wild ordination
Wild Ordination
an affirmation of vows
to your wild sacred calling
OPEN TO GRADUATES OF SEMINARY OF THE WILD & HOLDERS OF THE ECO-MINISTRY CERTIFICATE.
Vows made at the end of Seminary of the Wild -- from our souls with the Sacred, on Zoom with one another, and in private ceremony with the holy land -- mark a threshold crossing. A recognition of the wild edge where you're being called to offer your particular medicine to your community.
You are stepping into your wild call as a new kind of spiritual leader. What does that look like? In our culture? In your community and life? At this time of ecological and social unraveling?
This nine month intensive leads to a certificate of Wild Ordination, supports the call of the sacred wild in your life. You likely feel yourself positioned on a wild edge looking over a cavern where the Unknown dwells. There are no templates, no guarantees, not even many models for bringing what is needed at a time of profound unknowing and collective collapse. All we know, really, is that what we are bringing into the world is as important as how we bring it.
A new leadership model is emerging and you, your land, Spirit and a cohort of blazing hot souls are invited to discover, experiment, fail, and co-create a new kind of spiritual leadership outside the walls of our religious, corporate, educational, non-profit, civic institutions. Business leadership models are shifting toward feminine leadership, quantum leadership, regenerative leadership, indigenous leadership, transformational leadership or even ecosystem leadership. They’re all similar in that the qualities of a good leader are all the aspects of service that have been ignored, dismissed, forgotten, or demonized. And these are precisely the places to look for wisdom in bringing your vision into being.
What ordination means. Why we are using this word.
What wild ordination means…primarily that the wild is the one who is doing the ordaining, not any human institution. It is a way to solidify a vow you’ve been asked to make. To be witnessed by your human community for a commitment you’re making to Earth, to God, to your own soul…and to your human community as well.
Ordination is a ritual of commitment. Ordination comes from "ordinacioun," which means "divine decree" as well as "putting in order." Ordination, in my understanding, therefore, has this sense of discerning a divine decree and putting one's life in order to live out that decree. In wild ordination, we are saying that the divine decree comes from/through the natural world and our ceremony of commitment is ordering our lives in response to that call.
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A new order, a new structure. The order of the natural world, more dynamic, fluid, less hierarchical. The order of the seasons, the order of natural cycles, of the cycle of the soul, of human evolution in a time of great stresses, change, and dreams.
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What you might do with an ordination. examples…
Stages of ordination…novitiate, postulate, etc….maybe come up with some fun words (see abbey of the arts and how christine plays with the language of monks) I also like the stages of inquirer, candidate, and ordinand. In the inquiry stage, the person is asserting there is a "possibility" of being called by the wild. In candidacy, there is a sense of a "high probability" or ordination. Finally, in the ordinand phase, one is confirmed in the calling. In each stage, we are discerning both an inner calling and an outer confirmation. The outer confirmation could come from Clearness Committees or from the mirroring of CWS guides.
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TOPICS:
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Clarity of Vision, Clarifying the Call: What does it mean to be ordained? Rituals, wanderings, dreamwork, journal prompts throughout the course to affirm the ordination/calling
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Who from the wild has called you?
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Who is your community? What do they need? How are you helping?
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What are your values?
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What are your strengths/challenges?
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Create a ppt vision board and vision story….how does it mirror the wild?
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Inner authority
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Honoring the Call: Stepping into your vision, embodying it, even if it sounds too big, too loud, too impossible and crazy in our current world. Aligning that with Reality of systems of oppression, collapsing monoculture, this kairos time, laws of nature, real responsibilities in your life, relationships etc.
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Where am I in the Process? Do I need further training? Or is it time to trust that my wisdom, gifts, medicine are needed now and my life has been leading to this moment?
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Facing imposter syndrome: what is holding you back from trusting this vision? What messages are coming from your inner critic or shadow that disempower you?
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Stepping into your Voice without apology, allowing your wild dreams to be witnessed and claimed. Maybe a little holy arrogance might be needed. Definitely a posture of humility and service is in order!
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MythoPoetic Story: My thinking is that Ordination is a formal response to own's understanding of their MythoPoetic Story. We choose to say yes to our story by entering into a process of living out that story as fully and courageously as possible. Therefore, discerning and confirming one's MP story in partnership with the natural world is a crucial aspect of the ordination process. Yah but why? Need to back up…what even is a mytho-poetic story and why is it core to knowing who you are and why you are here.
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Include the thurman story
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Why myths are important…personal myths can change but the core is the same…exaample?
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A New Kind of Wild Leadership. The ways we are called to embody the New Story are precisely the ways that dominant culture has ignored and demonized. Places to look for guidance are from the edges: those communities who have suffered much and prevail (BIPoC, queer, feminine, quantum, nature/biosystems) Moving from old dominant story of leadership (based on toxic masculine values such as competition and dominance) to New Story leadership that is grounded in ecological wisdom, feminine, queer, focused on relationship and collective thriving? How do we live in a time of unraveling? How do we support others at this time?
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Beyond Leader and Follower….what does an “entanglement/ecological kinship” leadership look like?
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Becoming Elder…
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Doing Things Differently: Life priorities to live with ease and spaciousness and release practices and stories that keep you in cycles of busyness and burnout
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Activating healthy masculine/feminine energies (yin/yang…wish there was another word)
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Prioritizing your spiritual connection with nature, spirit and soul
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Dangers and Courage inherent in counter-cultural work
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Uniting the good qualities of the present system (discipline/will/determination) with these new ideas. Learning from the past and making today better.
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Focus on interconnections that bind all humans and nonhumans together and take the long view, seeing the relation of the present to the future.
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Growing roots wide and deep.
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Hard working and courageous
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Not faint of heart
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Nurturing
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Showing mercy
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Participating in the growth of others, empower
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Interdependence
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Reconnecting with nature
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Act as a positive energy for change.
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Activating the Vision: Weaving the threads of your vision into reality (delivery system)
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What is unique about you as a leader?
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The larger web of interconnection. Who are your supporters? Guides? Colleagues? Cultivating support system for your life work (physical health, emotional support, nature-practices
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Building Legitimacy in the Community
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Creating a Rule/Rhythm of Life
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Planning and Trusting. Little bit Strategic Plan, only with Mystery/Love/trust at the center (without being stupid) Boundaries.
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Biomimicry: Looking to the earth and her systems to build the systems in your business? A study of other brands/businesses that have used this model.​
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maybe Q&A
Recommended readings
Pleasure Activism or Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Marie Brown
Margaret Wheatley, “who do we say we are?” or “Leadership and the New Science”
Playing Big, Tara Mohr
OttoSchwarmer, leading from the future, Theory U
Bayo Akomolafe: “Leadership as Gift”
Still researching more….
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then info about ghost ranch at the end...and they can also choose to go to Ireland.
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GUIDES:
Victoria Loorz
Bryan Smith
VICTORIA LOORZ & BRYAN SMITH, co-founders and guides for the first four EcoMinistry cohorts at Seminary of the Wild will guide the Wild Ordination week and ceremony.