Community Ceremony & Three-Vessel Donation Model
Our Foundation as Sacred Community
Ravens Gate operates as a religious organization providing sacred ceremonial space, preparation support, and integration guidance. We gather as a spiritual community to engage in prayer, healing, and collective transformation through our relationship with sacred plant teachers.
We do not provide, distribute, or administer sacramental plant medicines. Each participant brings their own sacrament, and we gather in ceremonial prayer to drink together—each person consuming their own medicine in community witness and support. This structure honors both the religious freedom to engage with plant sacraments and the legal framework that protects our right to gather in sacred ceremony.
Understanding Ceremony Participation
The Spectrum of Participation
Community healing happens in ceremony regardless of what any individual participant consumes. Some community members join us at museum doses that allow them to remain present and grounded. Others microdose, finding healing in subtle shifts and gentle opening. Some participate without consuming any medicine at all, choosing instead to hold space, witness, and support the healing journey of others.
Each form of participation is valid and valued. The person sitting in ceremony without medicine, holding steady presence while others journey deeply, offers a gift to the community. The person at a museum dose who can help someone to the bathroom or bring water is practicing sacred service. The person on a heroic dose doing deep transformational work is trusting the community to hold them in their vulnerability.
We are not a collection of individuals having separate experiences in the same room. We are a community engaged in collective healing, and every person's presence and choice contributes to the whole.
Dosage, Safety, and Sacred Responsibility
What each person brings to ceremony—whether that's a museum dose, a moderate amount, a larger dose, or no medicine at all—matters not because we judge the "right" way to participate, but because understanding the container we're creating together allows us to care for each other ethically and safely.
Before every ceremony, each participant completes an intake assessment. This is not bureaucracy; it's sacred responsibility. During intake, we discuss:
Your intention and where you are in your healing journey. What are you bringing to ceremony? What are you hoping to meet or explore? Where have you been in your process, and what feels alive for you right now?
Your planned dosage and any considerations around boosters. We talk openly about what you're planning to consume and why. If you're considering a booster dose during ceremony, we discuss this in advance—not as something to decide spontaneously in an altered state, but as a conscious choice made with clarity beforehand. We explore what taking additional medicine during ceremony would mean for you, for your body, for the facilitators supporting you, and for the community container.
Medical history, medications, and contraindications. Your physical safety is paramount. We review anything that might create risk—medications that interact with plant medicines, health conditions that require accommodation, past experiences that inform what kind of support you might need.
Your experience level and what kind of support feels right. Someone who has never worked with plant medicine before needs different preparation and accompaniment than someone who has sat in ceremony dozens of times. Someone dealing with acute trauma or in crisis needs to be held differently than someone doing maintenance work or exploring creative expansion. There is no shame in needing more support; there is only the reality that we must know what each person needs so we can provide it.
This intake process creates transparency and informed consent—not just between you and the facilitators, but within the community as a whole. When we know the general shape of what we're holding together (without violating anyone's privacy about personal details), we can show up appropriately. We can ensure there are enough guides present. We can make sure that someone planning a heroic dose has dedicated support available rather than being one of many people a single facilitator is tracking. We can recognize when the ceremony container needs to be smaller or when we need to bring in additional experienced holders.
Staffing and Ethical Care
The number of facilitators and guides present at any ceremony depends on what the community needs that night. A ceremony where most participants are at museum doses or working moderately requires different support than a ceremony where multiple people are journeying at high doses.
This is why the intake process and dosage clarity matter so much. When someone is moving into deep, vulnerable, ego-dissolving territory, they may need one-to-one attention for hours. They may need physical support, emotional holding, reassurance when they're convinced they're dying, grounding when they've forgotten they have a body. Providing that level of care while simultaneously attending to five other people is neither safe nor ethical.
We commit to staffing each ceremony appropriately. This might mean limiting the number of participants when we know several people are planning intensive work. It might mean inviting additional experienced guides to be present. It might mean having frank conversations during intake about whether this particular ceremony is the right container for what someone is hoping to do, or whether a different ceremony with different support structures would serve them better.
