Theme

What does it take to feed the communal Clan-fire, and the fire in your own heart? How do the fires of the forge transform you? Step into the story of an ancient clan. Step into the story of community, of the fire that we tend, and the fire that burns deep within us.

This ritual is a prayer; it is a tool for personal growth, for healing, and for building community. Participating in this ritual does not require you to believe in any of these archetypes as deities, or to subscribe to any particular religious faith. We will use the basic pattern of a ritual that comes from shamanic traditions and earth-based spirituality.

Mythology

This ritual uses mythology and the cycles of the seasons as a vehicle for personal growth and transformation. The language of myth is used to access our subconscious, where deep change can be manifested in a way deeper than working with our talky, conscious minds. Ritual might be called applied mythology.

Archetype means original pattern and myths give the original patterns of human behavior a place to live. A myth addresses the timeless aspects of human nature. The archetypes, the gods, goddesses, and heroes, are the keepers of the blueprints that tell us about ourselves. A myth speaks in the language of your subconscious, in the language of dream.

"Our intuitive nature [is] expressed through myths, dreams, stories, and images.....The soul thinks in symbols. It is not literal-minded.
–Dr. Lauren Artress

Mythologist Joseph Campbell notes "Ritual is an enactment of myth." Here are some of the mythological archetypes we will work with in the Sacred Fire ritual.

Ritual Pattern

The ritual will offer each participant a chance to be an active co-creator in their own spiritual growth and healing using inclusive, participatory, and experiential work. Learn to use all your senses to connect to the sacred. Join the energy of your voice and body, to the timeless language of myth.

Will you step into the dance of transformation?

"Ritual is a multi-sensorial prayer to lay new patterns in our souls."
--Cynthia Jones, Diana's Grove

Cycles of Nature and of Ourselves
The ritual will honor the natural rhythms and patterns of our world, and of our humanity. Rituals can use the cycles of the seasons oft he land--the return of the light after a long winter,the sap rising up in the roots of the trees, the flowering of spring, the heat of summer, the fruit of the harvest, and the return of the land to slumber in snow. Also, the cycles of our lives--rites of passage such as birth, death, becoming an adult, marriage.

Life and natural cycles are sacred. Ritual honors these natural cycles in ourselves and in the land around us. Ritual helps us to connect to mystery, to the unknowable, to the numinous.

Ritual Flow
The ritual we will offer includes the following elements and flow:

• Gathering--using rhythm, voice, and song, we connect together in community.
• Centering--we center ourselves, connecting to the intention of the ritual, into our bodies, into a sense of the magical. We begin to move away from the mundane world and, in essence, consecrate ourselves to the sacred within us, to our deepest, highest selves, and become present.
• Connecting in Circle --We connect to one another in the circle of community, acknowledging that we are in a safe and sacred place. We connect with hands and eyes, we connect with intention, and we further connect to the sacred within us. The sacred in me connects to the sacred in you. Here in the circle of our community, we step out of ordinary mundane reality, and into a place where possibility lives, where we can embody myth and step into a spiritual journey.
• The Four Elements--we invite the four primal elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and the fifth element, Spirit or Center, where all the elements meet.
• Deities/Archetypes--we invite deities or archetypes to guide us in our work. Whether you work with them as psychological archetypes to step deeper into mythic language, or as embodiments of the divine, working with gods, goddesses, heroes, and other elements of myth will help us identify with something greater within ourselves and the collective unconsciousness of the world around us.
• The Heart of the Work--this is determined by the intention of the ritual. Often there is storytelling, guided meditation or trance journey, and a chance to embody stepping through a challenge, receiving a gift, or otherwise physicalizing your spiritual journey.
• Energy Building--an ecstatic ritual reaches a peak with drumming, singing, moving, and dancing. We each add our physical presence, our energy, to support the work of the ritual. The energy raised is the fuel for the transformation or healing we seek through the ritual.
• Benediction--with a blessing, we acknowledge what we have done during the ritual.
• Devocations--We thank the energies that have helped us in our work and bid them farewell. We begin to ground back into our bodies.
• Dessert--we continue the grounding process and return to mundane space with dessert, conversation, and the ancient ritual of time spent sharing food in community.

Ecstatic and Participatory Ritual Style
This style of ritual is ecstatic an inclusive, asking for the participation of all.

"Ritual is a container for magic. it is a format, a process, a spell in action...[these] rituals are based on involvement, on your participation. Involvement gives us the gift of energy. In that circle, we increase our life force by breathing, singing, dancing, drumming, feeling, caring, speaking, dreaming, and interacting."
--Cynthia Jones, from "Myth, Magic, and Community."

The elements of life [Earth, Air, Fire, Water] are used by many native and shamanic traditions, and also come from classical Greek philosophy. Other elemental systems include Chinese, Norse, and Hindu which do not follow the four element system. The elements are celebrated as the mythic elements that make up the world around us and within us. Air is not summoned with liturgy, but invited in by each of us. Each person in the ritual may be invited to support the invocation of Air....Can you feel the wind blowing? What does it sound like? What are the gifts of Air? Does Air have a color for you? How does Air move? Can you make the motion of Air, or make the sounds of Air? Can you speak the gifts of Air into the circle that they may be present with us for our work tonight?

Stepping into an elemental invocation is a great way to fully participate in ritual; it is a way to more fully and deeply experience any piece of ritual. You might think of each piece in the ritual

Ritual Energetics
When we participate in the ritual, we add our energy. The ritual is ecstatic, which means that we work throughout the entire ritual to build up energy. We raise energy for the ritual by including every participant in our community. For each ritual, we become a community, a tribe, and we each put our energy forth for to support the intention and the community.

"The ecstatic energy raised by our rituals is for you...Our goal is that you will use the energy that you raise, your energy, in the way that is best for you. Rituals lay new patterns in the soul. They create new pathways in the mind. Magic - the art of changing consciousness at will. The goal of our rituals is to enable you to shape your own consciousness according to your will."
--Cynthia Jones, from "Myth, Magic, and Community."

The ritual will conclude with ecstatic energy raising; our talented energy drummers will drum, we can sing, move our bodies, share eye contact...we share our energy together in community.

“Our intention is that the life force that each of us raises within ourselves can be used to change the repressive patterns of a lifetime. It is that each of us can use our own energy to break the patterns that hold us back and ask us to be less alive and less vital than we can be. Those patterns are held in our muscles. They are held in the cells of our bodies. The energy that each of us raises in ritual moves through us. As it does, we are vitalized. We break free. More life force is available to us to take into the areas of our life that call us. 'That which we seek, if we don't find it within ourselves, we will never find it without.' By growing into ourselves, we have more to contribute to the world.”
--Cynthia Jones

If you have any questions about this ritual format, please feel free to contact Shauna Aura. There really are no stupid questions!