It was such an honor to be invited to lead the ceremony at the land of my friend Maddie and Bob's. Their land is truly a sacred place. And there were so many options for ceremony and fire. As the theme was to live free, I chose to do the ceremony Al Fresco outside of the tipi. There home is right on some water so we truly had all of the elements present. I was really honored to have some old time mesa carriers to the ceremony and this time we were blessed with the presence of the wisdom of two young elders, Alex (3) and Danny (1). It's amazing how children are the wise ones and so connected. Alex loved the condor/florida water cleansing and was quite the despacho maker, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
And actually the start of this new moon was about a week ago when I was considering the new moon dreamwork. I had been thinking of using the story instead of a journey based on a recent empowering experience I had although I wasn't sure if "it would work". Well spirit gave me my answer as I walked down into the Union Square subway station and Citibank has taken up bill boards throughout the station about creating our stories. Obviously they were taking a different perspective, but I was particularly giggled at this one.
Do I need to say more on this affirmation?
It was nice to set up the mesa on grass and earth. After laying the ground and before others as promised, in private, for those that gave me permission, I read your stories of surrender into the mesa. And one tricky dreamworker took the theme of freedom to heart and gave me the option to read. So the reciprocity began even before the ceremony had officially started. But I find that always to be the case. It is an honor to assist you in the surrender of those false beliefs. Once the ground was laid, Bob started a beautiful ceremonial fire that sat in the east of the mesa. Sorry I wasn't very good on picture taking this New Moon, but here is the mesa pre-ceremony.
And for a close up of the west and the north. In the west, the Dr. Seuss shoebox was doubling as a despacho container. And you'll see the hearts, I put your seeds in the west which is the direction of unlimited love, which is the perfect nurturance for your dreams. In the north is the prayers for others on the birds to carry those prayers to the support of the unseen world.
We opened by chanting the directions. Each person introduced themselves to the mesa and spoke their reason for being there. I called in each of the dreamworkers and lite participants into the circle. And for the new people I often share a little bit of my story and this time I shared something from the movie Contact. I had been reminded of this movie a few times recently so I decided to watch it that morning. At the end when Jody Foster's character is speaking of her experience at a congrassional hearing her words explain exactly why I keep doing this work more eloquently than I do. But then again she had a script writer.
Here it is:
I had an experience. I can’t prove it. I can’t even explain it but everything that I know as a human being. Everything that I am tell me that it was real. I was given something wonderful. Something that changed me forever. Avsion of the universe that tells us undeniably how tiny and insignificant and rare and precsious we are. A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are not alone. I can share that. I could share.... That everyone if even for one minute can feel that awe and humility and the hope. That continues to be my wish.Yes it is my wish, that each person experiences awe, humility and hope, or, as I now termed into the acronym, Ahh! I hope they experience it at least once and preferably on a regular basis.
I was also reading a book call Leading From Within. It's a book of inspiring poems for leaders. The foreward is by Madeleine Albright. She reminded us of the passengers on the plane that went into the Pentagon on 9/11. One of the passengers had left his wife a cell phone message that said. "I know we are going to die, but some of us are going to do something about it." And that is what freedom is. The freedom to choose to do something about it, whether it be in action or in our perspective. As Madeleine reminds the readers "We are all mortal. What divides us is the use we make of our time... So our plane has crashed. What are we going to do about it. We have lived our lives but we have not led." And the best way to lead our lives is to be reflective, intentional and self aware. And that is the intention behind doing this ceremonies. To foster this. So by participating we are also leading.
I then lead the surrender process. Since I wanted to allow plenty of time to get the stories behind our false beliefs about ourselves. I had this group accompanied by two songs. Yes Wilson Philips, Hold On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi9w_aaF34U followed by a new favorite song called Inventing Shadows by Dia Frampton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01rZ7Se9Jgc This song really speaks to the meanies created by our mind. And that is what needs to be re-trained. I also think that she is a perfect example of someone who is living her dream. She was a contestant on the recent talent show, The Voice. She did not win but she was certainly free to shine and win. The night after she performed this she was the ITunes top seller.
So each person spoke the title of their story of surrender into transformation of surviving to thriving as they offered it to the fire. The grand transformer helping reduce the density of any angst into ash. We made sure to clear away any dust with a little extra florida water and the aid of the condor and hence the element of air. We made sure our personal gardens were weeded so that we can plant seeds.
So we journeyed with each of our inspirations to get insight into our personal next steps towards our dreams with the accompaniment of George Michaels Freedom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg2PR52ukmE We placed that into an origami heart. I have to say I need to work on articulating my origami making skills to a group but they were made and each of the seeds of the attendees and dreamworkers went into an individual blossom that was placed into the garland of dreams. The lite participant shared a blossom. The blossoms this time were lavender spider mums. I love all flowers but I just realized how perfect the use of these are as the spider will assist us in weaving our dreams into the greater web of life. We of course topped the garland with our prayers for others and the planet. We put those all into a sunflower, which seems like an obvious flower of choice. Yes, to let our lives shine bright. Also the center of the sunflower is in the shape of a fibonacci spiral which is a sacred geometric symbol allowing our dreams to be spiraled out into the world.
We closed the ceremony portion, but no folks, there was more. We followed with a despacho which is an offering of gratitude to the unseen forces for all they have provided and for future support. This one was chock full. And you can see the team working on this under the direction of master Alex,
The primary guides of the mesa have certain preferences. For the Tirakuna of the south we provide an animal product. In Peru, they often use llama fetus. I was all out; however, I did have some llama fat from a past trip, some beef jerky and a mouse. A mouse is not typical; however, when we were walking on the land earlier someone pointed out that a mouse had recently passed and in mind was offered to us for the despacho and to help the mouse in the transition. That means we have some mouse medicine, which according to Animal Speaks is about attention to detail. "Mouse medicine can show you how to focus and pay attention to detail. It can show you how to attain the big things by working on the little things. " So perhaps the perfect ally to help us attain our big dreams. The western guide, the Auki's, like flowers. We used the red and white carnations commonly used in Peru. Remember carnations shares the etymology coronations or crownings and flowering of our lives. The Northern Malkis, aka tree spirits, enjoy mineral products . So we add salt and stones, minerals as well as gold and silver foils (which also represent the sweat of the sun and tears of the moon). The Malchula Aulanchis of the west, aka ancectors, like man made products. By default the despacho is man made but we add some other items. Pieces that mesa carrers have made as well as candies, like Good and Plenty. Spirit enjoys the sweetness. We also add aromatics, life staples (like corn, nuts, quinoa....) and libations. We covered the despacho with all of your heartfelt dreams aka heart songs.
We wrapped it up and offered it to the fire. This despacho was then offered to the fire.
I interrupt this blog to share a, "You can't make this up experience". I often put my itunes on shuffle as I work on my computer. And I'm not using a sacred playlist, so basically anything from showtunes to folk to hard rock to kirtan can pop up. But just after I complete talking about the guides and how we feed them and how this was covered in your heart songs, the song Hummingbird Heartbeat by Katy Perry goes on. Yes it's synchronistic because of the heart but also because the Hummingbird also referred to as Sewar Q'enti is a very sacred ally of the mesa which is the bestower of joy.
So I think we did really good work here guys. So I am going to end this right here. Yes the despacho was offered to the fire and well received, which means it was a good burn. And simultaneously we offered the garland of dreams to the water also in the back yard. It's a canal that eventually leads out to the ocean. So we used a balance of transformation with water and fire to manifest your dreams.
A True Honor!
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