No one should ever be under-resourced during their most vulnerable moments. That is non-negotiable.
Making Ceremony Accessible: The Three-Vessel Donation Model
Our Commitment to Accessibility and Sustainability
Ravens Gate believes that access to sacred ceremony, plant medicine wisdom, and collective healing should not be limited to those with financial privilege. We also recognize that creating and maintaining safe ceremonial space has real costs—the physical space itself, ceremonial materials, food to nourish participants, facilitator time and training, insurance, and our reciprocity commitments to indigenous communities whose ancestral knowledge makes this work possible.
Rather than setting a single suggested donation that some cannot afford while others could easily contribute more, we invite participants to contribute based on what feels aligned with their current financial capacity. Access to ceremonial space and facilitation cannot be purchased. Instead, we invite donations that support the costs of creating and maintaining sacred space.
Understanding the Three Vessels
Think of these vessels as three tiers of contribution, each representing different financial circumstances and capacities. The key word is current—where you are right now in this moment, not where you were last year or hope to be next year.
Life circumstances change constantly. You might be in one vessel today and a different vessel six months from now. Someone might file taxes in a middle-income bracket but face unexpected medical expenses, family emergencies, or other financial pressures that shift what feels sustainable to contribute. We honor these fluctuations rather than locking people into categories based on annual income alone.
Vessel One: Accessibility Tier
Who this serves: Those experiencing financial constraint right now due to unemployment, underemployment, student status, disability, medical debt, supporting dependents, or other circumstances that make resources limited.
Guiding questions:
Are you currently struggling to meet basic needs (housing, food, healthcare)?
Would participating at a higher donation level create financial stress or hardship?
Are you living paycheck to paycheck with little financial cushion?
Do unexpected expenses regularly throw your budget into crisis?
The invitation: This vessel exists so that lack of money never prevents someone from accessing ceremony and healing they need. If this describes your situation, we want you here. There is no shame in using this tier—it exists specifically for you.
Suggested donation range: $[amount]
Vessel Two: Sustainability Tier
Who this serves: Those who have financial stability to cover necessities plus some discretionary spending, but for whom larger expenses require planning and consideration.
Guiding questions:
Can you comfortably meet basic needs without anxiety?
Do you have some savings or financial cushion for emergencies?
Can you occasionally afford non-essential purchases without financial stress?
Would donating this amount require budgeting but not create hardship?
The invitation: This middle vessel represents the true cost of providing ceremony—space preparation, ceremonial materials, facilitator and guide time, food for participants, insurance, and reciprocity contributions to indigenous communities and land stewardship initiatives. Contributing at this level helps ensure Ravens Gate can continue gathering in ceremony and serving the community sustainably.
Suggested donation range: $[amount]
Vessel Three: Abundance Tier
Who this serves: Those who have financial comfort, stability, and resources beyond basic needs—for whom contributing more creates no hardship and potentially brings joy through supporting accessibility for others.
Guiding questions:
Do you have financial security and accumulated savings?
Can you make larger purchases without significant planning or stress?
Do you have investments, property, or other wealth assets?
Would contributing more feel like generous sharing rather than sacrifice?
The invitation: Your abundance helps make ceremony accessible for those with fewer resources. Contributing at this tier doesn't mean you're being penalized for having resources—it means you're participating in creating a more equitable healing community where everyone can access sacred ceremony regardless of economic circumstances.
Suggested donation range: $[amount]
How This Works in Practice
No proof required. We operate on trust and honor system. You know your circumstances better than we ever could. We trust you to assess honestly which vessel serves both your needs and the community's sustainability.
Fluid movement between vessels. Your vessel choice can change between different ceremonies or at different times in your life. Maybe you participate at Vessel Two for several ceremonies but need Vessel One when unexpected expenses arise. Maybe your circumstances shift and you move from Vessel One to Vessel Three. This flexibility honors life's reality.
