Start date for this program has been extended one week to October 6, because of destructive fires in Sonoma County where our staff person Linda Sartor lives. There are still a couple of places open.
- This event has passed.
Women’s Solo Quest Online Program
October 6, 2020 @ 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm
$495
This six week program will be held online, and in the nature setting of your own choice.
Rites of Passage has sponsored women’s quests for over 20 years, offering a safe, powerful, wild and beautiful way for women to discover themselves, their inner callings, and their relations to the natural world of beauty and wonder.
A homecoming to deepest self, this six session sacred journey of healing and transformation honors the power and the path of the sacred feminine as experienced in nature and in our lives as women.
The supportive container of the Women’s Solo Quest provides a safe, wild and beautiful way to renew your sense of purpose, heal a weary heart in order to live your most alive self. Enter sacred time and space alone to reflect and redirect. Connect with the earth and claim your place in the order of all life. Find and claim the gifts that are uniquely yours to give.
From an article on the Women’s Quest written by Scout Tomyris, who guided with Rites of Passage for several years:
We let down our guard and simply become ourselves. Meeting in Council circle, sharing our intentions and fears with each other before the solo time, each woman experiences for herself the complete freedom to say whatever she wants without fear of judgment or reprisal.
All beings have a relationship to Mother Earth. It has been widely recognized since ancient times and in cultures worldwide, that the energy of the Earth is feminine and that of the Sky is masculine. I don’t know why.
What I do know is that when I spend time alone on the Earth, She feels like my true Mother. I lay on the ground and I am caressed and cradled to her Breast. I inhale deeply the scent of the sagebrush and I am Breathed by Her. I am fed by a view of the landscape and so She nourishes me in return. I hear birds cawing and singing, twigs breaking, a mole digging underground and I know that I am hearing Mother Earth speak to me.
Mother Earth teaches me that everything is connected. She is the penultimate guide as far as I am concerned. I am a mere human, albeit one who does her best to listen to Earth’s guidance. I feel blessed that at least once a year I am called to venture forth and lead a small troupe of women on their quest for vision. Empowerment, resourcefulness, humility and freedom are just some of the rewards that we all experience. Women deserve this.
The Solo Quest Online Program Incorporates the Five Core Elements of a Wilderness Quest:
1. Solitude
You will have a full day of solo time, either sunrise to sundown, or 24 hours.
2. Immersion in Nature
An entire day is spent in nature–time for walking, exploring, sitting still, journaling, and enacting ceremony.
3. Fasting
Fasting is an ancient cross-cultural practice, one that opens the mind and heart. Most women are able to fast during the nature immersion time of the Solo Quest. This practice can be modified for those who cannot fast.
4. Pan-cultural Teachings
In this program, we will apply practices and teachings drawn from more than 40 years experience guiding rites of passage in nature, including the Four Directions teachings (given to Rites of Passage by a Native American teacher); dialogue with the natural world; journaling; and other eco-psychological practices. We will also teach simple ceremonial practices that can be utilized by Solo Quest participants.
5. Community
Traditional rites of passage always take place in the context of community. This program will have a community of up to eight women, to share stories, learn from each other, and create a safe and powerful container for the work.
All group meetings will take place online.
The first 3 group meetings will be dedicated to the Severance or preparation stage. We’ll cover topics like: personal ceremony, indigenous teachings to support the journey, fasting, keeping a journal, and especially safety in nature.
In the week between meeting 3 and meeting 4, participants will undertake a one-day solo journey in nature, sunrise to sunset.
The final 3 meetings will be dedicated to the Incorporation process. Each participant will have time to tell their story and receive reflections or “mirroring” from the group leader. There will be time devoted to questions of the Return, or how to bring these gifts back into the world.
Schedule
There will be three preparatory meetings, each one week apart. Participants will undertake the nature solo between week 3 and week 4 of the program.
Then there will be three incorporation/follow-up meetings, again each one week apart.
All meetings will be held online from 4:00pm to 6:30pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Preparation meetings
Meeting 1: Tuesday, October 6
Meeting 2: Tuesday, October 13
Meeting 3: Tuesday, October 20
THE DAYLONG SOLO IN NATURE WILL TAKE PLACE DURING THE WEEK BETWEEN MEETING 3 AND MEETING 4
Incorporation Meetings
Meeting 4: Tuesday October 27
Meeting 5: Tuesday, November 3
Meeting 6: TBD
Tuition
$495 for the entire program. A $200 non-refundable deposit is required to register. Any tuition paid beyond the $200 deposit is refundable up to August 24, 2020. Some scholarship assistance is available, inquire before registering.
Staff
Linda Sartor has been guiding programs for Rites of Passage since 1997. She holds a Ph.D. in Integral Studies and an M.S. in environmental education, and is a faculty member in the Master’s in Leadership Program at St. Mary’s College. Since 9/11/01, Linda has also travelled internationally in the roles of unarmed civilian peacekeeper and citizen diplomat (see her book,Turning Fear Into Power: How I Confronted the War on Terror, for more on that). With a passion for justice, she believes the powers of domination in our world promote a culture of fear in order to stay in control and that the more each one of us learns to follow our heart even when fear is present, the better off our world will be.
