BIPOC Scholarships Available

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Submit Interest Form for 2025-2026

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BIPOC Scholarships Available ~ Submit Interest Form for 2025-2026 ~

A Year In Ceremony
Soul-Deep Transformation & Apprenticeship for Sacred Space Holders

A 10 month journey within a deep, immersive learning cohort for those called to ritually tend to life’s sacred thresholds, to the wholeness of their communities, and to the balance between the human and more-than-human-world

“There is a deep longing among people in the West to connect with something bigger — with community and spirit. People know there is something missing in their lives, and believe that the rituals and ancient ways of the village offer some answers.”

Sobonfu Somé

A Year in Ceremony is for those who acutely sense the lack of soul within our culture and who long to recover a more beautiful way of being human together.

Intuitively, you know that reclaiming a sensual life of deep ritual is key to nourishing your soul and serving the regeneration of culture. 

Perhaps you also feel called to deepen your role of sacred space holder, ritualist, sacred activist, healer, artist, or priestess and long for a community to accompany you as you embody your calling in ever fuller ways and more aligned ways. Additionally, given the complex legacies of colonization and the lack of resonant modeling, you may feel a bit awkward and even weary as you seek to embody this role with authenticity and integrity.

If you feel this calling and long for your gifts to grow and mature in ways that are deeply-rooted and profoundly potent, A Year in Ceremony offers you a lovingly-held apprenticeship and inspirited practice ground.

Pillars of Practice >>

1. Intuitive Ritual Craft

What are our rituals to reconnect with Earth, soul, ancestors, and the vast forces of this multi-dimensional universe that support us to grieve, to become more whole, and to co-create a more just and beautiful world?

This question inspires our journey into the art of intuitive ritual craft. Together, we:

  • Practice the art of sacred grief ritual, praise ritual, and self-designed ceremony to honor life's sacred thresholds

  • Employ deep imagination as you dialogue with the wild world and ancestral field to catch and co-create original rituals in service to your community

  • Work with the sacred arts (song, dance, rhythm, art, and beauty-making) to open portals of ecstatic communion with Earth, Soul, and Cosmos

  • Learn and practice the 13 Ingredients of Ceremonial Alchemy and 4 Steps of Intuitive Ritual Craft

  • Weave resonant cosmologies from direct encounters with Mystery and lineage streams

2. Devotion to the Sacred Web of Life

“A success metric (of ritual) is if the fibers of the universe hum along.”
—Josh Schrei

As strands in the web of life, we are re-membering a devotional way of being that brings us into resonance with our beloved ancestors, wild ken, and all that which we deem as sacred. To this end, we:

  • Honor our ancestors and reckon with the complex legacies of which we are all a part

  • Spend solitary time in wild nature to awaken our true nature and intuitive minds

  • Learn as a community the sacred and transformative dance of pursuing ever-greater partnership with Mystery

  • Practice an animist cosmology in which all beings have personhood and agency

  • Discover and bring forth the gifts of our souls in service to Life

  • Build Earth altars to honor our wild kin

3. The Art & Soul Community

“Building community is to the collective as spiritual practice is to the individual.” —Grace Lee Boggs

Within an over-culture steeped in the story of separation, we practice radical belonging through intentional community building. During our journey together, we will practice the art of community as we:

  • Show-up in our full giftedness and humility to create ritual alchemy

  • Embrace conflict and difference as the ground of growth

  • Grow in awareness of the causes of separation including the internalized scripts of oppression and/or supremacy that live within

  • Embody village mind as we practice attuning to collective wellbeing and emergence

  • Practice soul-centric leadership in which spiritual maturity is fostered

4. Liberatory Praxis

“Ritual, that is life affirming, dismantles systems of harm and supremacy.”
—Tamira Cousett

As part of our journey of co-learning, we will pursue a counter-oppressive ritual practice aimed at dismantling systems of supremacy and harm. To this end, we:

  • Practice oppression awareness, including challenging white supremacy culture, sexism, heterosexism, and gender normativity.  

