Women’s Rites of Passage

Initiated Woman Course & Gatherings

The Call of Initiation for Girls & Women

Join Dr Mendy Neralic for seven weekly gatherings, to welcome you into a clan of diverse women, all working towards the call to initiation.

This 7-week journey combines pre-recorded content—including audio teachings, video modules, and guided practices—with the richness of weekly live calls, where we gather in real-time to reflect, share, and deepen into the mythic ground of the Persephone–Demeter–Hecate story that underpins the course.

You are invited to choose between two pathways of engagement [see the Syllabus below]:

  • COURSE (Self-Study Only) – access to all pre-recorded content to explore in your own time.

  • COURSE + GATHERINGS (Self-Study + Live Dialogue) – full access to the content plus participation in weekly live calls, offering a held, dialogical space to integrate and expand your experience in community.

an offering of space and time to engage with wisdoms, practices, rituals, stories, and dialogue that activate the Initiated woman archetype.

An experiential offering - to dabble with, gather and explore essentials that will act as balms and fortifiers for your past, present, and future efforts to return to unfinished passages, re-story your experiences, and re-emerge through the passages. 

These provisions are to support you as you navigate and re-navigate Passages by calling in and catalysing the qualities of the Initiated Woman within, supporting personal and collective efforts for healing and change, and enriching your daily, creative, and spiritual life.

Details

  • During these gatherings, Dr. Mendy will introduce you to the archetype of the Initiated Woman by sharing methods, practices, and experiences to enhance your personal and collective connection to the Initiated Woman as an inner guide— and to do this in dialogue, connection, and community with others.

    Please note, this workshop is not about guiding you through the archetypal Passages, but is important preparation for Passage Work.

  • The lack of knowledge about the archetypal journey of initiation has left girls and women without proper guidance and resources to support them as they travel through the ups and downs of life. 

    These gatherings will offer a template for the development and nurturing of core skills, qualities, and attitudes, helping to bolster confidence, create inner strength, and tap into source creativity and intelligence—fortifying these journeys and the quest for awareness.

  • Women who wish to understand the archetypal cycle of growth and initiation into womanhood across the lifespan. 

    It’s for women who want to tap into the core qualities of being Initiated Women so they can continue to explore, weave, and nurture this seed wisdom into their daily lives, relationships, and communities.

Join the Waitlist

JOIN THE WAITLIST TO BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEXT GATHERING DATES IN MID 2025.

The Syllabus

Session #2 | Breath & Body

We learn that the Initiated Woman is embodied. We explore the breath and the body as essentials; in their capacity to gather disparate thoughts, energies, and histories and to help us come home. We connect with a sense of inner strength, power, and vitality, and locate our core - and experiment with how we can operate from there. We explore the metaphor of the Tree as intimate with the cycles of life and movement through the Passages, and the Tree of Life as a way to map our journey through the Gatherings. 

We deepen into the Myth - part 1

Session #3 | Mind & Heart

We learn that the Initiated Woman has an agile mind and seeks the truth. We reimagine our mind. We explore the spells we are under and play with the seeds of re-storying as spell-breakers. We build knowledge about the dynamic relationship between what we know and don't know about ourselves and our world, and explore themes and practices in ways of seeing, knowing, our public self, secrets, and hiding. We play with tenderising the heart to tap into a Greater Source through prayer - developing questions and telling stories to help lead us toward a new theology with the gravitas to hold the great Mystery—beyond new-age spirituality and patriarchal dogma.

We deepen into the Myth - part 2

Session #4 | Depth & voice

We learn the Initiated Woman’s domain is liminality. We see how the mind works best when it is holistic, with reason and logic, imagination, and symbols, all acting in friendship with each other.  We reframe intuitive wisdom as a power. We are guided in how to work with a dream and play by dialoging (with each other) and the dream elements and characters. We explore ritual as theatre— acts that bring the symbolic and inexplicable into the world.

We learn that the Initiated Woman Speaks from her core and listens deeply — she has gravitas. We understand and value women’s ‘different voice’. We understand and value your ‘original voice’ as ‘original medicine’. We learn how to discern these from the voice of the culture and retrieve them from exile.

