Ocean Honoring Ceremony

Ocean Honoring Ceremony 
November 7, 2010
Linda Mar Beach, Pacifica, California
Co-Led by Charlene Sul and Ginny Anderson
 
 
One year ago to the day, I sat in ceremony at the creation of the Earth Medicine Society, whose purpose was to help bring people back to the Earth Honoring ways and connection them with all their relations, of the stone, water, plant and animal realms.  At one of the early meetings we journeyed.   This vision had me on a mountain above the Bay Area looking at the lush greenery that had returned and seeing the sparkling connection of the web of life below.  I was filled with hope, then as today, as we come together in ceremony and add another spark into the web of life with our ceremony to honor the Ocean.
 
Our purpose is to honor the Ocean, the body of water that connects us all, the womb of which all life was born and one of the places on Earth where one can find intense peace, joy and harmony within. 

We will do this today in the creation of a Tule boat in which we will place our prayers and let the Ocean consume them to feed them back to the world.  We are led by two beautiful people of mystery, Charlene Sul, who is the founder of the Confederation of Ohlone people, which empowers others to serve their communities thus creating better society and Ginny Anderson an eco-Psychologist and leader of ritual for personal and community transformation. 
 
The Tule reeds where collected a week before by Ginny and Stacey, in a sacred manner, at Alviso by the bottom of the Bay.  Ginny and Stacey where able to this by going invisible from park rangers, flying over a fence, and not shape shifting into ducks, thus attracting the unwanted attention of the high tech, duck hunters that surround them.  Miraculously, they survived brought the Tules for our purpose of building a boat.
 
When I arrive at the beach I see some of the people beginning to gathering, people with Tules and offerings for the ceremony.  We do a thorough search of the beach to see if there is anyone we have missed.  We can not see Charlene who is supposed to have arrived.  As we wait outside in the rain, we each tell our story about being drawn to the ocean.  I joke about spending most of my life in hot water, but then again that is my make up fire and water, and tell of my attraction to the Ocean from a early age, and how for me it is like returning to the mother, the womb, a sacred place
 
We then scour the beach for any offerings that we can find.  I make an offering of a feather, piece of wood and a flower and blow in a prayer of heath to our Mother Ocean.  After this I notice that the crowd is moving.  It seems that Charlene has been hiding in plain sight and steps back into this dimension and is ready to start the ceremony.
 
We prepare an altar of flat stones in a cleared circle on the beach.  Charlene smudges us with sage and the rain stops.   We lay out our offerings of flowers, fruits, herbs, seeds, incense and all other offerings to add our prayers to.  The Tules are unwrapped and we go to work.   
 
We each gather a bundle by taking the Tules and folding them in half.  The bundles are then tied with raffia in four places.  Next we braid the raffia in to a rope to tie the tule bundles together.  I get a lesson in braiding.  The bundles are tied in the shape of our prayer vessel.  If one were to make a boat in this manner for fishing then the boat would be allowed to dry completely before being sea worthy.  
 
Once the boat is completed we add our prayers and offerings.  It is a beautiful ceremony as we create with our prayers and intentions this offering to the Ocean.  The boat is a beautiful expression our hearts’ desires for the Ocean. 
 
Now there are eleven of us, two male and nine females.   Charlene opens the ceremony with a song.  The birds gather on the ocean as a flock of seagulls plays in the waves.  We go around the group and everyone offers a prayer or a song or both.  Half way through this the flock of seagulls flies overhead and one of their numbers bless our gift as only birds can with a bit of good luck as some might say.
 
Next we make a offering of tobacco and cornmeal and each one of us takes a pinch and offers our last prayers for the Ocean.  The rest of the cornmeal and tobacco is offered for all forgotten prayers and the boat is ready to be carried to the sea.
 
Aerin and I carry the boat to the sea following a straight line in the direction the boat faces and Charlene leads the procession smudging the air.  Before going into the Ocean there is one last prayer song.  While we sing there is the last offering of honey that is poured on our prayers to sweeten them for the Ocean.
 
We head to the sea.  I try to avoid the waves and for my trouble get knocked down into the surf.  Luckily the only damage is done to my pride and the lesson is learn, to fully commit to the objects of one’s prayers.  
 
The boat makes it to the surf and the waves play with it as it move down the shore line, getting stranded and being brought into the sea again.  Each one of us offers more of our prayers to the Ocean with the additional items that did not make it to the boat.  
 
The ceremony completed we go for a snack.  Later we return for a picture and while we had our backs on our prayers they were consumed in the surf, a successful offering accepted by Mother Ocean.   
 

