Personalized Ceremonies

Revival of Ceremony

We honor significant milestones and passages in our modern cultures such as birth, baptism, graduation, marriage, and death. We may only have a few big ceremonies while many important life events go unacknowledged. Rituals and ceremonies were an intricate part of life in ancient cultures and have continued in some indigenous cultures still thriving and passing on their traditions.

Significant rites of passage have been lost such as honoring adolescents crossing into adulthood and honoring our elders for their embodied wisdom, service, and counsel. In our Divine Feminine paradigm of honoring life’s cycles, we create new rituals as an ongoing practice that bonds us together in the community and allows our lives to be witnessed in a loving way.

Much like a great poem, song, or work of art, a ceremony is a unique soul expression of our humanness. It harkens back to something ancient in our bones like a healing salve to our human suffering. It is a reminder we can create sacred space for any occasion no matter how grand or deeply personal.

Commitment & Initiation

We honor taking bold steps to make changes in our lives by taking inspired, creative risks or devoting ourselves to a new path or practice. We step into our power in a new way, so expect the unexpected if you choose this type of ceremony to honor yourself. We currently call this a “Commitment to Soul” ceremony much like a marriage to the self.

We typically think of commitment and marriage ceremonies as devoting ourselves to a partnership with another person. In this new paradigm, by committing to the soul, we commit to our true purpose, which may be scary if it takes us off the culturally acceptable path.

Women’s Rites of Passage

Women’s ceremonies are the blood mysteries that were once celebrated in Divine Feminine earth-based and mystical traditions that are reviving as we fully embrace and embody the exiled, hidden, or denied parts of women. In Earth-based feminist spiritual traditions, these important cycles of life comprise the triple goddess archetypes of maiden, mother, and crone. In more modern times, we have added a 4th stage, the Queen or Wise Woman. 

In the tradition of Divine Feminine spirituality, the first rite of passage is becoming the archetypal Maiden. This is when a young woman gets her first blood or menses. In modern culture, this powerful time is typically hidden, avoided, and seen as imposed suffering instead of celebrated as coming into the powerful capacity to birth new life and explore our sexual nature in a safe and respectful way with other women and girls. We honor the beauty and innocence of the young girl at the beginning of realizing her potential and teach her the sacredness of her creative and sexual power. These are called menarche ceremonies.

In modern society, women spend many years giving and creating as the Mother archetype who births children, businesses, lineages of education, works of art, and much more. We honor birth through various forms of midwifery as we hold space and acknowledge one another in these creations. The role of the mother is vital to creating new generations and yet the mother’s self-care is lost in our modern culture. In a birthing ceremony, we might honor the birthing of a project, lineage, or new beginning. These are important rites of passage for the Mother archetype. 

We have added a 4th archetype following the Maiden in the springtime of her life, the Mother in the summertime of her life, but not yet a Crone in the winter of her life. Some are claiming the archetype of Queen and are claiming their sovereign power and wisdom. Croning or crowning ceremonies can be anytime around menopause or turning 50 or anytime that feels right. In our western youth-obsessed culture we have not valued older women. We are reclaiming these rites of passage into our power and embodied life experience.

A priestess initiation is when a priestess apprentice is ready to step into the work and claim the archetype of priestess through leadership in her life. Her role is to embody Divine Feminine values in service to humanity and share her gifts with the world. 

These lost ceremonies of commitment to one’s soul path, the heroines’ journey, or devotional path are available should someone choose to engage in such a powerful initiation. We create these ceremonies for our priestesses in training at the Tree of Life Temple as part of the initiatory process. These ceremonies are available to anyone wishing to deepen dedication to their soul journey of co-creation with the Divine.