Old Medicine Bundles
Stories are some of the oldest healing art forms that exists. Like old medicine bundles woven together, braided and scented with sweetgrass calling us home through waters of remembering, healing and belonging. These old stories, the ones that have wound their way through the crooked creek of time to land at our doorstep and come knocking are especially potent medicine.
Once they enter through the gatekeeper of your ear they gently take root in your soul, growing as you do, flowering as you listen more deeply, reaching with you to new places.
Free Online Storytelling Gatherings:
Winter 2023-2024 Series
This season we offer a series of five old tales as medicine for these times. We invite you to join us around a virtual fire pit to listen, to share, and allow these stories to root down into your soul.
Each live, interactive storytelling gathering will begin with introductions, flowing into the storytelling and ending with audience interaction Q&A, and a call for future gathering.
Participation is free of charge, but registration in advance is required. Space is limited so please do register early. The sessions will be hosted via Zoom, and it is recommended to download their app in advance.
Please Note: These events will be recorded and distributed to all those that register. following the live broadcast. Additional details will be provided upon registration.
“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”
Monday, December 18th at 6pm EST
Join us for this free evening of poetry and reflections on the path to transformation ✨
*A free recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all those who register*
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide Be Brown
Wednesday, January 3rd at 6pm EST
The original Scottish Vision Quest story. This is a very old tale of losing everything, the ensuing storm of grief and the turn to the wilds. The one we now know as Merlin fasted for three days and three nights in response to unfathomable loss. His story, as close to the true history as we can come, teaches us much about allying with the natural world for transformation and the choices we each get to make about how we live our lives.
*A free recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all those who register*
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide Kat Houghton
Monday, January 15th at 6pm EST
What comes after the Descent? You've crossed the threshold, entered the Otherworld and emerged, finding your way back into being. Elen of the Ways is the Heroine's Journey. Joseph Campbell refers to this part of the journey as the "Road of Trials." You must undergo a series of "tests and trials" to achieve transformation. In this journey we must uncover the lost pieces of ourselves, find our centre and our source of belonging. Elen of the Ways is a reclamation of self, following the path back to lands of belonging.
*A free recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all those who register*
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide Kallie Brown
Friday, February 9 at 6pm EST
The Lindworm is an old story from Scandinavia, with roots reaching far back into the Indo-European soul. It is a story of the meeting of the mundane, rule-abiding personality with that of shadow dragons, of those cast off parts of our psyches that suffer and hunt in the unknown wilds, growing monstrous and hungry, until such time as they return (and they do), asking to be acknowledged and integrated into our lives.
It is the story of the many layers of calcified protections that build up like scar tissue in our living over time; of those shields and wounds that keep us from an undefended form of love— for ourselves, for others, and for the world. And it is a story of the foundation-shaking, transformative power of the feminine soul when it is wed to Metis, that old Greek term for cunning, street smarts, intuitive brilliance, and courage, and of how that power heals, performs magic, and resurrects the masculine powers and energies in the soul, all in service to new consciousness and new life.
Join us for a transformative night of storytelling, where what hunts us from the underworld, those feared, ancient, neglected, wild, reptilian parts of our Selves, are what we most need in our moves toward wholeness.
*A free recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all those who register*
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide James Haddad
Wednesday, February 28 at 6pm EST
There once was a king who was very sick and was unlikely to survive such an illness. He had three sons who were very sad. They went down to the palace garden and wept. An old man came by and asked them why they were weeping. They told him their father was sick and sure to die, for nothing seemed to cure him. The old man said, “I know of one more remedy: the Water of Life. If he drinks of that, he will get well, but I cannot tell you where to find it.”
The Water of Life is an old Germany fairy tale that was collected by the Brothers Grimm. This is a story that has circulated for decades among men’s initiation circles. How often in these challenging times conscious men find themselves standing on a crumbling foundation of masculine identity defined very narrowly by modernity as either the non-emotional hero male or the ineffective & passive male. Both reside as shadow-forms of the masculine psyche under the limiting scope of the word “patriarchy” where there appears to be nothing desirable or redeemable for these times that men find themselves in. This story opens a conversational dialogue toward a fuller understanding of healthy masculinity.
*A free recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all those who register*
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Founder Kedar Brown
Past Storytelling Events:
This mystical, initiatory, and alchemical tale is one of seeking, of loss, and of the courage of the youngest, smallest, most overlooked part of ourselves to find truth, overcome ancient wounds and ancestral trauma, and find union with our darker animal natures in order to discover the deep belonging of our soul.
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide James Haddad
The story of Taliesin is wound deep into the fabric of Celtic lore yet relevant to how we move through the world today. A story of magic, deep transformation and finding one’s place. The winding rivers of Taliesin’s story helps us call on different parts of ourselves as our changing times require.
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide Kat Houghton.
Join us for this gathering around the winter’s hearth fire to hear a selection of personal stories and poetry from Kedar’s journey as a man who has chosen to walk the path of a ceremonial midwife.
This evening will be an interactive journey of awakening conversations into your own personal mythologies as navigational road maps toward healing, remembering and belonging.
“It is said that if you want to become clear about the road ahead you must first allow yourself to become utterly confused. These periods of feeling lost or darkness often become the seeding ground of unimaginable journeys. Do not be seduced on the road by the allure of shiny looking destinations or acquisitions. Always knowing exactly where you are going limits the possibility of awakening to the things you do not know... you don’t know. We must learn to mythologize rather than pathologize these periods of change and awaken ourselves once again to spring and the inspiration of the rising sun” ~Kedar
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Founder & Director Kedar S. Brown.
From Romania to Poland and all throughout the Baltic countries comes the story of Vasalisa. There is some evidence to suggest that this story dates back to horse-Goddess cults before classical Greek culture took place. Storytelling carries not only the values and traditions of its time but also the timeless and sacred teachings of initiation. Vasilisa is one such story.
To be in conversation with our intuition is an essential aspect of initiation into womanhood. To see the unseen, to deepen into our creativity, to be attuned to the life/death cycles of nature- this is the initiated woman. In a culture that often discourages trusting in the unseen, believing in magik, or engaging in the imaginal realm we are left doubting our intuitive wisdom and questioning ourselves. Part of our task in this modern day way of living is to reconnect to our innate wisdom.
Come join us for an afternoon of intuition and magik!
Facilitated live by Rites of Passage Council Guide Kallie Brown.
