Fire ceremonies are truly enlightening on so many levels from the literal to the symbolic and energetic. My monthly full moon fire ceremony gathering is a lovely night filled with ritual, letting go and creating space for new energy to swirl in. People arrive from 7pm usually bearing gifts of some kind like sacred wine and as in the case last night sacred brownies and cookies. Everyone has a cup of tea and chooses a medicine woman card from a deck based on the tarot but with Native American images and interpretations. Many are astounded by the accuracy of the card picked in relation to whatever is going on in our lives. This gives everyone a focus and most of us share the information from the book so everyone feels a bit more connected.
Then we begin the fire ceremony. Everyone has a rattle that they have either brought or chosen from my bag of rattles. Everyone has a stick. First I open sacred space facing to the east, “The place of the rising sun and the eagle-condor, Apu Chin. Help us become visionary’s each new day rising high above the whole scene getting the bigger picture like the condor yet with clear focus on every detail. Help us soar and trust that out wings will carry us when we leap into the abyss of the unknown. Hi ya ya.”
We face the south, “Sachamama, Serpiente, help us let go of all the energies that do not serve us in one fell swoop the way you shed your skin. Help us birth again, renewed and teach us to walk softly upon the earth and live each day in beauty. Hi ya ya.”
We face the west, “The place of the setting sun. Otorongo, Mother sister jaguar, encircle us, protect us, help us mulch new energies and be rebirthed strong and powerful.”
We face the north, “Huaynakauri Royal Hummingbird, Ancient Ones, Ancestors come and whisper to us in the winds, pass your wisdom through us. Teach us to journey in stillness and drink from the sweet waters of life.”
We kneel to the earth, “Pachamama, pachamamasita, thank you, gracias madre for holding us so strong and steady in your sweet embrace, for taking all the energies we no longer need into your belly and transmuting it to light. Now let us heal you mother with our love. Hi ya ya.”
We stretch up to the heavens, “Inti tai tai, Mama Kia, Grandmother Moon Father Sun, Star Nations shine your beautiful golden love light down through us into the belly of the mother and back up again. Embrace us with your rainbow light connecting us to universes and galaxies and every living thing, creating unity the light that shines within us all. Hi Ya ya.”
Then we start chanting the Nitche Tai Tai chant which I first learned in The Four Winds. I have since chanted many other fire songs but Nitche Tai Tai is very simple for new comers to remember and it makes them feel included when they can immediately join in. Roughly it translates as “We honour you Mother of the Waters, thank you for nourishing our land.” Even though it is a fire ceremony we thank the water who provides the food for the trees we use for fuel. We are honouring the six directions and all the elements when we take the fire into our bellies and our hearts. I bless the fire that I built earlier while lighting it and once lit continue to bless the people who have come and the archetypes and mountain spirits by pouring oil on the fire.
Eventually I approach the fire and open my 2nd, heart and third eye chakras so I can take the fire in and then exhaling and pushing the energy out of each chakra, I release all the heavy blocked energy in each chakra. I blow into one end of a stick everything that I want to let go of personal to myself and in the other side I blow in what I want to attract and invite into my life. I place the stick in the fire. Then I circle my mesa over the fire cleansing it. After that everyone is invited to come to the fire. Someone holds space immediately behind the person praying at the fire so they have an extra private space in which to concentrate on what they are letting go into the fire.
Sometimes people have things written on paper that they put in the fire. I had a stack of financial papers wanting to change my relationship with money. After everyone has had a chance to go to the fire and release then we stop chanting and place the Pachamama stick in, one that everyone has blown their prayers for the earth into during the course of the ceremony. We invite in our ancestors to join us and then we chant again so everyone has a chance to return to the fire to place sticks in (last night we used pinecones), for our loved ones highest and best. I always put sticks in for my sons, family and various friends and clients. After everyone has finished we stop chanting and rattling and bring out the sacred wine. Some people might still be choosing cards if they didn’t have time before the fire.
The most magnificent thing about fire ceremonies is that they really DO shift things! I have met lovely people at these gatherings over the years. They are a great reliever of stress, something happens and the next day you feel lighter. You cannot explain it, but you know something has changed.
Full moons are a good time to create new energetic space for abundance to come in because it is the beginning cycle of another moon. We want to flow with the energies of the Mother Earth as easily as possible. Fire ceremonies help re-connect us to that Universal energetic flow while we honour the beautiful Pachamama.
