We gather to witness, celebrate, uplift and orient youth on the threshold of their young adult years through a 4 day Rites of Passage program, the Moon Beams, are hosted in the Cedar Bloom wilderness on the banks of the Illinois river, held in the loving container of Spirit Weavers. We believe rites of passage is essential for healthy culture and an empowered blossoming into young adults. The ceremonial beauty of this Rites of Passage feeds both the wild soul of these youth and the Earth.
We are committed to providing a space where young adults grow in connection to self, community and the Earth through this community supported, nature based rites of passage.
We believe intergenerational mentorship, community, strong intuition, awakened creativity and a deep connection with the Earth provides the taproot of strength needed to weather the tests of life and young adulthood in a healthy way.
Being a young adult connected to the divine feminine is beautiful, powerful and worth celebrating! We believe you don’t have to come of age in isolation, unaware and in trauma, rather we rise connected, in tune and resilient.
This is the time to claim our passageways and make them reflective of the natural, wild and wise beings we are, as we feed beauty to the Earth and serve our families and communities.
While we can’t share everything these young folks will experience together, here are of some of our main activities.
Drum Meditation and Receiving your Symbol: Henna
Tea Ceremony
Scavenger Hunt and Team Building
Stargazing Myth and Magic
Rawhide Rattle Creation with Lena
Becoming a Vessel for Song: Songwriting
Arrow Break Ceremony
Cacao Ceremony with Aixa Amankay
Eco Spa and Making our own Facial Care
Plant Spirit Medicine and Essence Creation with Lena
The Moon Beams Program registration will be available on Saturday, January 21st with regular ticket sales. Tickets are $398.00.
Lena feels at home here on our amazing planet earth. She’s one of those people who’s never met a stranger and although she travels the world, she finds family everywhere (including the plants and animals). She’s a Rainbow Dancer, a “warrior who risks it all for love.” Lena can be found singing with big groups of girls, holding ceremonial space, playing with her daughter, arranging flowers, submerged in a waterfall, or breaking it down on the dance floor. You may first hear her flute song before you see her coming. Lena was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Lena graduated from University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in Cross Cultural Sustainability. She has her Permaculture Design Certificate, and graduated from the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness Program at the Regenerative Design Institute. She is the founder and director of Non-profit Earth Path Education, where we help grow a culture of listening to the earth as our wisest mentor and teach Nature Connection to children and adults and guide girls through their Rites of Passage into womanhood. Check out earthpatheducation.com. She has guided university students on trips to the mountains, rivers and caves of North Carolina and beyond, through the UNC Asheville Outdoors Program. She empowered youth working with Free the Children as the Regional Network coordinator for the Southeast–providing solutions that free child soilders, child sex slaves and child laborers. Lena is a lifelong earth and human rights activist and protector and uplifter of children. Lena fosters relationship and connection with the earth for hundreds of families from Silicon Valley to Louisville, KY to Western North Carolina. She provides guidance and facilitation for important thresholds in life from becoming a woman, to getting marriage marriages, and giving birth.
She has taught music, art and nature connection in Waldorf schools for the past four years. She leads Women Rewilding, a nine month earth skills immersion. She initiated and annually organizes (for the past decade) Soil Sisters, the young women’s program for the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference. Through her flower farm and business, Blossoming Hearts, Lena grows and arranges ceremonial flowers. She is the founder of Earth Song Rising (www.earthsongrising.com), a four day singing gathering in Asheville, NC.
Lena has the joy of being mama to Naia Grace! Lena loves rainbows, swimming with dolphins, hummingbirds, kundalini yoga, prayer, planting seeds, foraging, running, dancing, working with clay, taking deep breaths, and bringing people together. She grows community, family and earth based spirituality at her home in Asheville, NC.
Lena is honored and excited to facilitate Moon Beams for the 5th year at Spirit Weavers, accompanied by some incredible mentors: Aixa Amankay, Esmeralda Zeledon, Katy Leets, Katherine Brown, and Amber Hamilton-Kliger.
Jacks is a trans non-binary student, sailor, and aspiring herbalist. They grew up in the PNW, but now call sunny Southern Oregon home. Currently attending Southern Oregon University, they are finishing up their Bachelor’s in Psychology with a Minor in ASL and will be starting the Clinical Mental Health and Counseling Masters program next fall. Their dream is to be a Queer Youth Counselor and an ASL translator, as they are passionate about destigmatizing mental health through education and advocating for the next generation. When they aren’t in school, you will most likely find them in the woods talking to plants, cooking meals with friends, or thrifting at the local Goodwill. Jacks has served as a Moon Maidens Seva for the past three years and looks forward to forging a new path this summer with the Moon Beams.
You can reach Jacks on Instagram at @shaky_jaguar_love or by email at jackiepleus@gmail.com
