A Word of Encouragement

EACH PERSON REGISTERS ENERGY fields in his or her own way. Partnership with nature is not an exact science; it is more of an art. You are surfing a wave and constantly monitoring and adjusting to many variables. But like surfing, it can be great fun.

Whether or not you think of yourself as sensitive, I assure you: this basic awareness and ability is intrinsic to all human beings. Like riding a bike or speaking another language, everyone can learn how to use it. In fact, you are learning another language: the language of nature and your natural self. What was meaningless background sight and sound will now give you information that is essential to your life.

Please take a moment to look at how far you've already come. A short time ago, you may have believed that all your thoughts and feelings were generated inside yourself. Now you are at least considering the idea that many of them may actually be in response to the world around you. Now you can have fun noticing the sensations and insights that will continue to unfold as nature joyfully responds to you.

Ceremonies, or rituals, are a way of pausing to contact a deeper dimension of life. They tend to connect us more with ourselves, with others, and with something greater by tapping into resources beyond our everyday experience. In Rituals and Devotion in Buddhism, Sangharakshita noted that since ritual is a form of expression that brings something out "from the depths within ... our whole being will be enriched and integrated. Tension between the conscious and the unconscious will be reduced. We will become more whole. In becoming more whole, we become more effective in our actions."

Humans around the world mark life's transitions and achievements - births, deaths, weddings, a successful hunt, graduation, puberty, distinguished service to tribe or country, or commitment to a path of action - with formal or impromptu ceremonies. Most cultures and spiritual paths feature seasonal celebrations of the turning wheel of life. In our modern life, Carl Jung made the following observation: "We no longer need magical dances to make us 'strong' for whatever we want to do, at least not in ordinary cases. But when we have to do something that exceeds our powers, then we solemnly lay a foundation stone with the blessing of the church, or christen a ship as she slips from the dock ... Through these ceremonies the deeper emotional forces are released."

A ritual or ceremony slows time down and focuses attention and intention enough to create a more graceful interweaving of the old pattern with the new, allowing for smoother and more auspicious transitions. It is a time-out to garner insight and support as we step over the threshold of change.

What Is a Ceremony?
In this book, I use the words "ceremony" and "ritual" interchangeably, though others may make a distinction, with ceremony meaning a more prescribed or formal type of ritual. For me, a ceremony is anything done with consciousness and intention. It can be simple or elaborate. You can perform a ritual or create one by yourself, with just a few others, or with a large group of people.

Cleaning is often a ritual for me. I enter into it with an intention to clean and transform not only my physical space, but also my consciousness and energy and the energy of the space I am cleaning. The results are very satisfying. I am transformed - my mood brightened, new energy released, inspiration and insights flowing - and the space is transformed. It is not only cleaner but lighter, brighter somehow, with a good feeling in the air that others notice upon entering. This kind of cleaning sends ripples of transformation out into the world.

Another very simple ceremony is to take a few moments to announce - to yourself and to nature - your intention for a project or change you are planning in your apartment, home, yard, or neighborhood. Don and Niki, the building-design team discussed in chapter 2 who developed and are building around the hub and ley lines in their urban mountain pastureland, perform little ceremonies at different stages of the building process. They feel that there is more efficiency to the process if they set the patterns energetically first. Ground-breaking ceremonies and staking out the patterns of new lots and buildings, for example, are ceremonial ways of announcing the intended new pattern that allow the resident elements of nature to adjust and weave it into the existing pattern on the land.

Throughout the design and construction process in each of their jobs, Don and Niki take time to listen and feel for information from nature, and leave symbolic offerings as an expression of appreciation and partnership. This kind of ongoing conversation with the environment, they find, results in a more trouble-free construction process, easier sales, and more satisfied buyers.

I believe that ceremonies are effective partly because they increase our receptivity, enhancing our subtle bond with nature and life around us. The sounds, colors, scents, and movements help bring us to our senses and beyond. It's a way to get on the same wavelength with nature and increase our ability to communicate - and receive communication - in nature's language.

