scholarships available

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applications now OPEN for 2026/2027 cohort

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scholarships available ꩜ applications now OPEN for 2026/2027 cohort ꩜

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.

Our 4 in-person gathering dates are: September 17-20, 2026; December 3-6, 2026; March 18-21, 2027; June 3-6, 2027

Apply here
Apply here

Applications due by May 15, 2026

“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 all that supports 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 hold 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 of 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 and accountability. 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.” — 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

  • "Carolyn and Lyndsey as a collaborative leadership duo is a large part of what makes A Year in Ceremony so powerful. The depth of love that they hold for each other's hearts and the ways that they are committed to uplifting each other's path of soul growth means that they embody and live what they are calling each of us toward. They truly lead by example with so much courage, vulnerability, and humility. They have such different but complimentary skillsets, which means that together they weave a container that is fun, goofy, sacred, deep, reverent, and rich with alchemy."

    Emma

  • "When I said yes to A Year in Ceremony, I was expecting to learn to create ritual. What I didn't expect was how this experience would connect me so powerfully to my soul and the palpable presence of my ancestors. Our rituals were not just exercises. They were of Spirit and of true power! I feel like I have crossed a major threshold towards elderhood.. I am so grateful."

    Evelyn

  • "A Year In Ceremony is a balm for the soul - potent medicine that facilitates our return to wholeness in times defined by fragment and fracture. Carolyn and Lyndsey, its wisdom teachers, invite us to see through the confusing fictions of separation from source, self, others, and Earth by helping us attune to the truth of our souls. Held by them and their extended family of wise Earthkeepers, we are supported in shedding conditioning that no longer serves us and in rooting in right relationship with the wide web of life."

    Rebeccah

  • "I came to A Year in Ceremony with the story that I was new to Earth-based ritual practice. What I have come to know is that the love for Life expressed in song, community, witnessing, shared meals, and silence is as ancient as Life itself - and this love is where my soul is home. This year has expanded my heart in ways that words can't fully express, and I am profoundly grateful for the skillful tending of the Earthkeepers team. These wise ones are guides and co-travelers on the ways of liberation and belonging, whose care helps each soul bloom."

    Kelley

  • "I will forever see my time in A Year in Ceremony as a pivotal moment in my life. I finally feel cosmologically at home—authentic in my prayers, empowered in creating ritual, and faith in the re-emerging collective soul."

    Teri

  • "I've learned more in EKWS's A Year in Ceremony than any other program! It is indescribably meaningful to be part of something where Spirit shows up so big and undeniably, and where love and invested belief in one another is so palpable. AYIC has also radically catalyzed and strengthened my soul path, and lit on fire the life visions/projects I am here to serve in years to come."

    Mitchell

  • "This experience has changed the way I inhabit my body and my relationship to mystery, creativity, and the Divine. My ritual during the third retreat quenched my spirit and expanded my safety in my body in ways I did not know to anticipate. I am more at ease in myself more consistently than before. Not to mention the love and support and communion I exchanged with my cohort members. I feel changed. I feel grateful. I feel home. I feel like myself - and what a deep breath that is."

    Leslie

  • "A Year in Ceremony is for you if you are truly ready for a wake up call: a soul mirror to help us explore the cavity of lack that plagues our capitalist, modern, environment destroying, supremacist world. EKWS has affirmed my knowing of the world we are capable of creating - a liberated, life giving, love abounding one. It is undoubtedly a pivotal blessing of my twenties to be nourished by this cohort and curriculum. This program is preparing me for and shaping what I know will be a life rooted in and exalted by relationship with divine spirit, earth, and soul."

    Nava

  • "A Year in Ceremony has shaped me, changed me, unraveled me, and re-wove me in profound and powerful ways. The opportunity to gather with a deeply invested community to explore the ways that prayer and ritual can call us all more deeply into thriving has been transformative—miraculous even!"

    Emma

  • "EKWS is really unlike anything else. Carolyn and Lyndsey's commitment to inclusive, collective, and emergent leadership makes this community feel so...leadership-full. The teachings on soul-led ritual are outstanding, the collective singing is truly ecstatic. In our year together I helped craft one of the most meaningful rituals I've ever been a part of, and it was such a teaching on the necessity and spiritual value of ritual in our lives as human beings."

