YOUTH RITES OF PASSAGE

Program for Boys Aged 14, 15, & 16

The 2024 Rites of Passage Initiation Ceremony is scheduled for August 21 - 27, 2024.

Orientation for Families

June 23, 2024 at 10:30 am

Port Townsend, WA

Interested youth and their parents are invited to come meet the facilitators and learn more about the program. Young men who would like to explore participating in our upcoming summer initiation ceremony are also welcomed to attend our regular gatherings of guides and past initiates, which take place monthly. Contact Angelo at (360) 301-1166 or use the contact button below for upcoming dates or to register for Orientation.

RSVP for Orientation

Rites initiation photo.jpeg — Everyone carries gifts, dreams, and wisdom that are vital to the well being of the whole community.

Youth who are honored and held in Rites of Passage Initiations develop a stronger sense of belonging, and discover clarity about their own unique gifts.
Rites of Passage ceremonies contribute directly to the development and embodiment of self worth, empathy, trust, connection, compassion, confidence, expanding awareness of personal impact, responsible use of power, maturity, honor and respect, clarity of purpose, and the congruence of mind, heart, soul and action.
This program is held on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

The Bright Wheel Rites of Passage program is dedicated to:

Honoring the passage of youth into adulthood.
Re-sacralizing the healthy masculine in our culture by normalizing honor and respect, and responsible use of power and privilege.
Offering tools, teachings, and community held experiences that clarify identity and belonging. (Learning about “Who am I?” and “Where is my place in the scheme of things?”)
Empowering authentic expression of feelings, gifts, dreams, and wisdom.
Preparing youth for the rigors of adulthood and the challenges that accompany the pursuit of one’s gifts and callings in life.
Establishing ongoing Rites of Passage initiations in community.
Deepening the connections between young men, their families, communities, the natural world, and their own sense of purpose and belonging.

The Power of Initiation

Traditionally, the four major initiations or passages in life are Birth, Rite of Passage into Adulthood, Marriage/Commitment to Another or to a New Way of Life (taking spiritual vows, for example), and Death.

Many early cultures understood that the well-being of the entire community relied on the ability to prepare, bless, and welcome its members into a world of inherent belonging. When an individual’s longing to belong is thoroughly held and tended in community, the natural response of an initiated adult is to treat others, including nature, with honor and respect.

Within the foundation of all Rites of Passage ceremonies is a fundamental knowing that each person has a unique life dream and the inborn capacity to bring that dream into tangible form. It’s through this expression of each of our gifts that the well-being of all is tended to. Cross culturally, Rites of Passage ceremonies have been practiced and held as essential aspects of life around the world.

Leadership

At this time in history, the world is asking men if we can and will be accountable for our impact and responsible with the power and privilege available to us.

We are called to the question: Will we as men choose to help create safety and a place of belonging for everyone in our communities?

The paramount task of nurturing young men into responsible use of power has never been so clearly requested.

Vision

A Rite of Passage opens the threshold into a new relationship with self, Spirit, nature, and community. It not only provides a vision of one's gifts and dreams, but also prepares an individual for the rigors of transformation that accompany the pursuit of those dreams.

The traditional coming of age ceremony involves removal from one's ordinary day-to-day world. During this period, the initiate experiences a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual challenge that helps to clarify their purpose, strengths, and life dream.

Community

Upon completion of the ritual, the initiated person is reintroduced into the community. This intentional process engages and empowers everyone.

The initiated person’s new insights and strengthened abilities to express their authentic gifts and talents revivifies the whole community. The positive impacts show up for years to come in an increased capacity to maintain healthy and life affirming patterns and relationships.

Ways that Bright Wheel Youth Rites of Passage may be different from other programs:

We are welcoming of all youth that are masculine identifying, regardless of assigned gender at birth.
This program is lineage based. We have been asked by our teachers, elders, and community to provide these ceremonies.
Guides are all initiated and undergo background checks. We also gather and work together for at least 9 months before the initiation.
We provide an initiation for parents for those who are interested.
We have options for mentorship for parents and/or their sons post initiation.
We have ongoing monthly gatherings for all past initiates.
We bridge traditional, indigenous technologies (and have permission to do so) with modern modalities in creative and effective ways.
This program includes perspectives from a diversity of non-masculine identifying individuals. In doing so, we seek to expand our understanding and awareness of privilege and marginalization, and encourage the extension of honor and respect towards all peoples…including ourselves.

The Facilitators

Bright Wheel Rites of Passage is held by a group of local, initiated men committed to the empowerment of future generations in and around Jefferson County, Washington. Lead by Angelo Gatto, the Bright Wheel Rites of Passage program has initiated 35 young men since its inception in 2015.

