Clearing Out the Old and Creating the New
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Clearing Out the Old and Creating the New
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"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7:7-8
In seminary, I have learned about the value and depth of ceremonial ritual. I mean, I always loved certain rituals, but I truly began to understand the power of ritual. Think about it: when we create a ritual, whether it is a grand ritual, such as a wedding or a smaller ritual, such as saying a blessing before a meal, we are stopping to include the Divine within our lives. Rituals have the power to shift your energy, to move you to a new place of understanding, of openness, and of consciousness. The more conscious you are as you create and perform your ritual, the more powerful your ritual will be. Even more important, the more your life will change as a result of it.
Rituals can be (and are frequently) used to bring our attention back to the awareness of God in our lives. When we christen a child, for example, we are acknowledging the Divinity from which the child came, and that the true nature of the child is of the Divine. We are committing to acknowledge that Truth in our daily interaction with this beloved child. Rituals can be used for a multitude of purposes. I have listed some below. They can be created by you, for you. They can be created by another for you. When you are clear about what you desire to have in your life, you may decide to design a ritual around the creation of that very thing. Or you may wish to acknowledge the ending point of a transition in your life that has gone on long enough. (as I did - see below). Do not underestimate the power of a ritual. Recently, I created a ritual for myself and my friend, Betsy, wherein we released the old from our lives. We went to the beach (easy to do here in Southern Florida) and found a totem which represented to us our former lives. We then went into the ocean and dunked ourselves into the ocean, releasing our totems back to the powerful ocean. There were prayers and sacred moments, of course. What we did not realize was just how powerful this ritual would be in our lives. Since that time, the focus and clarity we have experienced and the thrill of taking action while being in alignment with that action has been astonishing. Never before in my life have I experienced this level of power and clarity! Rituals can be simple or they can be complex - it depends upon what you wish to experience, and what you are acknowledging. They can be private, or they can include many people. In my own life, several years ago, after my half-sister died, the choice was made by others in the family to not have a memorial service for her. Shocking as it was, I had no say in it. For me, I felt I had no closure, to chance to say "good-bye." At the suggestion of a colleague, I created a memorial ritual for her. While I was the only one there, and it was a simple ritual, it was a very powerful experience. I had the closure I needed and I was able to begin to move forward. What are you looking to let go of in your own life? What do you wish to bring into your life? Ritual can help. There are numerous terrific books on rituals and how you can create them. Sometimes it doesn't have to be fancy. Sometimes you want it to be fancy. It just depends upon what your are doing them for and how you would like them to be. Examples of Rituals to Create A desire to become pregnant If you wish to have a minister assist you in creating a ceremonial ritual and/or in performing a ceremony you have created, please contact me; I can help you custom design your ceremony.
Goin' to the Chapel - © Photo by Jen Fariello
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"Precious Jewel, you
glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at
yourself!"
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Rituals can be used in any number of
situations. They can be used to mark a beginning or an end of a transition
period in our lives - or both. When we get married, for example, we are
marking the ending of our lives as single people, and we are proclaiming to the
world that we are now married. When we use ritual in a memorial setting,
we are acknowledging and even celebrating the relationship we shared, and
marking the beginning of our lives without that person.