COURTING THE SACRED HUNT
A Men’s Rites of Passage and Ritual Facilitation Training
This is not just a training
It is an initiatory journey.
Are you ready to step into your vision & purpose as an initiated man?
We are in a cultural crisis of lost Initiation Rites
Our Ancestors knew that initiation rites were the key to cultural renewal. This is why they fiercely protected these rites against the tides of colonization—some surviving, often in hiding, to this day.
However, when initiation rites were lost, we became stuck, developmentally arrested at the stage of adolescence - herein lay our collective crisis.
There is a resurgence of ritual and rites-of-passage work as humanity wakes up to this ancestral key of cultural regeneration.
And yet, there is a tremendous gap in trained facilitators—those who not only have the outer skills, but who have been held in a cultural container of their own initiation.
Our elders have taught us that it takes Initiated humans to effectively facilitate rites of passage and ritual for others.
Without culturally held initiation, we simply perpetuate an ego-centric world of life coaches, false teachers, and adolescent gurus capitalizing on unhealed wounds.
In short, without initiation, we stay in cycles of dependency.
In a world that often neglects true initiation…
This training offers a rare opportunity to engage in a structured, ceremonial process of personal and communal evolution.
Drawing from ancestral wisdom and contemporary practices, and held by mentors, elders, nature and more-than-human allies, we will explore the transformative power of rites of passage, learning to hold space for others, through the process of our own
ritual transformations.
This is not merely a personal journey but a commitment to becoming a steward of cultural renewal, capable of guiding others through the sacred transitions of life.
Initiation is…
Why the Sacred Hunt?
The Sacred Hunt is both our map and mythic context — a timeless rite through which men honed their presence, skill, and capacity to relate with the wild.
Across cultures, the hunt was a core initiatory path where blood, challenge, and the courtship of the wild forged true regeneration.
We draw on this tradition as both a practical and symbolic guide for our journey.
THE APPROACH
In this facilitator training, we prepare you to create the container and context for initiatory experiences by first guiding you through your own, with knowledge, ground, and structure.
How you approach initiation and ritual reflects how you approach life.
As with a hunt, everything you do before the encounter shapes the outcome — the same is true in our inner world.
To guide others through rites of passage…
you must apprentice to your own approach to life.
Through prayer, myth, shadow work, core patterns, and earth-based skills, we help you build the ground to lead others through deep transformation.
"Initiation is not an event but a path of awakening; it demands an approach rooted in patience, reverence, and courage to face the unknown within ourselves.”
— Michael Meade
WHAT THE MEN ARE SAYING
THE MAP
4 Long Ritual Weekends
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Imagine if you could…
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Be held compassionately accountable to walking with integrity
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Make $ offering deeply needed & purposeful work
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Craft the culture you wish to see directly in your community
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Having a consistent brotherhood of mutual support and soul-family
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Build a career as a certified Ritual and Rites-of-Passage Guide
THE PILLARS
STEP INTO EMOTIONAL MATURITY
Learn to relate with your inner parts - both the wounded child and adolescent protectors - so that you can skillfully navigate your emotional terrain and forge healing relationships.
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LEARN THE SOMATICS OF HUNTING
Initiation - and skilled ritual and ROP facilitation - lives not in the head, but the body. Your body will be honed, pushed and ultimately refined as your deepest sensory tool of relational power, intuition and leadership.
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THE EMPATHETIC KILL
Initiation (and skilled ROP facilitation) unlocks one’s capacity to be a bringer of necessary death - with one’s heart fully open. Through the process of a ritual animal slaughter (as practice for the hunt), you will learn what it means to consciously weild the power of death, both as a hunter, and a ROP guide who supports others through their own thresholds.
CONTACT YOUR VISION
Through intensive soul practices, mentorship, inner tracking, threshold rituals and vision quest you will come in contact with the core vision for your life.
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UNDERSTAND RITUAL LITERACY
Ritual is innate to being human. Through ritual thresholds - those you undergo and others you facilitate - you will understand the core anatomy of ritual and how to effectively craft ritual for any situation.
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MOVE FROM WOUND TO GIFT
You will be loving held and tracked in both a circle of brothers, and by mentors, elders and guides to unearth your core wounds and transform into the seed of your deepest gifts.
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BECOME AN SKILLED FACILITATOR
You will learn the theory and walk through the fires of practice to unlock your own facilitation gifts and power.
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HARNESS YOUR ANCESTRAL ROOTS
Initiated men and effective ROP guides move as if they come from somewhere. Claiming one’s ancestors is the deepest form of anchoring and supports turning transgenerational trauma into gift.
STEP INTO STORY CRAFT
Story is the oldest way humans make meaning and pass on ancestral wisdom. You will learn to “read the language of story” become honed as an oral teller who can move audiences and seed culture through your own mythic prowess.
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CONNECT FROM TRUE SOURCE
True initiation, having faced dearth, brings you in contact with the ultimate source of true power - the well of mystery, what some call “God,” the place of deep uncertainty, which is also the fertile womb of all creation. Knowing one’s true source is the seat of one’s deepest power.
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CROSS THE DEATH THRESHOLD
Initiation at it’s core is about a death - and rebirth - facing the difficult to reckon truth of one’s mortality and harnessing the immense power - and consciousness - locked behind that ego fear.