  • Engage in active, ongoing dialogue as a community and with mentors in effort to forge a decolonized ritual practice. 

  • Engage in racial caucusing when supportive to challenging oppression and avoiding harm.  

  • Honor and uplift the gift of difference in race, class, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities and life experience.  

  • Engage in internal work as individuals and structural work as an organization in effort to be a welcoming space to individuals of diverse identities.

5. Song As Medicine

“We are all Singers — each  in our own way, naturally seeking ways to join the Great Sound of Creation — the eternal, ecstatic, erotic Song Poem Prayer Dance, that moves through each of us and rides back into the world with every breath that we take.” —Michael Meade

Singing together is our birthright – it softens and opens our hearts, and weaves us together in beauty and power. Song is also a core ingredient of ritual; it churns our souls and opens us into communion with one another and the greater whole. Whether you love to sing or find it a bit uncomfortable, we welcome your participation as we:

  • Embrace our voices just as they are, heal past vocal wounding and reclaim the birthright of our vocal power  

  • Practice singing as food for the soul and offering to our earth and more than human world

  • Explore singing as a pathway to build energy and facilitate healing in ritual space

  • Grow an experiential library of songs that we know in our bones, to meet each moment – grief, praise, gratitude, resilience, seasons, etc.

6. Embodied & Emergent Sacred Space Holding

“Enlightenment needs embodiment. Wide-open insight needs deep-rooted instinct. As above, so below.” ―Kris Franken

How do we unlearn the domination of mind and invite in the wisdom of heart and body as we create sacred, soul-nourishing spaces? We will explore this question as we:  

  • Create a securely attached field between participants and facilitators through the practice of vulnerability, mutual care, compassion, and self-love

  • Ground, center, and attune in silence together

  • Practice sacred pause when our bodies are indicating something that doesn't have words yet

  • Listen for the movements of Spirit from within our bodies as well as in the group field

  • Practice transparent facilitation and learn out loud together

  • "Earthkeepers makes me think of... wild creativity and song, deep connection with land and ancestry, skillful and profound teachings, and rituals that are held in a container that is co-created with beauty and community. I deeply trust the keepers of this school."

    Te Martin

  • "EKWS is the earth based ritual community I always dreamed of and didn’t think was possible. I’ve rarely experienced spontaneous Co-creation and strong leadership working so well together.”

    Agustin Griffin Harless

  • "A Year in Ceremony is the most transformational curriculum of any kind that I've encountered. Multiple streams of wisdom are on offer, in which participants get to actively weave profound connection with themselves, find deeply nourishing inner resources, and re-claim the power to dream and occupy their most sacred vision of life."

    Stephen Feely
    The Four Winds Society

  • “Carolyn's connection to the source and intuitive fire is so incredibly clear and inspiring in her facilitation. It was very striking how able she was to be responsive in the moment to what was present for participants and find the soulful thread, alchemizing it into a grander bursting-over healing experience for the group as a whole."

    Anonymous

  • “What a solid group of humans! There was so much give and take, leaning in/stepping back, deep listening and presence, support, and vulnerability.”

    Bridget Mullins

  • "A Year in Ceremony was one of the most deeply nourishing experiences of my life… The teachings were profound, truths remembered that I carry with me every day. I know that the family created through this year-long journey will forever be held together in our hearts."

    Em Darlington Cooke

  • "Earthkeeper Wisdom School has expanded my perception of self-love and healing so that I may show up for myself and my community as my best self when I’m needed."

    Justyn Skylar Bougeno

  • "Lyndsey is a light, a natural leader-activist, who is DEEPLY sourced by song. I feel she is a new type of leader modeling new types of showing up in a broken world. I appreciate her integrity, especially in how she brought in/ centered non-dominant people's experience in our shared space. Her song powers are such an undeniable soul offering."

