a 9 week STORY TELLING & TEACHING JOURNEY TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE METAMORPHOSIS OF YOUR MIDLIFE RITES

FRIDAY August 15. 2025 -

FRIDAY October 10. 2025

with weekly live integration meetings. 

 Her Second Act explores the treacherous and liberating terrain from your First Act to your Second Act of Life. When walked, this path frees us to surrender the patriarchal mask & the old false roles to the life of the soul & to live a life of our own designed from the truth of our bones.   The Third Season of the Feminine Wheel of Life- call it what you will, the Enchantress, the Sorceress, the Wild Woman, the Witch, embodies the mysterious, magical, transformative season of Autumn, or Fall. It is the Harvest Time of the Feminine Life. Her First Act was for Learning. Her Second Act is for Living. Her First Act was for holding on and holding back. Her Second Act is for Letting it Go and Letting it Flow. Her First Act was For Gaining. Her Second Act is for Letting it All Go.

“I CANNOT IMAGINE MORE SACRED WORK TO DO RIGHT NOW IN THE WORLD, THAN TO RISE

AS GODDESS FOR MY CHILDREN& THE EARTH.”

  • Journeyer from the last HER SECOND ACT

However we ended up here,

at the Crossroads of Midlife,

whether we took the road of general disenchantment

with life and have just been living on autopilot,

we’re here.

Whether we fell out of love or were left,

whether we now have an empty nest,

we’re here.

Whether our dreams don’t light us up anymore,

in fact they just feel like work…

we’re here.

Whether everything feels like a lie

and there’s part of your life or persona that needs to die…

we are here.

At the Great Transition of Midlife

from your First Act to your Second Act of Life.

Welcome. 

“Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie. Life really does begin at 40. Up until then you are just doing research.”  Carl Jung.

“I LISTEN TO SARAH’S MIDLIFE TEACHINGS AGAIN & AGAIN SO THEY SINK & SEEE IN MY BODY & THE GODDESS BLOOMS AGAIN.”

-Journeyer from the last HER SECOND ACT

HER SECOND ACT

a mystical & magical midlife map

a self guided midlife rites  experience, delivered in a daily capsule curriculum, posted M- Th. 
Live Integrations are Fridays at Noon EST.
we begin Friday august 15 at noon est + run until Friday October 10. 
 9 weeks. all calls recorded. all teachings calls stored in the vault. 
HER SECOND ACT is a mystical path to the Liberation of the Second Act.  This is a Midlife Map across the treacherous divide from your Midlife Rites. This is a midwifery manual: for at midlife we midwife our true life. We know what is dying in us, and in the world, too, but what is also birthing through? This is the work of shedding skins and old roles: of deconstructing the First Act Mask, and existing in liminal time & space between worlds, Before the Second Act You can emerge. And when women change & liberate & we can, women change & liberate the world. If your old skin is feeling suffocating, or you'd rather go naked then wear it again, try HER SECOND ACT. This curriculum meets you in your wild life where you are right now. You’ll get a daily email with the Her Second Act content & the Teaching Calls are all saved in the vault. Take it in where you want and at your pace. No rush, no race. Everyone's transformations happen at their own pace. 

"We must be willing to get rid of ​the life we've planned, so as to have ​the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed ​before the new one can come. ​If we fix on the old, we get stuck. When we hang onto any form, we are in danger of putrefaction.​ Hell is life drying up. The Hoarder, ​the one in us that wants to keep, ​to hold on, must be killed. If we are hanging onto the form now, we’re not going to have the form next. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. ​Destruction before creation."

​- Joseph Campbell
Fresh out of the dark chrysalis that has been my nearly Five Year Midlife Crisis & Awakening, I present you with HER SECOND ACT. This is the sort of capsule curriculum I would have loved to have had in my inbox during some of the most rootless messy AF times of this Crisis/ Chrysalis. It's woven with wisdom I myself would (and still do) cling to as the waves crashed over my head & pieces of me that were killing me & the world were not quite dead. This curriculum is marked with sign posts I wish I had  had when I lost all hope. 