In looking for the roots and purposes of rituals, neurobiology researchers Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili of the University of Pennsylvania point to the elaborate butterfly courtship dance as an example of ritual "stripped down to its bare neurobiological essence." The dance sets up a biological resonance between the butterflies' nervous systems. "Neurobiologically, the butterflies are 'vibrating' in harmony, like a pair of tuning forks. This sense of closeness and common purpose allows them to transcend the normal self-protective instincts that would usually compel them to avoid interaction with others, and reap survival benefits they could not have managed on their own." This, they infer, is a close parallel of how rituals work for humans and other species. In this case, we look at ceremony as a way to overcome the modern instincts that separate us from nature and patterns of life beyond our awareness. The new level of harmony and partnership thus achieved can yield seemingly miraculous results.

What Can Ceremonies Do for You?
Let's look at some examples of how ceremonies can benefit you in working with your home, office, or land.

Ceremonies Can Be Great Focusing Tools.

Building is a great production, with a lot of interlocking, sequenced activities, and actors that need to be closely coordinated. Performing a ceremony at each stage can bring in better concentration for each person involved in the project and sometimes helps facilitate completion of a stage right on schedule.

Joyce Ward, an architect with twenty-five years of experience, finds these intuitive practices an essential part of the design process. For instance, during the construction of a house she had designed, the ground-breaking ceremony had been postponed and then forgotten. After an unusual number of supply delays and other glitches in the building process, she remembered the ceremony that hadn't happened. Reflecting that one of the purposes of this simple ceremony was to facilitate a smooth interweaving between the old patterns and the proposed new ones, Joyce chose to hold the ceremony even at this late stage. On doing so, problems were resolved and the building process progressed.

With cleaning, I always do an attunement ceremony before I begin any project at home or at work. It brings me to the present and allows me to focus on the art of cleaning and polishing on many levels of the physical environment around me.

Ceremonies Can Reconnect Us With a Bigger Picture.

It is an opportunity to pause before action and to reconnect with a deeper meaning and with our original purpose. In doing so, we reinvigorate ourselves and the work of construction, remodeling, redecorating, or just rearranging. June called me when she found herself frustrated and bogged down with the usual delays or setbacks that always seem to come during remodeling. Following my suggestion to do a little ceremony to reconnect with her hopes and dreams for this building, she called me excitedly to say that she had gone out to the beautiful willow tree on her property, which had been her reason for buying the lot. Taking time by the tree had brought her back to her original enthusiasm. Refocusing her attention on the beauty and joy of the project instead of on the struggles, the obstacles soon cleared away.

Ceremonies Create Bridges From One Phase In Life To Another.

Including a ceremony in transitional times can be a time to celebrate weaving the new invisible patterns coming together. As Victor Turner, professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia, put it, "The experience of sameness and continuity over the life span is deliberately destroyed by rites of passage, though one of their persistent functions is to symbolically state the fact of continuity despite the appearance of change and disruption. This is another of the paradoxes of the life course."

This idea is poignantly illustrated by Pat and Larry, who organized a ceremony in their new garden as a memorial for a daughter who had died in an auto accident. This garden was a way to for them to celebrate and remember their daughter's joy for life and love of flowers. The backyard was transformed and filled with plants and flowers their daughter loved. A water feature by the entrance to the garden signaled the entrance to a special spot.

By conducting a simple private ritual before they began the garden, announcing their intentions, and inviting nature's support, they experienced deep healing while working on it. Now it was important for them to mark the occasion of garden's completion and affirm the intention that had created it. I conducted Master Lin's Exterior Chi Ceremony (described in part 4). It was a time for honoring and letting go, a time for moving forward with grace and honoring the gift that their daughter was to them by allowing her gifts to enrich their future. The ceremony gave them a way to celebrate this with their friends and, in the process, to receive the gifts more deeply. The ceremony with friends and family was a means for them to move forward. Larry told me that he noticed that after the ceremony he and Pat "just felt more settled somehow, more at peace, more able to enjoy the goodness in life again." Pat noted the way that the love, support, and prayers their friends had expressed in the ceremony seemed to linger in the garden afterwards. It had helped create a bridge of change for them from one phase in life to another, allowing them to relish the new invisible pattern arising from and interwoven with the old.

