I came home from visiting Jack and Kim filled with energy and excitement over many of the things that we discussed. But now several hours later after catching up with my email I am tired. Something about getting 3-4 hours sleep seems to do that.
Yesterday on the drive up to see them I was thinking about Orion (yeah I know that I have mentioned him a lot lately but he has been in my thoughts a lot lately too) and the intention of the healing at Walspurgisnacht, and Aeona's suggestion that I do my clergy challenge ritual at Starwood this year (not as a scheduled event but within the CAWmunity something that I am not doing this year as it is too soon after my vision quest for me to have time to work out what I want to do). And suddenly almost full blown a ritual popped into my head. I continued to play with it a bit as I drove until basically satisfied. So I designed a spontaneous healing ritual. I really like it too. And when I got home and told Tom he thought that I should write it up and publish it or post it to the lists. What I like about it is though I have put words to it below, they are not intended to be memorized at all. The outline is quite simple. With a small group this ritual would not take very long, perhaps 15 minutes. But I believe that it could be quite powerful. Of course, I haven't done it yet and that is always the test - how does it work in practice.
Cast the circle hand to hand. Priestess starts by taking the hand of person to their left. An energy link is made (this is accomplished by awareness of the energy between each other, through visualization of energy moving to the person, or feeling love flow to them, or whatever feels right to each person.) Then that person takes the hand of the next person, etc. on around the circle until the circle is complete.
To honor the directions the Priestess says something like:
"As Above So also Below.
As we each take a deep breath of air we honor the powers of east and air.
With the warmth of our bodies, our spirits, and will we honor the powers of south and fire.
As our blood courses through our veins we honor the powers of west and water.
With the flesh of our bodies we honor the powers of north and earth.
Where our bodies touch the earth we send roots far below and we honor the powers of the Great Below.
Reaching up with our eyes and our spirits we honor the powers of the Great Above.
And as we feel our own center, the place of magick, we honor the powers of center."
Someone (in their own manner) invokes the Goddess into the circle and speaks of evoking Her from within as each of us has Goddess within.
Someone (in their own manner) invokes the God into the circle and speaks of evoking Him from within as each of us has God within.
Priestess speaks of the working:
"CAW has been through a difficult time when conflicts seem to have overwhelmed many of us. At times it seems as if the chalice of Waterkin has been shattered. But we can heal what has been broken. One of my favorite chants was written by our Priest, Orion Stormcrow.
"And it is from water that our church comes, the water of community, of connection, of deep sharing, of waterbrotherhood.
We go to Earth in our love of Gaia, of our Mother and our deep ecological focus within the church.
Our magick is the fire of transformation, the directed energy that encourages us all to become who we can be, and that helps to bring about change in the world.
And we carry that change out to others through our words and ideas like an all pervasive wind."
(Drummers begin to drum softly) "As we chant the words feel, and visualize, and know that our church is being made whole again, once more the visionary church, the dream made manifest."
(Begin chant and continue to chant as drumming picks up, as energy increases. Release at peak with drumming, then drop to the Earth to ground.)
Do a watersharing.
Thanks the Gods for their presence and remind everyone that while we are divine beings we are also only eggs so cut both oneself and each other some slack.
"As Above So Also Below. As Without so also Within. As we have honored the powers of the directions with our bodies so we ask that they be balanced and give thanks for their presence.
We also talked about clergy, communication, and visiting nests. It was suggested on one of the lists that we could use a clergy travel fund for traveling to nests. I think this is a great idea. If the fund was set aside to be used only for clergy trips to individual nests and not folded into festival travel then nests would have the opportunity to host a clergy member, perhaps only once a year, perhaps more if enough members donate to it. Clergy could rotate so nests have the opportunity to meet all the clergy able and willing to travel. CAW culture and stories would be shared with nests that might otherwise not have the opportunity to connect into the community in that way. And I believe that it would improve the relations between clergy and the community. It is harder to make bad faith assumptions about what a post might have meant when you have a sense of who the person on the other end is. When you hear rumors you are better able to discount them after having met the person than when it is about a stranger. And it would help keep clergy in touch with their constituency not just in their local area, but throughout the church.
Another thing that members have said that they wanted was more communication with and from clergy. Talking with Tess on ICQ, the other day, she suggested a clergy announce list where clergy could post to keep members informed without getting drawn into time consuming discussions. I am not sure that it needs to be a separate list but I think the idea of having a member of the clergy post a more detailed report of decisions and appropriate discussions from Clergy Retreats, is a good idea. And it could be combined with another idea from the lists. Conrad suggested that he would like to hear what clergy are doing on their individual spiritual paths, not just what rituals they did at festivals or whatever. Perhaps those clergy who would like to do so could post once a quarter or more if they were so inclined about what they are doing, what inspires them, their meditations, or bits from trance/journeys, etc. It seems to me that this is really a good idea because it gives people a glimpse at the personal work of the various clergy, allows us to come to know them in ways that are separate from the conflicts and issues of politics. And it is a way for them to be able to inspire their congregation through example.
And finally I tried Salvia Divinorum for the first time. It is a very interesting legal herb, which is a sacrament of CAW. I would definitely try it again, even if I didn't get much visual content.
I took three hits from the water pipe and then felt like my body was literally melting. It wasn't at all frightening but I felt like wax melting or something, and sat back and closed my eyes. I didn't see anything but it reminded me of doing hashish years and years ago. Or maybe something like a really good high from pot. After I had begun to metabolize the salvorin we tried again and I tried 4 hits. This time along with the melting sensation with my eyes closed I saw (and this is more of a metaphoric description than a literal one as I am not really sure how to describe exactly what it was) something like a film of paint over water. It rippled and I felt my body being rolled up. I tried to describe it at the time as if the scenic curtain background in a play were being rolled up along with everything. I saw the ripple move across the surface of the paint film and it paused just to one side of my head as I realized that my head was going to be rolled up along with my body. I contemplated being afraid of it but decided that I wanted to relax and go with it (If it sounds odd to be aware of the possibility and feel like there was actually choice about it - it made perfect sense at the time:) I felt my head turn to the left as I watched the ripple proceed through my head and beyond. After which the intensity of sensation was gone leaving me feeling a very pleasant high.
I would have said that nothing much happened but as I write this I realize that being able to contemplate fear and choose to let it go is a pretty major insight. I may not be able to manifest that on a regular basis in my life but now I have had that experience and can work on recreating it in my life.
Jack said at the time that the Salvia must like me because it is typical to have very little happen the first time or so. I think he must be right. I certainly liked it. I have just ordered some again (the first order didn't work out as Shamansgarden web site went down, their email started bouncing, and their phone is discontinued. I have to notify my credit card company that I never received the product and hope I get my money back, which I should.) And I am hoping that I get delivery before my vision quest, a week and a half from now. I am also mulling over developing a ritual for use by my nest, if they wish, to facilitate using this sacrament in a sacred way that is incorporated into our religious practice.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind