Rituals and Ceremonies - David Oldfield
"Rituals and ceremonies are an essential and basic means for human beings to give themselves and others necessary messages which enable the individual to stay human. They communicate acceptance, love, a sense of identity, esteem, shared values and beliefs and shared memorable events. Every ritual contains tender and sacred moments. And in those moments of sensitivity. We are taken out of the normal flow of life, And out of our routines. We are then in an event that is irreplaceable and
sacred. In ritual we participate in something deep and significant. They are moments which move our heart and touch our spirit."
Ceremony - John P Milton
"We, and our early human ancestors, have coevolved with Gaia through countless changes and migrations over millions of years. During that time, in a process of continual interaction with Nature and Earth, our physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual natures took form. Inner and outer nature coevolved together as part of a seamless web of life. This is why many of us feel so at home praying, meditating, and doing ceremony in wild Nature. Such natural ways of spiritual cultivation go back at least fifty thousand years and almost certainly more, in contrast to modern historical lineages and religious institutions that reach back six thousand years or less...
...Modern people often feel awkward when doing ceremony that honors Mother Earth and the Great Spirit that flows through all forms. Or we may be doing a ceremony from a tradition or a lineage in which our culture has no foundation or background. Many of us do not feel quite right adopting these practices. We do not feel that we can really own the ceremony, because we cannot completely surrender to some other culture’s sacred process. For these reasons, the most important aspects of ceremony are that it comes from your heart, that it expresses the truth of your heart’s natural radiance, and that it comes from the depths of your being. I recommend that you give yourself to this sacred process wholeheartedly. Incorporate it completely. Then the eleven directions ceremony will give itself to you. Accordingly, the instructions that follow are offered as a foundation for the truthful unfolding of your own deeply personal ceremony. They are not designed to be rigidly observed." John P. Milton.
Essential elements ...
for opening and closing rituals, not necessarily in this order.
Opening ceremony
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Declare the intention of the ceremony and what its purpose is.
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Invoke the creative principle of Life.
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Give gratitude and offerings.
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Celebrate being alive.
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Ask for guidance and safe passage in the day's quest.
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Make commitments relevant to the event.
Closing ceremony
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Invoke the creative principle of all Life.
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Give gratitude for the guidance and safe passage in the day's quest.
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Reconfirm commitments.
Nature Resonance Medicine
Facilitators and Participants - One feels grace and expresses gratitude for the gift of life, a belonging, at one and present in the flow of life and, in particular, this endeavour.
Instructions
Facilitators - Contemplate the ceremonial event in the context of preparing to resonate with Nature.
Participants - Focusing on being present and feeling the meaning of the ceremony.