    Anonymous

The template of our journey together is The Cycle of Soul-led Change, which reweaves bonds of belonging with the great web of life, draws forth the gifts of our souls, and inspires transformative action in the world.

Each of our in-person gatherings focuses on a part of the cycle— and includes potent teaching, soulful group work, and earth-centered ceremony, all infused with the beauty of song and dance.

This inspired flow of ceremony includes: Grounding in Gratitude, Embracing Grief as Medicine, Allowing Soul to Lead, and Surrendering to Service  

  • “All healing provides a suture to the torn fabric of belonging.” —Francis Weller

    The most basic ceremony of all is giving honor to the sacred: Earth, Spirit, Ancestors, and one-another. In-so-doing, we reweave ecologies of belonging to the greater Web of Life. Furthermore, by opening to gratitude, we release victim-consciousness in order to become soul-powered agents of change.

    This module includes: Foundations of ritual/ceremonial practice; building earth altars to honor the spirit of place; re-membering ourselves through ancestral reconnection; steps towards transcending white supremacy culture; fire ceremony; ecstatic dance journey; gratitude feast.

  • “A heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.” —Joanna Macy

    Unexpressed grief blocks the heart and thus separates us from the passionate aliveness of our souls as well as our lover-relationship to Life. Through sacred grief ritual, we experience collective healing as we compassionately hold not only our own sorrow, but also ancestral wounds and the wounding of our larger Earth-body. Grief medicine is essential to remaining resilient while facing the crises of our times.

    This module includes: Honoring ancestral grief, blessings, and complex legacies; ecstatic grief ritual; honoring our grief-ritual lineage; and learning to hold grief and pain from a place of wholeness.

  • “The work we have to do can be seen as a kind of coming alive...an awakening into our true nature, a releasing of our gifts.” —Joanna Macy

    Our souls are always speaking, reminding us of who we are and the essential gifts we carry as part of Earth’s dream of wholeness. Yet, as a culture we have become illiterate in the soul's symbolic language and thus miss-out on the great adventure of soul-led living. In this module, we will attune to soul’s guidance and employ the power of ceremony to say, "Yes!"

    This module includes: Attuning to soul via dream work, reading the signs of nature, and consulting our ancestral lineages for guidance; integrating visionary experience through artistic expression; the art of self-designed ceremony to honor the threshold moments of your soul’s journey.

  • “You don’t have to know the way. The way knows the way” —Anonymous

    As we surrender to our soul's guidance, life gets really interesting… We are given assignments that require us to surrender repeatedly as we go beyond the boundaries of what we once believed was possible. In this module, we will collectively hold the question: What emergent ceremonial forms are seeking to be born through us in service to the needs of our times? And, What does it mean to become a holy fool in service to Love?

    This module includes: The inner/outer movements of spiritual surrender; the practice of pure-heartedness; co-creating a never-seen-before ceremonial offering in service to our community and our times.

What’s Included

Four In-Person Gatherings

3-day seasonal gatherings at Slate Creek Sanctuary

Immerse in deep and often ecstatic ritual practice within a community that is held with great intentionality and care.

Each gathering is from Thursday to Sunday and will take place at Slate Creek Sanctuary in Hartsburg, Mo — a 300+ acre property in the foothills of the Ozarks.

Twice Monthly Zoom Gatherings

2.5 hours per month over 10 months

Our first 90-minute monthly gathering will include sharing about our ceremonial invitations such as: creating an ancestral altar, showing-up for a loved one in grief, honoring rites of passage, and deeply listening to your soul.

Our second 60-minute monthly gathering will center song, prayer, and spiritual fellowship. Family and friends are warmly invited to join us.

Two 1:1 Soul Guidance Sessions

Soul sessions with Carolyn will support you to:

Connect to your soulful depths and come into resonance with what you deem as sacred; Identify the rituals that surrendering to your soul asks of you; Attune to and flesh-out the rituals and other offerings longing to come through you on behalf of your community; Weave experiences of Mystery into your personal mythology

Meals & Camping for Gatherings

For all four in-person gatherings at Slate Creek Sanctuary

A total of 36 nutritious, homemade meals are included for our in-person gatherings.

