A Ceremonial Journey of Grief, Shadow & Devotion with Hekate…
In times of uncertainty and collapse, grief becomes both our wound and our medicine.
At the Crossroads, we journey into sacred company to face what has been lost, acknowledge what has been harmed, and dream into what longs to be reborn. Guided by the wisdom of the Goddess Hekate, the ancient Guardian of Crossroads and Thresholds, we gather in ceremony to tend our grief, explore our shadows, and kindle hope in the dark. Drawing on Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief and the many epithets of Hekate, we will be guided through the sacred shadows and the myriad ways grief touches our lives, transforming sorrow into a source of deep belonging and renewal.
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This is a hybrid, semi-distanced ceremonial program blending communal ceremony, grief alchemy, deep personal healing, ritual, magical practices, herbal wisdom and Hekatean devotion.
​Why Grief, Why Now?
The world is aching. Grief reverberates through the air waves and lives in the heart beat of our planet. We are living through climate collapse, political unrest, genocide, war, and the unsteady future of our country and planet. Grief is the current that runs through each of our lives individually, and collectively. Our bodies and spirits are carrying a collective weight of sorrow–much of which we’ve never been taught how to hold or process.
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Grief is not meant to be a private ache. We were never meant to carry such immense grief alone. Learning to tend our grief with others repairs the connective tissue of community, and lays the seedbed of resilience. When we learn to honor and tend our grief, we are not only healing ourselves– we are helping to heal the fabric of humanity and consciousness itself.
This is the work our times demand. This is the work Hekate calls us toward.
What's Included in At the Crossroads...
We will explore our shadows, the Gates of Grief and our relationship with Hekate through many gateways of experience: poetry and prose to give language to the unspeakable, somatic practices to release grief held in the body, creative expression and song to move it through the hands, heart and voice, invocation and inquiry to open dialogue with the Sacred and the Shadows, and ritual practices that engage every sense.
This is a multisensory and multidimensional journey, weaving song, movement, image, word, herbal allies and heart presence so that grief can be tended not only with the mind, but with the whole being.​​
​Day-Long In-Person Retreats…
We will join together in sacred community, for three different in-person, day-long retreats at Paca Pride in Granite Falls, WA.
Our day-long in-person retreats are immersive ceremonies where we step fully into the sacred container of community and communal grief tending. Through ritual, song, movement practices, soul inquiry, and grief ceremonies, we create space for the raw, embodied expression of sorrow and longing.
Our retreats will include Grief Rituals that draw from the lineage and wisdom shared by Sobonfu Somé of the Dagara people of Burkina Faso. These rituals provide a powerful and transformative opportunity to grieve, wail, and express sorrow and anger–while being deeply held in the mycelial web of community.
These day-long retreats offer spacious time for deep ceremony, embodied release, and being witnessed in the fullness of our humanity, all held with reverence, safety, and the guiding presence of Hekate.
Cauldron Fire Retreat at Paca Pride
Samhain Dark Moon Hekate Ritual
​​Please note that due to the semi-distance and hybrid nature of this program, you do not need to live in the Western Washington Area! All that is needed is the ability to travel to Granite Falls, WA for our retreats (carpooling will be encouraged and coordinated).
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For folks coming from out of town, or those wanting to stay the night, there is an option to stay at Paca Pride in one of their delightful yurt spaces or guestrooms.
(At an additional cost. Please book directly through the Paca Pride Website.).
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Paca Pride has also recently added their Bathing Pavilion, featuring soaking tubs, sauna, and a wood fired Hot Tub that will be available for participants to use before or after our retreats!
The Roundhouse Yurt at Paca Pride in Granite Falls, WA
Virtual Circles…
We will also meet virtually on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month from 6:30–8:30pm pst, on Zoom.
Our virtual circles will create a steady rhythm of gathering in community across the distance. Together we engage in guided meditations, altar practices, and invocations of Hekate, alongside grief tending rituals, embodied practices, and shared reflection.
These circles are touchstones of support and connection—spaces to deepen your personal practice, be witnessed in your unfolding, and a place to begin weaving your grief into the larger tapestry of communal healing.
Online Temple Space & At Home Practice…
To support the ongoing work and exploration of the Gates of Grief and Hekatean Devotion, we will have an Online Temple Space.
The Online Temple is a sacred digital hearth where you can return each week for nourishment and guidance. Here you’ll receive prayers, ritual practices, and reflection prompts to help you deepen with the Gates of Grief and your living relationship with Hekate. This space offers continuity and companionship between our gatherings—a place to tend your altar, track your journey, and feel held within the wider community of seekers and grievers walking this path.
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You will also receive a guidebook and supplies for rituals for at-home practice and deepening.
The Path We Will Walk…
This is a hybrid, semi-distanced ceremonial program blending communal ceremony, grief alchemy, deep personal healing, ritual, magical practices, herbal wisdom and Hekatean devotion.
Together, we will move through the Five Gates of Grief (inspired by Francis Weller’s teachings), plus a 6th gate–supported by mythic threads, ritual practices, and deep soul inquiry to move through the many faces and facets of grief.
