CEREMONY IS MEDICINE
Part 2: the biology of belonging
Designing rituals that cultivate individual and collective health
A free, online workshop series exploring the ancient technologies that help us remember how to belong
This talk has grown into a series!
Part 1 was an introduction:
What is ceremony and why do we need it?
Part 2 will focus on the natural calendars of the seasons and our bodies:
The biology of belonging
When you register for part 2 you will also receive the recording of part 1. Please register again for part 2 even if you came to part 1, in order to receive the new zoom link for Aug 30.
Human beings have always needed ceremony.
Healthy relationships require places where we can gather to grieve, celebrate, remember, give thanks, make meaning, and renew our commitments to one another and to life itself.
Across cultures and throughout history, ceremony has helped people navigate life's thresholds, strengthen communities, cultivate resilience, and remember our place within the larger web of life.
Ceremony is one of humanity's oldest forms of medicine.
Yet many of us have inherited a culture in which ceremony has become rare, transactional, or disconnected from everyday life.
Without meaningful ritual, we often move through profound transitions without being witnessed, struggle to metabolize grief and change, and lose touch with the rhythms that sustain health.
Health is not created in isolation. Health is directly connected to the quality of our relationships. Ceremony offers a living practice for tending those relationships with care, attention, creativity, and intention.
Ceremony is an ancient human technology that reminds us how to pay attention.
It invites us to slow down enough to notice what is alive within us and around us. It reminds us that we are participants in a living world rather than separate from it.
In this series we explore:
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why human beings have always needed ritual and ceremony, and what happens when they disappear from our lives
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ceremony as a practice of cultivating healthy relationships rather than simply performing symbolic acts
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how ritual supports resilience, belonging, healing, and collective wellbeing
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the relationship between ceremony, seasonality, and the natural calendar
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how the turning of the seasons offers an ongoing invitation to renewal, gratitude, grief, celebration, and transformation
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the relational elements that give ceremony its power—including art, music, storytelling, oratory, silence, movement, food, and the presence of the natural elements
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practical principles for designing meaningful ceremonies that emerge from authentic relationship rather than rigid formulas
There will also be time to reflect, share, and explore together.
This workshop is open to everyone.
No previous experience with ritual, ceremony, spirituality, or religion is needed.
The practices we explore are rooted in universal human capacities that belong to all of us.
When we gather intentionally to honor life, loss, transition, gratitude, or the turning of the seasons, we strengthen the lines of relation that build our lives and connect us—to ourselves, to each other, and to the larger web of life.
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A few words from a participant in a recent ceremony:
“In your guidance I feel safe, I feel seen and I feel interconnected with something greater. Thanks for the inspiration.”
-Rikke Libak, 49
About Naomi
I am a ritualist, educator, and artist working at the threshold between ancient ceremonial traditions and somatic practice. My work focuses on collective healing by reawakening our relational awareness in response to an isolating culture.
My practice is rooted in a central question: how can ritual—understood as a relational, embodied way of knowing—be restored as a vital force in human culture?
I have spent the past 15 years exploring how traditional designs renew themselves, engaging ancient healing modalities to become accessible to people who have grown up in western culture. I am an internationally recognized ceremonial leader, and have guided hundreds of people in retreats, workshops and sacred ceremonies across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East over the past decade. My work unfolds within an ongoing apprenticeship of over 15 years with Carmen Vicente, spiritual leader from the high Andes of Ecuador.
The Details
Sunday, August 30
11 AM ET/5 PM CET
Zoom link will be sent to everyone who registers.
We will send a recording, but please note that we will only record part of the class in order to protect participants' privacy. Best to attend live if you can.
How to Join
Register using the form below. You’ll get access to what you need, including the recording from part 1. It is not necessary to watch part 1 in order to participate in part 2, but it will definitely support your understanding of the topic.
Although this topic is related to many of my other offerings, I am not trying to sell you anything. I deeply believe that we all deserve to have a healthy relationship with ceremony and I want to offer this in support.
When you register, you subscribe. You’ll receive a few emails covering a number of related topics, so you get a sense of who I am and whether I can help you. You’ll also receive my weekly newsletter as a subscriber.