wild ordination
for alumni of Seminary of the Wild/Earth
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
ONLINE: Mondays 12-2 pacific January 8 - August 19, 2024
ONLAND: Five nights, four days in your choice of venues
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The vows made at the end of Seminary of the Wild -- on Zoom with one another and in private ceremony with the holy land -- mark a threshold crossing. An acknowledgement and acceptance of a call to offer your particular medicine to your community.
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But what does it look like for you to step fully into your wild call as a new kind of spiritual leader? How can you become who you most truly are within our present culture, in your own particular community, and in this time of ecological and social unraveling?
Your call to serve the Sacred Earth at this time, likely positions you 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.
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However, if we refuse to work from within the dominant system’s values, we will face challenges. By imagining a new way in a deeply entrenched system, we are setting ourselves up to face resistance — both from the external culture and the internal resistance of those parts of you who are concerned with keeping you safe…and small.
But you know there is no going back.
You are here to serve this Holy Living Earth and to midwife a more beautiful world into being.
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You may be ready to be ordained by the Wild.
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Ordained by the Wild
to serve the whole
eco-system of aliveness
What does it mean to be ordained by the Wild?
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Ordination is a ritual of commitment. The word 'Ordination' comes from "ordinacioun," which means "divine decree" as well as "putting in order." To be ordained is to be called into service and to accept holy orders. It is a sacrament in the Christian tradition and also practiced in Buddhism, Judaism, and, with different words, in just about every other tradition as well. The ceremony of ordination ritually marks a vow of fidelity to your particular "divine decree" or a sacred calling.
In wild ordination, the Divine decree comes from and through the natural world. You are not ordained by any human institution, but by the Sacred Wild herself.
The process of preparation for and ceremony of wild ordination is a way to solidify a vow you’ve been asked to make, while being witnessed by your community. The commitment is one you’re making not to an institution, but to Earth, to Spirit/Mystery/God, to your own soul, and to your human community. Like any other life-long vow, it is a pledge and a prayer for the grace required to carry out your love and your gifts in this world.
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A New Kind of Wild Leadership
This nine month intensive leads to a certificate of Wild Ordination — a profound honoring the call of the sacred wild in your life.
A new spiritual 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.
Leadership is the "how" of bringing your vision into the world. What we do is as important as how we do it. The ways we are called to embody the New Story are precisely the ways that dominant culture has ignored — the edge communities of BiPoC, queer, feminine, and ecosystem leadership are the wellsprings of wisdom in our time. They are precisely the places to look for how to bring your vision into being.
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The world doesn't need another guru, but we do need elders — those who lead with wisdom while holding space for others to lead themselves from the heart of their own gifts and calling. We aren't being asked to sacrifice our health, our time, our joy, for the sake of practices and stories that keep us in cycles of busyness and burnout.
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The New Story is about equilibrium, compassion, joy, health, celebration, and deep wisdom that comes when we allow the deep connection between Nature and our souls to show us the way. Honoring the call means that you lead by example into a more beautiful and thriving world.
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At this threshold of collapse and new life where we are standing now, our full engagement is too urgently needed to mess around with false humility. It takes a degree of arrogance, holy arrogance of belonging, to say yes and step into the unknown, trusting that you will know what to do as you take the steps into your wild calling. Holy arrogance is also paradoxically humble. As part of a great, interconnected story, we are never called to act alone.
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Victoria Loorz, Church of the Wild, chapter 9
What you might do with your wild ordination.
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Ordination is a sacrament, which means it is a sacred religious symbol where divine or spiritual power is transmitted through the material world. Traditionally, the sacrament of ordination allows the ordained to perform other sacraments such as weddings, last rites, and in some religious traditions, communion. Through this program, you will be wildly ordained as a spiritual leader, which will, among other things, provide you with the credentials to legally perform these sacraments.
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Those who avoid institutional religion for ordination often turn to a mail order certificate that offers the credential without much accountability, community, or process. The wild ordination process goes beyond this to offer ceremonial and experiential support in confirming your calling as well as practical leadership preparation that empowers you to step into your role in the repair of the world with intentionality and dignity.
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Wild ordination is a reclamation. Insofar as it stems from the Christian tradition, it is a radical rewilding of an ancient and sacred process that, for the past thousand years, has been largely defined within an exclusive hierarchy. But spiritual leadership is your birthright — something given by Spirit that cannot be determined by human institutions.