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We will also be accessing and exploring the wisdom, magic and love of Hekate at each gate and every step on this journey. We will explore the different names and faces of Hekate through her ancient, literary, and spiritual epithets.
(There are 150+ documented epithets (or names) from the Orphic Hymns, The Greek Magical Papyri, The Chaldean Oracles, and others documented by Cyndi Brannen)
Throughout our journey, we will also call upon plant and herbal allies as companions in the work of grief and shadow. We will get to know the spirit, medicine, and wisdom of 8 different plants that will help inform and support our grief exploration.
Why Hekate???​
Hekate the Goddess of the Crossroads, has long been honored as Guardian of Thresholds, Keeper of Keys, and Torchbearer through the dark. Hekate is the one who walks beside those who dwell in the in-between: between life and death, endings and beginnings, the known and unknown.
In Greek mythology, Hekate is considered to not just be a Goddess, but a primordial Titan whose dominion is over magic, the night, and the underworld. Across centuries, she has been worshipped and invoked as guide, gatekeeper, and protector in times of great uncertainty, holding her torches high to illuminate what is hidden in the shadows. In these times of upheaval and collective grief, she has been summoning her children, calling us to tend our shadows, release what no longer serves, and alchemize our grief into medicine for ourselves and for the world.
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Hekate invites us into our own shadows to see the unseeable, name the unnameable, and face the unfaceable. She teaches us that it is by journeying into our own darkness, we will be able to generate our own light.
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​Statue of Hekate by Godsnorth that stands at the Fire in the Belly Alchemy CAVE.
As part of this journey, we will call on her many faces and names—her ancient epithets—to walk with us through the gates of grief, deepening our relationship with her mysteries and letting her wisdom guide our descent and return.
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To work with grief is to stand at the crossroads; to walk with Hekate is to know we are not alone on this journey..
Financial Investment for At The Crossroads...
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To make At the Crossroads as accessible for as many people as possible, I am offering the investment on a tiered basis, honoring both the true cost of the container and the realities of inequity.
I invite you to determine the appropriate financial investment for you.
If you need help determining what tier is correct for you, feel free to use this tool.
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The Fair Access and base exchange for At The Crossroads is $2,000 total--which includes all supplies, facilitation costs, space rentals, online platform fees, retreat snacks, guidebooks, ritual kits and more.​ Extended payment plans are available.
Need an even more extended payment plan to make this offering accessible??
Let me know when you apply!
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Who This Program is For...​
This journey is for grievers of all kinds—those mourning the death or dying process of loved ones, walking through illness or changes of the body, grieving relationships or identities that have shifted, carrying the weight of ancestral trauma, or those who are feeling the sorrow of the Earth and the collective in these turbulent times. Whatever face grief wears in your life, it is welcome in this circle.
We welcome grievers of all kinds:
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Those grieving loss, collapse, or transition–either personal or collective
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Seekers ready to explore shadow work or heal trauma in community
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Devotees, witches, mystics, and those drawn to Hekate’s magic
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Anyone longing to feel less alone in these times of rupture
You do not need prior ceremony or grief-tending experience. You also do not need to have a previous relationship with Hekate or knowledge of earth-based spiritual traditions to participate in the medicine of this container.
You only need an open mind, an open heart and a willingness to show up honestly, bravely, & vulnerably.
You are invited to arrive exactly as you are -- with all your pieces and your parts, your shadow and your light.
About your Head Witch for this Container….
Avah Lux Yeruka Anu (Annie Herring, MA) she/her is a ceremonialist, alchemist, priestess, transformational guide and sacred space holder devoted to guiding others through life’s sacred thresholds of transformation, shadow, and renewal.
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For twenty years, Anu has been walking an earth-based spiritual path, with Hekate as one of her main guides. With over two decades of experience creating and facilitating safe and sacred group spaces, rituals and ceremonies, Anu’s work is rooted in ancestral lineages as well as contemporary trauma-informed ceremonial practice.
Anu holds a Master’s Degree in Women’s Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies where she studied directly with Sobonfu Somé, among many other renowned wisdom keepers. She has also completed a Grief Tending mentorship at Sacred Groves with Laurence Cole, Thérèse Charvet, and Mary Hart. ​​
Anu’s “apprenticeship with grief,” as Francis Weller describes it, has been an initiatory journey shaped by chronic illness, chronic pain, living as a queer and neurodivergent witch, and the profound passage of losing both parents within the past two years.
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Through ceremony, song, guided meditation, potent self-inquiry and communal ritual, Anu creates spaces where sorrow is honored as sacred, where the unseen is given voice, and where grief becomes a portal into connection, belonging, and transformation.
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Anu will be joined by other seasoned shadow workers and experienced grief tenders to help hold this powerful container, together.
Step Into the Crossroads...
If your heart is heavy with grief, if you are standing on the threshold of the unknown, if you are ready to transform your sorrow into sacred ground…you are invited to join us at the Crossroads.
Together, we will grieve.
Together, we will remember.
Together, we will kindle the flame of hope in the dark.​
Step into grief as initiation. Step into your shadows for liberation. Step into the arms of Hekate.
Step into the work our world is calling us toward.​
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The journey begins November 2nd!