Saturday 19 February 2011
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Three Important Things
Someone on my travels once asked me, “I teach 7 year old children in school. What do you think the three most important things are that I could teach them?”
I said, “Forgive everyone everything, including yourself. Love every living thing, in other words, respect and accept their existence and right to Be as much as your own. And think only positive thoughts because your words and actions will follow.”
Depending on the tones of voice your parents used with you, will greatly affect the tapes you have playing in your head. If your mother continually yelled at you, chances are you will yell at your own children, and not really even be aware of it. If your father always spoke down to you, it’s likely you will do the same to your children. Or, you may go completely the other way if you are self aware and determined not to screw your kids up the way your parents did to you. But generally, at some level, we pass on the same modelling to our children because it is ingrained in us. If we learned how to shut our feelings up inside of us and not communicate, how can we expect our children to communicate with us? It is important to get to your kids in their formative years if at all possible, I am lucky, I got to mine about half way through, but I still see personality traits in them that they picked up from me when I was angry. If your children are already grown, it is better to sort your stuff out now anyway because the present moment for healing and apologising is better than never. If you don’t have children to pass all of this good stuff down to, then for your own sake, clear up your own internal struggles, forgive your parents and embrace happiness.
I said, “Forgive everyone everything, including yourself. Love every living thing, in other words, respect and accept their existence and right to Be as much as your own. And think only positive thoughts because your words and actions will follow.”
Depending on the tones of voice your parents used with you, will greatly affect the tapes you have playing in your head. If your mother continually yelled at you, chances are you will yell at your own children, and not really even be aware of it. If your father always spoke down to you, it’s likely you will do the same to your children. Or, you may go completely the other way if you are self aware and determined not to screw your kids up the way your parents did to you. But generally, at some level, we pass on the same modelling to our children because it is ingrained in us. If we learned how to shut our feelings up inside of us and not communicate, how can we expect our children to communicate with us? It is important to get to your kids in their formative years if at all possible, I am lucky, I got to mine about half way through, but I still see personality traits in them that they picked up from me when I was angry. If your children are already grown, it is better to sort your stuff out now anyway because the present moment for healing and apologising is better than never. If you don’t have children to pass all of this good stuff down to, then for your own sake, clear up your own internal struggles, forgive your parents and embrace happiness.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Love Yourself
The first step in loving yourself is deciding to change. We may want to change a variety of things in our lives, or ourselves but until we make the decision to change, it is not going to happen magically. By making a decision to DO something kick starts the energy and the vibration we are sending out into the universe. Your motivation may indeed have been made from a place of anger or desperation, but that first moment of committing to yourself to change is the moment you start loving yourself. You may feel like you hate things about yourself, your behaviour, your body, your circumstances, but the minute you energise your freedom of choice to DO something about it you have started on an upward spiral and it will grow and grow and you will feel continually better about yourself as you witness your own beautiful transformation.
Take your commitment to change very seriously, but do not take yourself very seriously. We expect to have major life changing leaps and bounds to enlightenment once we make the decision to change when in fact it is much more like a series of baby steps. It may seem like we are taking two steps back for every step forward and this may discourage us. But we have to remember that we are human.
Humans learn through trauma, so every little thing in our lives can teach us. If you’re on a diet for example and one day you eat chocolate cake, SAVOUR the cake, attempt not to eat the whole thing and get back with the program right away. It does not ruin the whole diet. The same theory goes for soul searching or quitting any behavioural addiction. If we are light with ourselves and become our own cheerleading squad, then we will remain encouraged to continue. Laugh at yourself. I for one provide myself great entertainment on a daily basis. Soul searching and growing spiritually can be fun and really ought to be as it’s a beautiful, joyous thing we are striving towards.
Take your commitment to change very seriously, but do not take yourself very seriously. We expect to have major life changing leaps and bounds to enlightenment once we make the decision to change when in fact it is much more like a series of baby steps. It may seem like we are taking two steps back for every step forward and this may discourage us. But we have to remember that we are human.
Humans learn through trauma, so every little thing in our lives can teach us. If you’re on a diet for example and one day you eat chocolate cake, SAVOUR the cake, attempt not to eat the whole thing and get back with the program right away. It does not ruin the whole diet. The same theory goes for soul searching or quitting any behavioural addiction. If we are light with ourselves and become our own cheerleading squad, then we will remain encouraged to continue. Laugh at yourself. I for one provide myself great entertainment on a daily basis. Soul searching and growing spiritually can be fun and really ought to be as it’s a beautiful, joyous thing we are striving towards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)