This is the spot where it all began. We started with a tobacco offering. This magical spot at the edge of the ocean, with nothing but salty water and ocean life for hundreds of miles, was where my journey with a new friend began. I have created much ceremony and ritual in my life, I am a bit of a junkie for the reverent. Finding the mystical in the day to day brings me closer to God, closer to me. And so this is where, after agreeing on the logistics this afternoon, we entered into ceremony together.
If you look up to the top of your screen, under the word “year” in “12 days 2 inspire ~ a year long journey, 12 days at a time”, you will see an ammonite. It is actually half of an ammonite, I have both halves, or at least I did. I brought both halves to Esalen with me, they sat on the altar in the dance dome while we prayed with our souls in motion, there they soaked up all the wondrous juju created by our dance rituals. Today I took both halves from the alter and gave them to my friend in the lodge, I asked him to hold them until we went into ceremony tonight under the almost full moon. Once we were finished offering tobacco to the mother, I bound the ammonites together. They were whole again, held in place by grasses pulled through the fence in this picture. From here we went on to create healing, forgiveness and beauty together; two souls meeting in meditation, two souls opening, steeping in the divine. We used ceremony to see our own selves through each other, we offered each other a mirror
“You've no idea how hard I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.
It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.
So- I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.
- Jalaluddin Rumi”
When the ceremony was complete, we unbound the ammonite, separate halves of a whole again. My friend took half and I took the other. If either of us ever needs a reminder of what we learned that night, of what we saw, of the truths that were spoken to the starry sky, we can hold our ammonite and remember. If we should need to come together again, our halves of the ammonite will call out to each other, manifest a reunion. I will keep mine on my personal altar and listen carefully when I bow before it each day.
“How do you get what you want?” is the question in 12 days journal #319
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