Sacred Emergence: Initiation into Adulthood for Young Women
Application Deadline: February 15, 2021

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Sacred Emergence: Initiation into Adulthood for Young Women

Sacred Emergence provides a doorway for young women to become adult women with a mature orientation to their soul-discovery, their authentic service to others, and a connection to the natural web and flow of life.

There is a natural stage in a young woman’s life when she begins to prepare for the deeper growth that leads to adulthood. This usually happens around the ages of 16–25. Subtle or obvious, she may have the compelling urge to leave home, adventure out into the world and begin her search for deeper meaning and purpose. Looking within, she feels called to discover her gifts and the greater purpose of her life.

At this time in life we naturally—consciously or unconsciously—have an impulse to seek an initiatory experience, a fundamental shift in how we see our lives, ourselves, and our world. What we seek may be difficult to define and it may take us into realms that are dangerous and even life-threatening, or at the least, outside the values and life experience we have experienced up to now. As a result, we can get stuck in adolescence rather than understand and integrate our passage into adulthood.

Sacred Emergence is a way to honor the natural ‘impulse of life’ in a conscious and sacred way in our contemporary society.

Price

Pricing and program details are outlined in the application packet.

Registration

We are now accepting applications for Sacred Emergence 2021. You can download an application here. To be considered as a candidate, we must receive your completed application packet by February 15, 2021.

If you would like to support Sacred Emergence through staffing the ritual, please contact the Women’s Initiation Council directly.

Schedule

The schedule will be revealed to candidates as needed.

For more information

For more information, contact Women's Initiation Council at sacredemergence@nullsacredfire.org

Presenters

  • Deanna Jenné draws on the wisdom of the natural world to facilitate healing for people and communities. With a deep interest in the feminine principal, she’s studied the historical, cultural and innate roles of both the feminine and masculine. She leads the ritual staff in guiding young women through a spiritual doorway to discover a lifetime path to their rightful place in the world. Her leadership roles have been earned through years of managing and facilitating community programs, ceremonies and rituals that include life transition rites such as baptism, initiation, marriage and funerary rites.

    Following a spiritual calling, Deanna was initiated as a traditional healer in both Nahua and Huichol traditions of Mexico. Her healing practice for more than 30 years has specifically addressed women’s natural cycles, trauma and soul loss. Deanna brings a level of openness, wisdom, knowledge and ability to listen deeply to the Divine and to her people. She holds elder council roles for her Medicine Path Group and the Women’s Initiation Council to maintain the integrity of the medicine traditions and to instill a sense of the mystery, trust and courage for these paths.

    As an initiated Firekeeper for Sacred Fire and her local Western Colorado community, she has a long-standing commitment along side her husband and community to build a demonstration village and a way of life living in gratitude and ritual, honoring all of God’s creation in accordance with the natural cycles of the world.

  • Jessica De la O has had a long term career serving youth and young adults. She earned a Ph.D. In education for a dissertation that focused on the critical time of transition when young people leave home and step into the next stage of life (i.e., young adulthood as they enter higher education). How well young adults integrate into the next stage of life has been a consistent point of interest for Jessica in academia as well as in community work. After earning her doctorate, she developed a rite of passage program for adolescent girls to provide a community forum in which girls’ voices could be heard, encouraged and honored. She has dedicated herself to making her doctoral study relevant to the current need among our youth today.

    Jessica has served as a ritual leader for Sacred Emergence: Young Women’s Initiation since 2005, and sits on the Women’s Initiation Council. She is especially passionate in assisting young women in their self discovery through a formal process that guides them thru a sacred doorway toward adulthood. She is a Plant Spirit Medicine healer offering support from nature, and along with her husband, serves their Georgia community as a Sacred Fire Firekeeper, holding ritual space for heart connection and expression.

  • A devoted and heartful holistic family physician, midwife and mother for over 25 years, Lisa Lichtig further serves community as a traditional healer and ceremonial leader. After a long apprenticeship under the guidance of tsaurririkame Eliot Cowan and don Jose Sandoval, Lisa was initiated as a mara’akame of the Huichol healing tradition in 2014. She specializes in helping people feel optimally well and healthy, heal from illness, reconnect with the joy and mystery of life, and find balance in life’s natural cycles. Lisa does this through offering functional medicine, heart-of-birth and parenting consultations, and traditional Huichol healing. Lisa also serves her community as a Firekeeper for Sacred Fire, supporting people’s connection to heart through holding monthly community fires, women’s fires, and specialty fires.  Finally, Lisa serves on the Sacred Fire Community’s Neikame Birthing Council and the Women’s Initiation Council, which offers a formal process to guide adolescent girls and young women into adulthood. She lives on a beautiful knoll in North Carolina with her husband, Patrick and carries the scent of fire wherever she roams.