In Coming of Age: Dos & Don'ts I recounted the risky ways I navigated my teenaged rites of passage, and shared a friend's attempt to provide better support for her daughter and another adolescent. This week my sister Celebrant Lara Vesta tells the story of a rites of passage re-do in which a colleague renamed herself and inspired other rebirths.
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In 2010, my dear friend, Moon Divas partner and co-conspirator Deva Munay, decided that she needed a rite of passage ceremony. We had spoken often about the absence of any rite of passage acknowledgement in our own adolescence, and how we leave our children to forage their way to adulthood alone. For women, the other rite of passage ceremony is often marriage, something I did at 22, a decision that came about in part due to an absence of acknowledgement of my own power as an adult and differentiation from my family.
Deva wanted to claim her missing rite of passage. She decided to create her own.
Deva was 35, leaving for a year long sojourn in Peru, after which she planned to move from Boulder, Colorado to California. She had recently decided to change her name and was receiving huge resistance from her family about it. She wanted to claim her life for herself, not as defined by her family of origin or social expectations. For the ceremony, she invited a vast circle of friends and supporters, the officiant being one of her mentors for years. I flew out from Oregon and surprised her. The ceremony was created in the hours before its commencement, organic and living.
Though I didn't know it at the time, that experience was a dramatic initiation for us both. I first heard the word Celebrant in the hours after the ceremony, when I shared with a woman present that I felt drawn to rite of passage work. In the winter of 2010, while Deva was deep in the Peruvian Andes, I began writing the Moon Divas Guidebook, a synthesis of our two years of work together teaching Moon Divas workshops.
Our lives are transformed by intention, and that is the gift of ceremony.
* * *
In 2010, my dear friend, Moon Divas partner and co-conspirator Deva Munay, decided that she needed a rite of passage ceremony. We had spoken often about the absence of any rite of passage acknowledgement in our own adolescence, and how we leave our children to forage their way to adulthood alone. For women, the other rite of passage ceremony is often marriage, something I did at 22, a decision that came about in part due to an absence of acknowledgement of my own power as an adult and differentiation from my family.
Deva wanted to claim her missing rite of passage. She decided to create her own.
Deva was 35, leaving for a year long sojourn in Peru, after which she planned to move from Boulder, Colorado to California. She had recently decided to change her name and was receiving huge resistance from her family about it. She wanted to claim her life for herself, not as defined by her family of origin or social expectations. For the ceremony, she invited a vast circle of friends and supporters, the officiant being one of her mentors for years. I flew out from Oregon and surprised her. The ceremony was created in the hours before its commencement, organic and living.
Though I didn't know it at the time, that experience was a dramatic initiation for us both. I first heard the word Celebrant in the hours after the ceremony, when I shared with a woman present that I felt drawn to rite of passage work. In the winter of 2010, while Deva was deep in the Peruvian Andes, I began writing the Moon Divas Guidebook, a synthesis of our two years of work together teaching Moon Divas workshops.
Our lives are transformed by intention, and that is the gift of ceremony.
* * *
Special thanks to Deva Munay for permission to share her story, and to Lara Vesta for telling it so beautifully.
Check out Lara's free ebook version of the Moon Divas Guidebook. Download a page and add your own colorful touches. If you email Lara with your results she'll send you another free ebook, her Goddess Coloring Book and Self-Care Planner.
Special thanks to Deva Munay for permission to share her story, and to Lara Vesta for telling it so beautifully.
Check out Lara's free ebook version of the Moon Divas Guidebook. Download a page and add your own colorful touches. If you email Lara with your results she'll send you another free ebook, her Goddess Coloring Book and Self-Care Planner.
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