Creating Ceremony: Five Ways to Renew
I met my first indigenous wisdom keepers by pure luck 30 years ago. Their cosmovision changed my life and altered my path. How? Why?
For one thing, the Q’ero of the Peruvian Andeslive the dream of connection and reciprocity with everything alive. There was no need to talk about it, for living energy was embedded in culture, farming, community, ceremony, and language.
There were no lectures or Powerpoints. We learned the ancient way, by observing and participating. This felt so right to me, so deeply moving: by allowing me in, indigenous people offered a way to change the dream (cultural trance) we’re living in the West.
Still, there was always the laundry following the ecstasy: returning home felt overwhelming, noisy, crazy busy. Remembering the vast silence of the stars or palpable energy shifts during ceremony took dedication. Changing lifestyle to honor the spirits, and interact with the trees and other living beings daily, required strong intent.
Renewing Self, Renewing the Dream
Over the years my fellow travelers on the Andean path and I created five main ways to renew and deepen our learning:
- Create regular, participatory ceremonies in our communities. Engaging others, making it easy to follow, and teaching-by-doing invited anyone willing to spend a few hours into the dream of connection and energy shifting. Leading ceremony helped me deepen my own practice, learn more, and understand the power of moving energy in the world.
- Walk our sacred mountains and rivers. Explore and deepen our sense of place and connection to rock formations, native plants, ancient trees, and power places. I developed discernment as I got better at reading energy. I built relationships with the places I love by visiting them, offering to them, and connecting through distance meditations.
- Return to the source. As often as I could, in the midst of kids and career, I returned to the mountains and rainforests of South America to renew, rejuvenate, and remember.
- Spend time with the teachers when they traveled to us, as happened with more and more frequency.
- Do my own work using the tools shared by my indigenous teachers to be fully present, live what I write and teach about, and be a clear channel.
Dreaming in the Rainforest
Most of my longtime shamanic journey group members are involved in “protecting the source, inspiring the future” with the Pachamama Alliance, so when one of us dreamed a shamanic immersion trip to Ecuador, Pachamama organized it for us.
Spending eight days with the Sápara and Achuar, two tribes whose survival is threatened by oil and mineral extraction, was beautiful and illuminating.
The ceremony of morning dream interpretation, after healings and a river swim, offered much insight into Sapara ways of being, acting, and responding to external threats. Manari Ushigua, a shaman and a leader of the Sapara Nation, told us,
“Corporations and oil companies want us to believe they have lots of power. We need to change that. You can choose to emphasize the harrowing parts of your dream—the buffalos massacred on the plains, the oil spills polluting water in the Amazon basin—or the beautiful images of all the birds and insects singing, all the humans dancing. Remembering the beauty gives you power.”
He continued.“Indigenous people don’t want to aggravate others. We just want to share our life ways, guided by a principle. We look for ways not to cause harm. Our way is not to curse or confront, but to create reality in creative way. We want to bring our message without causing harm.”
In Sapara, he explained, “we create the present as we want. This is dreaming.”
In other words, it’s up to us to live in parallel universe or not. It’s up to us to transform destructive stories into creative, loving ones.
The Power of Our Thoughts
We all know that our thought process (intent) proceeds action: the second we focus our intent, messages are sent throughout the body. Most of us try, also, to avoid negative and critical language. The Sápara had more to say…
Shimanu, the community’s shaman, told us “People who believe Trump have lost connection with the natural world. Their thoughts can create much harm. It is a different perception when we see ourselves as part of the whole.”
He reminded us that thoughts do not last forever. We can be very powerful, yet also must be humble.
His brother Manari added, “It’s better not to speak or think about Trump: that dissipates our power. We can neutralize his power by notdrawing attention to him.”
This is certainly a reflection I have had almost daily, wondering why news media report every tweet. If everyone ignored the tweets and the back flips, life would be saner and he would be more isolated. Food for thought!
Dreaming Our Healing
We came away with two ongoing questions for our dreaming, questions I share with you to use in your own dreaming:
Who am I in relationship to humans? How do I communicate, how do I relate to and work with others? How is my structure unfolding?
What am I internally, spiritually? What is my spirit here to do? How do I integrate my two parts, brain and torso/heart, as I walk my spiritual path?
Ask your body to connect with the true essence of the questions, to find a new perspective to interpret what’s around you. Listening to your body’s intuition is listening to spirit.
The true context of our dreaming is that family spirit is one. We’re all part of it, part of the family. We are dreaming a communal experience. Manari reminded us,“Humans think they are special, more intelligent. But this comes from our mind, out thoughts. We are not special, we are a part of all.”
The Lungs of the Earth
“We grow up listening to the messages that come from our symphony of trees and plants, the oldest and most original species still living on Earth. Think of us as the first responders who arrive before an impending catastrophe” says Manari.