Initiation and Rites of Passage To begin, a brief working definition of a rite of passage: a ceremony to mark or celebrate a change in life status. Rites of passage can encompass the whole life cycle, from birth to death. Rites of passage generally can be described as having 3 stages, which we call Severance, Threshold…
Journey to South Korea (Part 2) After our 12-hour flight to Inchon, Linda and I drove the next morning to the Forest Retreat Center called Soop Chae Won, about 3 hours from Seoul. A day later, we began presenting a 10-day training program to 20 Korean staff members, age 21-65, about rites of passage in nature…
Journey to South Korea (Part 1) On September 5, 2007, I flew to Seoul, where I met my co-guide Linda Sartor to begin two weeks of guiding a Vision Quest and providing staff training for a newly opened forest retreat center located in the countryside. It was an exciting opportunity, and one that largely led…
Why this Work is Important to Me Let me introduce myself: I’m Mike Bodkin, the Executive Director of Rites of Passage. This is my first attempt at blogging, so forgive me if I stumble a bit. For many years, I worked full-time as a youth and family counselor at a local non-profit, later adding…
Community and Rites of Passage 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…