For girls 11 to 14 · water and moon
13 Moons
Weekend immersions and day gatherings through thirteen moons, guided by a circle of women led by Jodi Jackson. Now in its third year.
- Before anything else, we give thanks.
- To the waters: the creeks running down out of the mountains, and the summer fog the redwoods drink.
- To the trees, the oldest members of this village.
- To the animals: raven, deer, the newts that cross the road after the first rain.
- To the sky, where the moon keeps count of the girls’ year and the stars keep watch over the boys’ fire.
- And then, to one another.
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Wild Souls Pathways
A village in the Santa Cruz Mountains, remembering how to raise its young in kinship with the living world.
The village
Who the village is
Wild Souls Pathways is a village of young people, parents, mentors, elders and land. It is a California nonprofit, led by its president Jodi Jackson, and it exists so that no child crosses into adolescence alone.
Girls and boys between 11 and 14, at the age when the bond with the living world is most often lost.
They walk a parallel path of their own, opening and closing the year beside their child.
Women and men who go first, and show the young people what honesty looks like before they ask for it.
Grandmothers and grandfathers who have lived enough to receive whatever the young ones bring without flinching.
Redwood forest, gardens, creeks and ridgelines. The first teacher, and a member of the village in its own right.
Donors and partners whose gifts fund every path, so any family who is called can walk it.
The paths
Two fires at the center
The village gathers around two fires. Each one is a yearlong path for young people crossing into adolescence, funded by donations from the village.
For boys 11 to 14 · fire, redwood and night sky
Fire Keepers
Four weekends on the land and a day gathering in most months between them, with men who sit beside the boys at the fire. The first circle began in April 2026.
More fires will be lit as the village grows: circles for parents, councils of elders, and the later years of the journey.
What we are answering
Why a village
Somewhere around twelve, many children lose their bond with the living world.
It happens at the age they need it, and nothing in the wider culture marks the threshold or walks them through it. Most of the adults around them were never walked through it either.
Wild Souls Pathways restores that walk. A young person walks a full year of weekends and days on the land with mentors who know them by name, and comes home to a family and a village ready to see who they have become.
Our measure is simple enough to say at the fire: do no harm, and act for the greatest good of all involved.
The wheel of the year
The year turns, and we turn with it
- Autumn
The circle is called in. Families open the year beside their young people.
- Winter
The circle deepens. Each young person returns, alone, to a place on the land they chose early in the year.
- Spring
A season for courage, when the circle asks the most of each young person.
- Summer
The return. Families and the village welcome each young person home.
The families
Families walk alongside
A young person here is never sent off to be changed and handed back.
Parents open the year with their child at a family gathering, hear from the mentors through the seasons, and stand in the circle at the end to welcome their child home.
What families can expectWalk with us
Keep the fires lit
Gifts from friends of the village cover the food, gear and insurance a year on the land needs, and gifts are tax deductible as the law allows.