Yesterday's water ritual
Like I do, I'm going to talk about spiritual stuff.
I've got a bit of a fire orientation. When I'm doing a ritual, odds are, I find a way to incorporate fire. When I think about my energy, it manifests in a fiery way - with a touch of wind. To me, heat and light are part and parcel to my magical work. For those that know me, this is pretty well understood. Conversely, I don't have a lot of association with the nature of water at all. I mentioned this in detail back in my last Twilight Covening post. Because the cosmos (and the people who run Twilight Covening) think they are funny, the focus was on water. The short version: this was about as appealing to me as a tub fully of soapy water is to a cat.
However, I know plenty of folks with whom energy manifests in more of a water-like way, full of flow, and gentle change over time. I certainly understand, in theory, these properties and why folks might associate with them. I just don't feel a draw. In fact, I feel somewhat repulsed. To me, water smothers; water steals away heat and light. Even so - I understand that everything has its strengths and weakness. Fire, after all, does plenty of damage too, if not properly handled.
Anyway, as part of the spiritual workshop in which I am involved, I was given homework to address my relationship with the water aspects of energy, to see what there was for me to learn there. I had reflected on this for a while, and in the last workshop, I had committed to coming up with and completing a water-focused ritual.
Last night, dannarra and I got together for dinner and a little spiritual work. Since I had this homework queued up, and since dannarra is a good partner for my rituals, I decided to give it a shot. I had "consulted inward" for a month before this, and the edges of a ritual were in my mind. I acquired some metallic bowls with mirror-like surfaces. I got a large pitcher, which I filled with water, and added just a bit of salt to that. Since it was night, we grabbed a lamp and some candles; we headed on out to our spiritual space behind dannarra's house.
The woods were in deep dark by the time we got out to them. We visited each of the nodes in our space. At each one, we first put candles around to light up the space. Thereafter, I placed one bowl in each area, and gently poured water into each until the bottoms were evenly covered.
dannarra asked me what the water was for, which was a good question. I was feeling the ritual in my heart, but had not brought it up into my mind to explore. I don't like over-thinking the rituals, as it makes them heavy. Still, the question led me to explain what I knew on some level: the water and the bowls were there to receive, we could look into them, see something therein that we wanted to let go, and those things would pass out of us, and into the water. As I thought on this further, I recognized that the bowls of water were openings through which these undesired things could pass. When we were done, and we undid the bowls, that which was let go would be trapped beyond those portals. These thoughts stirred about in me; I spoke about it as best I could, and gradually over the course of the ritual, all the words about this came out.
Once each node was set, we visited each, taking turns at each bowl, while the other of us held the lantern. Sometimes, we would touch the water. Sometimes, we would take it onto our fingers and flick it away. In each case, we would stare into the bowls for a bit. For me, at the first bowl, I saw me clouded and surrounded. I released that there. The water spoke to me, and drew my hand. I touched it. There was a charge on my finger tips that reminded me of how it feels when I do sigil marking with energy alone - yet a bit more charged. I looked across at dannarra and noted the sigils that I could see on her forehead. I used my charged finger tips to mark them. It was interesting how it amplified the connection there. I need to remember that; it could be useful in my further work marking sigils with energy.
At the second bowl, I looked doubtful and longing. I could see that I wanted to retreat to the known. Because we were in the circle where we'd done a lot of work, ash was readily at hand, and I was tempted to reach for it. However, the idea was to work with water, so I let that go. I let my doubt go into the bowl.
At the third bowl, I looked craggy, worn, and old. Tired and spent. I felt that I was past my time; I felt like I was too old for many things. Parties. Relationships. Spiritual events like I was in. I let that all go into the bowl.
Once both of us had our time with the bowls, we stood back and looked upon our work. The scene we had built was remarkable. For a moment, I had a sense of it, stretching out through time. I could feel what this place might become. It was/will be beautiful and wonderful. I felt a smile bubbling up through me. Something dense and tangled had been wrapped around my heart - but it was so deep and familiar that I hadn't even been aware of it. The ritual loosened it; I could feel its woody grasp unclenching, opening slowly. It was just a bit of a change, just the beginning of a slow motion, but it was distinct. I felt the sort of happy that I do when I discover something tiny but beautiful, like a tiny bright flower along the trail.
Thereafter, we spoke a bit, and then unwound the ritual; we blew out our lights, and we poured the water from each of our bowls about the site. Once each was done, we wandered the path back to the yard. Along that journey, I sprinkled about the water that was remaining the pitcher. That felt right, it closed things off properly, and when we emerged from the woods, I felt both refreshed and exhausted.
