Signature Ceremonies:
Wild, Sacred Rememberings
animist and shamanic practices, story, and ceremony; to awaken to and remember ancestral protocols for being human and the wisdom of initiations;
offered as an oral culture-style transmission;
to move us out of our heads and modern ways of being and into contact with the Otherworld- a place of Spirit, relationship, memory, and initiatory forces.
These gatherings offer us a chance to bring our questions, messiness, and struggles to the wisdom of the Otherworld; the wisdom of animist culture, of ancestors, and beyond-human elders;
to see what new ways of being and perceiving become available to us through the tending of relationship with them.
We do this as an antidote to epidemics of burnout, loneliness, disconnect, and purpose anxiety.
We do this as a way of becoming more vibrantly alive and rooted in our connection to our own humanity; and as a way of practicing our belonging to the World.
These gatherings themselves can be messy and emotional, as all relationships can be - we are practicing becoming more human, after all. We can’t guarantee specific outcomes or even that you’ll always walk away feeling “good”. But these gatherings do offer a deep form of soul-nourishment and re-connection. And, if we practice these tools enough, we can become more connected, grounded, and vibrantly alive (with ourselves and others) - whatever life brings our way.
** Please note: at our gatherings, there might be drumming; chanting; breath work; movement; altars with flowers, bones, feathers, stones, etc. If those sorts of things feel at odds with your religious beliefs and practices, and you feel you can’t enter with an open and curious mind and heart, this might not be a good fit for you, at least at this time.
(and if you would like Kate to offer a Ceremony for your community, either in-person or online, please get in touch)
(and if you would like to explore or attend Kate’s signature workshop, “Living as Creature, Not Machine” - a 90min “intro to Animism”-type workshop, you can check those out here)
Some Possible Ceremony Themes:
Practicing the Art of Death and Rebirth
Seeking Fire’s Wisdom for Our Burnout and Inner Winters
Lonely Hearts, Dried-Out Souls
Plantcestors and Kinship with the Otherworld
Upcoming Ceremonies:
photo of Kate by SMB; art by Caelyn Murray
DayDream Studios - Winchester, VA, USA
Sunday, December 21st 9:30-12:30am ET
Theme: Honoring the Winter Solstice - resting in the beauty of winter; honoring dark and light.
These days, like this season, it can feel like darkness is all around. Many of us experience a pervasive sense of emptiness and burnout. Storms of worry and fear howl inside. Our usual sense of orientation isn’t working and we can feel lost in the noise, the confusion - unsure of what it means, whether we’re broken, or how to find our way back to something solid and trustworthy when the ground keeps shifting beneath our feet. Or perhaps we feel like we’re the only spot of summer in the midst of everyone else’s winter and we feel our life force energy slipping away. Winter isn’t just outside of us, but inside as well.
But winter doesn’t just represent endings, darkness, emptiness, and death. Winter is also a time for rest, for dreaming, for gathering in intimate groups to share food, warmth, laughter, and labor. It reminds us that everything, absolutely everything, all life in fact, begins first in darkness. And there is no night that hasn’t yet made way for day.
Winter has a beauty, too.
And it’s Beauty is a necessary ground for the return of the light.
______________________
Wherever our ancestors come from in the world, there were ceremonies and rituals to honor the solstices and equinoxes and the movement of the sun through the sky.
These traditions were practical (they helped monitor the cycles of seasons which dictated agricultural practices). But they were also spiritual - they helped humans stay connected to the natural world in tangible, relational ways.
Plus, humans around the world seem to have understood that part of our purpose, our role in the greater ecosystem, was to feed the Holy (and in animism everything, including the Land and all life forms on it, are holy) by performing ceremony. So, on the Winter Solstice, by conducting ceremony to honor the shift from darkness to light, we play our part in helping call forth the light.
This ceremony is in invitation to bring offerings, bring your heart, bring your sense of confusion or emptiness. We’ll start with opening to and tending our relationship with the Otherworld, then we’ll explore our relationship with darkness, feed the Holy, and honor and call back the Light.
And through story; ceremony; and animist, shamanic practices we’ll listen for guidance around themes like: navigating initiations, endings, and fruitful darkness; being in right relationship; love as an active practice; and being the light.
It’ll be a slow, deeply contemplative time together. Perfect for resting into the season.