    Lizzie

  • "I can’t imagine myself now without going through A Year in Ceremony. I’ve grown so much in my trust of soul and my knowledge of the kind of transformation that is possible through ritual within a heart-attuned community! As a musician, I have also learned a ton about shifting consciousness through song. For this and more I am deeply grateful."

    Ripple

  • "I'm in absolute awe of this container and how it's sharpening my arrow pointed toward truth, love, liberation, and right relationship. My core wound of shame finally felt safe enough to be seen and tended, which made available more of my lifeforce for discovering and living out one of my soul's gifts. I found my power to pray, and I trust in my embeddedness in the vast web of life."

    Kelly

  • "This experience has radically changed me and my healing practice. For one thing, I’ve learned to be heartfully present with people in deep grief, and I'm using the gates of grief at the bullet related injury clinic with people suffering from prolonged repressed emotional expression. I have also been inspired to spontaneously create healing rituals with my clients and patients, which has added much needed missing elements to my work of guiding others towards self-empowerment."

    Stencil

  • “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

  • "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

  • "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

  • "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

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 truly are and the essential gifts we each carry. Yet, as a culture we have become illiterate in soul's language of symbol and longing and thus we miss-out on the mythic adventure of soul-led living. In this module, we will court our souls and through the power of ceremony surrender to our next step in embodying who we truly are.

    This module includes: engaging with a variety of practices to grow in intimacy with your soul; receiving 1-on-1 soul guiding; and co-creating rituals to honor and further each of our soul journeys.

  • Ritual is being dreamed through us from the animistic world. We are listening for what wants to come through.  Listening is the most fundamental ritual skill, it is about attuning to the greater web of life. Francis Weller

    In this module, we will collectively hold the question: What emergent ceremonial forms are seeking to be born through us in service to Life?

    This module includes: practicing intuitive listening and co-creating rituals and ceremonies as guided by the greater web of life.

What’s Included

Four In-Person Gatherings

Four 4-day seasonal gatherings near St. Louis, MO

Immerse in deep and often ecstatic ritual practice within a community that is held with great intentionality and care. Each in-person gathering is from Thursday to Sunday, and will take place at Springs Ecozoic Center near St. Louis, MO,

Gatherings begin Thursday at 1pm CT and end Sunday at 2pm CT. To accommodate those who are traveling or longing for a slower settling-in, you are welcome to arrive Wednesday afternoon before our gathering.

Twice Monthly Zoom Gatherings

3 hours per month over 10 months

Our 90-minute twice monthly online gathering has two alternating forms:

1) During “Ritual Check-In” we share what is stirring in our souls around our ritual practice and we practice the art of sacred space holding with one another.

2) During “Song Power Hour” we share songs, prayers, and practices of connection. Family and friends are warmly invited to join us for this gathering.

Two 1:1 Soul Guidance Sessions

Grow in intimacy with your Soul!

Carolyn serves as a soul guide, and mentor to visionary humans around the country. Soul Guidance Sessions will support you to grow in intimacy with your soulful depths and to integrate the deep ritual work of which you will be engaging.

Meals, Lodging & transportation

Housing and food for all four in-person gatherings is included in your tuition.

This includes:

  • A total of 36 nutritious, homemade meals made by our community chef, John.

  • Lovely bedrooms (single or shared), as well as camping, according to your preference.

For ease of travel, we will do our best to coordinate rides to and from Lambert airport and the St. Louis train station.

  • "I’m absolutely blown away by Chef John’s culinary magic. His cooking was, without exaggeration, one of the highlights of the entire experience. His commitment to whole food, nutrient-dense ingredients was clear in every bite. His mastery of fermentation added depth and vitality to his dishes— woven into the meals like edible medicine. Each plate was a work of art and an act of care. John went above and beyond to source ingredients locally, which brought a profound sense of connection to the land and the food that was nourishing us."

    —Erika, organic farmer and A Year in Ceremony participant

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. 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

Micaiah Hambley
Relational Bridge to Earth and Soul

Micaiah is an earth mystic, energy healer, soul-guide, and relational bridge to the wilds. At 19, he began training in Buddhist Monasticism and embodiment-based healing modalities. At 23 he left the monastery to embark on a series of multi-month to year-long solo retreats in remote nature. Here the mountains became his primary teachers, guiding his journey of soul initiation and maturation. Now in his thirties, Micaiah serves Earthkeepers as an Earth-connection facilitator and all around assistant.

