Dim the Inner Naysayers....Ignite the Inner Yay Sayers

Well it was another blessed New Moon Ceremony.  Although every guest is special I felt very honored to have 3 generations of Lerner, well I guess Sanchez, women in the ceremony.  My mother, older sister and 13 year old niece were at the ceremony.  I could feel the healing that transmitted forward and backwards for our family and all.  It was a re-enactment of the trilogy of the virgin, mother and the crone.  So there was some powerful medicine this month.

So as always we opened the mesa by calling in directions.  I included all participants as the dreamworkers had their work included and in the papers I included the names of all the lite participants.  Of course we discussed the awesome and inspiring video of the wayseers manifesto that I asked all participants to watch prior to attending or doing dreamwork.  So Lite participants, here is your chance to get a glimpse of the youtube video from the following link.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPR3GlpQQJA  I also spoke about how he uses the term the way, which I would exchange the word Love for.  Love is not something any of us can own.  Yet there is an abundant resource for us to tap into when we feel safe enough to let down all the walls and retreat our gatekeepers.  Although there are times we need them the more we can let us tap into the resources, the more we will be on the right track.

So of course the surrender process is the releasing of all those obstacles to the infinite global love.  Before jumping into the surrender process, I shared the following quote by Parker Palmer.  

‎"As I stand in the tragic gap between reality and possibility, this small, 

tight fist of a thing called my heart can break open into greater capacity 

to hold more of my own and the world's suffering and joy, despair and hope."

And as much as I say in the title dim the inner naysayer.  Polarities and paradox happen in life.  And when a challenge or less than pleasant experience the important thing is not to allow it to lessen the other side of the spectrum which includes our good fortune, our joy, our happiness.  And when we are brave enough, creative enough and trusting enough to hold both ends of the paradox, a creative new solution can occur.  And we can get rid of the either - or's and black and white solutions to a life of and's and a colorful rainbow that is a lot more fun.

As often happens things fall into my lap that seem to be just perfect.  I recently became a Mary Oliver fan.  She is a poet that happens to be a poet who wrote an anthology called Dreamworks.  Of course, I had to buy it and I found two poems to share.  First called a poem called the Journey.  It felt applicable for the surrender process and here it is.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice - - -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
'Mend my life!'
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop. 

You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations - - -
though their melancholy
was terrible.It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do - - - determined to save
the only life you could save.

We then went into the surrender process while listening to the song performed by the Glee Cast (so yes, I am a Gleek)  called "Get It Right".  After the surrender I had the attendees blow the remnants of their naysayer into the Thank You card below.

You'll see it laying on my burning bowl above.    I choose a thank you card, because although we are choosing to surrender it now, it did serve a purpose for us through our life and make each of us who we are.  Inside that card on a piece of paper is all the surrender work of all the dreamworkers.  I printed each one over again on the same piece of paper.  This is representing one that although we each feel that our naysayers are the most shameful and dramatic, in truth they are not and in fact many of us share similar issues as most of them come not from us, but from recordings that we have heard growing up from our families, media....  Most of the things we believe about ourselves is not true.  Usually the naysayer is coming from the mind and not really the heart, which is where we go next in the heart work.  But before we did, you can't really see it in this picture, but I tied a gold string from the card to a big honker of a stone that I often use for extraction work.  And you know what I did I cut this cord, the umbilical cord that makes the naysayer stay connected to us.   The simple snip of the cord is as simple as the shift of our perspective.  Our habit may be to judge ourselves, but once we are aware of this habit, we can choose to turn our weakness into a strength.  It's all about choices.  Of course, we then burned the card, it's contents and cord which will be used as compost for the natural world to use to fertilize the beautiful garden of our lives.

So as I say the yaysayer comes from our hearts and love.  We connected with our inner fire and of course to have the balance, I have another Poem by Mary Oliver's Dreamwork called Morning Poem and here it is:

Morning Poem

Every morning

the world

is created. 

Under the orange 

sticks of the sun

the heaped

ashes of the night

turn into leaves again 

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---

and the ponds appear

like black cloth

on which are painted islands 

of summer lilies. 

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails 

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere. 

And if your spirit

carries within it 

the thorn

that is heavier than lead ---

if it's all you can do

to keep on trudging --- 

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted --- 

each pond with its blazing lilies

is a prayer heard and answered

lavishly, 

every morning, 

whether or not

you have ever dared to be happy, 

whether or not

you have ever dared to pray. 

We did the seed planting process with Joan Osbourne's, "Love is Alive".  She references the fire of the heart quite appropriately.  So after the seed journey, I raised the dreams of each participant and they each received a gold thread tied around their wrist to remind them the their love is alive and their dreams are firmly planted.  So hear the gold thread is symbolizing our dreams instead of the weight of our naysayer that I snipped earlier.  Again showing that everything is just energy and we get to choose what it represents.

Of course we did the prayer for others and we chanted munay, which is quechua for unconditional love, as that is the greatest healer as I burned all the seeds of each person as well as the prayers for others.  If you look at the mesa photo the prayers for others were divided into four origami figures, two cranes and two hearts.

We closed the ceremony by taking in the prasad and sweetness of life.  Showing the universe that we are ready to receive sweetness in our lives.  

I went off to the East River to offer the garland of dreams.  I often bring my ipod with me to accompany my walk and I chose to put it on shuffle.  The first song was "Everybody Has to Believe In Something" by Sam and David.  And I had to laugh as this felt like a, You can't make this shit up moment.  And I thought very true and I believe in the Power of Love, The Power of Ceremony and The Power of All You Dedicated Wayseers and Transformers.  

Another perfect moment occurred as I offered the garland of dreams to the East River.  And as I did this I seem to have woken up two ducks that were hiding close to me so I didn't see them until I woke them up with the blossoms of your dreams.   And I didn't get a good picture of them but will include to give a dark glimpse.  Just so you know with the exception of one month when I did ceremony in Puerto Rico, I have made garland of dreams offering every New Moon since October 2009 and always in this vicinity. I have never had any duck friends accompany the offering.  This was unique.

Right off the bat, I did find it interesting that there was two and I was talking about paradox.  However, I only now decided to look up the signifance of ducks in Animal Speaks, which is my little bible for the significance of animal allies.  And it says "it is linked to the feminine energies, the astral plan and to the emotional state of humans."  Did we not have all versions of feminine energy in this ceremony with the virgin, mother and crone.  Although never surprised by the power of ceremony, I am yet again awed by the perfection of life and how the seen and unseen forces are at the ready to support us or confirm when we are on the right track.  

And I do have I Tunes on shuffle again.  And remind you this can be anything from Rock to Gospel to Showtunes to Kirtan.  As I am ready to sign off, the song that has come up is "Today I Am A Messenger of Ginger Curry.  And to share some of the lyrics are "Today I am a messenger of peace of joy...Today I am a messenger of love...Today I am a messenger of God." I was awed after the symbolism of the ducks and now I am speechless.  Which is not a common state and end with eternal gratitude for sharing this work with all of you.  In Sacred Relationship We Remain.


P.S.  After finishing this I ran out to meet Sarah, a dear friend, Shaman and ceremonialist and shared the ceremony and the ducks and how the two represented paradox and she pointed out that we had a Pair of Ducks.  I hope your guffawing as much as I am.  This may become a title of a new book.