What do you see when you hear a story?

Compelling stories provoke us to envision a larger tale. They awaken our senses, cohere our hearts, and stir our souls. When enacted ceremoniously – with a mosaic of gestures, sounds, tastes and imagery – our stories unfold as a beautiful witnessing. Your ceremony begins in the asking:  How do I want to bear witness to this moment?

If such a question has led you here, welcome. If you have yet to even formulate a question, welcome. As the poet Rumi beckons, “come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.”

Ceremony makes space for all three places of being – looking back in order to honor the pathways that led us here, paying homage to what is, and welcoming our future meanderings.

Testament to the power of ceremonial time is that it can hold past, present and future so seamlessly. The ancient Greeks called it Kairos time, meaning “the supreme moment,” as a way to distinguish these moments from Chronos or ordinary time. This mode of timekeeping is fitting. We intuit certain moments to be infinitely more extraordinary than others. I have come to name these as waypoints because I believe they encourage reflection, encompass wisdom, and embody direction.

Lending pause at these waypoints is a necessary and healthy response. To do so is to pay tribute, catch one’s breath, and acknowledge our peak life experiences of joy or sorrow as times when the ground might feel like a leaping board or conversely, unstable; and when the way forward might seem scary or uncertain.

When we commemorate these passage points along the way, we say yes to chronicling the journey, we say yes to celebrating what it means to be human, we say yes to marking the moment meaningfully, and we say yes to distinguishing these events as our most noteworthy experiences.

Ritualized moments are powerful performative utterances and they are what allow us to cross life’s thresholds with a greater sense of ease, wellbeing, and gratitude. This collective yes forms the cornerstone of what it means to say the day RITE, in whatever way feels most right for you.

From Question to Quest.

No matter your intentions or life moment in question, I invite you to make yourself at home here at my waypoint on the web. Gather inspiration for your ceremonial basket, prepare to be amazed and excited by the endless possibilities that ceremonies afford us, and truth or dare yourself to imagine how together we might co-conspire your moment to life. And by all means both necessary and noble, grant yourself the permission to ask the beautiful, unasked questions that have earned the right to be seen, heard, and celebrated ceremoniously!

So feel free to poke around, read a bit about me and why I truly, madly, deeply love this work; and then go ahead and acquaint yourself with this art form called celebrancy (not to be confused with celibacy) and what makes my work in the world especially special (hint: you).

And speaking of special, check out the Ceremonies page for a full spectrum glimpse of ceremonies from birth to earth. Then, once you’ve done all that and feel ready, drop me a line here.

Because at the end of this exploration, will be for you to arrive back from whence you started…with a curious inkling of a question and a ceremony in your heart that wants to be spoken in your own unforgettable way.

What more can I say but that I’m all ears. Let’s chat!

Yours in Waypointing,

Danna

 
Danna Schmidt
Soul Practitioner & Ceremonialist 

When a question is posed ceremoniously, the universe responds.”
Chinese Proverb

I live and lead ceremonies upon the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish (dxʷdəwʔabš),
the first peoples of this Coast Salish region, and to whom I pay rent.
I am committed to working for a world without oppression.