About Nornir
Nornir is a small company dedicated to providing customized secular Rites and Rituals of Passage. We offer creative and spiritual services that fall under three primary categories: Arrivals, Transits and Departures. Our belief is that all human beings deserve access to beautiful, authentic and meaningful rituals that resonate with the unique manner they engage with spirit. Nornir provides practical guidance and an spiritual and artistic framework that helps in discovering, unveiling and telling your story. We work alongside you to co-create compassionate, sacred spaces that nurture, nourish and support your transitions, initiations, growth and transformations.
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The human experience is highly diverse and yet all people encounter important change in their lives. Currently, there is a great transition in how humanity views and connects with Spirit. Language, culture and spirituality have never been static and yet the ecology of the western spiritual landscape is changing radically as people more than ever engage in a multiplicity of different Spiritual and/or Religious Teachings and Beliefs. Our company is here to assist in the weaving of your divergent pathways and spiritual story into something cohesive, deep and unique.
About Rites of Passage
What are Rites and Rituals of Passage?
Anthropologists posit that ritual and rites of passage are universal parts of human culture, like tool making, language, shelter and music. Human beings perform rituals constantly, as they can be both mundane and sacred. Everything from brushing your teeth or having a cup of tea every night before bed, a Sunday dinner, or a festival you might attend every year all mark various personal or cultural rituals. Ritual is the steady, underlying humming beat of our everyday movement through our lives.
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Rites of passage in the form of ritual mark and acknowledge movement from one part of our lives to another. Underpinning all rites of passage (from birth to death) is the concept of observing and engaging in cycles of change that mark meaningful turning points or transitions. The essence of a rite of passage is found in honoring our transitions in an active, participatory way that supports, guides and nourishes our spirit and our journey in this life, holding a light up to where we were, where we are and where we might go. They can be comforting and nurturing, or challenge us towards a transformed vision and understanding of ourselves. In a world that is increasingly digital and in the mind, the value of rites of passage is one that is richly empowered by intimate breath to breath, body to body, spirit to spirit connection. The moments created by engaging in rituals are embodied - bringing us deeper into relation with ourselves and each other, and imbuing our spirit with great and courageous heart.
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Why is honoring a Rite of Passage in ceremonial form beneficial?
Acknowledging rites of passage in ritual form is at the very roots of human culture, practiced over thousands of years, in every society around the world. The sacred art of creating rituals (large and small) that mark the constant transformation and change that is a part of all of our lived experience can often in the West be ignored as a vital part of the human experience. Yet, our everyday lives are in a constant state of evolution, unfolding and movement. Sometimes change in our lives can be subtle and at other times it can touch the very core of who we are. It is engagement with this movement, unfolding and change that is part of the essence of all ritual.
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Participating in rites and rituals of passage makes a space for an authentic expression of change that is vital to mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. They free us from being or becoming stuck, marooned, shipwrecked or stagnant. In part, this is because they honor the depth of our human journey, they recognize our desire to find fluid natural ways through the terrain of love, yearning, joy, grief, pain and the search for meaning. Honoring, engaging with and accepting change with rituals and rites of passage pull us and place us in the humble and beautiful flow of the earth and engagement with the Sacred Mysteries. We release through them in Ritual what no longer fits us, we are initiated through them into a new way of being and we are supported through them in developing a richer and more resonant inner and outer life. They deepen our path and what have to offer to others in terms of our unique voice, abilities and gifts. They strengthen us, bringing us more into alignment and attuning us to the heart of our own North Star.