BECOME SACRED HUNTER
Sacred Hunting is not just about the capacity to kill - it is both becoming honed in the hard skills of hunting (tracking, wilderness navigation, shelter, etc) while also being capable to reverently connect with the land, the species, the specific animal and skillfully open that sacred portal of life and death.
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MOVE FROM EGO TO ECO-CENTRIC
The initiatory threshold fundamentally moves one’s psyche from the adolescent trap of constant ego-preservation and status posturing into direct kinship with all life (i.e. truly realizing that you are part of everything), allowing one to truly move with the integrity of sacred service as a protector for the Earth,
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WALK IN PRAYER
An initiated man, instead of grasping for control in a world that is fundamentally wild and alive, continually dialogues and harnesses source through walking prayer, offering gratitude and gift to the mystery forces, all that gives us life, while humbly asking for - and receiving - help from greater powers.
BECOME TRUSTWORTHY
Modern men have a hard time being trusted, and for good reason - most are not initiated and thus have no true integrity. In this training, you will be lovingly held accountable to find what integrity truly means and how to live it - enabling a field of trust for others to step into with you.
ACTIVATE THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP
Initiated humans are activators in a culture of mentorship. In this training you will tasked with finding anchors (i.e. mentors) for your life as well as becoming a mentor for others. This mentorship bridge is a key of regenerative culture, and we like to think of the process as finding one’s “personal board of directors.” Being anchored is power.
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STEP INTO SOUL LEADERSHIP
Effective ROP and ritual guiding is not just about facilitation, it is about becoming a leader in every facet of how you move through space, how you model maturation and integrity, and how you anchor your leadership both with humility and the unique gifts of your own soul. Every leader is different - this training will help you find your soul swagger.
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KNOW THE MYTHIC LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL
Ritual and ROP are fundamentally activities of the soul, and becoming and effective ritualist and guide demands that you can read the languge of the soul - yours and others. The soul speaks through mythopoetics - through image, symbol, myth and synchronicity. You will learn to track this language and support yourself and others in understanding how the soul of the world is speaking to you.
THE PILLARS
Born from the call to re-village our world, this training invites you to mentor and initiate girls as they cross the threshold into adolescence—while also tending to the unmet parts of your own teen years.
PRAISE
This training arose out of the impulse for our collective need to re-village ourselves by way of mentoring, guiding, and initiating our girls…and lets be honest, in the spirit of reciprocity—making a living doing so!
It’s through the inner work, deep listening, & holy tending that we rise as a Matriarchal Leader - a woman worthy of imitation - a woman who knows herself. Yet it also takes a pocket full of tools, skills, understanding, and finesse to work with preteen and teen girls as they leave behind the wonder of childhood and step into the changes and challenges of adolescence.
For an intimate group of you (there are only 13 seats), we provide a safe container to dive into the unintegrated parts of your own adolescence, and bring healing and perspective to those challenging years.
This stage of life is generally overlooked and labelled as “challenging.” Because of this, in tandem with our villageless lifestyles, our girls are in sincere need of support and guidance. They are hungry for belonging.
Through this training you will be a part of the solution while bringing in extra income you and/or your family needs. Your investment can pay itself off in a matter of months with just one thriving group.
Core Guides
John Wolfstone
John Wolfstone is an Initiatory Facilitator, Wilderness Rites-of-Passage Guide, Mythweaver, and Storyteller dedicated to the renewal of initiatory and ancestral cultures.
John is the co-director of the award-winning documentary The Village of Lovers, which captures the transformative community practices at the Tamera Peace Research Village in Portugal. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Wisdom Studies at Ubiquity University, deeply immersed in the exploration of rites-of-passage and cultural initiation.
Holding space for the great grief of our times, John designs and facilitates rituals and ceremonies aimed at restoring personal and collective nervous systems back to a profound sense of belonging with the Earth. In 2021, he co-founded The School of Mythopoetics, dedicated to the initiation of soul, guiding dozens through their own rites of passage, both in-person and in the wilds of the internet. He tends thresholds vigilantly, death-doulaing adolescent paradigms in devotion to an Initiated and truly Regenerative culture.
Darren Silver
Darren Silver, MA, is a rite of passage guide, Nature-Connected Coach, ceremonialist, and innovative educator. He has nearly two decades of experience working with ritual, wilderness living skills, and guiding transformational experiences residentially and internationally. A gifted storyteller and apprentice to the old myths, Darren weaves the power of the natural world, vision, and community in devotion to the remembrance of regenerative culture.
You Might Have Some Questions
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The first step is filling out the application below. You will be directed to a calendar to set up a clarity call with Johannah where you will have a 45 min, 1:1 meeting to go over any lingering questions and leave with clarity as to whether or not this is the right program for you.
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We meet weekly on Wednesdays for 2 hours. Our start time is 12pm est/10am mst/9am pst
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While having experience working with children of any age will be helpful, it is not entirely necessary. You will be learning facilitation skills and tools for working specifically with preteen and teen girls.
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What you put into this course is what you will get out of it! There will be videos, readings, songs, podcasts, and other resources available to you through our online course portal.
Each module you will be asked to complete ritual, ceremonial, or facilitator homework at least once. -
This training is a non-refundable investment. We trust you to make a wise decision that this training is the right fit for you.
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If you complete the assignments, show up and engage, then yes, you will be a certified Wakeful Nature Girls Group facilitator, ready to lead groups of your own!