** Since many of us don’t have cultural context for more “traditional” or “shamanic” ceremony, a couple things to consider when deciding if this is a right fit for you at this time:
Ceremony is not a passive experience, nor a place to come selfishly with an eye only to take/ receive; but rather an active, co-created transmission and an act of service to the Land, the Holy, and our community… which if done properly, will most likely nourish us, too.
There are no guaranteed outcomes (in fact, ceremony itself is not guaranteed - the best we can do is create the conditions for ceremony to happen), but there are some predictable patterns and protocols we can follow to hopefully deepen the experience. One being - while we are welcome to arrive “needy” in some way, we still come humble and as a guest, not a taker - giving first in the hopes of receiving. In fact, ceremony seems to happen in direct proportion to our offerings. The more offerings we make, the more likely ceremony is to be deep and nourishing. Your experience and the experience of the whole group who gather is inextricably connected to how generous-hearted you can be in your approach and during the event.
Ceremony does not always feel “good”, though it usually feels “right”. If approached in a good way, ceremony is meant to change us. Change isn’t always comfortable but is often a necessary ingredient in bringing us back into alignment and so it can feel deeply right, even if it’s challenging to our inner status quo.
Once you register, your soul begins to weave itself into the ceremony that’s taking shape - so how you approach the ceremony is very important. Be prepared to pay attention to how the themes of the ceremony may begin showing up in your life in the days leading up to the ceremony. And be forewarned that you may feel the effects of the ceremony in the days, and sometimes weeks, after. Our gathering is just one moment, but the shaping of the ceremony and the integration of whatever wisdom and blessings we gain can extends beyond that moment. Sometimes that extended time flows easily, sometimes it’s a bit choppier or more emotional.
If all that sounds like something that makes your heart beat a bit faster in excitement and nerves or your gut is a “yes”; if you’re someone who seeks to be wholly human and wholly Alive - with all the mess and beauty that goes along with it; if you appreciate craft - the slow shaping of beautiful, meaningful things where the relationships, process, and story of becoming is as important as the outcome… then this invitation just might be for you. We’d love to have you with us, in circle.
Logistics:
Our ceremony starts promptly at 9:30 AM. We’ll plan to wrap by 12:30pm and have light snacks and tea available afterwards for a bit if you’re someone who transitions slowly.
EXCHANGE: $60 paid now, when you register, to hold your place and help cover the basic costs that go into setting up and hosting an event (+) PWYC in cash, Venmo, Zelle, etc after the ceremony to honor Kate’s professional time/ experience facilitating.
If you like having a sense of what amount to aim for, the suggested total amount ($60 + PWYC) is in the $75-$120 range, but amounts outside of this range (either lower or higher) are welcome.
** A note about PWYC (perhaps especially for you if you find this pricing model challenging or off-putting): ceremony is a community undertaking; so it feels important to employ more of a community pricing model for these offers. However, I also acknowledge that money and value can be triggering concepts for many and in a predatory capitalism system, most of us don’t have a lot of skill, training, or capacity for exchanges that are, by nature, more relational and vulnerable. Furthermore, ceremony work of this nature has fallen out of common practice in our culture and most of us don’t have much framework for what its value is and what proper exchange might be. So, if you find yourself panicking about what the right amount to give is, take a deep breath and stay with me here for a moment.
The fact is, spiritual and emotional labor and care-taking are generally undervalued in our society and yet are so crucial to being fully functional, thriving humans. And those of us facilitating and hosting these types of events certainly need to be making enough to afford to keep doing so (and rarely are). So part of this work and this moment we humans are facing is having to relearn what place (and value) ceremony, spirit work, collective repair practices, and intangible cultural heritage hold in our society. There will be mistakes, messiness, learning and unlearning along the way for all of us. Part of my intention with this payment model is to be curious and exploratory together.
I currently suggest the PWYC amount that goes to honor my facilitation of the ceremony be $15-$60 (additional to the basic $60 set aside to cover the costs to set up and host the event). But there is no judgement or “wrongness” if the meeting point of what you can and want to give is less or more than that. Sometimes we want to more than we can, sometimes we can more than we want to. Trust your gut. See how it feels. Get it right, make a mistake, have it be different depending on the day - it’s all part of the journey. Please note though that payment for ceremony is part of your offering. We are not meant to enter into ceremony comfortable and without having offered something of ourselves, in some way, to be there (the same way you wouldn’t show up as a guest at a friend’s house without something to contribute, something for the host).
