08 Déc Rites of passage for healing, justice, & liberation 30 April to 4 May 2025

Rites and Responsibilities:

Restoring rites of passage for healing, justice, & liberation

 

With Darcy Ottey and Carine Roth

 

A 5 days immersive seminar, 30 April to 4 May

Switzerland

*In english with french translation.

 

Rites of passage are a keystone practice in human cultures: many other elements of cultural health depend on meaningful, relevant, and intentional transition rituals to mark the cycles and seasons of our lives. When such practices are lost or destroyed, everyone suffers. When they are restored, the whole community can flourish.

Through initiatory processes, individuals shed what has become too small for them, and are challenged and supported in developing the inner resources and understandings to fully bring their unique gifts forward – into a world that urgently needs what they have to offer.

Over five days, a small group of educators, guides, and community leaders will come together to explore key rite of passage frameworks and practices essential for bringing meaningful, culturally-relevant rites of passage into the lives of young people in Europe today. We will build a community of mutual care and accountability designed to support each of us in bringing meaningful, culturally-responsible rites of passage ever more deeply into our lives, families, and communities. As we study, share, reflect, practice, grieve, organize, and celebrate, we will create space for our points of connection and shared experience as well as honoring the differences between us. Participants will receive individualized support for the specific contexts they are working in and/or work in caucus spaces as supports their initiatives.

 

This program is for rites of passage guides, educators, teachers, mentors, social workers and for anyone working with youth who believes that rituals, relations, and community matter in education and mentoring.

 

Participants will:

• Connect with others working to bring forth meaningful processes and practices for change and growth into their communities
• Dive into key orienting frameworks for transformation
• Explore the resurgence of rites of passage today, and how these efforts fit in with the decolonization and other global change movements
• Explore rites of passage throughout the lifespan, with an emphasis on adolescence and young adulthood
• Explore the role of identity development in rites of passage, including: dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and difference, and the ways these manifest in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, class, citizenship, and more – and how this impacts our work and those we serve
• Investigate the causes, consequences, and complexities of cultural appropriation, and co-create ancestrally-rooted, culturally respectful alternatives
• Build capacity to design and/or lead healthy passages, for themselves or others in their community

 

Where we will be

In a beautiful old chalet in the pré alps in french speaking Switzerland near Les Paccots, Vaud.

More information when you register.

 

Food will be healthy, delicious and vegetarian.

 

Accomodation is mainly in dormitory

 

 

 

Register here:

inscription

 

We will ask you to write a short letter of intent about why you want to participate to this course. We will also ask you to fill in an health form and to come ready for some time out in nature and courageous work on our beleifs and ethic..

 

Facilitators:

 

Darcy Ottey (she/they) is a cultural practitioner, educator, writer, and researcher. The descendant of Quaker settlers, British coal miners, and Ukrainian peasants, rites of passage have been part of Darcy’s life since her youth.  This path led her to guide wilderness trips for teens, serve as Executive Director of Rite of Passage Journeys, venture to the lands of her ancestors to understand more of her history, and more.  Most recently, she served as Co-Director of Youth Passageways, and recently helped co-found Re-Calling our Ancestors. As a queer, white, middle class, able-bodied woman, Darcy continues the long journey of uncolonizing herself and her people, unlearning hierarchy, scarcity, and division and re-establishing healing alternatives rooted in ancestry, body, land, culture, and accountable relationships. Grateful for her teachers and mentors, Darcy’s work is in accountability to the intergenerational web of relationships that make up Youth Passageways, the many beings of the Methow River watershed, and her ancestors. She loves dancing (especially under the full moon), learning to make Slavic folks dolls, and preserving food and plant medicines. Darcy’s first book, Rites and Responsibilities: A Guide to Growing Up, was published in 2022 by Lost Borders Press.

 

carine roth (she/they) is a Swiss ecotherapist and Vision Fast leader, also trained as a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide, with experience in these fields from all over the world. As a journalist, a picture editor and professional photographer for Swiss daily newspapers, carine has the capacity to navigate seamlessly between the world of industrial knowledge, and worlds of indigenous wisdom.  They are founder of “ceux d’ici” and co-founder of the Swiss-based organisation “Rite de Passage”, promoting healthy modern rites of passage in Nature for youth and adults. ”Rite de Passage” offers experiences that are central in past and present indigenous cultures: a time by oneself fasting in the wilderness to connect with one’s true purpose, to enter into relationship with the land and the ancestors, to deeply listen, and to feel held by a community of elders and peers – before the fast in the preparation and afterwards during the integration phase.

Trained with The School of Lost Borders, carine has been following the lineage of the school for years and has had the privilege to sit in circles and share many ceremonies with Meredith Little. She is willing to carry on with the work Meredith and Scott Eberle started in 2003, *The practice of Living and Dying, and is available for programs in Europe, USA and Africa, in English and French.

carine currently shares her time between the creation of innovative programs in the field of rites of passage, eco-therapy and the human-nature bond, and 1:1 sessions and counseling activities with courageous individuals in search of meanings and ways of fully manifesting their presence in the world. This practice has been enriched by years of experience in order to offer spaces for empowerment and transformation in a healthy, inclusive setting.

At the service of living beings and the intelligence of life that animates us and always guides us towards balance.
With joy, creativity, humor, strength, queerness and authenticity.

 

MONEY:

The question of money is central to the content of this program

Please take a moment to read this invitation 🙂

We ask participants to contribute 470-2000 CHF for the 5-days seminar:

• 470 chf meets the minimum per person cost
• 690 chf or more meets minimum course expenses, if we have 10 participants
• 1350 chf  helps to move toward thriving, and/or helps meet minimum course expenses if some contribute less
• 2,000 chf (or more) supports long-term viability of the work 

We ask for a deposit of 470 chf  in advance to cover the fixed costs of this offering, and we will invite your further contributions toward helping us reach our needs for the full course offering.

If 470 chf is prohibitive, please contact us to discuss options.

 

As you consider your own contribution towards the total budget, we ask you to:

• Imagine the possibility of contributing only the deposit, and fully receiving the gifts of the seminar. What is it to feel welcome, and not obligated?
• Imagine the possibility of giving generously to this important culture-building offering. What is it to feel abundant and generous, whatever that means for you?
• Imagine the possibility of giving so that it feels like a stretch – but not an overstretch. What is it to move with dignity, honoring your real capacity?

 

In addition to cash, ways you can support are by: 

• Helping to spread the word about the seminar
• Coming with a friend/family member or small group and encouraging others in your community to register
• Asking your community to financially support this offering, and your participation in it, as an investment in community wellness and capacity building
• Brainstorming non-cash ways you can support the work of the seminar and sharing those with us

 

Please make your payement on our association account:

Association Rite de Passage, Chemin de Renens 12, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland

IBAN CH16 0839 0039 1577 1000 1

Mention Healing, justice and liberation

Banque Alternative Suisse

Clearing bancaire/IID : 8390

QR-IID : 30123

BIC (SWIFT-Code) : ABSOCH22

 

NOTE: If figuring out your financial contribution feels overwhelming, please start with imagining giving 1350 chf upfront for the seminar. If this truly doesn’t feel possible, adjust downward until you find an amount that does. If 1350 chf does feel possible, adjust upwards until it feels like too much. If you find you tend to overstretch, consider contributing just a little less. If you find you tend to constrict, consider increasing your giving just a bit. Don’t overthink it! And please reach out if you have questions or need support.