2025 Rites of Passage Summer Camps
for girls & young women ages 11-18
Session 2: July 14-18, 2025
@ Sacred Mountain Waters
The Way of the Rose
Rise, Rose Priestesses!
With Open Hearts and Sacred Boundaries
Step into an ancient lineage of feminine wisdom, beauty, and embodied love. In this second rite of passage, we walk the Way of the Rose, awakening our hearts and reclaiming our roles as sacred leaders, truth-speakers, and sisters devoted to love.
The rose—with its lush petals and fierce thorns—teaches us to lead with tenderness and strength. It is a symbol of the divine feminine: powerful, sensual, protective, and deeply loving. This is the path of the Rose Priestess—a path of devotion, impeccable boundaries, sisterhood, and authenticity.
Guided by mentors and artists of the sacred, we will immerse ourselves in the essence of the rose through daily rituals, creative expression, and ceremonial beauty.
Each day we will:
Sip Rose Medicines: Teas, honeys, and potions to harmonize our hearts
Bathe in Rose Blessings: High-noon flower baths, where rose tea meets sun-kissed skin
Adorn Each Other in Beauty: Rose mandalas and affirmations on the body-altar
Craft our own ROSEaries: Sacred prayer beads made from rose clay and crystals, infused with our devotion and made to accompany us through all seasons of life
Receive Rose Water Blessings: Ceremonial baptisms and river offerings to renew and awaken
Anoint and Massage our Bodies: Rose oil rituals that honor our sensual, sacred selves
Distill Rose Hydrosol: In an alchemical copper still, transforming roses grown by our mentors into heart medicine to carry home
Delight in Rose Spa Rituals: Scrubs, oils, and facials to nourish the divine within
The Way of the Rose is also a path of Sisterhood.
We will gather in deep presence, learning to hold, see, and honor one another with compassion and clarity. We’ll practice giving and receiving, gratitude and reciprocity—offering roses to the water as a prayer for the Earth and each other.
Through song and soul, we will speak our hearts.
Singer-songwriter and “song doula” Samara Jade will guide each initiate in creating her own musical talisman—a heart-song that becomes a lifelong companion of truth, beauty, and healing. These songs are born from deep listening and crafted with intention, lyric, and melody as tools of empowerment.
Why walk the Way of the Rose?
Because the world needs leaders who love deeply, listen honestly, and live in right relation with all life. Reviving the Rose Priestess path is a reclamation of Earth-connected, heart-centered, love-led leadership. Together, we root into beauty and rise in grace.
When our time together nears completion, we will return to our families and community like clear mountain waters—renewed, radiant, and ready to serve. Please join us for our Welcome Home Ceremony from 5–7pm on the final dayas we celebrate each initiate's becoming.
We are the Roses
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We are the Roses 〰️
We are the Thorns
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We are the Thorns 〰️
We are the Guardians of Love
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We are the Guardians of Love 〰️
Why Rites of Passage?
Rites of passage offer space to pause, to grieve, to celebrate, and to consciously step across the threshold of becoming different versions of self. When we honor these transitions with integrity, community, and connection to the Earth, we nourish a deeply meaningful existence for ourselves & generations to come.
At Earth Path, our Rites of Passage are Earth-Centric, nourishing both the wild feminine soul and the Earth, creating a looping steady stream of reciprocity for initiates from a young age. Intergenerational mentorship, sisterhood, strong intuition, awakened creativity and deep connection with the Nature provide the taproot of strength needed to weather the tests of life and womanhood in a healthy way.
May we not come of age in isolation, unaware and in trauma.
Rather, we rise connected, in tune and resilient.
Womanhood is beautiful, powerful and worth celebrating!
Now in our 16th year, the Growing Goddess and Moon Mystics programs continue to offer deep, soul-nourishing initiations that inspire confidence, connection, and joy. Each summer, we gather in the gorgeous mountain wilderness of North Carolina to feast our wild souls with the songs of trickling wild streams, hawks soaring flight, bubbling laughter and the power of being witnessed and held to rise to who we are and activate our dharmas.
As a circle of devoted mentors and wild-hearted youth, we are supported by song, ritual, laughter, and the beauty of the natural world.
