Follow Your Bliss

by Lenny Scovel 

Joseph Campbell once wrote, “follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”

The Call to Adventure

The year was 2012. The economy was still rebounding from the economic crisis following the collapse of the U.S. housing market. The company that I was working for was part of the construction industry, and we had been hit hard. I had suffered pay cuts and benefit reductions, but none of my bills had gotten any smaller. Scrambling for extra income, one day my wife came home with an ad from the back of New Yorker magazine, promoting a training program for something I’d never heard of: life-cycle celebrancy. On the surface it sounded like an opportunity I might be good at. It combined many areas of interest for me: my love of ceremony and tradition; my skills as a performer; and my desire to connect with people on a deep personal level. We looked up a local celebrant, and took her to lunch to learn more about the training and the practice as a second career. She couldn’t have been more effusive in her praise of the program and the cohort of celebrants all over the country. I enrolled that Fall, and by spring I was a newly minted Life-cycle Celebrant, with a couple of weddings in the queue. I had gone through a rite of passage, and came out on the other side with a new identity.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this now for 13 years, and even harder to recall all of the ceremonies I’ve done, and the people I’ve met. What at first was a means to an end - a chance to support my family through difficult times ... has become a real calling. The hours I’ve spent meeting with families through some of their darkest hours and most vulnerable moments has been a real privilege. A couple of years into my practice, I was approached by the Institute to teach the Fundamentals of Celebrancy class, and another identity was born.

The Hero's Journey

In Fundamentals we study the work of Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey. We use his model as a metaphoric tool for describing the rites of passage we’re celebrating. And these passages are happening to us all the time. Some are monumental, others more mundane, but they are all part of the process of becoming fully human. A defining characteristic of our species is that we are meaning-seekers and meaning-makers. It’s part of what makes the art of Celebrancy such a beautiful thing, because no matter where we seek meaning, or how we try to define it, the Celebrant makes space for all of it. Ceremony not only connects us to the past, it also offers us the opening for understanding the people around us. It’s an invitation to set aside differences, and acknowledge that life is vast and mysterious.

Life-Cycle Celebrancy work in the community

Through my work over the years, I’ve come to the realization that as Celebrants, not only are we working diligently to lift up the values of our clients through ceremony, but we also have a special role to play in our communities. What we are really up to is subversive, prophetic, empowering, and liberating. Since humans sat around prehistoric campfires, before the invention of writing, there was ceremony. It has always been our lexicon for describing the indescribable, and for comprehending the incomprehensible. As time moves forward, we are in danger of losing our connection to the power of ritual. With every ceremony we perform, and every personalized ritual we divine, we keep alive this most fundamental of human practices. As practitioners of these arts, we exemplify the power that ceremony holds, while at the same time serving those in our communities who need a trusted guide through the dark forest of transformation. It is noble work, and I’m proud to serve in this role.

The only question that remains is: will you follow your bliss?

Lenny Scovel has been a practicing Life-cycle Celebrant since 2013. Over those years he has performed over 100 ceremonies, while at the same time maintaining his professional career as an architectural millwright, traveling, and remodeling his home. He is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he lives with his wife and in close proximity to his two grandchildren. Lenny enjoys bikes, beers, and boardgames.

Are you interested in becoming a Life-Cycle Celebrant in your community?

Lenny is our Learning Mentor for the Fundamentals Course starting the week of August 17th. Click HERE to register. (Note: This course is bundled with your first certification training as part of the New Student Package.)

What can you expect? Students will emerge from Fundamentals of Celebrancy, having internalized the essential building blocks of ceremony to create ceremonies of all types and will be well prepared to take on their first Certification, being more conscious and mindful of the possibilities for ceremony all around. 

Contact us for more information