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As a sacrament, your ordination compels you to make sacred all that you touch in the world. Whether it is your art, your writing, your work out in the world, or within your family and local biosphere, ordination is the vow to remember all of life's inherent sacredness and to treat it as such. Aligned spiritual leadership matters more than ever outside of church walls. What is your truest calling to serve the Sacred Earth? Wild ordination is an act of fidelity toward that calling.
the flow
Ordination Process
The wild ordination cohort will meet in bi-weekly kinship groups (formerly called clans or hives) and bi-weekly seedings, much the same flow as the yearlong Seminary of the Wild program. At the end, there is a required five day Wild Ordination ceremony in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico or British Columbia. ​
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Clarifying the Call: your mythopoetic story
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In wild ordination, the wild calls you into service. The roles you step into will require the full expression of your own unique gifts and will ask you, as storyteller and truth-sayer Michael Meade puts it, “to assist the world in renewing her-self.” Throughout Seminary of the Wild, you opened to that call and you have likely taken steps to embody that call. Weaving the story of your becoming is an essential part of the process.
The course of wild ordination requires a more intense focus on writing your mythopoetic story — a personal myth that captures the essence of who you are and the particular way you are called to serve this wild, evolving interconnected world. Understanding your own personal mythology cultivates an inner authority and foundation that can carry you into the fullest expression of your gifts. Ordinands will approach their mythopoetic story through dreamwork, mystical experiences, creative expression and a wild discernment committee.
Honoring the Call: becoming elder
Becoming an elder has little to do with age and more to do with the wisdom acquired in honoring the process. Maturation doesn't happen instantly and there are usually many things to attend to before your full vision can emerge. Embodying your vision is a process of releasing expectations, sitting with and befriending the Unknowing, and experimenting with playfulness. Allowing the vision to take form takes time and patience. The task now is to honor the first step with integrity, and to deepen your faith in the process.
Your unique vision likely doesn't have any template because you are creating something new. Maybe it feels too big, too loud, to impossible for our current world. How can you remain true to your call and also make a living, remain committed to your family and community, and honor your own inner authority? The answers aren't always clear, but the wisdom in trusting the process is what allows the vision to mature in ways that can surprise and delight you.
Facing Resistance and Fear
You are on a courageous journey of stepping into your Voice, your medicine, and your power without apology. You are allowing your wildest dreams to be witnessed and birthed. Some amount of holy arrogance is needed to step into your vision and embody it, especially if you think it sounds crazy, too big, or too impossible in our current world.
You will likely face resistance both from the outer world, and from the voices inside you that question your own worthiness and potential. You will be asked to face imposter syndrome, and anything that holds you back from trusting your vision. However, fear and resistance is not something to "overcome" or get rid of. It is something to listen and respond to. What messages disempower you, and how can you be in deeper relationship with your shadow in the process of becoming who you truly are? ​
The process of activating your vision requires understanding that what you do is as important as how you do it. Many of us have good intentions that are still entrenched in legacies of oppressive work values and distorted ideas of what success looks like and how it is achieved. You are being called to embody your vision with integrity to values that are consistent with your offering and your soul's desires.
How can bringing your vision into the world be a process filled with ease and delight? How can you develop a strong sense of awareness and boundaries around harmful business culture, while navigating branding, social media, and the logistics of reaching your community? You can stand in deep integrity while marketing in a way that honors the laws of sacred reciprocity. You can make your vision manifest without participating in the hustle or the grind. This requires a process of re-imaginging work with people your love and trust in collaboration, trusting your inner authority and in the larger web of interconnection. A support system is necessary in navigating a new way.
Activating Your Vision: leadership for a new story
Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
The ordination ceremony will take place over five days in the sacred red rock canyons of Ghost Ranch. The landscape of Ghost Ranch – made famous by painter Georgia O’Keeffe – spans over 21,000 acres of towering rock walls, guarded by elegant vultures, and home to cottonwoods, dinosaur fossils, and deep layers of indigenous history. Invitations, wanderings, councils, rituals, ceremonies at one of the most sacred and stunning places on earth.
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Tuition, food and lodging for this required aspect of the program is included in the fees. ​
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An alternate location will be held in British Columbia (specific details TBD, just to let you know it's on the table!)
in-person ordination ceremony
Ordination is an embodied ritual. A vision becomes manifest in participation with the corporeal world — the land and your human community. An in-person ceremony is requisite for your wild ordination, located either in New Mexico or British Columbia.
October 27 - November 1, 2024
This five night, four day Ordination Ceremony is included in the program. Fees include tuition, certification, lodging.
GHOST RANCH, NEW MEXICO, USA
October 2024
An alternate on-land option in Canada will be offered if needed. In any case, tuition, lodging and food are included.
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA (TBD)
Wild Ordination
For alumni of Seminary of the Wild/Earth
ONLINE: Mondays 12-2 pm PACIFIC,
January 8, 2024 - August 19, 2024
ONLAND: October 27 - November 1, 2024 Ghost Ranch, British Columbia TBD (early October)
$4500
Fees include tuition for online and in-person programs, 1:1 mentoring, guided council groups, lodging and food at closing ceremony
After acceptance to the program, a non-refundable $450 deposit will ensure your spot in the cohort. Balance due before program begins. Payment plans are available.