When the rupture opens
between who you have been
and who you are meant to be,
it must be descended into.
Who are you beneath your identities?
What is wanting to emerge through you?
From the other side, the seeds of your unique gifts crack open,
and your rooted soul-purpose rises up in service to life.
Do you hear the call?
When the rupture opens
between who you have been
and who you are meant to be,
it must be descended into.
Who are you beneath your identities?
What is wanting to emerge through you?
From the other side, the seeds of your unique gifts crack open,
and your rooted soul-purpose rises up in service to life.
Do you hear the call?
Trevor Mervyn - Rites of Passage Guide // Ritual Storyteller // Facilitator
For nearly two decades I was a musician—creatively fulfilled and inspired, on my way to having my music become my main source of income. I was (mostly) happily married. I was 38. In the first few weeks of lockdown, on the day I cancelled all of my tours for the upcoming year, my then-wife told me that she wanted a divorce. I vividly remember waking up in bed the next morning and asking aloud to the empty room “If I am not a musician and not a husband, then who am I?”
An answer did not come, just a sinking feeling in my chest, and the sensation of my dreams all turned to ash. Even in that moment, something in me knew that those primary identities were gone and not coming back. I had no idea where to turn.
Slowly a thread began to arise that pulled on my chest in a different way: down and in. Books, poems, and podcasts appeared that explained where I was. The subject matters were strange and unknown to my logical brain, but my soul seemed to recognize them immediately: initiation, the medicine of myth and folktale, elderhood, grief, ritual, nature-connection, ancestry; all words and concepts I would have only been able to give a surface-level definition of a year prior.
The synchronicities piled up, as they do when you are in the Big River. I met a ritualist and storyteller who had an apprenticeship program, and a rites of passage guide who I worked with for 18 months in a container that culminated in a vision fast. The Orphan Wisdom School found me. Where there used to be song, poems were flowing through me, and the trees and my dreams began giving counsel that could not be ignored. Slowly, over the next few winters, and with the help of many teachers and elders (human and non), my deep-rooted and meaning-filled life appeared.
You deserve that. You have a unique bundle of gifts to offer. And: Your family needs you. Your community needs you. Your ancestors need you. Mother Earth needs you.
Your soul is calling. There is work to be done. The time is NOW.
Through the craft of ritual, the skill of grief, and the medicine of folktales, your unique gifts come out of eclipse.
This program was an outstanding and meaningful experience for me. The framework was perfect, and the conscious ritual space created was surprisingly powerful. I recommend this work to anyone who is willing to get to know themselves more deeply.
Carsten (2025 Vision Fast Program)
Trevor's mastery is to play back to you, with honesty and integrity yet straight to the point, what he sees, feels and intuits. He is a beautiful and wise mirror that I’ve come to fully trust as a guide in my life.
Peter van der Vlis, Founder, TrailHaven
This experience was absolutely incredible and beautifully done.
It has changed my life forever.
I am eternally indebted to what it has done for me.
Josh (2026 Vision Fast Program)
From the ashes, through an ancient sequence that is learnable, the Firebird is called. When you jump on its back, it is going to ask you where you want to go. Your soul’s reason for being here is your answer. Best be specific, for Baba Yaga is just behind you, and she is hungry.
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Sacred, prior to the romanticizing of faith, never meant nice. And it never meant good. Sacred just meant “not of the human world”, it meant “another reality”, it meant “something that breaks in like an earthquake.”
-Robert L Moore