The Beginning of a New Ease

Tomorrow we are to witness another magical celestial event.

There will be a new moon, a partial solar eclipse, mercury is finally direct again with all other planets moving forward as well... what a relief! Enjoy this one because we have earned it! Did I mention there will be a meteor shower too? Amazing.

We in the western hemisphere will have to feel the eclipse rather than see it. Those in Europe, Central Asia and Africa though will be treated a beautiful crescent son. The sun mirroring the nature of the moon as she comes new, when she is at her most vulnerable. I take this as an omen, the beginning of a truce, a reconciliation between the feminine and masculine and a flowering of Divine love.

I am not sure yet what intentions I will set, but I will surely be informed by this beginning of a new age of co-operation between the sexes.

This will be my first New Moon ceremony below the Tropic of Cancer, where the cycles of the mother is more subtle. I am so connected to the rhythms of my home, how they mirror the rhythms of life. I only had to look outside my window to understand the significance of the many cosmic wheels which turn brining us this fabulous life. I miss my home.

AND... I am happy to be here in Mexico, learning. About what I am not sure yet. I just know that this is where I was led. I will understand it all soon. I know to head towards Chiapas, which is what we are doing. For now though we are going to kick back and enjoy San Blas, Nyrait. Which is where we are headed tomorrow.The perfect place to be this new moon, I know because everywhere I am in the perfect place for me to be.

Blessings to you all on this night.

“What intentions will you set this new moon?”

Day 11- Weeds

Praying

It doesn't have to be the blue iris,
it could be weeds in a vacant lot,
or a few small stones;

just pay attention,

then patch a few words together
and don't try to make them elaborate,
this isn't a contest ....
but the doorway into thanks,
and a silence in which another voice may speak.

-Mary Oliver



I have a friend, a gorgeous human being both inside and out, who recently said to me “I don’t really know how to go into ceremony”. I had a hard time not laughing, which would have been very inappropriate given her delicate state. This womyn knows how to go into ceremony with such beauty, focus and devotion that I kneel down in awe of her abilities as a Priestess. Not the kind of Priestess that holds gathering or facilitates groups, but an everyday Priestess who ceaselessly prays with her every action, thought and word. She KNOWS how to go into ceremony, she just don’t know that she knows.

She told me about a night when she found herself half way up a mountain DEMANDING God give her what she asked for. This is something I struggle with. I pray more in the style of “You tell me what is needed of me and I will do my very best” . I meekly ask God for things here and there but am more likely to wait to be told God’s will and see what happens. She explained to me how important it was to help God out, let him (her) know what I really want. That when the time comes when I ferociously KNOW what I need that I must actually DEMAND it! I admit to fearing wrathful spite at being so firm with God, but then remembered that I don’t believe in a wrathful God and take heed of her wise words.

So what do I want right now? I don’t know... I don’t know that to ask for. I know I want peace, but nothing more specific is percolating. Peace is in short supply these days, though turmoil is teaching me to find peace within the intensity. To find it even when there are just a tiny little pockets of it. To relish it, crawl deep inside and let it take care of me.

On the day this friend told me she didn’t know how to go into ceremony, she was dealing with the life and death cycle which plays out in the female body. She had begun to bleed at 9 weeks pregnant, she miscarried a week later. She took her baby to the river and went into ceremony to say good bye, just as I did days ago. When she told me how she and her partner honoured their child we wept together. We are sisters now in a way we could never have been without a similar grief that was shared at the same time in our lives. Our journeys were different. She is 12 years younger than I and has no children. Her pregnancy was a surprise but a welcome one, this couple was ready to share their love with a baby. I already have 3 beautiful children. My pregnancy was also a surprise and while there is deep love for this baby and between his father and I, our relationship is fraught with conflict to the point that there is no longer contact between us. I chose my miscarriage, my friend did not, regardless we are both grieving. So we took our grief and went into ceremony, we honoured our babies.

So next time you feel grief, or immense joy, or anything at all that pulls at you to be celebrated or honoured. Find some weeds and small stones, say some words, express to source what is in your heart. Know that this is prayer, this IS ceremony. No one has to show you how, there is no manual or right way to bring yourself to God... all you need is right there within you.

“How do you go into ceremony?”, because I know you do, even if you haven’t called it that before.

Day 9 Photo Op- Ceremony

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