The journey to the Dark Goddess is a natural part of any death transition — any difficult rite of passage that takes us out of our ordinary experiences and places us into a liminal cycle. Death transitions may be those transitions classically seen as negative — such as a serious illness or accident, death of a loved one, job loss or divorce — but even so-called positive transitions such as marriage or the birth of a child carry the weight of endings. Largely we navigate our c

Return is the third phase of an initiatory rite of passage. In myth it often includes a ceremony of homecoming, coalescence, community honoring. On return the initiate may ritually take a new name, something symbolic of the new role or work they embody after transformation. Return can be a time of mourning, grieving and celebration simultaneously. It is paradoxical, an ending and a beginning, often without a place of pause in the cycle of transformation, but still marking a d

In the midst of transition I learned to trust my ceremonial practice. I’ve been through enough now to know it is the cornerstone of reciprocal consciousness, raising my awareness of the sacred balance of offering and receiving happening in every moment. When I feel off balance, overwhelmed or afraid, I turn to ritual — ritualizing my routine, my days and encoding my prayers in symbolic action.⠀⠀