Woman-Becoming Rites of passage

Rites of passage celebration age 9 – 12

I recently held a rites of passage celebration for the ‘Wild Moon sisters’ Lodge that I birthed for my youngest daughter.
From the beginning of the lodge gatherings we had been working with the Map of Womanhood, something I have developed after being informed and inspired by the work of Gail Burkett and her book Nine passages.
You can download the info about the Map of Womanhood from my website for a donation and it is also contained in depth in my online courses if you want to know more.

Anyway the map of womanhood is the Rites of passages thresholds that we as women cross on our journey from Birth to death.
The second threshold is what I call Girl- Woman or Girl- bloom and this is the threshold that the girls in the ‘Wild Moon sisters ‘lodge are crossing in their development. I talk more about the significance of this in my girl -bloom ceremony session plans, also available for donation.
I had been working with the girls in a few of the previous lodges as a build up to this day, preparing them with certain games and stories and teachings. So we planned a ceremony for them to bring consciousness and awareness to the change that is occurring for them physically, emotionally and spiritually.
We had such a powerful and beautiful day. The women were completely on board ready to hold the space for their daughters.

We had a sweat lodge space that the girls entered to begin the day…this I told them was their little girl wombspace. Inside we sang and smudged each other, I told them a story to remind them what the day was about. Then held a sharing in which they had a chance to talk about the fears they had had when they were younger. We made boats of offerings with flowers, incense and bark in which they let go of those fears…we placed offerings of gratitude for our lives so far onto the boat to. Then went outside on the beautiful land we were lucky to have the use of and they let their boats go down the river.

While all this was going on the other women on the core group were holding the space in the yurt with the mothers to go over the plan for the challenge the was to come, and to take them on another journey to connect to their inner girls.

The Challenge

Now the girls were ready for their challenge…Wearing the masks which were actually blindfolds which they had made in the previous lodge to symbolise the development stage that they are moving through, they had to find their way to the women.
I had set up a guide line for them along the river and the mothers were singing and drumming to call to them to find their way to place of the women. The girls came one by one and I was waiting for them at the yurt door to guide them through to be with the women. Once in the yurt they were held beautifully by the women as they sang to the girls as they made their way around the circle, feeling the support, holding and love of each woman.

All the girls were ecstatic by the end of the challenge and the yurt was full of their chattering as they expressed their sense of achievement to their mothers. The mothers gave their daughters a blessing.
The girls were so looking forward to the day, they loved the challenge and overcame some fears to complete it…It was raining so hard too and not one of the girls moaned or changed her mind about it. They were too excited!.

We then shared a feast in honour of the girls becoming big girls.

Last of all we held a bundle ceremony to hold the space for who they are becoming. We sang and gave gifts and told stories to help them step towards the truth of who they really are.

Beauty-Full
In love for our Earth Mother and the next seven generations
Eartha Love X x