Adulthood Initiation
Ritual Apprenticeship

We live in apocalyptic times.

“Apocalypse," at its root,
means revelation—
and so to apprentice ourselves to these times means to journey down through the initiatory gateway into the dancing shadows and light of the underworld,

to that fertile place of revelation:

the crossroads
where your personal
and our collective initiations meet.

To apprentice yourself to these times is to apprentice yourself to mystery, to the Gods and Goddesses, Ancestors, and Animate Guides who have known your true name for a long time.

They are waiting...

The Apprenticeship will be
an alchemical container
for those who are ready to take responsibility for their own initiation journey (which, paradoxically,
means surrendering to being held).

This is a courtship of your Wild Genius.

This will be
a Ritual Leadership Training.

To hold space for others, however,
you must first let others
(human and other-than-human)
hold space for you.

Most of us were trained to believe that Adulthood was time-branded when we turned 18, moved out of our parents' houses, and could finally participate in “adult” societal glories like voting, paying taxes, and being able to die in war for our country.

As ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin claims, however,

true adulthood is an achievement, a psycho-cultural rite of passage, requiring an adequate container.

This Adulthood Initiatory Ritual Apprenticeship is our response to life’s plea for such containers to be woven once again, so that true human beings of substance can emerge as mythopoetic leaders, each taking our place in this Great Turning.

This journey consists of a year-long initiatory arc
within a cultural framework of sacred tasks, council spaces, mentorship, and lots of ritual (big and small). 

We aim to create a container with enough heat
to unearth and alchemize our wounds into gifts,
and explore what it means to move beyond the adolescent arrested development that has gripped the wider “culture."

Central to our work will be examining masculinity/femininity/queerness in the context of adulthood, discovering our conditioning, digging a grave for that
which needs to die, and creating a space hollow enough for something new to enter.

Each participant will emerge from the journey with ritual literacy;
a “cultural garden” of their own mentors, elders, ancestors, and spirit allies;
confidence as a storyteller;
a fertile relationship with source energy;
and, perhaps, an encounter with the mythopoetic image
at the center of their soul. 

We will also weave ample integration work throughout—
for what good is drinking from the sacred well
if we are not equipped to deliver the medicine
to our people thereafter?

The container will follow the School of Mythopoetics’ Wheel of the Year as we work through various themes and tasks, all leading towards our final threshold ritual:
a wilderness vigil (vision fast )alone and together into the wild.

Our Map:

Scorpio: Ancestors and Anchoring
(Mentors, Guides, Allies)

Sagittarius: The Fool and the Wanderer
(Mythic Practices / Soulcraft Practices / Storyshare)

Capricorn: Spatial Grounding
(Altars and Prayer)

Aquarius: Dancing the Dreaming
(Dreamwork and Soul Map)

Pisces: Lifting our Prayers in Fire
(Fire Ritual and Devotion)

Aries: Embarking into the Wound 
(Nervous System and Emotional Regulation)

Taurus: The Wild Edge of Grief

Gemini: The Paradox of Wholeness
(Trickster Medicine and The Art of Story Craft)

Cancer: Nurturing The Wound into Womb
(Gestating the Core Wound)

Leo: The Radiance of our Eros
(The Inner Beloved: Gender, Sexuality, Art)

Virgo: Serving the Whole through the Particular
(Towards Sacred Service)

Libra: Dancing Towards Death
(Death Rites and Wilderness Vigil Vision Fast)

Container:

Two Group Calls a Month

• • A teaching call with Socratic dialogue
  
  • A Council call with mirroring
  

• Other Elements
  
  • Ritual and other sacred tasks:
  ancestor feast, overnight fire-solo, community grief ritual, becoming a storyteller, earth burial,
  and many more…
  
  • Once-a-week meeting with an Ally (fellow initiate) for co-support
  
  
  • A closed group for further sharing and group dialogue

Facilitation:

The main facilitator for the year-long initiation
is your own soul, via the aqueducts
of your particular wounding,
biographical and ancestral.

As your relationship with mentors, elders, ancestors
and spirit guides grow and strengthen,
these ones will also assist in the facilitation.

John Wolfstone, whose life’s work (as dictated from his own initiatory journey) is to create cultures of initiation, will be the main human-guide of this Apprenticeship—with support from other roving leaders from within The School.

Timing:

The container will begin in Scorpio season, just after Samhain
the first week of November 2023
and end with a final Threshold Ritual (wilderness vigil, in person)
early in Libra Season (Late September 2024,
exact dates and locations to be determined)

Call times will be determined
based on group needs.
We want this container
to be accessible globally,
with wilderness vigil vision fasts
in both Europe and North America.

Reciprocity:

Sliding Scale:

Existing SoM Students: $125-300 per month

New Students: $175-350 per month (includes tuition and access to The School of Mythopoetics)

Space is limited for small group size.

We look forward to meeting you on this initiatory ground.