Rustic, on-site camping - including an outdoor shower - is available for no additional charge.

The Land We’ll Gather On

Slate Creek Sanctuary

Slate Creek Sanctuary is a 300+ acre property in the foothills of the Ozarks not far from Colombia, Mo. This beautiful land has a well maintained trail system that takes you through low meadows, up steep hills, through creeks and to a small lake with a lovely dock for swimming. Sycamore, Juniper, Deer, Wood Duck and Coyote are just a few of our wild-kin that you are certain to encounter.

To accommodate campers, we have many beautiful camping sites and an outdoor shower.

Slate Creek Sanctuary is the home of Carolyn Griffeth, her partner Michael Denmeade and friend, Sylvia Donnelly – together they host gatherings that center Earth-stewardship, ecological spirituality, and soulful belonging.

The address is 21540 S. Slate Creek Road, Hartsburg, MO

Program Facilitators

Lyndsey Scott
Song Leader, Priestess

Lyndsey Scott (she/her, cis-white womxn) is an artist + songleader, born raised and residing in central IL, devoted to priestesSing the Heartland, (literal and figurative). She weaves community singing to empower earth-based spiritual consciousness, and gathers soul circles that, through Song and sacred listening, decompose oppressive scripts that get in the way of freely living the Love we are. With jams that get you skipping easily between the sacred, sexy, and sssssilly : your inner child, exiled banshee, and wise elder are all very invited to the circle! Listen to her album Well Held for twelve luscious singalong earworms to nourish your journey. Visit her website lyndseyscott.earth to learn more, or check out her Patreon to support this prayer-in-process.

Full Bio & Lineages

Carolyn Griffeth
Ceremonialist, Soul Guide

Carolyn Griffeth (she/her, cis-white woman) serves widely as a mentor, soul guide, dream worker, and intuitive ceremonialist. She is also honored to serve as a spiritual minister within Spirit Rising, an all-inclusive, womanist community in St. Louis, MO. One of her rare gifts is the capacity to “catch” visions and dreams of future possibility and, like a devoted mother, gestate them into being within her womb of faith-in-action. Carolyn’s native habitat is the radical edge of visionary culture creation! This explains her twenty plus years of living in community and working for social change on several fronts. Her prayer now is for purity of heart so that she might become a more usable channel for Spirit. She is often called upon for soul guidance, dream work, grief tending and intuitive ritual craft.

Full Bio & Lineages

  • Seasonal in-person gatherings take place from Thursday 3:00pm to Sunday 1:30pm (central time), and include the following dates:

    • September 12-15, 2024

    • December 5-8, 2024

    • March 6-9, 2025

    • June 5-8, 2025

  • Our twice monthly calls will take place on Wednesdays either 6:00-7:30pm (central time) , or 6:30pm-7:30pm (central time). All calls will be recorded and shared with our group. We hope you can join us live for this rich time of community building and shared learning, but participation isn’t a requirement.

  • Between seasonal in-person gatherings, you will be given one ritual/ceremonial invitation, which asks 3-5 hours of your time per month. You will also be given optional enrichment suggestions, such as articles and books to read and podcasts to enjoy. Additionally, you’ll want to join our twice monthly Zoom calls when possible, a commitment of 2.5 hours per month.

  • To ensure that we are able to cover our costs while also making our offering accessible to those with less financial privilege, we have created three income tiers with a fixed number of slots for each.

    • Community supporting: $5,600 (4+ spots) for those called to support access for an economically diverse cohort

    • Community sustaining: $4,500 (12 spots) for those able to support our work sustaining. This is our break-even cost.