Another couple wanted to celebrate a job promotion that had allowed them to move to a larger, brand-new home. The ceremony they chose was just the activity needed to track the change on invisible larger patterns opening up, and to breathe in the feelings of this new expansion in their lives. Moving in seemed to go faster as well, they reported.

Ceremonies Can Breathe New Life Into Large Projects,
Giving Respite From Tedium or Tension.

The process of building or changing an environment is just as important as the result. Ceremonies can be a way to enjoy each stage of a project and to have a bit of fun in the process. Engaging the senses through sound, movement, and color, they provide a welcome break from routine. They create opportunities for workers, friends, and family members to get to know one another and allow feelings and thoughts to be a part of the mix. In this creative atmosphere, new ideas and better teamwork often result.

I learned this lesson well when working on the Great Hall at Findhorn. This building, now a major landmark used for most of the creative presentations and workshops, took seven years to build. Throughout construction, each phase was celebrated with simple attunements and feasts of good food. This added to the enjoyment and camaraderie of each worker and was also a means of renewal and commitment for this large project. I was a part of a group that sanded one of the major beam supports for the roof to fine smoothness. It was a small contribution but potent with our intentions. Many of the regular workers said that these ceremonial work contributions from occasional workers were important for their individual perseverance on the project.

Ceremonies Bring an Inner Transformation
To Complement and Support the Outward One.

Think of your project as an invisible canvas that you as the celebrant can paint with all your wishes and hopes. Ceremonies are a premier way to transfer these intentions and dreams onto the blank canvas of time and space before you.

Recent science and business publications, such as the book Blink and Fast Company magazine, describe the power of our thoughts and intentions. Taking time for ceremonies is an important way to focus this power by allowing the strokes, whispers, and songs from your heart to register the tones and nuances of your thoughts onto the canvas. Rituals or ceremonies set more into motion than just the physical activity of building, remodeling, or redecorating. They are a way of attracting that extra something that can lend a deeper quality of satisfaction, peace, healing, and inspiration to life.

At the Great Hall at Findhorn, goodwill radiates within and from the building. The pauses that we took during construction to celebrate and renew our intentions created a lasting atmosphere that supports the building's purpose.

Sometimes Old Ceremonies Are Best
Like an old violin, centuries-old ceremonies carry a resonance, richness, and depth built from repetitive use and quality materials. My grandfather loved his old violin, which he had inherited from a family member. He always claimed that he learned to play so quickly because the old violin responded so easily to his beginner's touch. Conducting ceremonies with patterns enacted many times can transfer the power and resonance more easily to the participants and to the site.

R. J. Stewart says that an old, well-used, and respected ceremony attracts the gods or the creative forces because its familiarity draws them in. He uses the example of fish in a pond. If they suddenly swam in a pattern such as a figure eight, it would grab our attention because the pattern is familiar to us. It would stand out from the more random or unrecognizable patterns in which they normally move around the pond.

So it is when we enact an old ceremony. The pattern of the ceremony attracts bigger beings familiar with this old way and invites them to come and participate. It can be interesting to look into your own heritage. How did your distant ancestors celebrate the turning points in life? How did or do your grandparents mark these occasions? For some traditional and not-so-traditional ceremonies, see page 205.

Beginning Your Earth Partnership Rituals
For your own rituals, you may want to use traditional ceremonies or you may prefer to spontaneously create ceremonies in relation to the present moment, reflecting your desired outcome. Traditional ceremonies can be like training wheels. You can follow them long enough to get the hang of it, and at some point you let go of the older forms to create your own rituals. Rituals are, after all, a statement of intention, dreams, hopes, and desires. They are as individual as the participants and the unique situation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ann Marie Holmes is a former contributing member of the renowned Findhorn Foundation in northern Scotland, recipient of the UN-Habitat Best Practice Designation. She has been a master consultant and pioneer environmental intuitive for over two decades. She lives with her husband in Lihue, Hawaii. Visit her website at www.annmarieholmes.com.