My birthday is fast approaching and I’ve been thinking about initiations, and what it is to be initiated. The dictionary states that:

Initiation: the act of beginning something
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is ‘reborn’ into a new role.

These past few years we’ve all undertaken some deep initiations through various tricky thresholds dealing with covid (and all that entailed) and life thereafter.

And as I journey into my 49th year I have been diving deeply into my own initiation rites to support my transition into Menopause. Still deep in my perimenopause journey, over the past few years I have been reading many supportive books, attending courses and submerging myself in myth and story that has helped to support me in this underworld place I find myself in, one of unknowns that is ever changing. My own personal Wintering is in progress and I’m surrendering to it fully.

At this time, I’ve been reflecting on other times and events in my life that have been initiatory for me, times when I’ve shed skin and been reborn.

In the journey from maiden to mother, leaving home (at 16! Eek), starting work, when travelling, getting married, through pregnancy, post-natally, my first time supporting a birth… moving to a new country during covid (like you do!) … so many different rites of passage that I have passed through over the years and that have been marked in different ways that have changed me.

A ‘rite de passage’ (as coined by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep) marks the end of one phase and the start of another, but it is also deeply connected to the ‘act of ceremony’ that we see as ritual.

And so ritual then becomes a space for a new way of seeing. We might use a ritual day to day in our own lives to support ourselves as we journey through a right of passage or we might create and utilise a ritual in a shared ceremony of some sort, to celebrate an ending, a beginning or a threshold of change.

A ritual practice often offers us a moment of presence, of connection, of sharing a moment in time that is full of attention and care that can help to support us through a tricky transition, or it could provide us with supportive tools, daily rituals, that can help us in our lives to stay present and connected with ourselves and our own truth.

My upcoming Womb Love Initiation course is an initiation into a menstruality mindset.

“Menstruality is our own built-in route to self-kindness, actualisation, power and spirituality. And yes, it is a real word, it was coined by New Zealand psychotherapist Jane Catherine Severn to describe the arc of experience between our first and last period, between menarche and menopause.”
– Kate Codrington

Into menstrual cycle awareness, into cyclical living and into deep connection with your own inherent body rhythms, ebbs and flows of energy, into your own power and wisdom.

“We are already coded for balance, for health, for power with no need for systems or interventions or other people telling us what’s wrong with us; like the good witch Glenda said: You had the power all along.”
– Kate Codrington

The Womb Love Initiation course (in my humble opinion) is a must for all women and I don’t have all the answers, you do. I’m simply here to share my own experience, practices and insight and to guide you into your own full bloom. My own initiation into cyclical living, womb wisdom and menstruality began many years ago and now still new layers of learning reveal themselves. The learning never stops.

So wherever you are in your journey through womanhood, you are welcome to join us. We co-create the course together through our shared wisdom. You are never too young or old to start, the course meets you where you are at.

“I only wish that I had done this course 30 years ago when I was starting out on my journey through womanhood. The information and techniques I learned would have served me so well. However, I’m so glad I did it now and I would recommend it to all women right through to perimenopause. Lara is such a knowledgeable, caring teacher and mentor and her ability to hold everyone in a circle, even online, is fantastic.”
– Sarah

I’d love to hear your thoughts on initiation and I hope this helps with any big transitions you are navigating right now.

“Life itself initiates each of us according to our own peculiar stories. Our stories lead us toward our purpose in this world. Each initiation strips something away and gives us a gift. If we want to meet our full form, we are obligated to give that gift to the world.”
– Amanda Yates Garcia, Initiated: Memoir of a Witch