    • Community supported: $3,700 (5 spots) for those with limited income and little economic privilege

    • Additionally, we have limited scholarship money available for those in financial need

    Please read more about Discerning Financial Contribution for A Year in Ceremony

    Additionally, we offer two payment plans:

    • One full payment on August 2, 2024

    • Partial payment of 30% on August 2, 2024, plus six consecutive monthly payments for the remaining balance (September 2024 - February 2025)

  • This program is ideal for those seeking one or more of the following:

    To deepen into a devotional way of living that is attuned to Earth and nourishing to your soul.

    To experience collective healing within the container of a lovingly held community

    To be companioned, challenged, and poured into as you step into or further your practice of sacred space holding and ritual weaving on behalf of your clients, community, or family.

    To ignite your radical imagination for how our movements can be strengthened through ritually rooting in rich ecologies of support.

    To work with the sacred arts (song, dance, rhythm, art, and beauty-making) to open portals of ecstatic communion with Earth, Soul, and Cosmos

    To reclaim person power by growing in alignment with your soul’s calling

    To gather with others seeking to bring forth everything from within to show-up for the times and collectively ask the Greater Web of Life, “What would you have us know at this time? How can we serve?” 

    To practice the sacred art of ceremonial community including soulful leadership and conflict tending

    Our forming cohort includes artists, healers, song-leaders, drummers, Earth stewards, activists, and other tender-hearted humans who seek an authentic way of honoring the sacred.

    We are selecting for a cohort that is diverse in spiritual orientation, age, gender embodiment, sexual expression, class, and race.  To this end, we have limited scholarship money available for BIPOC individuals and those in financial need. 

  • Slate Creek Sanctuary is close to the Jefferson City Amtrak station, as well as the Colombia or Jefferson City airport. From the St. Louis airport, one can catch the MOX airport shuttle to Colombia, where we would happily pick you up.

    For those looking for proximate overnight accommodations, we highly recommend the old-fashioned inn called the Globe Hotel in Hartsburg, Mo. Ashland and north Jefferson City are also within 25 minutes and have a number of hotels and Airbnb properties available. We will send out more information regarding accommodations at the time of enrollment.

  • To create an intimate container of community, we are limiting enrollment to around 23 participants.

    • Applications Open: June 6, 2024

    • Applications Due: July 10, 2024

    • Notification of Acceptance: July 24, 2024

    • First Payment Due: August 2, 2024

    • First Zoom Gathering: August 28, 2024

    • First In-Person Gathering: September 12-15, 2024

    Please read our cancellation policy.

  • We honor the many venerable lineages that have grown us including Sobonfu Somé, Francis Weller, Joanna Macy, Bradford Keeney, Sherri Mitchell, Martin Prechtel, Liz Rog, Lisa Littlebird, Laurence Cole, Barbara McAfee, The Last Mask Center, Animas Valley, Inpower Institute and more…

    And yet, the teachings and ceremonies of Earthkeeper Wisdom School are more emergent than of lineage.

    The aim of Earthkeeper Wisdom School is not so much to recover ancient ceremonial forms and practices, but rather to co-create our own forms rooted in this place, time, and culture. Fortunately, the wellspring of ritual is still speaking!

    We must simply listen for the whisper of rituals arising from the heart of the Earth that guide us towards beautiful, new traditions made of our unique medicines.

    An exception is our practice of ecstatic grief ritual which is directly inspired by the Dagara tradition as introduced to the West by Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé. From our inception, we have tithed to Wisdom Spring– a charity begun by Sobonfu located in Burkina Faso. We welcome you to find out more about our tithing practice within our Mission and Values.

We invite you to imagine…

A deeply heart-connected community;
Honoring Earth and Spirit and all the sacred beings in-between;
Creating beauty through song, dance, and creativity;
Breaking open to personal transformation through co-created ceremony;
And offering together our souls’ gifts in service to the world’s healing.

Does this vision resonate with a dream you are carrying? If so, we warmly invite you to apply for A Year In Ceremony!