Sitting on Top of the World

Oneness with a stream, our life’s goal, there is no stopping, we never deviating from this goal, as the stream flows, so do I, only deviating its course to maneuver life’s obstacles. There is no obstacle too big or too strong that can keep us from our goal. We will flow around, over and through all of them. Only a disconnection from source can stop a us from achieving our life’s goal.

It is cold and dark, my first night in the Arctic, the spirits of the stream continue.

Nutrients stirred up from the bottom, into the blue glow of the water, feeding all that participate on this journey. The stream flows to a still lake, frozen and covered with snow and much like the stillness of my soul once was it is contained by the beneath layers of a frozen defense. In the sky is the Eye of Odin, the eye He sacrificed for knowledge. His eye becomes the sunrise, a new day, melting away any remaining layers and with a flash of bright light, feeding my light body for this journey.

This is the land of dark and cold, but not like a moonless night in a deep forrest. The clean pure snow keeps everything illuminated in a surreal way and even at night the star nation, keeps it aglow. Grandmother moon is hiding.

I have journey to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights, to connect with them. Why, I am not sure, but it feels I must. If you know me, then you know in the winter I like to go warm sandy beaches and relax in the surf. But somehow, the clean snow of the Arctic is a necessary turn on my journey.

We visit the Sami Market in Jokkmokk. Each winter, around the midpoint, the Sami come together for three days to sell their crafts. The Sami are indigenous people of the North, who before being converted to the cross where nomadic hunters, trappers and reindeer herders. Only about 10% still live in this way. They are also mostly caucasian.

The market is a PETA nightmare. Reindeer pelts are everywhere as well the furs of other animals. I want to bring some of the finely preserved animals back to life, but realize that this way of life is necessary for the survival of people who live a region that celebrates spring, summer and fall in a four month window every year.

At the Sami Market I am introduce to yoiking. The Sami found a song for all things in nature. Everyone and everything had their own song which the Sami would sing to honor. You could yoik just about anything except yourself in public, which was considered really, bad form. The songs usually had to do with how the subject moved about in nature, like a blind person observing a rabbit in the snow might sing about its movement. Yoiking was outlawed when they were converted in the 17th century but was keep alive by the reindeer herders. Now and since 1995 it is taught in school again to Sami children. It is extremely energizing to yoik in a group. We yoik for the rabbit, moose and the raven.

We have a sunrise fire ceremony the next morning. Here I offer my layers that have been shed, fully to the fire and commit to step into the next ones that are now. The sun breaks the horizon and it is 9:00 AM. One of the benefits of being so high in latitude is sunrise comes at decent hour.

We load into the magic bus and head North, leaving Sweden, driving through Finland and into Norway. That night we see our first display of Northern Lights. We are lucky, we are told, to see them, most who come don’t and lately it has been a slow with the sun’s activity that cause these lights. But, I know that we are bless. Good luck and sunshine see to follow me since stepping on this path.

The Northern Lights are cause from the love making of the Sun and Earth. The Sun showers the Earth with love, in the form of particles. The Earth gladly accepts them in her magnetic field and explodes in an orgasmic release of color. (For a scientific explanation see Wikipedia).

The lights can be red, yellow, blue and green in color. Green the color of the heart is the most common. The lights come in spirals, arcs and curtains. Sometime in monochrome and others are multicolored. We get an green arc, in a section of the sky, that last for 30 minutes or so.

After, in celebration, some light sparklers and other make snow angles. I feel eight again lying in the snow moving my feet and hands to form a beautiful, fallen angle. After we form a circle and give thanks to the blessing we have received. My heart is fully open to witness this mating ritual of the Sun and Earth.

That night, I dream of the lights, no dream is the wrong word, I lie in bed half awake, with my eyes closed and see and feel the Northern Lights interacting with light body. It is a blissful interaction. This interaction is kind of a cleanse, a release of all the been and a awaking to this moment right now. I awake honoring the old layers and with complete acceptance of where I am right now. I, now, know why I have travel so far.

In the morning we travel further north. On the way we stopped at a museum at Alta where ancient people left petroglyphs in the surround rocks. The petroglyphs were covered with snow so we hung out in the museum and tried to connect to the messages left to us long ago. That night in ceremony, I created my version of a glyphs that honored the cycle of life and death in both ordinary and in-ordinary time.

I also pulled a Rune for the trip and received the Rune Wynja which represents Joy. The Joy of physical, sensual energy and pure and innocent playfulness. This concerns with living in the present.

Rune Magic is part of the Nordic Shaman culture that differs from the Sami. Much of it is like quantum physics where everything in connected and time is one. The Nordic shaman culture is feminine in nature. The women of the Vikings where responsible for the ritual and ceremonies and the men focused on war and conquest, fishing and hunting. Runes were a gift to humankind from the holy beings and are believed to open a dynamic system of power and knowledge. I am happy with my pull.

