The Ritual Series: Session 3
The Art of Ritual: A Conversation with Christina Baldwin
Sunday, July 26th, 10:00–11:30am PST
The Art of Ritual with Christina Baldwin
Ritual is not only something we understand, it’s something we feel. Ritual is a creative act, and like all creative acts, it can be done with different ingredients and bring different results.
In this third session of the Why Ritual Matters series, Megan Sheldon is joined by Christina Baldwin, pioneer in the fields of story and circle practice, for a conversation about ritual as an art form. Drawing from the third section of Ritual Without Religion, Megan and Christina explore how to create a ritual that holds people, how story and circle create the conditions for meaning to emerge, and how anyone can learn to make rituals that are truly their own.
What We'll Explore
This session covers what it means to approach ritual as a creative and artistic practice. We’ll explore the role of story in ceremony, how narrative gives shape to experiences of transition, the ancient technology of circle, and why gathering in that form changes what becomes possible. We’ll also look at how to design rituals that hold and connect people, and the everyday art of ceremony, including how small intentional acts strengthen our capacity for the great passages.
What To Expect
A live, hosted conversation between two women who have each devoted their lives to the craft of ceremony and story. Christina brings decades of experience teaching circle practice across North America and around the world, and Megan brings her experiences as a journalist, cultural mythologist, and humanist celebrant. Together they make this topic both accessible and inspiring. Expect warmth, wisdom, guided reflection, and time for community questions.
Why It's Needed
We have outsourced so much of our ceremony to institutions, cultural traditions, and professionals that many of us have lost confidence in our own capacity to make meaning. Yet, the art of ritual has never belonged to experts alone; it has always lived in the hands of ordinary people who chose to mark what mattered with intention and care. This session is an invitation to reclaim that capacity, and to discover that you are more than capable of creating ceremonies that are authentic and meaningful.
Megan Sheldon
Megan Sheldon (she/her) is a humanist celebrant, end-of-life doula, ritual designer, and founder of Be Ceremonial. For over a decade she has guided individuals, families, and communities through the moments that matter most, from births and weddings to grief, loss, and the invisible thresholds in between.
Her book Ritual Without Religion: A Humanist Guide to Creating Secular Ceremonies offers a path back to one of the most ancient of human practices for anyone who has felt the ceremony-shaped hole. She lives and works on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples in North Vancouver, BC.
Christina Baldwin
Christina Baldwin (she/her) is one of the most quietly influential voices in the modern renaissance of ceremony and community. She is the author of Life’s Companion, Storycatcher, The Seven Whispers, Calling the Circle, and The Circle Way (with Ann Linnea), and co-founder of PeerSpirit.
Christina’s work is grounded in the simple and profound belief that story is how humans make sense of their lives, and that circle is the oldest and most enduring container we have for holding those stories together. She lives on an island near Seattle, Washington. You can learn more about Christina here.
About The Series
Megan Sheldon’s new book, Ritual Without Religion, is structured around four dimensions of ceremony: The Nature of Ritual, The Science of Ritual, The Art of Ritual, and The Practice of Ritual. This series is designed to expand and deepen your experience of the book, taking each of its four sections and bringing them alive through the voices of some of the people who have most inspired my journey.
Whether you’ve read it cover to cover or are just arriving, these conversations are designed to bring the themes and ideas presented in the book to life, and to connect you with people who believe that life’s moments deserve to be marked with intention and care.
Virtual $30 per session | $100 for the full series
FAQs
Not at all. Each session stands on its own and is designed to be valuable whether or not you’ve read the book. That said, readers will find the series brings each section of the book vividly to life.
You’re welcome to join just the sessions that call to you. Single session tickets are $30, or you can register for the full series for $100 and save $20.
All Zoom sessions are recorded and will be made available within 24 hours. Please note that breakout sessions will not be recorded, so we encourage you to join live if you can.
Each gathering includes time in small groups with fellow participants, giving you a chance to reflect on what’s been shared, connect with others, and go a little deeper. These are some of the most meaningful moments of the series and won’t be captured in the recording. You can choose not to join the breakout session and instead have a 10min break on your own.
All sessions are hosted on Zoom. A link will be sent to you upon registration.
All sales are final as you will receive the recording even if you can’t join live. We encourage you to review the session dates and times carefully before registering.
We don’t offer scholarships for this series. Instead, we’ve worked hard to keep pricing as accessible as possible from the outset — and a portion of every registration goes directly to our guest speakers, honouring the expertise and generosity they bring to each session.
Yes, CAD pricing is available for our fellow Canadians. You’ll see it reflected at checkout as long as you are in Canada when purchasing the session (Stripe connects to your IP address).
We’d love to hear from you. You can reach me directly at megan@beceremonial.com and I will do my best to answer any questions you have.
