Marking of Man is a container to initiate and mark your life through cutting-edge curriculum, rites of passage, brotherhood, education and practice, so you can master your craft, refine your relationships and initiate your legacy for deeper impact and service.
We need more than information. We need healthy, meaningful experiences of connection, challenge and belonging to thrive in these times. Become the leader for your work, your family and your community, and be held accountable by the brotherhood.
“What is not initiated in man stays an idea.”
You have read the books. Done the trainings. You can speak the language.
And under pressure, the old pattern still runs. At home. In the hard conversation. You have the business and the money. Everything society told you would make you happy. Underneath, you are not.
Every culture that lasted knew this. Knowledge is not handed over as information. It is marked into a man, through a rite of passage, in front of witnesses. Our culture forgot. So we have many informed men, and very few initiated ones.
The changing of a man begins here.
Every circle that has truly changed men rests on the same ground: the old rites of the fire, and the recovery circles that have carried men out of addiction since the original times. Six movements. They are the foundation this work is built on.
Surrender
The first medicine is defeat. Not of the man, but of the willful self that believes he can do this alone. At the fire, something larger finally holds him.
Story
Speak the descent. Speak the return. Out loud, in front of men. Each telling burns the old self and names the new one.
Structure
The rigour is the holding. A man in angst needs a container, not more openness. A clear path, a weekly council, six months that keep him walking.
Practice
The daily ground. Grounded practice vivifies the energy and anchors consistency, discipline and connection, fortifying the body, expanding its capacity for complexity, and deepening the somatic technology to meet what life will inevitably bring.
Tribe
Change the tribe, not just the man. A man can be initiated and lose it walking back into the same circle. The brotherhood is what holds the change.
Service
A man is not fully marked until he turns and marks another. Service is where the rite completes, and what keeps him well.
Not a philosophy to agree with. A sequence to be walked through, and marked by.
The old ways didn’t lecture. They repeated. They used the body, the calendar, the fire and the word.
What best describes where you are?
Living council & rites of passage for men
Guided support, practices from the origin, hivemind group sessions and a structured curriculum and conversation to fortify your impact, your relationships and your leadership.
Receive instruction from seven special guests: elders, coaches, founders of men’s work and teachers of the old ways.
Private sessions. Personal energy reading. Rites of passage. The implementation of transformation work, so change actually lands in your life, your work and your culture.
Where rivers meet, where humans gather, where the fire burns and streams of knowledge merge. This is the training ground, and I’m here to walk it with you.
Twenty years of initiation work gives a clear sight of what is needed in this time to walk a good life, a healthy relationship and a clear focus. Be held accountable, guided and mirrored into your mastery.
Six months. Six passages.
This isn’t a course you collect and forget. It is a structured passage for men. One model in 24 steps across four modules (Body · Mind · Relational · Spirit), walked online and on the land, by fire, in front of witnesses.
The Opening
Your first private 90-minute session and a personal energy reading, so we both see where you actually stand. The curriculum opens: short teachings, the e-book and daily practice you carry straight into your marriage, your work and your body.
Rites of Man
Two weeks in, you cross the threshold. A weekend on our 90-acre rainforest property: connection, initiation and education with the men you will walk beside for six months. You arrive as individuals. You leave as a circle.
The Wednesday Council
Every week the circle sits. Velan holds council on Wednesdays (along with many special guests along the way). You bring what actually happened: the fight at home, the decision you’re avoiding, the pattern that ran again. The brotherhood mirrors it back and holds you to your word.
Between councils, the community stays open in the field. You don’t disappear. This is where integration happens.
Fire, Water & the Word
Every two weeks there is either a temazcal or a Fire, Solo & the Word gathering in person. Join the wider circle of brothers to sit on country, work with ancient designs, and renovate and fortify the health of your body, mind, emotions and spirit.
Initiate
Where the six months converge. The Living Network, a somatic seership practice activating the circle of embodied intelligence. A Solo Vigil, a quest on the land, sitting as men have through time to call a vision. And Potent Inquiry to catalyse what comes next. You return to your people changed, and they can feel it.
Practice
The fundamental practices to refine your energy and body intelligence. Practice is the dojo, the daily training ground that supports your mastery in life, leadership and relationship.
Surrender. Story. Structure. Practice. Tribe. Service.
The fire takes the will. The council hears the story. The six months hold the shape. The daily practice fortifies the body. The brotherhood holds the man. And service is where it all returns.
