Women's Rites: Maiden Rite of Passage

Mothers, aunts, and grandmothers shower their girls with pampering (dyeing hands red with beets, cornmeal footscrub, massage, hair braiding, etc.)

Then, all gather in the red tent for the Grandmothers Story Song.

The power of story is felt by women and girls alike.

A meditation grounds all.

A handmade red medicine pouch necklace is gifted to each girl.

Women's wisdom is shared in circle.

The Charge of the Four Directions is spoken to the girls, and tokens are given to the girls for medicine pouches.

Girls do an art project in silence, while sponsors write a letter to their girls.

Mothers call the full name of each girl to walk under the red bridge.

Sponsors cut of a tiny braid of hair to signify the end of girlhood, and young women receive their medicine pouch necklace and a rose as they begin their journeys.

Everyone celebrates with a meal and red velvet cake. Welcome to womanhood, young maidens!

Women's Rites of Passage: maiden, mother, and crone

Our culture has largely lost the art of celebrating and honoring the physical changes that a woman goes through in her life, resulting in the disempowerment of women, along with a disconnection between women, their bodies, and nature.

Rites of passage ceremonies are one way that most other cultures acknowledge and honor the sacred transitions of life. Through spoken word, sharing circles, ceremony, and creation of visual art, Women's Rites is a series of three inclusive, non-religious retreats to help girls and women learn more about and celebrate the stages of womanhood through which they are passing. The retreats will center around a girl's first menstrual cycle (the maiden blessingway), the birth of a child or major project (the mother blessingway), and the onset of menopause (the wise woman blessingway). The retreats will be held at Black Acre Nature Preserve, so that participants will be surrounded by unmanicured nature, to promote their connection to the natural world and represent their personal feminine nature as free to go where it grows best.

Interested in participating or want more information? E-mail WomensRitesKY@gmail.com

All content is reserved by Jen Serra Shean. Please do not copy or take images or content from this site without my permission. I can be reached at: womensritesky@gmail.com. The Goddess images by artist Daisy Curley and are not to be copied without her permission, daisygoddess@hotmail.com.

Women's Rites

Maiden Rite of Passage - Feb. 20th, 2010

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