Friends,

This has been quite the Autumn so far. I'm out of the rhythm of writing but hoping to carve out enough space for it to come back again.

Reflections on Initiations

In the old stories and practices of initiations, it’s usually a plant, animal, or representative of the land itself that initiates you, that calls you to the Journey and prompts your Descent.

But once on the Journey, it’s not enough to find the treasure. We have to find it, then leave it - the castle in the clouds, the proverbial garden of Eden. We can’t stay at the first place where we are cleaved open to aliveness, to Divine Love; the first place we catch a glimpse of what we’re being initiated into. There are more lessons to learn.

We have to keep going, Rising and Descending possibly as many as two or more times. We have to go through a tempering, test after test, to become someone who can steward the magic of Love and the beauty of Life beyond the first enthusiastic glimpse, beyond the honeymoon phase.

It’s becoming clear to me that when the lands of Scotland and Ireland began coming to me in dreams back in 2020/ 2021, they were calling me to come be initiated in some way. And the vibrant aliveness and bone-deep rightness I found on my 2023 pilgrimage to Scotland and Ireland was a “first glimpse”. I knew then I couldn’t stay even though I wanted to. But I resisted letting go. I tried to leave without actually leaving.

And the following nine months I spent back in the States were the harder for it. The ocean between these lands mirrored how stretched and fragmented and "between" I felt. There's a reason dismemberment features so strongly in these old stories. I felt rootless and disoriented. Old ways of connecting to the land and relationships here weren’t working. I had been thrown out of the golden castle. And at the time, I didn’t understand why it felt like I was being punished after such a sweet "homecoming".

But I at least knew about integration after peak experiences so I treated the pilgrimage like a peak experience and let integration take it’s time. And I kept affirming what lessons I had learned overseas, and I kept aiming to find my way back.

The first part of my 2024-2025 time in Alba and Éire was a continuation of the Descent. There were still plenty of tests to face and things felt hard. But something shifted about four months in and flow began happening again. There were still tests and challenges but there was an ease around them. I had come out some other side and was just deepening my ability to hold the goodness.

But the time came to leave again. I had this sense that if I were to stay longer, I would be avoiding. I would fail the initiation in some way and prove I hadn’t really learned the lessons. So I returned to the States in late August.

I’m coming to see now, there’s even a ritual and process to The Return - the initiate has to circle back through old lessons, old places, old communities as their new self. There may be old things to clean up, old ways of seeing dynamics and situations to be seen differently. And there is something deeply impactful about having your new self be witnessed, acknowledged, and feasted by old communities. Then you know that whatever treasure you found, whatever medicine you now carry, is ready to start being shared.

There have been many opportunities coming up to revisit old spaces and friends. There’s been shedding and feasting. And there are opportunities appearing to start sharing my work as my new self, as the lands over there have shaped me into being.

It began back in late September when I offered a fire and land ceremony at Arterra Wines in Delaplane, VA around the theme of Initiations and Practicing Death and Rebirth. It was such a potent and beautiful evening. There was the fire itself, the land, and then the animist and ancestral practices of ritual, story, and shared wondering. All of which came together to create a thin space where we encountered Mystery and fed Aliveness with beauty and gratitude.

Now, there are two more opportunities for those in the Shenandoah Valley area to gather with me in person.

In-Person Opportunities

#1

Daydream Studio in Winchester, VA will host my Signature Workshop and “Remembering”: Living as Creature, Not Machine.

We’ll gather on Monday, October 27th from 6-7:30pm.

Think of this as an “Animism 101” workshop (though it’s experiential, not theoretical) where we’ll explore how ritual, ceremony, initiations, and culture can help us stay human. Practicing animism as we go; we’ll bring our questions, messiness, and struggles to the wisdom of the Otherworld to see what new ways of being and perceiving become available to us through the tending of relationship with them.

Perfect if you’re a human who crashed and burned trying to fit into the world of machines, and you’re just starting or wanting to deepen your journey back to being a creature again.

Requested exchange is $40.

More info or register: https://www.wildsacredjourney.com/signature-workshop

#2

Stephanie McKinley of Yoga Travel Heal has opened up her home and fire pit, outside of Front Royal, VA; for a ceremony on Saturday, November 8 from 4:30-7:30pm.

Theme: Seeking Fire’s Wisdom for our Burnout and Inner Winters.

This would be a deeper offering than the workshop. We’ll have the time and the intention to open even more of a portal to allow Mystery to meet us and change our perspective and ways of being. And what we’ll be listening for, as we sit with the fire and land and rituals and stories, will be the skill and knowledge we seem to be at risk of losing on how to steward our sacred creative sparks and find more sustainable rhythms of aliveness so we don’t continue to burnout. I know Fire, as elder and ancestor, has a lot of wisdom to offer us on that front. We come together not only to receive but also because when we come together in these ways, we give back to the land, too.

While no prior experience with ceremonies, shamanic practices, or even animism is necessary to join us here (all you need is to feel a calling, a whisper or nudge from the soul), this might be a great follow-up to the workshop at Daydream Studio.

There will be tea and hot cocoa beforehand and some grounding snacks/ charcuterie for after.

Requested exchange is $88.

More info or register: https://www.wildsacredjourney.com/ceremonies

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Online Opportunities

If you’re not local to the area and can’t join us in person, Samhain is approaching and with it, our virtual seasonal round house.

Sunday, Nov 2nd, from 2-4pm ET, we’ll meet online for a guided meditation/ transmission from the season, as well as story and shared wondering to deepen our sense of connection and meaning with the turning of the year.

All registrants also get a pdf with prompts to explore on your own related to connecting to the season where you are and as your ancestors did, as well as internally and archetypally.

More info or register: https://www.wildsacredjourney.com/seasonal-roundhouse

(Note: this is our next-to-last gathering for these round houses for this year. And I’m anticipating pausing them or just offering them through the pdf next year. So if you’d like to join us live, this one and December for midwinter are your best, most assured, bets.)

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Finally - A Little Further Along the Horizon (in case you like to plan):

Nov 1 I’m slated to guest teach at an OracleFest podium event. I don’t think they have registration quite set up yet, so I’ll get you more info when they do. But the theme is Transformation and I’ll be offering a transmission on Story, as well as a live reading.

I’ll be pausing Sanctuary for the time being to focus a bit more on finishing the creation of some workbooks and more of the clarifying and simplifying of things I mentioned above.

Early December, sales will reopen for Insight 2026 - tarot card drawings as an act of divining into the energies of your 2026 and to support your New Years intentions, celebrations, and preparations.

Mid Dec we’re expecting to open sales for Cauldron of Knowledge - a collaboration with Scottish storyteller Eileen Budd. A merging of her storytelling and my animist and ancestral ritual work, we’ll listen for whatever ancestral wisdom four Scottish Faerie stories have to offer us on how to be in right relationship with the Great Mystery. We’ll also be helping you connect with your own ways of telling stories and developing rituals to share with friends and family. The course will actually run in February and March, Imbolg to Equinox, with some lead up to Là Bealltainn.

Then around midwinter solstice (Dec 20th and 21st) there will be two events: our final online seasonal round house of the year. And an in-person ceremony, around altar and flame, at Daydream Studio in Winchester, VA.

I'll wrap this up so I can get outside and soak up some of the last rays of the day. The crows are calling (though I've already fed them - greedy, little tricksters they are) and the leaves of the red maples look like dragons scales, littering the ground. I light my candles daily and give as much thanks to the dark as I do the light in this season of deepening Descent.

May your final weeks of harvest be abundant and juicy and may you feel ready for the fruitful darkness of our precious winter season.

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with Love,

Kate