We deepen into the Myth - part 3

Session #5 | Creativity & Expression

We learn that the Initiated Woman is androgynous. We explore creativity and art, beyond what we commonly think of as such, to ensure we live a creative life. We discover "our project", and learn to recognise the Inspiritrix when they come. We come to understand and honour the creative cycle and learn to tend the creative fire. We reframe creative practice and discipline as bringing forward a healthy inner masculine force that supports and encourages your feminine nature.

We deepen into the Myth - part 4 

Session #6 | collaboration & new mythologies

We learn that the Initiated Woman does not work alone - she is part of a triptych of the Wise-Wise-Initiated. We remember that the Initiated Woman archetype shows us the ways and means of going through the Passages - the rites and practices of initiation. We'll work with the Stages of Change. We deepen into re-storying. We understand the value in writing a new life myth. We remember that we grow and transform in collaboration and by building mutual networks - that only initiated women initiate other girls and women. We begin planning for the closing ritual and ceremony.

We deepen into the Myth - part 5.

Session #7 | Closing Ceremony

We learn that the Initiated Woman Archetype is always available to us. We close our work in ritual and ceremony. We prepare for Life after Liminality. We articulate what has been alchemising across the Gathering time and space so we can bring the energy and character of the Initiated Woman into our lives and communities. We frame how the Initiated Woman Archetype can be used in Passage work - our initiations and reinitiations of incomplete, current and future Rites of Passage. 

We explore how the reimagined Myth can work through us in mythic imagination - Final.

Bonuses & Supplements

Recordings

Each Zoom gathering will be 60-75 minutes and will be recorded and available for all paid participants who cannot make it live or who wish to re-watch the videos at their own pace.

PDF Worksheets

Downloadable PDF worksheets will provide additional information to support and deepen the experience.

FAQs

  • Allow around 60–90 minutes per week to engage with the pre-recorded content (audio/video + practices). They are offered as smaller ‘bite-sized’ mini-lessons and practices. If you are doing self-study only, you can manage your own schedule. If you are doing self-study + live calls, you can do a little each day, or all at once, to cover the content before the live call. The live calls are approximately 60-75 minutes long.

  • All live sessions are recorded and made available within 24-48 hours. You’ll still have access to the reflections and shared material even if you can’t join in real-time.

  • You’ll have lifetime access* to the self-study content. Recordings of the live dialogue sessions will be available for 6 weeks after the final session, to allow for revisiting and integration.

    * this is for as long as the material remains relevant and hosted.

  • Absolutely. The course is designed to be accessible for both newcomers and those familiar with symbolic or archetypal exploration. All key themes are introduced with clarity, and you’re encouraged to engage at your own depth and pace. If you are interested in an ongoing exploration of Women’s Rites of Passage, this course is a prerequisite and good preparation.

  • The course includes optional guided practices in breathwork, movement, or yoga-inspired somatic exploration. Please listen to your body and energy levels, and make any necessary adaptations. If you are working with an injury, medical condition, or complex trauma, you’re encouraged to consult a healthcare provider before beginning these practices.

  • Yes. This offering is open to participants worldwide. All live sessions are scheduled with time zones in mind and recordings are available to accommodate global participation.

  • No, this course is not a therapeutic service. While it invites personal reflection and may feel deeply meaningful, it is not a replacement for therapy. If you are currently under the care of a mental health professional, be guided by their advice as to whether this course is appropriate for you. Please seek professional support if you are navigating significant emotional distress.

  • The live option closes on the day the Gatherings begin. If you change your mind before this date, reach out and we can amend your enrollment. After this date the Gatherings are closed. Other live Gatherings will be offered at different times of the year. Stay subscribed to hear about these offers.

  • Not at all. We’ll enter the myth together, in stages. It will be offered in a way that’s alive and resonant, even if it’s your first time encountering it.

  • Yes, this course is curated for women and those who identify with feminine rites of passage and have had the encultured experience of girlhood and womanhood.

Recorded Practices

Supplementary resources can be found in the course material, including breathwork, meditation, visualization, movement, and yoga practices.

Session #1 | OPENING & belonging

We begin. We meet each other. We open with a simple ritual to set our intentions for making meaning together. We cross the threshold and establish ourselves as rooted and tendrilled to Self, the community, and to timeless wisdom as an anchor to the work. We explore our raw experience of the Initiated Woman Archetype.

We meet the myth: Persephone ~ Demeter ~ Hecate