Nature-based rites of passage for young people in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California
When a culture stops providing conscious passage, young people initiate themselves through substances, screens, and risk. Wild Souls Pathways exists to restore what has been lost: a circle of adults who have done their own interior work, standing alongside young people at the most important crossing of their lives.
A year-long initiation program for young men ages 12–14. A council of six mentors and a circle of ten brothers moving through wild places, honest conversation, and real challenge together. Currently in its first year of delivery.
Learn more about Fire Keepers →
A year-long initiatory journey for young women ages 11–14. Nature-rooted, community-held, and guided by a circle of Village Aunties through the four seasons and the mysteries of the feminine threshold. Now in its third year.
Learn more about 13 Moons →There are no activity schedules, no counselors, and no merit badges. There is a council of adults who have agreed to walk alongside your child through one of the most important crossings of their life.
There are no lesson plans and no assessments. There is land, fire, circle, and real conversation. The wilderness is the classroom, and what is learned there cannot be replicated.
The mentors, the land, and the years of program development are offered without compensation. This is a calling, not a product. Your child is invited into a community, not enrolled in a program.
Moonrising Wild · Boulder Creek · Santa Cruz Mountains
Nature as the primary teacher and container. Wild places, streams, fire, and soil as the curriculum no classroom can replicate.
Initiated adults who have done their own interior work, standing alongside young people and modeling presence and vulnerability.
Multi-year developmental programming following the natural rhythm of initiation: severance, threshold, and incorporation.
The mentors, land, and program development are offered freely. What families contribute covers the real costs: insurance, food, materials, and transportation. No family is ever turned away for inability to give.
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