Inviting you to pay what you can, is not an act of charity, done from on high, because I can afford to give that to you (I’m currently living on an amount that is about half of what’s considered poverty level and have been for years, but I am also the recipient of much generosity from friends and family. All of this is part of relational commerce).
It’s also not a signal that ceremony (and all the years I’ve spent training and becoming experienced enough to hold this, plus all the time I spend preparing for, facilitating, and closing up after the gathering) are not deeply valuable.
But I know some people grapple with choosing an amount because they’re afraid of coming across as not valuing the facilitator enough, so let me be clear: while my time and experience are valuable and are things I am constantly investing in, I’m also clear that the amount you give does not reflect how much you care about or value me as a human (let’s uncouple those things from each other. no innate human worth can ever have a price on it, though time/ energy and experience should absolutely be reciprocated in some way).
Instead, I invite you to feel into what it is to stand in your power and sovereignty as steward of your resources and member of a community. Let’s trust that Care and Value are already present between and among us and what you pay reflects what you can generously give without negatively affecting you and your family (meaning “generous” is relative and specific to you and your situation); while also keeping in mind that your generosity is directly connected to what you will most likely receive from the event and whether or not I can keep offering this work (whether in your community or others) for the long haul.
Here’s to a world where we all thrive.
Registration closes Friday, Dec 19th. Please register by the end of Friday so we can all prepare for our gathering properly.
** a quick note on my use of the term “shamanism”: as a term it’s a tricky one - it’s both erasive and appropriative and either comes with a lot of preconceived notions, or, what it means or is so vague it’s almost meaningless. It’s a term indigenous to Siberian indigenous wisdom practitioners and used by western anthropologists to invoke any indigenous or ancestral wisdom tradition practitioner and medicine person, regardless of the land they live on and what those people would’ve called themselves in their own language. I acknowledge the harm within that. Now, it’s often used as a pan-tradition, new-agey catch-all for almost anything mystical and akin to “indigenous”. There’s potential for harm in that, too. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to use it or not and you’ll see me often say “animist” and “ancestral” more than, or alongside, “shamanic”. When and where I do use it, I use it to invoke the role and practices of bridging this world with the Others which run parallel to this one; standing for greater harmony and aliveness within and between individuals, communities, and between us and our beyond-human kin, including those whose souls live in the Otherworld. For me, “shamanic” also implies a marrying of the journey of being human and spirit - not to transcend, but to be more deeply human and here. Shamanic practices come from and operate on behalf of the land, as much as anything else.
Shamanic practices do not need to supersede or supplant other religious beliefs or lineages you ascribe to or practice, however, you will feel more comfortable with my work if your beliefs allow for a sense that all life (including the natural world) is sacred kin and conscious elder, and that to be here and engage with the pains and ecstasies of being human is one of the greatest responsibilities and most precious gifts we could ever receive.
About Kate:
Wendell Berry predicted the world would divide itself between people who want to live as creatures and people who want to live as machines, and on a society level, the machines seem to be winning. And so though Kate was definitely born more creature, for many years she tried to be a machine - tried to fit in and play by society’s rules. And it left her feeling numb, broken, disconnected, and caught in cycles of burnout. Turns out that someone frequently called an “old soul” and a “witchy-healer-person-thing”; whose presence reminds people of being near standing stones or a community holy well, is probably going to thrive more on “Team Creature”.
So guided by teachers and mentors (both human and beyond-human) and with plenty of trial and error, she found herself on an initiatory journey towards something like what Martín Prechtel calls the “indigenous soul of the world”.
And while the journey never ends, Kate now has a rough map and an ability to guide you, if you know or suspect you’re also a failed machine; if you yearn for meaningful connection and a beautiful life (even if you’re secretly afraid your creature self might be gone forever and won’t come back).
Using an approach that weaves together animist and ancestral traditions, shamanic wisdom, movement, storytelling, and deep nature connection; Kate is known as a wise, potent, and compassionate guide. One who is perfect for when you’re on your own initiatory journey to recover your spark, ground your spirituality in everyday life and relationships, and become the beauty you're yearning to see in the world.