Find out more about his story and offerings at:

Emma Koeppel
Ritualist, Muse, and Web Tender

Emma lives in wild devotion to Earth, to all of their kin, and to the great mystery. They joyfully express this devotion through writing, song catching, beauty-making, and practicing deep loving relationality with all life. Emma serves Earthkeepers as earth connection facilitator, tender of social ecologies, ritualist and resident muse. You are welcome to call upon them for energy healing, grief tending, and ritual dreaming.

Learn more about Emma’s work at:

Rebeccah Bennett
Guest Teacher and Anti-Racism Consultant

Rebeccah Bennett is founder of InPower Institute, a Center for Community Healing & Well-Being in St. Louis, MO and its spiritual community, Spirit Rising. A highly-regarded community healer, spiritual director and life coach, Rebeccah has committed herself to the liberation and healing of the human spirit. For nearly 25 years, she has inspired, coached, trained, and helped tens of thousands of people in countless communities, always working to elevate human consciousness and improve the human condition.

Tamira Cousett
Guest Teacher and Ancestral Medium 

Tamira is an ancestral medium and ritual facilitator specializing in supporting folks with remembering the authentic pathways of ancestral connections. Her practices are rooted in ecosystems of Love and Black liberation theologies and informed by her initiations into Afro-Brazilian earth-honoring traditions and West African Ifa Òrìṣà tradition. She enjoys co-weaving communal containers of curiosity, connection, homecoming, and life-affirming rituals with folks and their ancestral ecosystems of care. 

Find out more about Tamira’s offerings at:

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

    • September 17-20, 2026

    • December 3-6, 2026

    • March 18-21, 2027

    • June 3-6, 2027

    We will be meeting at Springs Ecozoic Center near St. Louis, Mo. For ease of travel, you are welcome to arrive the afternoon beforehand. Our location is about 50min from the St. Louis airport. We will do our best to coordinate transportation to/from the airport and Amtrak station.

  • Our twice monthly calls will take place on Wednesdays at 7-8:30pm (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!

  • 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 a teaching packet each module that includes ritual invitations and enrichment suggestions such as optional articles, books, and podcasts to enjoy. Additionally, you’ll want to join our twice monthly Zoom calls when possible, a commitment of 3 hours per month.

    Other than our four teaching packets there is no required reading.

  • To ensure that we are able to meet our costs while also making our offering accessible to those with less financial resource, we have created three income tiers with a fixed number of slots for each. For assistance, please read through our discerning financial contribution statement. ‍ ‍Tuition includes comfortable lodging and fabulous meals.

    • Community Supporting: $9000 (4+ spots) for those called to support access for an economically diverse cohort.

    • Community Sustaining: $7000 This is our break-even cost.

    • Community Supported: $5,500 for those with limited income

      In addition, we have three 50% scholarships for activists and those in need.

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

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

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

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

    To bring the power of ritual into movement spaces

    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 grow in intimacy with your soul in order to live your most thriving life and show-up most mightily for these times.

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

    Our current cohort includes artists, healers, therapists, 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. 

  • We will be meeting at Springs Ecozoic Center near St. Louis, Missouri—50min from Lambert airport. We are renting this entire beautiful campus which borders the Big River. The cost of lodging and meals is included in your tuition.

    Our gathering begins on Thursday at 1pm CST and ends on Sunday at 1:30pm. For your convenience you are welcome to arrive Wednesday afternoon.

    We will do our best to coordinate travel to our gathering site for those arriving by train or plane.

  • Application for our coming cohort will be released early April 202 and is due May 15th.

    If you are feeling called-in and seeking support in your discernment, you are welcome to schedule a free consultation with Carolyn.

  • 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, Purpose Guides, and more…

    And yet, the teachings and ceremonies of Earthkeeper Wisdom School are not taken from any lineage, rather they are freshly baked or emergent.

    Through the practice of intuitive ritual craft we will co-create original ritual 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, Soul, Spirit and all the sacred beings there-within;
Creating beauty through song, dance, and creativity;
Breaking open to collective 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!

Apply Here
Apply Here

Applications due by May 15, 2026