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 challenging transitions in isolation, and the dominant cultural narrative is that we should "move on" or "get back to normal".

 

In studying myth, however, we come to understand that the purpose of challenging life transformations is not caught in the binary of positive and negative. It is a cycle of transformation that, when integrated, offers us strength, empowers our innate gifts and allows for our growth into a new phase of life.  Some of these paths are shared, most are solitary, all are a potent part of our initiatory movement into our purpose in life.

​

The Dark Goddess project is a year long journey for integrating death transitions.  Visioned as a thirteen moon cycle it will be delivered in formats meant to be engaged with offline, with the intention of building webs of support and sustained community with the Earth and each other.

​

This is a patron only project, with patrons at every level offered opportunities to engage depending on their readiness and availability.

​

Seasonal Solar and Lunar Rhythms + Ancestral Ceremony

All patrons will have access to solar-lunar holy day celebrations, folklore, ceremony and meditations for deepening ancestral relationships at the quarter and cross quarter days of the year, along with opportunities for connection with ancestral foods, arts, crafts and skills. 

 

Everyone is invited to spend a year in dedicated rhythm with these sacred times.

​

Coven Circles and Self-Directed Travel

Coven Invisible patrons will be able to participate in the Dark Goddess Project Online and Asynchronously, receiving downloads of all Dark Goddess curriculum, a monthly guide disseminated in quarters with all of the solar-lunar practices plus others for deepening their own intentional rite of passage process.  The Coven will meet at the cross quarter days through the year (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, Samhain) to connect and share the path. 

 

The Coven Online may be joined at any time and explored at an individual pace. Even as the work is independent we weave still together. 

 

The Coven work will conclude with an online rite of passage ceremony, honoring the completion of the Dark Goddess year and the integration of their rites of passage in celebration. 

​

The Dark Goddess Community Cohort

Dark Goddess Community Cohort Pilot is a collective of folks wishing to work through the intensive, collaborative Dark Goddess process in supported community.  Interested students should have independent motivation, experience with community creation, be willing to access mental and physical supports for their process in their local communities, and an interest in developing or deepening spiritual sovereignty.  

​

This project is ideal if you have been through a difficult life transition--such as illness, divorce, the death of a loved one, job loss--or are moving/have moved through menopause/into elderhood.  This may be ongoing, some rites do not end, there is no expectation to get beyond or through in this work, rather to make space for the integration and empowerment such life changes can provide.  You may be at any phase in your transition to participate in the Dark Goddess Project.

​

Our first quarter began at Yule, the Solstice, in 2021.

​

Beginning at Yule, the Dark Goddess Community Cohort has received quarterly packages in the mail with packets of guided curriculum for each moon, interactive workbook pages, tools, plant allies, art and craft inspiration and suggested ceremonial practices.

​

Participants reply with monthly written letters as a record of their process, detailing their practices, accomplishments and challenges (adaptions are available for folks who need another mode of recording).  They will receive monthly responses, in audio letter form, with witness, connectivity and potential readings or resource suggestions.  This model invites a collaborative relationship, but also encourages spiritual sovereignty and independence of process.

​

The Dark Goddess Community Cohort will meet quarterly online during the course of the year and with have the option to gather live in a in a concluding ceremony at Yule of 2022.  The concluding ceremony, designed by the community with personal symbols and elements meaningful to all, marks the end of the rite of passage process.  Cohort members are welcomed with their new status and name into a new phase of life, and their letters are returned to them--a cumulative body of written work from an entire year of practice.

​

The Dark Goddess Community Cohort also functions as a mentor training process, and if the program is successful, all participants will be invited back as mentors to new cohort members in the following year, or to create Dark Goddess rites of passage programs in their local communities.

​

The Dark Goddess Coven Online is an asynchronous option for folks who are unable to sustain linear, consistent work but who would like to explore the Dark Goddess process through curriculum and community. We will meet quarterly online at the cross-quarter days, to share in ceremony and explore our rite of passage process together. As such the Coven Online asynchronous option may be joined at any time, and all Coven Invisible members are invited to enroll and participate. We will conclude with a collective rite of passage ceremony at Imbolc in 2023. All course materials will be accessible for a full calendar year after the class concludes.

​

One of the intentions in this process is to spend as much time offline as possible, interacting with the tangible, the real, the community and restoring both service-based care and interpersonal relationships in our local areas.  All participants will be invited into ancestral alignment through a series of challenges that connect us more with the real in our local communities.

​

The hope is to build circles upon circles of this Dark Goddess work, helping others connect and collaborate as they navigate life's challenging initiations together.

 

This project is nonlinear and may be joined at any time through the year of ceremony, or the online only Coven Invisible Online option.  To join, become a patron, or email laravesta@gmail.com for more information.

​