Gatherings & Ceremonies
Throughout time and across cultures around the world, ceremony has been humanity's way of marking sacred moments, honoring transitions, and connecting with the divine. At Ravens Gate, we continue this ancient practice of meaning-making, drawing inspiration from the stars, the natural passages of the sun, and the turning wheel of time. Our ceremonies root us in the rhythms that have guided our ancestors and continue to guide us today—cycles that connect us to something far greater than ourselves.
These gatherings and ceremonies do not include the use of plant medicines. They are opportunities to connect with community, honor sacred cycles, and mark life's passages through ritual, celebration, and shared presence. Some who participate in these gatherings also work with plant medicine in ceremony, while others find their practice entirely through these non-medicine rituals. All paths are honored here.
Moon Circles
We look to the stars and planetary energies as influential forces within the sacred mystery. We gather in sacred circle to honor the moon's phases and the micro-cycles we all experience.
The new moon marks the beginning of each cycle—a time of potential, initiation, and intention setting. What does each lunar cycle call us toward? What are we being beckoned to grow through and move toward? We've noticed that the more we align our lives with these energetic themes, the more life releases its tensions into divine timing.
As we move through the moon cycle and arrive at the full moon, we gather in celebration of the work we've done—honoring accomplishments however great or small. All moon gatherings are potluck—a chance to build community and share the experience together.
We hold sacred rituals with nature's elements. Sometimes we bury, sometimes we burn. We use water to cleanse and release, wind to free stagnant energies. The more the community comes together, the more we share our growing knowledge of these energies and participate in collective growth, knowledge, and healing.
Seasonal Celebrations
With the passing of months come the passing of seasons, which we celebrate at the equinoxes and solstices. We also honor holidays, goddess rituals, blessings, and tarot major arcana ceremonial pilgrimages—allowing the wisdom of the tarot to inform what we are cultivating in our lives and where we land on the mystic cycle of the hero's journey.
These seasonal gatherings mark the great turnings of the year—the return of light at winter solstice, the balance of spring equinox, the fullness of summer solstice, the harvest of autumn equinox. In rhythm with these natural cycles, we root ourselves in gratitude, renewal, and harmony with the Earth that sustains us.
Women's Circles
We gather in women's circles to explore the sacred mysteries of the feminine—mythology, goddess traditions, blood wisdom, and the passages unique to women's lives. These circles create space for sharing stories, honoring our bodies' wisdom, and reclaiming narratives about what it means to be woman in all her forms.
Through ritual, storytelling, and witnessing, we tend to the feminine divine within and among us. These gatherings welcome all who identify with women's experience and seek community in exploring these ancient and ever-emerging mysteries.
Meditation & Contemplative Practice
We offer opportunities for stillness and contemplative practice—sitting meditation, spiral walks, breath work, and other practices that cultivate presence and inner awareness. These gatherings provide structure and community support for those developing or deepening their meditation practice.
In silence and in shared presence, we learn to meet ourselves and each other with gentleness and attention. We discover that transformation happens not only in peak experiences but in the patient, ongoing practice of showing up to what is.
Nature Immersion
We gather for experiences that deepen our relationship with the natural world—guided walks, forest bathing, canoeing under the full moon, tending the land, and other practices that remember us back into our place within the web of life.
These experiences are not about conquering or consuming nature, but about listening, learning, and restoring reciprocal relationship with the Earth that holds us. We are visitors in ecosystems older and wiser than we are, and we practice moving through them with reverence and care.
Honoring Lineage
We honor that many of us come from diverse backgrounds. Some carry Welsh and Sami lineage, others Italian, Middle Eastern, African, Indigenous American, Asian, and countless other ancestral threads. You may come from traditions with rich ceremonial practices, or from lineages where connection to ancestral wisdom has been severed through colonization, forced migration, or cultural erasure.
If there is a way you envision your heritage being celebrated, we invite you to create and share your lineage with our community. As we move through life, the web grows closer, and here at Ravens Gate we are all about connection—weaving together a fabric for the health of future generations.
We also acknowledge that some of us are still discovering or reconnecting with our ancestral roots. This too is sacred work, and you are welcome to explore your lineage within our community's support.
Personal Passages
At the center of it all is each of us—the nucleus of our own universe. We acknowledge that even though we come together and celebrate in community, each of us is in our own evolution and emergence. With growth come passages of time on the great wheel of life. We mark these changes in authentic, curated ceremony—stepping into the next chapter with sacred honor and witnessing.
These personal passage ceremonies recognize the thresholds we cross throughout our lives:
**Mother passages** - Honoring the journey into motherhood, whether through birth, adoption, fostering, or the many forms maternal love takes. We also hold space for the mother wound, for complicated relationships with motherhood, for choosing not to mother, and for the loss that sometimes accompanies this path.
**Blood mysteries** - First menstruation, menopause, hysterectomy, and all the passages of the body that carry spiritual and emotional significance. We create ceremony that honors these transitions with reverence rather than shame or silence.
**Unions** - Commitment ceremonies, handfastings, marriages, and the many forms of sacred partnership. We celebrate love in all its expressions and hold space for the vows people make to each other and to themselves.
**Preparation for death** - As we or our loved ones approach life's final threshold, we create ceremony that honors this sacred passage with presence, love, and ritual that brings meaning to what our culture often hides or denies.
**Other life transitions** - Coming of age, career changes, relocations, divorce or separation, recovery milestones, gender transitions, or any significant crossing that calls for ritual marking and community witness.
These ceremonies are co-created with participants—honoring your unique situation, values, and vision for how you want this passage held. We provide the container, the facilitation, and the community witness. You bring your truth, your intention, and your courage to cross the threshold.
Join Us
Please join us at any of our rituals and seasonal blessings, or contact us to create your own celebration. Ravens Gate is a ceremonial community, and ceremony takes many forms. Whether you come for moon circles, seasonal gatherings, personal passage rites, women's work, meditation practice, nature immersion, or any combination of these offerings, you are welcome here.
Not every gathering will call to every person, and that's exactly as it should be. Follow what feels alive for you. Trust what your body and spirit are drawn toward. Come when it serves you, rest when you need to, and know that the community continues to hold space whether you're present or not.
This is what it means to be part of a ceremonial community—we show up for the rituals that nourish us, we offer our presence when we can, and we trust that the collective field holds us all.