Rites of Passage
Fall 2012 newsletter
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Rites of Passage

PO Box 2061

Santa Rosa, CA

95405

707-537-1927

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canyon Walk 

Beyond Incorporation: the Village Experiencea

 

In partnership with Regenerative Design Institute

November 3-6

Location: Bolinas, CA

Staff:  Mike Bodkin & Alison DeLong from ROP; James Stark, Will Scott, David Hage & Lauren Dalberth from RDI

Cost:  $675, $600 early registration if paid by October 3, includes food and camping.

To learn more or register, click here

 

This gathering is for all those who have completed a guided rite of passage ceremony, whether with Rites of Passage or with another organization or guide.  It is said that Incorporation-- the last and most challenging stage of any passage--leaves many a journeyer with the "soul longing" to bring home the story, passion and gifts of the journey.  Believing that "sometimes people need a story more than food itself," we will build a village of aunties and uncles to listen deeply to our individual and collective stories and to affirm their transformative potential.  Through hands-on experience, time on the land, and coming together in council, we will stoke the fire of our individual visions and explore ways to anchor these gifts into our daily lives and communities.  You can expect to leave carrying a burning coal from the village fire that you can bring back to your home, family and community.  This will be a family friendly event with child care available.

 

Community & Rites of Passageb
by Mike Bodkin, Rites of Passage Executive Director

  Mike

Our spiritual well being is balanced on a triangle. In one corner sit our own needs. In the second are the needs of our community and in the third is our environment.

--Thomas Flanders, The Way of the Real People

 

 
Community is the spirit, the guiding light of the tribe, whereby people come together in order to fulfill a specific purpose, to help others fulfill their purpose, and to take care of one another. The goal of the community is to make sure that each member of the community is heard and is properly giving the gifts he has brought to this world. Without this giving, the community dies. And without the community, the individual is left without a place where he can contribute. The community is that grounding place where people come and share their gifts and receive from others.

--Sobonfu Som�, The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teachings in the Ways of Relationships

 

Since our founding 35 years ago, we've recognized the importance of rites of passage to the health and well-being of both individuals and the larger community. If people don't know who they are or what gifts they carry, how can they make a meaningful contribution to their "village" or community? We saw how in our fragmented modern world, people were getting lost in crisis, unable to complete their passages, confused as to their nature, their place in the world and their gifts. In traditional societies, if there was a coherent community, people undertaking an initiatory rite could bring their finest selves back to the container of that community, where they could be recognized, affirmed and encouraged to take their place.

 

For many years we placed an especial emphasis on strengthening the individual, and that's a still critical component of our work. If we are not strong and whole as individuals, how can we contribute to the healing and wholeness of our community? An important purpose of rites of passage has always been to strengthen, heal, complete, purify, and give sacred vision to individuals to carry back to their communities.

 

This individual focus took on something of a heroic cast. Everyone was expected to carry their load, both literal and figurative. You had to find a way to get your two gallons of water into our walk-in base camp! Preparation talks were done with each participant and the guides, while the rest of the group waited, so people didn't learn from each other's stories. And bonding within the group was not necessarily encouraged, as we were concerned that people would get too attached to each other, and then reluctant to return home at the end. The experience of living in community in the field was not yet recognized to be of real importance in itself; the task was always to go back home as a hero and begin to give ones gifts.

 

Several factors have figured into re-visioning this model to emphasize the importance of community. When we asked people about the world to which they were returning after a Vision Quest, they would often tell us that their community was damaged, fragmented, or simply missing. How could they envision contributing to community life when they had no experience of it? We began to see that our work was not just as Threshold guides, leading people to a transformed sense of self, but also as Incorporation guides, embracing, and helping others to embrace, the task of creating a world which would welcome initiates when they returned from their rite of passage.

 

Continue reading this article.

 
 

LEARNING TO SEEd

Sit down in one place and stay there
for three whole days and nights.
Don't walk about except as needed.
Don't let the allure of other places distract you.
Do not wander.

Sit with the ants in the bone-dry dust.
Crawl on your belly like lizard over rocks.
Let lizard crawl over your belly.

Do you see it? The desert face changing
with the sinking sun? Do you see it?
Night hawk rising from the canyon
hungry again?

 

Jeremiah Burrow

Men's Vision Quest, July 2012



 

Canyon Walk

Upcoming Programsc

 

Click on link to learn more about any program.

 

August 27-29--Youth Soul Quest, Cle Elum, WA

September 8-16--Vision Quest for Transformative Leadership,

     Inyo Mountains, CA

October 12-21--Jewish Vision Quest, Death Valley N.P.

October 12-14--Soul Quest, Prairie State Park, MO

November 3-6--Beyond Incorporation, Bolinas, CA

November 10-18--Fall Vision Quest, Death Valley N.P.

December 5-9--Mirroring and Guide Skills, Tecopa, CA

 

Feedback:

...the words that come first to mind--exceptional, transformative, expanding of mind and spirit.

    Nicole Davis, Women's Vision Quest, June 2012