“A passage that is not marked does not end. It keeps circling.”
Embodied knowledge & education
Velan draws on two decades of embodied knowledge and education in rites of passage, transformation, council, relationship, conflict, cultural change and transformational containers, drawn from his years in the school of Carmen Vicente (spiritual chief and educator) and with Master Zhen Hua Yang.
He has taught large embodiment trainings for over a decade, training hundreds of teachers. He has been a guide and specialty coach at the Sydney Roosters, mentoring head coaches and top NRL and Australian Rugby Union athletes, and consults to CFOs and CEOs at multinationals including Lumibird and Cochlear.
This work is for men who want a powerful impact, ready to address the blocks and wrestle with life. It initiates the next layer of your mastery, your relationship intelligence, and clarity around your path and purpose.
Held accountable. Mirrored. Met.
You don’t walk this alone. In council and by fire, the brotherhood holds you to your word. You are guided, mirrored and held accountable as you step into leadership for your work, your family and your community.
Two ways to walk it
Marking of Man
- Structured curriculum + guided pathway: videos and e-book, a clear journey so you know what to focus on.
- Weekly Hive call with Velan: council for men to refine relationship, purpose and connection to self, moving beyond the blocks that keep you stuck and into embodiment and mastery.
- 1 private 90-minute session per month: guided support, reflection and personal practice.
- Community access in the field: integrate, share and be supported between sessions.
- Full access to all teachings and training: the complete body of Marking of Man: tools, practices and philosophical pillars to transform your life.
- In person: Rites of Man (12–14 Feb), Initiate (4–6 June), a temazcal or Fire, Solo & the Word gathering every two weeks.
Mentor / Teacher
- Everything in Tier 1.
- Fortnightly teaching meeting: holding space, the energetic nuance of teaching, the art of transformation work, and translating initiation into groups, teams and corporate settings.
- The maps behind elite culture work: designs from working with the premiership-winning Sydney Roosters and Wallabies players.
- The One Movement systems for shifting culture, and the secrets of transformation work.
- How to teach and hold rites of passage yourself.
From the men who have walked with Velan
“The difficult task of encapsulating Velan's work in words. Through many experiences... Velan has been able to develop performance as well as the Warrior within. The place at which Velan teaches and mentors from is his gift. Clear principles of work with a nature of kindness and listening which opens a doorway to growth. I am forever grateful to Velan for his guidance and friendship.”
“Velan helped with our mental space, self awareness & energetic management. He is highly dedicated to the work he does and I appreciate the shifts in perception, relational intelligence & mastery he brought to the team & myself.”
Two roads from here.
Keep collecting. Another training, another tool, another insight that has faded by Tuesday.
Walk through it, in council, by fire. Let it mark the body. Come out the other side in service to your people, your work, your community, the land, and the ones coming after you.
Insight does not change a man. What he walks through does. And who was there to see it.
Around the fire with you
Seven teachers join the Wednesday Council across the six months, each carrying a different fire: lineage, sport, myth, women’s wisdom and the ceremony itself.
Velan
Velan is quiet thunder. The kind that moves you before you hear it.
A teacher of teachers.
A transformer. A feeler who refuses to be tamed.
For nearly two decades Velan has been tracking the edges of the human experience: in stadiums, in ceremony, in stillness, in the storm. His work lives at the intersection of energy, culture, and the radical act of listening with the whole body.
Influenced by many master teachers who inform his multi-disciplinary lens, including Shaolin monk Master Zhen Hua Yang and Ecuadorian Spiritual Chief Carmita Vicente, he carries the lineage of deep listening and ancient energetic knowledge for the health of the modern human.
He has worked with a diverse network of people and organisations. For four years Velan worked as a guide and specialty coach at the Sydney Roosters, mentoring head coaches and top athletes from the Wallabies, and has consulted for CFOs and CEOs at multinational corporations like Lumibird and Cochlear.
Come ready to be changed.
Reciprocity & Financial Hardship
We believe this work should be accessible to those who feel called to it.
If you are currently experiencing financial hardship, we offer the option of reciprocal exchange in place of, or alongside, a reduced fee. This may include supporting the space through practical contributions such as land preparation, administrative or marketing assistance, or helping with pack-down after gatherings.
If this resonates, we welcome an open conversation to find an arrangement that feels aligned for both sides. Please email Velan to discuss.
CONTACT VELAN