Couples Initiation: A rite of passage to deepen your relationship
Quotes
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”
– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Couples Initiation: Level 3 Workshop
After Council and Shadow Work® what is next? We call this last trio of our trainings – Couples Initiation. This is an initiation into and experience in bringing a greater level of Spirit and Ceremony into your committed relationship. As part of this workshop, we will have extended alone time on the land in Nature to gain perspective on a question or theme that may be arising in your partnership. We will integrate aspects of Council and Shadow Work into this program as well, and you will have an opportunity to create a new “blessing statement” for your relationship that you may choose to enact in ceremony with the group.
Rites of passage are held around the world with different ceremonies and traditions to mark important changes in life. This program offers you an opportunity to ceremonially mark a transition in your committed relationship. This might be a deepening, a preparation for marriage, a spiritual commitment, or an external or internal change that you have felt coming. By calling on the ancient tradition of going into nature and fasting for a period of time, we say to the universe – we declare this is so!
Joseph Campbell writes that here are four phases to a rite of passage. The first phase is The Call. In this phase your attention turns inward and you have a knowing that there is a rite of passage on the horizon. Something is shifting and you feel drawn to make it ceremonial. You want to be held in community, in this case, a community of like-spirited couples. You share this call with your beloved; you want to dive into ceremony.
The second phase of the program is Severance. You leave home to gather in sacred space, and in circle together, we will look at what needs to be severed. What old way needs to die in order for you to move forward together in partnership in a new way? What new seeds need to be planted? Day One together will be about this severance phase as we move between self-reflection, time as couples and time with the whole group to deepen into our intentions.
Phase three of our initiation journey is the Threshold. The Threshold must be embarked on alone. There may be a question you want clarity on, or a vision that you want to bring to fruition for your partnership. Although you may have co-created your Threshold intention with your beloved, you will have your own experience of the Threshold time. During this time we will embark on a sunrise to sunset solo and fast. After we are all called back together, we will ask you to save your stories until the morning, to allow your dreams to work your experience. We will feast, play music and dance, and then we will rest.
Day three begins the last phase of the Initiation – Incorporation. There will be time for you to share as couples and with the whole group about your experience. The guides will reflect back themes that we hear in your stories. This day is all about integrating your experience through the ancient way of storytelling.
On day four we will prepare to return home. We will sit in Council and talk about how to bring this sacred work back to your everyday relationships. There will be an opportunity for you to co-write a blessing statement or statement of renewed commitment with your partner and to co-create a ceremony to enact in the group to mark this new phase of your journey together.
Couples Council and Shadow Work® for Couples are prerequisites for the Couples Initiation program. Please contact us with any questions you might have.
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