Confidentiality. Which vessel you choose is between you and Ravens Gate. We don't share this information or track patterns in ways that could identify individuals. Your privacy is protected.
No one is turned away for lack of funds. If even the Vessel One suggested donation creates financial hardship, please reach out. We work with each person to find a contribution level that honors both their capacity and the sustainability of our community practice. Sometimes that means contributing what you can financially. Sometimes it means offering your gifts in other ways—helping with setup, bringing food, offering skills the community needs.
The Spirit Behind This Model
This donation structure reflects Ravens Gate's core values of accessibility, community care, and dismantling systems where only the wealthy receive healing. It recognizes that:
Financial capacity is not moral worth. Using Vessel One doesn't make you less deserving of ceremony. Contributing at Vessel Three doesn't make you more holy. We all need healing and connection to the sacred regardless of our bank accounts.
Community sustainability requires mutual support. Those with more resources make accessibility possible for those with fewer resources. Those with fewer resources bring perspectives, experiences, and gifts that enrich the community beyond financial contribution. We are in this together.
Circumstances change. Today's stability might be tomorrow's crisis. Today's scarcity might shift to tomorrow's abundance. We design for flexibility because life is unpredictable and we trust that what goes around comes around within community care.
Transparency creates trust. We show our true costs rather than obscuring them. We explain what donations support. We invite you into understanding what makes this ceremonial work sustainable so that you can make informed choices about your contribution.
What Your Donations Support
Every donation to Ravens Gate, regardless of vessel, goes directly toward:
Ceremonial space and materials - Rent or maintenance of the physical space where we gather, ceremonial tools and supplies, cleaning and preparation, creating beauty and safety in the container.
Nourishment for participants - Food before and after ceremony, teas and broths during ceremony, breakfast the morning after. Feeding people is sacred work.
Facilitator and guide time - Preparation work before ceremony, holding space during ceremony (often through the entire night), integration support after ceremony, intake assessments, ongoing training and skill development.
Insurance and legal protections - Ensuring Ravens Gate can continue operating safely within legal frameworks that protect our religious freedom.
Reciprocity initiatives - 15% of all ceremony donations go directly to reciprocity work, including financial support to indigenous communities whose ancestral relationships with plant medicines make our work possible, contributions to land stewardship and environmental restoration, and supporting indigenous-led education and cultural preservation. This is not an optional addition when we have "extra" funds—it's built into our operational structure as a non-negotiable commitment.
We are accountable to transparency. Our website includes a dedicated page showing where reciprocity funds are directed and a regularly updated page documenting recent donations. You can see exactly which communities and initiatives your contribution supports. If you ever want to understand more about our reciprocity commitments or where donations go, we're happy to discuss this directly.
Making Your Choice
When you register for Ravens Gate ceremony, you'll indicate which vessel you're selecting during the intake process. No explanation or justification needed—just choose the tier that aligns with your current financial reality.
If you have questions about the three-vessel model or need support determining which tier fits your situation, please reach out. We're here to make this process as clear and shame-free as possible.
Our Gratitude
To those contributing at Vessel Three: Your generosity creates possibility for others to access ceremony they might not otherwise afford. You're directly participating in breaking down economic barriers to sacred healing work.
To those participating through Vessel One: Your presence enriches our community. The perspectives, experiences, and wisdom you bring have value beyond money. We're honored to sit in ceremony with you and support your healing journey.
To those sustaining the work through Vessel Two: You're helping ensure Ravens Gate can continue gathering in ceremony, offering this work at accessible donation levels while maintaining quality, safety, and sustainability.
Each vessel is essential. Each contribution—whether financial or otherwise—matters. Together we're creating healing community that honors everyone's dignity and worth regardless of economic circumstances.
For questions about ceremony participation, intake assessments, or the donation model, please contact Ravens Gate directly. We're here to support your journey toward ceremony in whatever way serves you best.