Embodying Ceremony

This time of year our energy is going back into our roots. The plants and ecosystems around us are dropping back into the soil and gathering energy from the depths of the earth. Autumn brings a cozy feeling of connecting with family and turning towards sustaining our hearth. Cooking hearty soups, raking leaves, slipping into sweaters, and warm beverages are ways of ceremonially pulling our energy in and grounding into a sense of home. Having a ceremonial posture is an embodied posture of turning our attention towards a specific intention. Ceremony and ritual is something we partake in everyday, even when we aren't consciously doing it. Some of these are cultural habits or norms and some we create for ourselves. How do we create these spaces? How can we align ourselves with our deepest longings and pulls? Taking the time to quiet your mind and soothe your nervous system can bring you into a state of listening to the voice that only you can hear. Sometimes this voice feels more like a quiet whisper and other times they are loud arrivals of our souls song. Poetry is another tool I incorporate to bring me into a different kind of awareness. David Whyte has recently been calling to my depths. Good poetry begins with the lightest touch, a breeze arriving from nowhere, a whispered healing arrival, a word in your ear, a settling into things, then, like a hand in the dark, it arrests the whole body, steeling you for revelation. In the silence that follows a great line, you can feel Lazarus, deep inside even the laziest, most deathly afraid part of you, lift up his hands and walk toward the light. -David Whyte (The Lightest Touch) I find that the more I create intentional and sacred space to listen to the deepest parts of myself, the more I become familiar with the language through which my soul speaks. Some of the tools I carry with my being to aid in a ceremonial posture are poems, dance, playing and engaging in conversation with nature, smudging with my local plants, teas, special rocks or crystals, and ceremonial sprays. I find that each day is different than the next, sometimes what helped one day may not be what I need the next day. This dance of figuring out what works for you is part of the practice of being a creative being. At The Herb Shoppe this month we have created a line of Ceremonial Mists to help align with the deepest callings and insights within. Herbalism is way of connecting to the earth right under your feet and to bring you into an embodied way of being in a place. There are many tools in our current culture to pull you out of a posture or state of place. By connecting with the plants and communities that surround you you are engaging in the longtime rooted tradition of herbalism.