One of a kind rituals for important rites of passage

I have performed rites and rituals of all kinds for over a decade, and in fact I am a trained celebrant. I didn’t take the training because I wanted to charge money for my services; I am simply fascinated by all things celebratory, ritualistic, and processional, and I wanted to do a deep dive into their history, their structure, and their uses. In my capacity as a celebrant I am multifaceted: listener, researcher, scribe, empath, guide, storyteller, and officiant. My ability as a socially engaged artist to craft an immersive and transformative experience and lead people through it and out the other side is greatly enhanced by my knowledge of the elements of ritual, and celebrancy has become another medium at my disposal.

I spent the months leading up to this ceremony in deep communication with the bride and groom, who lived in Germany but were planning for a Portland wedding. Distance required diligence and a commitment on all of our parts that we would put in the work via online collaboration tools. As with any ceremony, I spent a great deal of time getting to know the couple’s backstories, as well as drawing out the special little details that would help make their vows meaningful. Besides the distance between myself and the couple, I was also conscious that I had to craft a story that would bring all of the guests along with John and Saki as they met, dated, and fell in love. Most of Saki’s family lives afar - some reside in Japan - and the wedding would be the first time they got to meet John. It was important for them to get to know John during the ceremony, so by the time the couple said their vows, they would be just as happy for their joining as someone who had known the couple since the beginning. The result is in the video, and from all who attended, it was considered a beautiful ceremony and tribute to Saki and John.

In archetypal language, the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone personify the feminine. We think of Crone as the stage in a woman's life when she enters menopause, usually around age 50. However, not all women enter menopause at that age, or indeed at all. For those women, they generally enter the Crone age sometime between the ages of 50 and 60, and can either self-determine their readiness, or be deemed ready by other crones in their community.

A croning ceremony empowers a woman by affirming her attainment of wisdom and initiating her into the third stage of her life. A croning ceremony gives the woman’s community the opportunity to celebrate her new status, her beauty, her contributions, her leadership, her wisdom, and her on-going transformation. A croning ceremony challenges oppressive patriarchal views of older women as used up, lacking value, unattractive, and burdensome. Women are beautiful in all of their myriad permutations, and deserve a ritual for passing through into their wise years.

Due to the nature of the situation that necessitated this ritual, there are no photos from that day and no names will be used in this description.

This ritual was created for a person who, for medical reasons, had to have a full hysterectomy while they were still in their childbearing years. Those who are born with the anatomy to grow children in the womb should be given the opportunity to grieve the loss of this ability, even if utilizing the womb was never a part of their life plan. Not only is the womb a gestational organ; for some people, losing their monthly period signifies a disconnection with a sacred key to the earth, the moon, and themselves, and this too can cause grief. For this reason, some of this particular loss ceremony bore similarities to the croning ceremony mentioned previously.

The removal of any body part can be extremely traumatic, and people should be given the space to process that trauma in a way that makes sense to them, which for some people takes the form of a ritual.

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Celebrants are non-traditional and non-denominational. While priests and registrars have to follow specific religious and legal structures, celebrants can deviate when it comes to running the ceremony from start to finish, meaning you have the final say over what you want to include and exclude in the ceremony.

Celebrants are all about you. Using a celebrant also means that you have someone to be by your side for as much of the lead-up to the event as you need. For your wedding ceremony means that if you want, they can stay by your side from the moment the engagement is announced, to after the reception before you go off to your honeymoon. Wedding celebrants have been known to assist even wedding planning. And using a celebrant for a funeral means that if you want, they will help you find a venue, write the obituary, and make many other decisions from immediately after death to after the funeral. Funeral celebrants have been known to travel to remote places for death anniversaries or releasing of ashes.

Celebrants are versatile. Do you want to hold a Celebration of Life at the top of a chair lift? Are you leaving your deadname behind and reveling in a whole new you? Do you want a fantasy-themed wedding with costumes? Other officials are more likely to say no to an outside-the-box concept, remote location, or unique wardrobe; however, celebrants make sure the day is exactly as you wish. As trained storytellers, a celebrant leaves their own agendas at the door and knows just how to draw you out to ensure that your event shines in a way that is unique to you.

If you’re planning a ritual and wondering if I might be the missing piece, I’d love to hear from you. Just click on contact and send me a message.