» There is an intelligence that we are all in the web of, and that when we are willing and ready, Life can be (is) our greatest teacher «
Embracing Life as the Ultimate Teacher
Theme » Consciously give thanks to our Teachers
Enquiry » Can I recognise and honour Life as my teacher, regardless of how the lesson shows up? Who or what do I consciously acknowledge as my teacher? What ‘teacher’ do I want to lean into more fully?
Invocation » May we relish this experience of being taught, and may this teaching be filled with the brilliance of insight and wisdom. May we lean into this, with all our heart. SWAHA
Mantra » AUM TRYAMBAKAM YAJAAMAHE SUGANDIM PUSHTIVARDHANAM | URVAARUKAMIVA BANDHANAAN-MRITYORMUKSHEEYA MAAMRITAAT ||
The Guru Within; Our Greatest Teacher
Following on from our solstice ceremony where we turned inwards and found the warmth of welcoming our essential self home, this ceremony we look outwards, in contemplation of recognising our Teacher/Gurus when they show up, and the role and service of this energy in our evolution as a Human.
It is the guru-teacher who dispels darkness from our consciousness and brings the light of awareness to our True Self. This role, in human form, is often marred in controversy and so many of us no longer look to the teacher/guru for this guidance.
But that's not to say this energy is dormant.
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear"
What I want to offer for this ceremony is the notion that Life is the Guru. That there is an intelligence that we are all in the web of, and that when we are willing and ready, Life can be our greatest teacher.
And with some fine-tuning of spiritual practice on our part, the circumstances of Life can become the conscious tool we utilise to bring us into an intimate connection with our more expanded experience of Self.
The theme of this ceremony is to consciously give thanks to our Teachers. Soul teachers! Those beings or situations in our life that require that we see our Self more clearly and with more compassion.
Often this requires us to loosen our grip on how things 'ought' to be, our fixations and attachment to the fundamentals of our identity.
When the guru energy visits, there will be a toppling of sorts.
Last ceremony we chanted the Mahamrityunjaya and it was power-filled! It feels relevant and potent to chant this mantra again. To build on what we created, but with a shift of intention.
This time, we seek to align our Self with Life, for our readiness and willingness to meet Life as it shows up.
The great *Mahamrityunjaya mantra will be our guide and path for this ceremony.
This, the great mantra in vedic tradition, among many aspects, frees us from our primal fears, and readies us for liberation. The mantra is perfect for the Guru/teacher energy to play through us and with us.
We look forward to honouring the discomforts and challenges of life with you, and to honour the teacher/guru energy that flows through us all.
To drop into this space with a soft heart, there will be cacao, fire ceremony and kirtan at your service :-)
"Guru, God, Self; they are all One."
~ Ramanamahashi
Collective Intention
So this ceremony we are going to bring forth the tools and awareness to meet Life as our Teacher, and allow Life, our Guru, to move us towards a more expanded/liberated version of our Self.
Wouldn't it be great if we can make whatever is 'teaching us' right now, to be of our conscious choosing.
As Ram Das says;
We are all helping each other home
Can we be open to this?
So here's a contemplation:
Who or what do we consciously acknowledge as our teacher right now? Can we lean into this more fully?
We will explore this as part of our ceremony, using the tools of cacao (heart opening) havan (mind purification) and kirtan (coherence of heart and mind).
Integrating your experience
Wow, thank you everyone for your heartfelt participation and energy on Sunday night; our Spring Equinox. This is perhaps the first time I have rested in stillness so profoundly while holding space for others.
That stillness has been a journey for me to access, one that required me to be a willing student and see more clearly where I get in my own way. Last night, the right conditions were present, within the heart of our intention and our beingness, what we collectively created in the ceremony space allowed me to be in my seat, and to rest in that stillness.
A profound thank you to Life and all her offerings :-)
I wish this for all of us.
Something that strikes me is that my energetic preparation of the ceremony starts weeks out, and so there's often a completion piece for me by the time I enter the space, knowing also, that this is more likely an initiation/opening piece for the rest of you.
What I know though is that the embodied learnings for each of us will happen in due course, timeline unknown, but the intention has been seeded and purified and made coherent. Now all we have to do is be the willing student for what Life delivers to us.
For those who want to continue to deepen into the intention of acknowledging and honouring the teachers in your life, I have relished singing the mantra Om Namo Guru Dev Namo when Life delivers what I need (but not necessarily want). I bow to the wisdom and intelligence of Life. See if you'd like to travel with this also.
And if you liked our havan mantra, and wish to deepen into it some more, you can listen to this beautiful version of the Mahamrityunjaya mantra on YouTube. This mantra clears and purifies on all levels.
Japa Mala (repeating mantra) is likened to a drop of pure water dripping into a dirty pool of water. The continuous supply of pure water will, even one drop at a time, purify the entire body of water eventually. This is what mantra does for the mind.
Be gentle with yourself this week. Old patterns will likely flare when new information or experiences are repatterning our mind-body. Use the mantra practice in those moments to reseed your intention.
If you would like extra support at this time to integrate your experience, please reach out.
The Power of Ritual: Amplifying Intentions with Cacao, Fire, Mantra, and Meditation
Using the heart opening technologies of Cacao, Mantra, Fire Havan & Kirtan to clarify our intention and bring it forth into the world
In these power-filled ceremonies, we create space to get clear on our personal and collective intention; and then we amplify this by opening our heart with the aid of the cacao elixir, purifying our mind with the fire havan and sacred mantra, and shifting into heart-mind coherence using the practice of kirtan and meditation. It's quite the formula!
We offer invocations to welcome, or call upon that particular aspect of divinity within our Self and within the cosmos. As above, so below; what is within the whole is within us also.
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