The Wayfinders Journey

There are times in all of our lives when we feel in our bones that a change is needed. What was a whisper that we could easily ignore has turned into an ever-present companion. Something is inviting us to take a step into a new way of being. Sometimes it’s an external event like transitioning from adolescence into adulthood or adulthood into elderhood, the end or beginning of a relationship, a career transition, or the death of a loved one. And sometimes it’s an internal calling like letting go of harmful patterns, saying a full-bodied yes to your identity, or stepping into the person your soul knows you are. If all of these things weren’t challenging enough on their own, the dominant culture constantly tries to convince us that we need to deal with these events on our own. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Throughout history, people across the globe have intentionally honored these significant events while rooted in community and ceremony. The most common phrase for this pan-cultural process is “Rites of Passage.” The details of each rite of passage ceremony differ across cultures, but there are 3 common phases that take place (identified by French ethnographer and folklorist, Arnold van Gennep): Severance, Threshold, and Incorporation.