Rites of passage

Human life is imprinted by change, whether we like it or not. As the wheel turns we enter new life stages. To mark these passages through ritual is as old as humankind itself. It supports us to be awake to the fact we are alive, to honour the gathering of experience and grief that comes with it, and to play a meaningful role in the fabric of our communities and as inhabitants of this Earth.

Coming up:

April 5th-7th - The Third Ear Festival: The Wolf Within

August 22nd-28th 2024 & October 2nd-5th 2024 - WILDKATZEN rites of passage

The Third Ear Festival:

The Wolf Within

The invitation

The relationship between us humans and the wolf is an old one. Few animals have been so alive in our collective imagination, dreams and shamanic experiences throughout times as the wolf. The relationship is an ambiguous one, characterized by both fear and longing. In fairy tales we hear as children the big bad wolf shows up and instills us with dread. At the same time we are fascinated and drawn to its strength and loyalty. The return of the wolf to Europe has been hailed by some, cursed by others. Whichever way, we can’t seem to be indifferent to its howl.

During this festival we explore the wolf within. Where do you experience a sense of belonging? Where is the pack you are running with? When are you the lone wolf solitarily under the pregnant moon? Or maybe you’re a domestic dog after all…

What to expect

The Third Ear is a three day long hybrid festival to gather around our belonging in otherness. We will take our queer bodies out on the land to listen to the wolf within and bring back the wisdom of the in between.

Expect to:

Be in solitude on the land
Howl at your queer community
Explore the wolf within

DAY 1
Festival opening
We will gather online in our intercontinental queer community for a conversation about the festival theme and prepare for our time out on the land.

DAY 2
We all go and sit out in a solo ceremony, exploring the land locally.

DAY 3
We meet again online and gather around our virtual hearth for storytelling and mirroring.
Festival closing

For whom

The Festival is open to anyone in the global queer community who wants to explore nature base ceremonial work

By whom

The Third Ear Collective - Queering up rites of passage
Carine Red Roth, www.ceuxdici.ch
Lien De Coster, www.leavesoflien.com
Jett Cazeaux, www.queerodyssey.org (our sibling network on turtle island)

Dates & Times

April 5th-7th 2024

Online meetings April 5th 7pm-9pm cet and April 7th 7pm-9pm cet

Location

Online and on the land where you live

Costs

Early Wolf - before March 1st - 99 euro
Alpha Wolf - 125 euro (I'm supporting the pack)
Wolf Cub - 50 euro (I need support from the pack)

Wildkatzen

For youngsters there is a point in life where the world beyond the house of their parents becomes increasingly interesting and the time spent with friends gets more important than the company of their parents.

New questions arise, the longing for belonging and boundaries get stronger and the search for self starts.

For flinta

Are you between 13 and 16 years old and do you recognize this process of change? Then we invite you to spend a week in the forest with us, on the territory of the wild cat. In a simple camp at the lake there is time to track important questions, to exchange about them with others, to be inspired by the life stories of older people and to feel into your dreams.

What are my roots? What inspires me? Who am I and who do I want to be? When do I feel strong and when do I feel weak? Who or what supports me?

We will be outside the whole time, cook over the fire, play, bathe and work with an old northern initiation story that has helped generations of people on their way.

With flinta we are addressing young people identifying as woman, lesbian, inter, non-binary, trans and agender.

You can find more info here (in German).

Dates

August 22nd-28th 2024

October 2nd-5th 2024

To meet death

The story of Carine - tribute to a life artist

Carine van Steen,
March 16th 1948 - August 25th 2020

I see a woman sitting next to the Swedish lakeside for three days and three nights, I see a woman returning from the mountain in the Pyrenees after three days and three nights, I see a woman going on a last sitout in her home country to prepare for the biggest journey of all .

Our sitout tribe has lost one of its most colourful and inspiring members; Carine made her way back to the ancestors. After she got her diagnosis of terminal cancer she decided she wanted to make the last phase of her life into the most beautiful of all and wanted to mark the upcoming rite of passage with a last sitout. She spent one last night on the land in ceremony and touched us all with the way she approached death, in style and out of the box, just as she lived her life. She pointed the way for many of us towards a life where beauty, curiosity, flamboyance and art rule.

Carine, I see you, jumping over the midsummer fire, turning your fall into a ninja roll, I see you, dancing tango on your balcony, your spirit overruling the pain, I see you crying when realizing your tribe was waiting for you to return to base camp, I see you, causing all kind of good trouble on the other side. When I cry, I laugh. Thank you. Thank you.