For girls 11 to 14
13 Moons
A year of thirteen moons, guided by a circle of women.
What 13 Moons is
13 Moons is a yearlong rite of passage for girls aged 11 to 14, offered by Wild Souls Pathways in the Santa Cruz Mountains and funded by donations from the village. The girls gather on the land through all four seasons, from autumn to summer, in weekend immersions and day gatherings, guided by a circle of women led by Jodi Jackson. The year follows the moon: thirteen cycles from the first circle to the welcome home. 13 Moons is now in its third year.
The first teacher here
Water
A creek never argues with the stone in its way. It goes around, under, over, and keeps its own voice the whole way down.
That is the first thing 13 Moons asks a girl to notice, and the last thing she takes home.
Who walks beside her
A circle of women
The girls are guided by women who crossed this threshold themselves and still sit in circle together. A girl in 13 Moons is listened to all year by women who come to know her well.
Every woman who mentors in 13 Moons has completed a California Department of Justice Live Scan background check.
The turning of the year
Four inner seasons
The year in 13 Moons follows the four seasons of a girl’s own cycle, and like every Wild Souls year it begins in autumn. Women have long named the phases of the menstrual cycle as inner seasons, and the circle teaches them plainly and with care, so a girl can come to know her body the way she comes to know the land. Each girl is met wherever she is in her own timing, whether her cycle has begun or not.
- The days before her period
Inner autumn
Clarity. Many women find these days good for sorting what to keep and what to let go.
- During her period
Inner winter
A time to rest, turn inward and listen. The circle teaches that slowing down is its own kind of wisdom, and that nothing is wrong with a girl who needs it.
- After her period
Inner spring
Energy returns, and with it the nerve to try something new.
- The middle of the cycle
Inner summer
Fullness and voice. A season for speaking up and being seen.
On the land
A year among stones, trees and sisters
What she brings home
Sisters who saw her cross
A girl who walks the thirteen moons knows the land she lives on, and the seasons of her own body.
She has sat alone in the forest with a question and come back with something of her own. She has a circle of sisters who saw her cross, and women she can call on long after the year ends.
For families
Parents open the year alongside their daughters and close it in the welcoming circle, and in between the women write to each family through the year. Donations from the village fund the path.
How a girl joins
The next circle begins in autumn 2027
Most families come to us through someone who knows them. If your daughter is ready, write and tell us her first name, her age and what draws you here. Someone from the circle will write back.