People may arrive at a ceremony seeking healing, meaning, or a new way to live. The sacrament can open a door. What helps someone approach that door, move through it, and carry what they discover back into life is the quality of the space held around them: presence, preparation, care, ethical clarity, and an enduring relationship with community.

At CSP, we form ministers for that larger work. Our Seminary is a place to deepen spiritual practice, learn to accompany others, receive honest feedback, and grow into responsibility over time. Some ministers will serve sacrament. Others will offer pastoral care, spiritual companionship, preparation and integration, teaching, or community leadership. All begin with the same foundation: The Year of Formation, which begins each August.

We accept applications on a rolling basis.

What we are forming?

Learning to sit with someone in a life-changing moment involves more than learning what to do. It calls for self-knowledge, spiritual grounding, cultural humility, an understanding of power, and the capacity to remain present when certainty falls away. Those capacities grow through study, practice, relationship, supervision, and one’s own continuing inner work.

We understand ministry as an ongoing relationship of service and accountability within a religious community. Sacramental skill matters deeply where sacrament is served, but it is one part of a minister’s vocation. The first question we ask is not, “Which sacrament do you want to carry?” It is, “How are you being called to accompany others?”

1. Apply and enter a shared Year of Formation

Prospective students apply and interview for the Year of Formation. Admission is an invitation to begin learning and discernment together. You do not need to choose a final form of ministry at the outset.

The year includes The Awakening Path and The Embodied Minister. In The Awakening Path, students explore awakening, spiritual practice, community, and CSP’s relationship to sacrament. In The Embodied Minister, they turn toward pastoral presence, relational awareness, ethics, embodiment, preparation, integration, and service.

The year includes study, experiential learning, and participation in community. Students complete the applicable membership, preparation, medical, and safety steps before required experiential components.

2. Discern together

At the end of the Year of Formation, students participate in a Discernment Ceremony and reflect with faculty on vocation, readiness, and the next appropriate step. Students then apply to a particular pathway. Faculty responsible for that pathway review the application and the student’s formation to date.

Discernment may lead to admission to a pathway, admission with recommendations, or more time for electives, mentoring, personal work, and experience. More time is a meaningful part of formation; people do not grow into responsibility on a single timetable.

3. Enter a formation pathway

Students may apply for Ceremony & Sacrament or the Advanced Ministerial Intensive (formerly the “Bridge” pathway). Each has its own learning and practice requirements. Previous education and experience can inform an individualized plan, especially for experienced applicants; they do not bypass the common Year of Formation.

4. Practice, Supervision, Mentorship, and Electives

Ministerial responsibility is entrusted in stages. Coursework, practicum, mentoring, supervision, personal work, and educational electives continue as students develop. Eligible students may apply for Provisional Assistant Minister licensure, which allows ministry under the conditions of continued formation and oversight. After completing the requirements and demonstrating readiness, they may apply for the Assistant Minister license, CSP’s basic full ministerial license.

Electives are required in the following fields of study:

• Counseling Skills (8 units)
• Relational Ethics (4 units)
• Religious Worldviews & Spiritual Practices (4 units)
• Energy & Bodywork (4 units)
• Psychedelic Research (3 units)
• Psychology (3 units)

Prior educational experience is considered on a case-by-case basis.

At each threshold, CSP assesses readiness for the responsibility requested. Completing a course or a year does not by itself grant a license or permission for independent sacramental practice.

Ceremony & Sacrament

For those called to serve particular sacraments within a larger ministry of care. After the shared Year of Formation, students apply to the relevant Ceremony & Sacrament course or courses. Admission depends on preparation and readiness for that specific training.

Courses include supervised practicum. Students admitted to a designated practicum course may receive a limited Student Minister license for approved educational activities, subject to the applicable requirements. It does not authorize independent ministry. Sacramental service beyond the practicum requires the appropriate ministerial standing and endorsement.

Ceremony & Sacrament courses may also allow ministers already in practice to pursue training for an additional sacrament without repeating an entire formation pathway.

Advanced Ministerial Intensive

For experienced psychedelic and ceremonial guides called to bring their work into CSP ministry. This is the individualized route that succeeds the former Bridge program.

Applicants complete the same Year of Formation, then submit records of prior education, supervised work, and relevant experience for review. The Advanced Ministerial Intensive is an individualized formation plan addressing what each person brings and what remains to be learned. Prior experience with one sacrament does not automatically authorize another.

Masters Degree or Ph.D

The CSP Seminary is accredited by the Global Accreditation Council. Students may pursue:

• MA in Entheogenic Studies

• Master of Divinity

• PhD in Entheogenic Studies

• Doctorate of Divinity

Students complete 36 hours of coursework with the CSP Seminary, then finish their degree with Ubiquity University, who oversees the thesis or dissertation process.

A degree is not required for CSP ministerial licensure. Students interested in advanced degrees still begin with the Year of Formation.

More time is an option.

Some students will continue with electives, mentoring, personal formation, community participation, or prerequisite experience before applying or reapplying to an advanced pathway. This is a recognized route through the Seminary, not a failed attempt to keep pace.