We honor all life and land as one: the people, the waters, the plants, the fire, the sky
There is a moment when a child stands at a threshold.
We believe no young person should cross it alone.
Before anything begins
Before any circle opens, before any human business is spoken, we turn our attention to the living world that holds us. The people. The waters. The animals. The plants. The fire. The sky. All are present, and all are named.
This is not a warm up. It is the foundation. It comes to us through the spirit of the Thanksgiving Address carried by Jake Swamp of the Haudenosaunee, one of the lineages that guides our work.
Everything on this page, and everything in our programs, grows from that ground.
Private wild lands, Santa Cruz Mountains
Our gatherings are held on private wild lands throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains: redwood forest, oak woodland, meadow and creek, each opened to us by families within our community. A fire circle in a clearing, like this one, is where every gathering begins and ends. The land is not a backdrop for our programs. It is the container, the curriculum, and the elder that never speaks in words.
We gather on the unceded lands of the Awaswas speaking Ohlone people, and we honor the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band who carry their lineage today.
The Fire Keepers brotherhood vow, spoken at every gathering
I see you.
I am with you.
What we do here matters.
Spoken by the brotherhood, in circle, around fire, all year long.
One trailhead, two paths
Each cohort walks the year together and becomes something greater than a group: a brotherhood, a sisterhood, formed in circle and carried for life.
For boys, ages 12 to 14
A year long journey of awakening. Ten boys, six mentors, an elder behind the council. Four weekend immersions on the land and monthly circles between them. Each boy carries a role in the brotherhood, tends a growing altar, and is met by men who model presence before asking it of him.
Bird language, plant knowledge, integrity. No boy is rescued from difficulty. No boy faces it alone.
The first cohort is on the land now.
For girls, ages 11 to 14
A year long honoring of the feminine threshold crossing, led by Jodi Jackson. Four weekend immersions on the land with monthly day circles between them, moving with the seasons and the elements, held by a multi generational circle of women. Bird language, plant knowledge, grief and gratitude, sisterhood as practice.
Blood, moon, and body are not spoken of in whispers here. A girl learns her cycles as sacred, her power as birthright. Every circle remembers this.
Now in its third year.
The circles
A sisterhood is formed on the trail, in the trees, among the stones: a year of walking together that lasts a lifetime.
The mentor and the circle
Every young person is held by two great relationships: the vertical one, with parents and ancestors, and the horizontal one, with friends and peers. Initiation traditions across every culture have known a third. The trusted adult who is not the parent. The aunt or uncle figure. The mentor.
A mentor can say what a parent cannot, not because the parent is wrong or insufficient, but because a young person needs to receive certain truths from someone who does not carry the weight of parental love. A mentor witnesses difficulty without the instinct to resolve it, speaks to who a young person is becoming rather than who they have been, and can name what is growing in them before they can see it themselves.
But the mentors are not the program. The brotherhood is the program. The sisterhood is the program. The mentors are the ground it grows in.
A brotherhood or a sisterhood cannot be built. It can only be allowed to grow. What makes it grow is safety: not the comfort of having nothing hard asked of you, but the deeper safety of knowing the adults holding the circle are not performing, not managing, not trying to produce a result. The mentors hold that sacred, safe space, emotional and physical, and inside it something in each young person relaxes and reaches toward the others. The circle forms from the inside out.
Ten boys who spend a year becoming a brotherhood, ten girls who spend a year becoming a sisterhood, carry that circle for the rest of their lives. Long after the final ceremony, they will know there are people who saw them cross, who crossed beside them, who hold their story.
That is what we mean when we say no young person should cross the threshold alone.
The shape of the year, in both programs
Fire Keepers and 13 Moons each move through the same rhythm: four weekend immersions on the land, with day long circles in the months between, following the turn of the seasons.
Families gather. Names are spoken. The circle forms, and each young person brings something of their own land to the altar that will grow all year.
Skills on the land. Sit spots, tracking, bird language, fire. Trust builds the container that autumn will test.
Real threshold work. Darkness, challenge, and an ask that cannot be predicted or controlled. Difficulty is not a problem to manage here. It is the curriculum.
The story is told back. What was found in the dark is carried home to family and community, witnessed and honored in a final ceremony.
Begin the conversation
Entry into our programs is by invitation and referral, and it starts with a simple conversation. Tell us a little about your family. A mentor will write back to you personally.
Tending the fire
Wild Souls Pathways is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Every gift keeps places open for young people whose families could not otherwise afford them. Donations are tax deductible.
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