CEREMONY - a Way of Life

EARLY SPRING 2020 -

In shamanic practice, ceremony is used in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes we hold big healing ceremonies or ceremonies to honour a special place or time of year.  They are also used for big life events that mark important communal thresholds – births, coming of age, separations, marriages, deaths. But they can also be with us in small, intimate, regular rituals. We can make a ceremony out of everyday actions such as making food, drinking a glass of water, opening a door, lighting a candle, writing a letter, and even, breathing in and breathing out. If we engage with them as ritual, they help to infuse life with Spirit power and bring more vitality and aliveness to our being.

As in all shamanic work, when we come with intention, attention and connection, the world opens, and the Spirits come closer. Any simple act can become sacred when we remember why we are doing it – our intention creates a deeper meaning beyond the physical surface. As we remember the real purpose behind our action, it takes us to the heart of it and opens a door to magic. When we step into sacred space, we step beyond time and place. We remember the bigger perspective. Our senses become attuned and we become more aware of how things are connected. We expand beyond our individual selves and allow the power of intention to spread beyond our human limitations. 

Even going to the hospital for an operation can be a ceremony. By acknowledging that it has potential to be a sacred event, we approach the hospital as a Temple of Healing. Perhaps this does not change the people who are going to perform the surgery, and doesn’t make the hospital look different on the outside. But our relationship to what is happening changes. Even though physical actions seem to remain the same, our intention influences the way we respond and how it affects us. Sitting in the waiting room, remembering that this too is ceremony, unveils the waiting room as sacred space and brings us into a sacred way of being.

Ceremony is always possible, wherever we are, and helps us to embrace the beauty and wonder of life. We do not need special tools or a specific site, although these can be wonderfully helpful and essential in certain situations. The ceremony is in the moment and in the intention. As we hold that moment with awareness of the Spirits, opening our hearts to it, we come into closer connection with Life. We remember that we are alive, really alive.

Ceremony is all around us. Life is Ceremony. There is no separation.

Zara & Jonathan