These programs are a celebration of feminine emergence & a place to ask:
🌿 Why am I here?
🌿 What are my gifts?
🌿 What calls me forward?
Through sisterhood, ceremony, and Earth connection, each girl is lovingly witnessed into her own becoming. Together, we rise—tending the sacred, feeding beauty to the Earth, and stepping into the wise, wild women we are becoming.
Meet Your Guides
Lena Eastes
Founding Director, Visionary Leader, Ceremonial Guide
Lena Eastes is devoted to cultural renewal, Earth connection, and sacred rites of passage. With contagious joy and deep empathy, she inspires others to live in alignment with their inner wisdom, the rhythms of nature, and the call of justice and beauty.
For over 16 years, Lena has led transformational Rites of Passage for girls and women, including Earth Path’s five-day “Growing Goddess” ceremony. As a thresHOLDER, she lovingly officiates life’s major thresholds—birth, motherhood, marriage, self-marriage, and the sacred passage from girlhood into womanhood.
She is a singer for the Earth, a protector of childhood and human dignity, and a creative artist of community and ceremony. Whether she's playing flute to the sunrise, blessing waters, crafting herbal medicine, or hiding in a bush during a Deer & Coyote game, Lena brings fierce grace, presence, and a wild-hearted devotion to all she touches.
Lena walks as student, teacher, mother, mentor, and friend—with reverence for the plant world, the spirit world, and the deep intelligence of each being she meets.
Iya Sangoma Oludoye
Sacred Activist and spiritual midwife. She is a traditional Yoruba priest of the ancestors and Obatala. As founder of the Kindred of Sangoma, she is an Elder to the Earthskills Rendevous community and many other tribes in the Southeast. Sangoma is the mother of three daughters, the grandmother of 12 and the great grandmother of one. A Multicultural artist and the facilitator of programs that push the envelope of cultural regeneration, rites of passage and ancestral trauma.
Samara Jade
Samara Jade is a writer and singer of catchy medicinal songs, holder of sacred space, spelunker of the underworld, and avid explorer and guide of the wilderness and inner landscape of the soul.
Through her music, workshop facilitation and one-on-one “song doula” work, Samara stands in service to guide others through the processes of transformative creativity and animistic nature connection - while enchanting the world through song. www.samarajademusic.com (http://www.samarajademusic.com/)
As part of the Rose priestess initiation, each young woman will create their own “musical talisman for the heart” - a song that springs forth from their heart’s wisdom that they can sing and carry forward as a reminder of their deepest truths.
Samara will share some exercises, games and tools to practice the art of lyric and melody sculpting, guiding each of the young women to create a song of their very own essence and medicine.
Samantha Stokes
My name is Samantha Stokes. I am the daughter of Sherri Ann and the granddaughter of Billie Ann. I am the mother of two daughters, Rowan Anu Tahra and Raiya Anahata Ma. I've been with their father, my beloved Nathan for 13 years and counting. My family is everything to me. We live in Old Fort, NC on a farm we call Rose Thunder. Our prayer is to grow in deeper communion the land and all of our relations. We aim to be good stewards for our lifetime and beyond.
Life for me has revolved around divine will as the inspiration. I've prayed the prayer, "make me a vessel of your divine will, Goddess! Let me be in communion with your grace, your wisdom, your Love! Show me the gifts I came here to give and let's get them flowing!”
So it has been, so it is and so it shall be.
I'm an artist, a weaving woman. I work deeply with the mineral nation. I make amulets of empowerment for my community, near and far.
The plants are my teachers. I'm an initiate of Rose, she's been teaching me for this lifetime and beyond. I attune to her mysteries and I'm deeply guided by her ancient spiraling. I give thanks for the opportunity to learn and grow with the sisters, the mothers, the daughters, the grandmother's, the aunties. Wisdom keepers, we are. Our womb’s remembering. I leap right into the arms of Holy Mother and I feel her embrace within the space we will co-create. May the way be open, blessed be.
