Tiu de Haan
Ritual Designer & Founder, The Possibility of Wonder
Tiu de Haan is an Oxford educated ritual designer, creative facilitator, inspirational speaker and “idea doula”, who curates and creates experiences designed to shift your perspective to see the wonder in the world, helping people to birth their creative ideas and design their own unique path filled with moments of meaning.
As a ritual designer, she creates bespoke ceremonies for times of transition for individuals, communities and organizational change. Tiu has created all sorts of rituals that honour the thresholds in our lives, be that a rite of passage for an organization at a point of transition, an individual stepping across a threshold in life or work, or any number of other transformations that call for a moment of meaning.
She also teaches ritual design and has been a visiting lecturer at UAL and Bristol University, as well as being on the faculty for the Odyssey Works Experience Design Certification Program and a Professor at the College of Extraordinary Experiences.
Tiu has worked with global organisations including Google, the World Economic Forum, L’Oreal and the UN and consults for global brands on rituals for beauty, food and wellbeing, as well as working with pioneers in the death industry to reimagine funerals with more heart and human-centred experience design. She also collaborates with world-leading neuroscientists, quantum physicists and chemists to create experiences that shift our perspective to see the magic in the mundane, both in person and in VR.
She has been a keynote speaker at Google, Sunday Assembly, and the UN International Day of Happiness and her TEDx talk ‘Why we still need ritual’ is about the art of celebrating the transitions of life, love and death and has had over 29k views.
Tiu lives on a beautiful houseboat in London and is exploring the creation of a “monastery for artists and experience designers” somewhere in Europe, where moments of meaning are made as magical artworks and experiences are both created and gifted, as acts of collaborative creativity and sacred, soulful generosity.
Connect with Tiu on social media :
Connect with The Possibility of Wonder on social media :
IN TIU'S WORDSIN TIU'S WORDS
How do you think individual, collective, and planetary wellbeing are connected?
When we are able to feel our innate connection to ourselves, to others and to the planet, we tap into our true nature, our interconnectedness. It is where science and sacredness meet, where the evidence stacks up to support the concept of our “interbeing” as Thich Nhat Hanh put it. To live within an awareness of this means we might perceive ourselves not as fragmented, isolated or wounded individuals, but rather as a part of an infinitely complex whole. If we were to live with this as our guiding principle, the very idea of it might allow both our thoughts and our actions to be infused with a new depth of compassion and care, transforming how we treat our bodies, minds and our fellow humans and non humans and also to care for the wider world that surrounds and supports us as a part of ourselves. Conversely, to live in disconnection is to deny our bounty, our beauty and our community with all things, human and beyond human.
Also – we are united by so much more than that which divides us. The work I do within the realm of creating non religious ritual engages with the universal experiences we all share – birth, death, love, grief, home, food, family, reflection, seasonal changes, work, rest, rites of passage from one life stage to another… Regardless of our beliefs, the list goes on and on, for ritual denotes meaningful moments of transitions of all kind, whether they pertain to our identity, our location, our race, our challenges, our losses and our joys.
Our lived experiences are so often demarcated by the same thresholds and so to find kinship and connection amid all our many differences allows us to accompany each other through the same transitions we all face, offering a way to feel less alone along the path we all walk through birth, life and death.
What do you hope the outcomes are from the global Hearth Summit?
Enhanced appreciation for art in nature as the tie that binds us, heals us, generates our curiosity, and creates those awe-filled moments that teach us to feel in our bodies.
WHAT TIU IS READING, LISTENING TO, AND WATCHING
TEDxHeythrop College Talk: “Why We Still Need Ritual with Tiu de Haan”