In the night, I still dream of lights and fall into a bliss state again. There in an interaction with my light and the energy of this place that feels refreshment one feels after a dip in a cold stream on a hot day.

The next morning we headed to North Kapp. North Kapp is the highest point in Norway and sits a latitude of 71 degrees North. Most visit this place to witness the midnight sun.

We come in the heart of winter and have a ceremony of roses. I envision the the connect between the Earth and the Sun and how this love falls from the crown chakra of the Earth and feeds every living creature on and in its surface. The knowledge and wisdom center of the Earth informed by the Sun and the Universe is available to anyone who can find the stillness inside to listen. Our lives, our dreams, our becoming can be informed by the love that reign in the universe. A beginning of a brand new day.

After the ceremony, I stand in the frigid wind releasing rose petal into the Arctic Ocean giving the thanks and gratitude for this moment, awake at the Top Of The World, full of universal wisdom and innocent playfulness. We toast with with Champagne and it does not get much better that this.

That night we celebrate with “American” style pizza and beer and take are ride out to the dark to search for the Northern Lights, again. We drive away form the city back up on the road to North Kapp. The bus comes to a stop. This time we are greeted by a toe curling display of the Lights, unless your are accustom to them, then the feeling does not quite reach so far, stopping in the thighs.

From the Western mountain tops to the Eastern horizon there is an arc of green. Other curtains of lights form and join with it. It is a grand display of heart opening energy in the sky. The stars shine in the sky and through the lights. We gather in front of the bus with the wind at our backs in awe and amazement. To have been a witness to such a show is absolute blessing. We stand in the wind and cold until the bus puts on the lights and signals us it time to return.

I fall asleep to the same dreams as before.

We start the return the next day and we meet with the Sami in Lavo for Reindeer Stew and Reindeer games. Our host had been a part of a Reindeer herding family since the retreat of the last Ice Age. This way of life is in her heart as shopping malls have infected the hearts of some Americans.

Now a days the Sami, use snowmobiles and ATVs to herd the reindeer. They live in houses during the winter and Lavos when with the herds. Her grandparents where the first of her line to live in a house.

The Sami being nomadic herders live many centuries in harmony with nature. Their motto, like the people who attend Burningman, was leave no trace. In fact they have a lot in common with Burners, from radical self reliance to colorful clothing. The problem with leaving not trace is when the “civilized” people appeared they could not prove that the land they had herded on for centuries was theirs because they did not leave a trace. Polluters get all the rights, in this twisted dream of the world. Now they leave tire prints from their ATVs in the tundra. Thank god for progress.

The Lavo is much like a Native American teepee with snow on the floor and covered with reindeer skins. There are three sacred places that in the Lavo, the the spot opposite the door where the Noraidc (Sami Shaman) did his work and the woman of the Lavo prepared meals, the fire in the center and the door to protect it.

We have two soups today. One of the traditional reindeer and on vegetarian. Our host called and ask for our delay on the road as this was the first time she had a a request to cook vegetarian. I try both soups. The reindeer are harvested in a sacred manner. Both soups were outstanding, served in the Lavo with coffee.

After dinner a ride a on reindeer sleigh. The reindeer are all named by their color and markings. There are about 250 names for reindeer using this system. I good header can look into a field of a 1000 and spot one missing and know where to go to find it. Reindeer are shy creatures. It take about four years to to get the reindeer comfortable to work with people. The Sami help this by finding the song of each reindeer and yoiking it to them. We have a selection of reindeer for our group. We bomb around a single track course on a single sleigh carried by a single reindeer. It’s da bomb. I would consider going back to work if Santa needs a reindeer test driver.

In the morning a fire ceremony. Here we are greeted by two rainbows in the sky as we burn our community prayer bundle and give thanks for the journey.

One final stop on our adventure, the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel is built each year on a frozen lake. It is a temporary art form that is given back to nature each spring. There is a changing area and bathrooms in a heated building, but the rooms are keep at -5 degrees C. The people that are staying there are given snowmobile suites and arctic sleeping bags to keep warm. We go to bar.

The drink is Absolute mixed with an array of mixers to come up with drinks like, Northern Lights and Fire and Ice. The glasses are made of ice. The music is the best of the 70’s and 80’s. The barroom is beautiful. We dance off the effect of a week long bus ride before dinner at the restaurant across the street. Tomorrow is the long ride home.

It is such a pleasure to spend a week with such men and women of power. People who can keep the feet on the ground, hearts wide open and pray in way without dogma. This adventure was opened a new portal in our lives and Sitting on the Top Of The World, at the crown chakra of Pachamama, as she is embraced by the Sun, has opened a new place in my heart.