in our unraveling and in our becoming. To be met for who we truly are – perhaps, for the first time in our lives.
About
At the School of Lost Borders we akin rites of passage guides to midwifes – but we are also death doulas. I won’t do the work on your behalf, but I will support the birthing and dying process you must go through to live a life of wholeness.
I believe rites of passage aren’t a one-time ceremony, but a way of life. I come from the lineage of and currently guide with the School of Lost Borders and am part of an international guide network called the Wilderness Guides Council (WGC).
My practice stems from ancestral recovery, direct relationship with land and kin, and self-generated ceremony.
I share my ever unfolding journey with modernity / coloniality, and re-rooting the earth honoring traditions of my Scottish, Irish, English and Eastern European heritage.