This is a Mystical Midlife Makeover. This is the Shedding of Skins before the Begin Again. The Midlife Crisis is a Chrysalis & a Rite of Passage to Mark a Life Half Lived.  Never before has how we spent our time on this Earth Mattered More.  This Mystical Magical Midlife Map helps you unravel your patriarchal personality and resurrect the primordial you. And live the life your soul and this world are asking of you.

HER SECOND ACT IS a NINE WEEK JOURNEY THROUGH

3 (non linear) STAGES OF THE MIDLIFE METAMORPHOSIS.

stage one: caterpillar/separation. weeks 1-3.

stage two: underworld/chrysalis. weeks 4- 6:

stage three / butterfly/ emergence. weeks 7- 9

What’s Included.  A DAILY Capsule Curriculum for MIDLIFE women & femmes at the Crossroads.  Check back daily on the private website (the Velvet Vault) where curriculum is uploaded M-Th 10 am EST.  This Midlife Map is curated for the femme with the whole world in her lap & the weight of it all on her back. Life is flying by in the blind of an eye. On top of it there's ecocide, genocide, fascism, femicide. So this curriculum meets who where you are. You can take it to the bath, the car, the trail, or hiding in the closet for a little me time.

 FIRST LIVE CALL: FRIDAY AUGUST 15 at NOON EST.  Capsule Curriculum STARTS Monday, AUGUST 18, 2025 AT NOON  EST: To Access your Capsule Curriculum, you'll use your private password to check in on the site (aka the VELVET VAULT) anytime after 12 PM EST, M- Th for updated Second Act content. 

We Meet Fridays at Noon EST to Integrate the Content. 

Think of the Capsule Content like a Daily Digital Giftbox: 
+ Daily  Audio Teachings full of Stories, + weekly rituals,  +  weekly songs for your Midlife Rites playlist, weekly meditations,  + daily curated wisdom of those who have gone before,  MidLife Tips + Secrets pop up Midlife Movement nudges. 

That's 9 Weeks (36 Days) of M -F Transformative Midlife Rites Capsule Curriculum , & 9 Live Integration Calls with Sarah Durham Wilson, a 9 year rites of passage guide & author, 14 years teaching. But no longer a teacher, a creature. (A Midlife Crisis really does change and rearrange you).  Starting friday, August 15, at noon est running til friday, October 13, 2025.

Having a Midlife Crisis in Poly Crisis?

I got you.WE ARE BEIng INDIVIDUALLY & COLLECTIVELY PRESSURIZED TO RISE.

Feeling invisible?

I see you.

Lost your purpose?

I understand.

Feeling like burning it all down?

Come on down.

Can't ignore the urge

to become Local Folklore?

I couldn’t hear you more.

Lost your groove?

I did too.

Forgetting why you're alive? 

The Crisis at Midlife is one of I-dentity. The Individual is asking “Who Am I?” “Is this who I really am?” & “Is this all there is? 
And right now, on this beautiful earth fighting for its life under genocide, ecocide, fascism & femicide, the people of the world are asking, “Who Are We?” “Is this who we really are? Is this all there really is?” 
The Soul & Ego are at a crossroads individually & collectively, & we must choose SOUL to survive. CRISIS is a word of double meaning: crisis means “dangerous opportunity.” 
But what’s the opportunity 
for the individual & collective in Crisis?
To Change Our Lives.
Why is it dangerous? 
Because if we don’t we’ll d!e. 
The Individual at Midlife & the current collective under Polycrisis are both in the evolution from the “Me” to “We.” Our individual & collective soul is breaking through ego:  over the patriarchal childhood & culture-formed persona, which is Latin for “mask.” THE MIDLIFE CRISIS during POLYCRISIS is a Mirror 🪞 of Itself, a symbiotic relationship :  both the individual & collective are being pressurized into change. 
When the patriarchal mask cracks & the Repressed You can’t hold back, It’s the End of Your First Act. Patriarchy is dying on the outside, & it’s dying on the inside too. 
So how do we help what is dying, to die, & birth what is longing to come through? 
And after the patriarchal death, what comes next? As hard as it can feel in the Crucible of the Chrysalis, this Crisis loves you, & wants you to live the life that will be most soul- fulfilling and therefore a boon for the soul-starved world. 
The Midlife Crisis is a CHRYSALIS. 
It’s a Rite of Passage marking a life half lived. It’s a death & rebirth. It’s a Breaking of a Sleep Walking Curse. This time, for perhaps the first time in your life, you really come alive. 
When the feminine wakes from the patriarchal curse, we remember the Primordial World where Life, children, 
and the Mother/the Earth come first.
And when at Midlife, we leave 
the cold metal patriarchal gates,
That’s the magical world & 
vibrant life that awaits.