This entry was originally posted at http://majes.dreamwidth.org/468734.html. Please comment here using OpenID. There are currently
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I've got a bit of a fire orientation. When I'm doing a ritual, odds are, I find a way to incorporate fire. When I think about my energy, it manifests in a fiery way - with a touch of wind. To me, heat and light are part and parcel to my magical work. For those that know me, this is pretty well understood. Conversely, I don't have a lot of association with the nature of water at all. I mentioned this in detail back in my last Twilight Covening post. Because the cosmos (and the people who run Twilight Covening) think they are funny, the focus was on water. The short version: this was about as appealing to me as a tub fully of soapy water is to a cat.
However, I know plenty of folks with whom energy manifests in more of a water-like way, full of flow, and gentle change over time. I certainly understand, in theory, these properties and why folks might associate with them. I just don't feel a draw. In fact, I feel somewhat repulsed. To me, water smothers; water steals away heat and light. Even so - I understand that everything has its strengths and weakness. Fire, after all, does plenty of damage too, if not properly handled.
Anyway, as part of the spiritual workshop in which I am involved, I was given homework to address my relationship with the water aspects of energy, to see what there was for me to learn there. I had reflected on this for a while, and in the last workshop, I had committed to coming up with and completing a water-focused ritual.
Last night, dannarra and I got together for dinner and a little spiritual work. Since I had this homework queued up, and since dannarra is a good partner for my rituals, I decided to give it a shot. I had "consulted inward" for a month before this, and the edges of a ritual were in my mind. I acquired some metallic bowls with mirror-like surfaces. I got a large pitcher, which I filled with water, and added just a bit of salt to that. Since it was night, we grabbed a lamp and some candles; we headed on out to our spiritual space behind dannarra's house.
The woods were in deep dark by the time we got out to them. We visited each of the nodes in our space. At each one, we first put candles around to light up the space. Thereafter, I placed one bowl in each area, and gently poured water into each until the bottoms were evenly covered.
dannarra asked me what the water was for, which was a good question. I was feeling the ritual in my heart, but had not brought it up into my mind to explore. I don't like over-thinking the rituals, as it makes them heavy. Still, the question led me to explain what I knew on some level: the water and the bowls were there to receive, we could look into them, see something therein that we wanted to let go, and those things would pass out of us, and into the water. As I thought on this further, I recognized that the bowls of water were openings through which these undesired things could pass. When we were done, and we undid the bowls, that which was let go would be trapped beyond those portals. These thoughts stirred about in me; I spoke about it as best I could, and gradually over the course of the ritual, all the words about this came out.
Once each node was set, we visited each, taking turns at each bowl, while the other of us held the lantern. Sometimes, we would touch the water. Sometimes, we would take it onto our fingers and flick it away. In each case, we would stare into the bowls for a bit. For me, at the first bowl, I saw me clouded and surrounded. I released that there. The water spoke to me, and drew my hand. I touched it. There was a charge on my finger tips that reminded me of how it feels when I do sigil marking with energy alone - yet a bit more charged. I looked across at dannarra and noted the sigils that I could see on her forehead. I used my charged finger tips to mark them. It was interesting how it amplified the connection there. I need to remember that; it could be useful in my further work marking sigils with energy.
At the second bowl, I looked doubtful and longing. I could see that I wanted to retreat to the known. Because we were in the circle where we'd done a lot of work, ash was readily at hand, and I was tempted to reach for it. However, the idea was to work with water, so I let that go. I let my doubt go into the bowl.
At the third bowl, I looked craggy, worn, and old. Tired and spent. I felt that I was past my time; I felt like I was too old for many things. Parties. Relationships. Spiritual events like I was in. I let that all go into the bowl.
Once both of us had our time with the bowls, we stood back and looked upon our work. The scene we had built was remarkable. For a moment, I had a sense of it, stretching out through time. I could feel what this place might become. It was/will be beautiful and wonderful. I felt a smile bubbling up through me. Something dense and tangled had been wrapped around my heart - but it was so deep and familiar that I hadn't even been aware of it. The ritual loosened it; I could feel its woody grasp unclenching, opening slowly. It was just a bit of a change, just the beginning of a slow motion, but it was distinct. I felt the sort of happy that I do when I discover something tiny but beautiful, like a tiny bright flower along the trail.
Thereafter, we spoke a bit, and then unwound the ritual; we blew out our lights, and we poured the water from each of our bowls about the site. Once each was done, we wandered the path back to the yard. Along that journey, I sprinkled about the water that was remaining the pitcher. That felt right, it closed things off properly, and when we emerged from the woods, I felt both refreshed and exhausted.
This entry was originally posted at http://majes.dreamwidth.org/468734.html. Please comment here using OpenID. There are currently
comments