Cat Hood
Expressive Arts Facilitator & Marketing Mystic
Cat Hood is a multidisciplinary artist devoted to awakening the sacred through collaborative creativity. With a deep reverence for beauty, spirit, and the unseen, she weaves together body painting, dance, adornment, singing, and ritual theatre to create living, moving art. Her work invites others into spaces where art becomes prayer and where community becomes ceremony.
Cat is a vision carrier and cultural builder, devoted to co-creating experiences that bridge mysticism and embodiment. She draws on the wisdom of nature, ancestral guidance, and spontaneous creative flow to craft transformative environments—whether through immersive ritual spaces, collective performances, or sacred adornment.
She is a lead collaborator in GaiaMari Adornment and a core artist within Taproot Arts Collective, and brings her presence to events and festivals as both muse and ceremonial anchor. Cat supports others in stepping into their own radiance and expression, especially through threshold crossings and rites of passage.
Her work is rooted in reciprocity, reverence, and right relationship—with the land, the spirit world, and the community. She walks the path of artist, mystic, guide, and beloved friend—devoted to beauty that heals and honors the mystery.
Mariah Nolan
Mariah is beyond grateful to be part of the EarthPath Education community.
For over a decade, she has walked alongside children and youth in a variety of settings—from schools and daycare centers to summer camps, wilderness therapy programs, nonprofits, and Rites of Passage work with young women. Through all of these environments, Mariah has witnessed a profound truth: children awaken more deeply to who they are when they feel held by the natural world.
Her work is rooted in the belief that stillness, deep listening, and embodied connection with the Earth support young people in remembering their wholeness. She is devoted to creating spaces where movement, nature, and soul are honored as vital parts of learning and growth.
Mariah is drawn to EarthPath Education because it empowers young women to stand fully in their truth. Through rites of passage rooted in ancient, earth-based traditions, girls are supported by nature, by community, and by the wisdom of transition. These ceremonies honor change as sacred. They teach young people to move with the rhythms of the Earth, celebrating their own shifts and phases as they grow. In this work, each daughter is held in the arms of nature—reminded that she is capable, deeply connected, and never alone.
Maayan Chelsea Greenheart
Maayan is a mother, Earth steward, Flower worshipper and belly feeder. She has spent the last decade of her life dedicated to feeding the people in nourishing ways. She lives in community at SunSong where she collaboratively tends an abundant garden, sings to the Flowers and hugs the Grandmother Trees. She deeply values rites of passage and initiation, song sharing and spiritual reciprocity. Full of aliveness and connected to her emotions, Maayan embodies and inspires celebration of life's miracles while holding space for the grief that comes with honoring the tragedies of the state of humanity & Planet Earth.
Maayan has been working with Earth Path Education since 2015 and is grateful for the opportunity to be with young adults in the wild and to support their path to knowing themselves. At Growing Goddess she facilitates song & ritual, holds space for the initiates, and is a grounding presence for anyone with big feels on the journey. Maayan feels very blessed to be a part of this beautiful Earth Path family.
Food As Medicine
We are extremely blessed to have Evelyn Irving, lead Chef Queen, Ayurvedically Trained and creatress of jaw dropping flavor provide us deep nourishment on the daily The feedback is that the initiates want Evie to come home with them and keep cooking.
Our meals will be nourishing, local when possible, and can accommodate allergies with advance notice. Please note, we strive to keep a majority plant based menu, with sustainable animal protein offered a couple to a few times.
Location & Getting There
We will be hosted in the amazing forested land where the two rivers meet at the gorgeous Sacred Mountain Waters Wellness and Wilderness Center in Marshall NC, near Asheville NC.
Best airports to fly into Asheville and Greenville (pick up and drop off available no need to rent a car)
Other possible airports to fly into: Charlotte NC or Knoxville, TN (car rentals or shuttles will need to be arranged)
*Please confirm acceptance to the program and organize a ride with us before committing to a flight. Please text Lena at 828-775-7174 to coordinate your pick up.
Sacred Exchange
Sacred Exchange
the cost for this camp is $766 until February 15
then it will go up to $866.
This includes lodging, nourishing meals, all ceremonies, teachings, and materials.
Session 1 is just one week before,
July 11-15, 2025.
The theme of the 1st session is the Way of the Water.
Participants are welcome to come to both sessions if they feel called.