The 2024 guide group consists of 9 dedicated men who are deeply respected members of our community. We carry an understanding, from decades of collective experience, of the healthy impact of initiatory processes. Those experiences have inspired us to support the rigors of transformation that accompany what Julie Tallard Johnson calls “The Thundering Years”.

Aric Spencer, Derek Falkenhagen, Ashley Kehl, Lucas Schuster, Ralph Riccio, Cameron Withey Byrne, Drew Biel, Jamie Mauk, and Angelo Gatto are this year’s Guides.

Angelo Gatto

In 2007, Angelo began cross-cultural training with Char Sundust in indigenous healing practices, leadership and visionary development, and mentoring. 15 years ago he made a 20 year commitment to Apprentice Char and her mother Matilda Laughing Waters in traditional Lakota Rites of Passage Experiences.

Angelo has been leading,supporting and participating in Rites of Passage ceremonies in Washington State since 2009, including several programs for youth in the Port Townsend area.

Learn more about Angelo here.

Walter Moller

As a Navy veteran, German immigrant, father of two sons, with three granddaughters, this Grandpa brings a diverse and eclectic background to the program - including over six decades of life experience and various unique trainings.

Sixteen years with the Boy Scouts fostered a joy of working with young men, mentoring and encouraging them to blossom into healthy, mature adults. Walter has also done his own personal initiation with the Mankind Project beginning in June of 2011, and has supported them as a Declared Elder within the organization ever since.

Ashley Kehl

Plants are my jam! I was raised by two plant enthusiasts, and now work with my father running Friends of the Trees Botanicals. I like to share my fascination with the natural world with those around me, offering glimpses into the connectedness and profound bounty that surrounds us in wild places.

I am a Father and a Husband, homesteading in Irondale, WA. My older son participated in the last Rights of Passage group, and have been part of crafting this container over the past 8 years. Rights of Passage have had a huge impact on my life, and I feel called to help raise our youth up in a wholesome and celebrated way, inspiring and challenging them to meet the world “head on”.

Max Young

I am 36 years of age and currently living on the Key Peninsula in the south Puget Sound. I graduated with a cultural anthropology degree at Western Washington University and am endlessly fascinated by different cultures, traveling and the diversity that life has to offer. I work with plants for a living, and aspire to have a farm and live as self-sufficient as possible. I’m a lifelong student and lover of nature, for it is my greatest teacher.

Rites of Passage work has been some of the, if not THE, most important and influential work of my life. As someone who lacked guidance, mentoring and relationships with elders growing up, I feel deeply motivated and called to help support youth in their growth and wellbeing.

Derek Falkenhagen

As a father of two young boys myself, there comes an incredible sense of trust and support from remembering it’s not all my responsibility to hold them in every way they need holding. It takes a village to guide and witness our children into adulthood. I choose to be part of this work in service to my truth that we are not alone. My hope is that the brothers of this community will be here to help hold my two boys through this human experience of discovering our natural gifts and realizing our innate wholeness.

My passion for the natural world and love of its wildness has shaped a life of adventure. I have always been drawn to, comfortable, and confident in the wild. I am excited and honored to be part of the Rites of Passage Leadership team this year.

Kenji Glenn

Kenji has a passion for sustainable green principles which are healthy and energy & resource efficient. He built the first permitted strawbale home in Durango Colorado in 1993, and has been a builder for 21 years with Green Builder NW.

The martial art of Aikido, translated as “the way of harmonious spirit”, has been Kenji’s moving meditation practice for over 17 years. He has earned a second-degree black belt, presented by Sensei Paul Becker (beloved deceased).

Kenji was initiated with the Mankind Project in 2004, and co-founded the Monday night Port Townsend i-group in 2005 to present day.

Lucas Schuster

As someone who has experienced a lot of healing and joy through my connection with nature and various spiritual traditions of the world, I feel a will to show up for young people to help them grow into this world in a way that is deeply rooted in their self knowing and connection with those around them, the earth and their spirituality.

I am a young weaver, a Qi gong and meditation practitioner, an artist, and someone who is passionate about living in a beautiful and life giving way, that is mindful of my relationship to all living beings, their wellness, and interdependence.

Drew Biel

Growing up outside of Chicago, there were three, volunteering credos in our family: “Make things happen. See a job, do a job. And always ask how you can help.” As a hyper and distracted young man, however, cultivating the self-awareness, focus, and confidence to embody those principles was easier said than done. I could have really benefited from a Rites of Passage myself.

Now, many decades later, and with two children of my own, it’s an honor to be of service to young men. What better way to create a space for “things to happen” and “do the job” that is so needed in our culture? To mentor, support, and witness them affords me the chance to come full circle and ask, “How can I help?”