LIFE AFTER MIDLIFE IS NOT AN ABYSS. IN FACT IT’S WHERE THE MAGIC IS. 

SCHEDULE.  Friday August  18 to Friday, October 10, 2025.

Opening Call: Friday August 18 at 12 noon EST on zoom. Introduction & "Mapping Midlife," plus overview of the phases & stages of the Midlife Rites. In this First Meeting, get to know the group of other midlife femmes transforming their inner and outer lives. Conversation will range but revolve around:  our places on our paths: where we are in our midlife journeys, what or who is dying in us, what or who is birthing. Pls bring completed home play or questions about home play to circle. Plus socks, water (tea, optional) journal and pen, a yoga mat (optional) meditation cushion (optional) layers (optional) .
 
Stage one: CATERPILLAR/ SEPARATION STAGE.  week 1 capsule curriculum: starting mon, Themes: The Beginning of the End, The Midlife Split.  When the persona of us (the mask, or ego) and the true person of us, (the authentic self, the soul) meet at a crossroads, or enter into a rift. Also: exploration on the Midlife Crisis amidst Poly Crisis. 

week 2:  Themes: Your Midlife Blueprints in your younger years. Inspiring Transformative Midlife Stories. A Little About my Own Midlife Story & Why I am so Passionate About the Midlife Rites. Some of my Favorite Midlife Recommendations. 

week 3:  Themes : Rage Against the Machine. Midlife Femmes are a Volcano. The truth has to blow for our lives to get unstuck and flow. Decentering  money +  materials + men. Feeling Rendered Invisible + Entering Invisible worlds. Identifying the First Act Us. Identifying Ageist Misogyny in us + society. 
Fridays June 6, 13, 20 at 12 NOON EST Live Integrations with Sarah. 

Close Caterpillar/ Separation Stage. 

Stage 2. CHRYSALIS STAGE week 4:Themes. Entering the Chrysalis. The backdrop of our Mortality, the breath of death on our neck's. First Act Funerals & Pseudocide. The Blessings of the Dark. week 5 june 30- july 3. Themes:  Dream work. Entering the atrophied inner rooms of our lives like abandoned houses. Listening to the asks of the inner unlived life. Leaning into the atrophied attributes beneath the hard mask of persona we've built up. the wisdom of Perimenopause. Slowing down. week 6.  themes. Getting to know Medusa + the Gorgon Archetype. Resurrecting the Inner Rebelle Teen & The Third Season Feminine: Witch, Sorceress, Enchantress, Wild Woman.  Resurrecting our Magic. Close Chrysalis Stage. 

REEMERGENCE STAGE Themes:  Now that we are not centering money + men, we are centering joy, earth, children, magic, wisdom,  justice and pleasure + our bodies again.  Now that we are patriarchally invisible, we belong to the invisible worlds where the Goddess is Alive and Magic is AFoot. Sourcing Mystic Love, meeting the Inner Lover, leaning into a different spirituality. week 8 : themes. creating the second life itinerary, taking steps into a life of your own from the truth of your bones. Centering Eros & working with the second chakra. week 9  themes. living in generativity, for the next seven generations.

Ready to live your unlived life?

STEP INto YOUR SECOND ACT.

IT’S TIME TO LIVE LIKE YOU’RE REALLY GOING TO DIE,

IT’S TIME TO LIVE YOUR UNLIVED LIFE

WELCOME TO YOUR MIDLIFE RITES.