Rites of Passage Council

12/22/2025

https://kedarsbrown.substack.com/p/winter-solstice-gathering

As I sat in my medicine room to write having no idea what I would write about, I found myself in a memory as if it were my own but from another time and place.

10/15/2025

Come join us for this very unique clinical training experience!

"This healing process has been informed by the integration of 65 years of my lived experience and 40 years as a rites of passage ceremonial wilderness guide, body centered psychotherapist, shamanic practitioner, elemental ritual process facilitator, intuitive cowry shell diviner, certified Hakomi Bo...

12/31/2024

https://www.quantumevolutionschool.com/medicine-wheel

Medicine Wheel Spiritual Technology For Healing & Belonging Guided by Kedar S. Brown January 22 to March 12th, 2025

10/31/2024

Dear Friends and Community,

As many of you may be aware, Rites of Passage Council is located near Asheville, North Carolina along the Ivy River.

This area like so many others in Western North Carolina was devastated by the hurricane. Like everyone in the area beginning the afternoon of September 27th, we too scrambled to ensure the safety of family and friends under the challenges of no power, no communications and no water.

Roads everywhere were impassable and many remained in immediate danger. I have witnessed and heard stories time and again of the love of our greater community responding with heroism, generosity and kindness. Now four weeks after the hurricane many areas are still without drinking water and the losses of so many will never be recovered.

In Gratitude for the amazing responsiveness and care of our First Responders here and in the surrounding counties we recognize the great difficulty they have of managing their own personal losses as they respond to the challenges of those in our community.

Rites of Passage Council has partnered with Living Medicine Institute and Responder Support Services to offer the first two-day retreat for these first responders to help them in dealing with the traumas they have experienced as part of their jobs caring for our community.

Here is a video from Asheville’s local news on October 24th featuring Rick Baker, one of our retreat sponsors and founder of Responder Support Services discussing the mental health of our local first responders:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zsVWjCuZYKQiBH-pk3btRoRQHXmEIEtE/view?usp=sharing

Our immediate donation needs:

To support this programming and help us recover from the hurricane disaster here in Western North Carolina we are directing donation funds for the following immediate needs:

-Providing the first two-day nature retreat in our area for first responders to assist them in dealing with PTSD-related trauma associated with search and rescue efforts. The first of these retreats is scheduled for Nov. 1-3. ($8000)

-Clean-up efforts along the river. ($5000)

-Our gravel road to the barn where we offer our outdoor programing has been greatly impacted by the storm and will need to be regraded in specific areas. ($5000)

-Our spring fed water system failed, and we need to install a well pump in a previously dug well and run an underground line 700ft to fill the existing reservoir. ($9000)

-Septic Field Installation ($5000)

We greatly appreciate your support during this time. Please feel free to share this campaign with anyone who may be interested in supporting this work and our organization.

Rites of Passage Council is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.

DONATE HERE:
https://donorbox.org/hurricane-helene-recovery-update-request-for-support

Dear Friends and Community, As many of you may be aware, Rites of Passage Council is located near Asheville, North Carolina along the Ivy River. This area like so many others in Western North Carolina was devastated by the hurricane. Like everyone...

07/04/2024

Sharing some kind words from a past Quester, Meg. 🙏🏼 If her words are resonating, and you want to act, please look at our upcoming events from the link in our bio!

07/04/2024

Unexpressed grief, like all forms of energy, has to move. It searches for a way out of the box in which we have attempted to lock it. Grief needs to be seen and heard, given to dance and song, our experiences of loss acknowledged as profound rites of passage in our lives. Grief is the continued conversation of love.

Join us for an Ancestral Grief Ritual near Toronto, Canada at the end of July! Circle with others holding profound space for grief and allow yourself to honor and move your grief in community ✨ More info in Bl0!

05/22/2024

In 2 hours!! Join us for a free evening of poetry & conversations about the various reservoirs of grief that we all carry and how to honor them✨

Register here to join us for the free online event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqcO2sqDwqHtdatEIXVE66rJ71YNrKd_VI

We live in a culture skewed to the expression of joy and enthusiasm and avoidant of grief and emotions considered “negative”. Grief is as natural a part of the human experience as are all our emotions - just as night is to daylight. Yet grief in our culture is often run underground, hidden behind shame and denial, left to fester in the further recesses of our psyche without the same loving attention and open sharing we offer to our more jubilant emotions.

Unexpressed grief, like all forms of energy, has to move. It searches for a way out of the box in which we have attempted to lock it. Grief needs to be seen and heard, given to dance and song, our experiences of loss acknowledged as profound rites of passage in our lives. Grief is the continued conversation of love.

Circle with us around the virtual fire for this rich conversation with Rites of Passage Council founder Kedar Brown!

Register here to join us for the free online event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqcO2sqDwqHtdatEIXVE66rJ71YNrKd_VI