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Ceremony helps us bring some of our challenges to the forefront to heal them and help us grow. It is there for us to help ourselves and others.
Recently I attended experienced a weekend with Canadian Conjure camp and cat and monkey events with Witch Doctor Utu that went deeper than anticipated.
This weekend we helped release spirits of the Underground Railroad. We met and heard the stories belonging to some of their descendants, and experienced different cultures and paths. In return each of us was gifted with profound learnings.
One of my two major learnings was connected to journey I began 20 years ago when I went to Guatemala and did ceremony with a medicine man in the mountains.
In the high heat of the day he gave me candles to hold as he chanted, prayed, and played music around me. I looked into the bonfire in front of me and let my mind wander (partially heat stroking I am sure lol) the smoke swirled Beyond the wood. It looked like a river, I heard and felt in my core….“Fire and water are one on the same.”
I have carried that teaching most of my career, sharing that learning of balance in nature, that we, like they, can work together regardless of its form or fury.
But I have never actually seen it so purely. Water is always used to douse fire, or fire always evaporates water. This weekend we worked with the deities of water and I was blessed to watch them in perfect harmony….
We all sat at the end of second ceremony, Processing and connecting with each other. The reverberations of the drums we experienced earlier in the hands of those musicians, magicians really, connecting primally to the gods making a bridge between our worlds… still ringing in our ears.
Then…First a drop, then a trickle. We felt the coming rains. We all found it ironic that the weekend was dedicated to water and we were inundated with this loving, purifying element. It did not escape us that it rained only at those times that did not interfere with festivities and classes, and at a time when we all needed respite for a while to recharge. I felt the deities we were calling on, were caring for us.
As the drips became a drizzle the flames of the ceremonial fire in the centre of our sacred circle licked high, as if to say you are welcome here, but I am sacred and need to remain vigilant and shed light. I will honour your presence, honour mine. I could feel their conversation.
It was profound to watch in front of me a learning of so long ago come to life. The pure example of what this weekends theme was….working in community. Working together. One of the teachings in opening circle was how nature is the perfect example of that, and here we were witnessing the beauty and truth of that statement.
It all seemed so simple. The light rain, the strong flame, the animals chirping, nature surrounding us, and we, as humans, helping and remembering the communities of the past in order to better our present, and strengthen the communities of the future.
