Workshop | Held to the Mast
A workshop on holding intensity at the threshold | 90mins, online | $60
Sunday, 6 December 2026, 10 am AEST, 9 am ADST / Saturday, 5 December 3 pm PST, 6 pm EST
initiation heralds the message that “it’s time”. Time to cross a threshold and enter a new phase of life.
For this phase, I love to use imagery of doorways, archways and gates; evocative symbols that say both I am separate and I am an opening within this boundary, that offers an invitation into and across a border to what’s on the other side.
But I may be guilty of downplaying the force involved in taking this step.
In both the psychological and physiological sense, a threshold describes a level of physical, energetic and emotional intensity. One doesn’t typically stroll over a threshold AND become transformed.
Sometimes that charge takes us to the brink and can make women feel crazy.
This workshop is about what it means for women to be “held to the mast”: to be taken to that edge of intensity, and know how to be there.
Regulation is good preparation, but calming down to feel better won’t carry one through.
This wisdom and practice are essential now for women’s initiations that go beyond a healing and trauma lens
It’s for women who know something in their lives needs to be different, who insist on change in themselves and the culture, but maybe don’t yet have the support or understanding for how to do that. It’s at the core of what it means to go through initiations.
In the 1.5 hours
What a threshold is: in initiation, in the body and in the psyche, and why the intensity is part of it, and not a sign something has gone wrong
A myth or folktale, told and then worked with. I’ll draw on one or two of these stories: Odysseus, Inanna, Vasilisa, Medusa
What it means for women to be “held to the mast”: and how it differs from men’s experiences.
Symbolic work: through an exploration of symbols and an active imagination practice to meet your own threshold image.
Ways to work with this force: Discussion, questions and time to share
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Taking part. Most of the session is teaching and an experiential practice, with discussion moments. Speak, use the chat, keep your camera off, whatever works for you. No pressure.
Your own pace in the practice. During experiential practices, you choose how far to go. Staying with intensity is part of this work, and so know your own ground - I’ll help prep and remind you of this.
Responsibility. You’re responsible for your own responses and what you take away.
Sharing. Share at whatever depth feels right. e.g. You don’t need to describe what came up in the practice to talk about what it was like.
No advice-giving. We’re here to explore, not to solve problems for each other, although sharing your own experience might help others navigate something in their lives.
Many perspectives. Myths and folktales hold more than one meaning. Your reading of a story is as welcome as mine, and it might shift how others see it.
Confidentiality. Take the ideas with you, not other people's stories.
Recording. The session is recorded and available to registered participants for 30 days. [The discussion at the end is will be available as transcript and deidentified]. If you’d rather not appear, keep your camera off, rename yourself, or use the chat.
Not therapy. This is an educational and experiential workshop, not therapy. If you’re in crisis or close to it, please reach out to your own practitioner or a crisis line before attending.
Afterwards. Material can keep moving in the days after a session like this. Notice it, write it down, and take it to whoever supports you - Who and what are your masts?
The Details
Date: Sunday, 6 December 2026, 10am AEST, 9am ADST / Saturday 5 December 3pm PST, 6pm EST
Location: Online, via Zoom
Cost: $60
A recording will be available for 30 days afterwards for those who can’t attend live.
“The level of charge required to take that step is greater than is comfortable, transformative in and of itself, and once it is crossed there is no real going back.
Your greater mass enters through the smaller eye of the needle.”