Closeness, held by more than one person.

Why we write this down

Closeness is part of this work. People open up in ceremony, and they often feel deep warmth toward the people who sat with them. That warmth is real, and it also gives a guide influence. These commitments are not there to keep guides at a distance from you. They keep the closeness safe, by making sure it stays visible and is never held by one person alone.

Our ceremonies are spiritual work, and these commitments are part of how we hold that work with care.

Every guide on our team trains in these commitments, and we hold them to these standards. They apply to everyone in a staff role: guides, apprentices, operations staff, integration call hosts and community moderators.

Lines our guides never cross

• No romantic or sexual relationship, contact or flirtation with you, your partner or your close family, during a program or for two years after it ends. Mutual interest does not change this.
• No using a retreat, a ceremony or integration as a way into a friendship, a romance or a business relationship. The one exception is the guide services described below, offered openly.
• No alcohol, plant medicine or other intoxicant while holding a staff role in ceremony.
• No asking you to invest, lend money, work for a side business or trade services for goods or labor.
• No harassment or discrimination, and no exploiting anyone a guide holds authority over.
• No retaliation against anyone who raises a concern, or who supports someone who did.
• Support is never conditional on deleting or taking back a message, forgiving, reconciling or meeting anyone.

If one of these lines may have been crossed, the guide steps out of their role while someone outside the relationship looks at what happened. Stepping out is a pause, not a verdict, and everyone involved gets support.

Touch

You decide about touch in preparation, while sober, in writing and in plain language. Supportive touch is only ever on the hands, feet or shoulders. It happens only when you ask for it, in the words or gesture you chose, and it stops the moment you say or signal stop. What you agreed can narrow during ceremony. It never widens.

• Guides never offer or start touch. You ask, and the guide confirms what and where.
• No massage or bodywork happens in ceremony.
• Participants touch each other only where each person agreed in writing beforehand, and we may choose no touch between participants at all.
• The one exception is touch needed to keep you safe, such as catching a fall. If that happens, we tell you afterward and note it.

We also tell you something honest in preparation: the ceremony experience can make it harder to decide, or to say no, in the moment. A yes given to stay connected may not be a full yes. That is why the decisions are made beforehand.

Relationships we make visible

Some overlaps are not wrong, but they need a second pair of eyes. A guide tells our safety lead about these, and someone with no stake in the outcome decides whether the situation can go ahead as it is, with a change, or not at all.

• A friendship, family tie, past romance or business tie with anyone attending, told before the retreat. Often a different guide sits with that person.
• Gifts beyond a token, and any money moving between a guide and a participant.
• Regular one-to-one contact after a retreat, such as daily messages or calls.
• A guide who supervises or employs you does not lead your ceremony unless our safety lead approves it in writing, and you can always ask for a different lead.

We introduce everyone in the ceremony room to you beforehand, or tell you who they are.

If a guide offers their own services

Some of our guides offer coaching or integration support outside the retreat. You are never expected to take it, and saying no changes nothing about your care.

• An offer comes only if you ask, in a private list we share with participants, or on a non-ceremony day. You agree only after the retreat. Never on a ceremony day, and never on the free integration call.
• Coaching, integration or spiritual support only, with no medicine and no ceremony.
• No pressure and no scarcity. Every offer names at least one option with no tie to Ceremonia.
• Before any offer, you are told in writing that Ceremonia receives part of the fee for coaching and integration, never for anything involving medicine. Ask and we will tell you how much.
• No new paid service from a guide while a concern naming them is open.
• A concern about a guide's services goes to our advisor.

What you share with us

What you share stays with the people who need it to care for you, including our advisor if you write to them. It goes further only if someone is in immediate danger, if there is a threat to a specific person, if the law requires us to report it, or if a court or other legal process requires it. When it is safe and lawful to, we tell you first.

This is not the confidentiality of therapy, and our guides are not your therapists. We give you this in writing during preparation, so you know where the edges are before you arrive.

If something does not feel right

You can raise a concern about anyone on our team, including the people who lead it. The rule behind every route is simple: a concern always lands with someone it does not name.

• Tell any guide you trust. If the concern is about them, they will say so and tell you who to go to instead.
• Use the concern form. You choose who the concern is about, and it reaches only the people it does not name.
• Choose "only the advisor" on the form to reach Fleet Maull alone. Fleet Maull is a guide on the Ceremonia team as well as an advisor to Ceremonia.
• Write to info@ceremoniacircle.org. Our team reads it, so if your concern is about someone on the team, the form is the better route.

Our safety lead is Jo Ann Forristal and our alternate is Austin Mao. Raise a concern. If someone is in immediate danger, call emergency services first.

What happens next

• We aim to acknowledge your concern in writing the same day during a retreat, and within two working days otherwise.
• The acknowledgment says what happens next, who will see it, and where confidentiality ends.
• If you want one, a person you trust who was not involved supports you.
• You hear the outcome at the end, within the limits of other people's privacy.
• You can ask our advisor, once and within two weeks, to look at the outcome again.
• We aim to follow up with you at two weeks and at three months.
• You never have to delete or change anything you wrote, forgive anyone or meet anyone to be supported.

When something has gone wrong between a guide and a participant, our aim is repair: listening for the impact first, owning our part, and changing what needs to change. You choose whether and how you take part. We also learn from what happened, with names removed, so the whole team gets better.

Questions are welcome

Our ceremonies are for adults 21 and older, and they are not part of Colorado’s regulated natural medicine program. This page describes how our team works. It is not legal or medical advice. If anything here raised a question, ask it. You can email info@ceremoniacircle.org, or read more about how we approach safety.