The Longdance

... and the journey continues ...

The Alchemy of Ceremonials
A Guide by Elizabeth Cogburn

To begin with you must believe in the reality of this process. A ceremony works according to the power of your belief. You must also be able to let your imagination carry you into another realm, a place where you connect with the depths of who you are and what you need -especially in the feeling dimension. This isn't of very often, power of emotional imag ination, but essentially it is the power that an actor finds in a role, the allowing of impersonation, allowing oneself to be possessed by the cochina. This is the magic, the transformation of energy, that can be ac tivated in ritual ceremony.

There are certain features essential to any ritual. Preparation rites are needed so that we know what we are doing. Openings and closings are needed. Not everyone would do as I do, so you will have to tailor things to other lifestyles and other tastes. But I can suggest some elements that contain the ritual event and that give it focus and that people can use according to their taste and inclinations.

First I would decide when the ceremony is to be performed, then whether or not I would invite others to be part of it. The ele ment of the witness is awfully important here. But other human beings are not the only kinds of witnesses. It is quite feasible and effective to call on the gods, spirits, essences - however one terms these things. Some people nowadays are very aware of an energy in themselves they know as their guide or their guardian or their wise old one, so I would certainly invite my guides and make a place for them.

Being a very earthy person myself, I always invite the elements. I go out and find things in preparation for the ceremony that represent the earth, air, fire, and water. I give great attention to gathering these things, deciding what they should be, knowing myself to be made of these same elements. This is all part of setting up a defined space for the ceremony, and it needs to be done reverently. In all steps of a personal ceremonial, the ancient art of -belief is absolutely critical. Done in a haphazard or lap slapdash manner, the ceremony does not have much chance of being effective.

When I set up a physical space for the ceremony, I honor the four quarters: north, south east, and west. I go out to the sky and look at the moon and the phase it is in. I honor the elements above and below and the moon and the sun and I sense my connection with the elements and the quarters and the sky and the underworld. Then I am located in time and space.

This act of location forms a doorway into mother reality. The deeper inner reality where I'm headed in the ceremony brings me into contact with a constellation of things on the inner plane. As things change and realign in this deep inner world, so will they also bring corresponding changes in the outer world. The ritual act is the bridge that connects the two realities. So it needs to be approached with great attention, belief, and reverence.

Some act of purification is important to a serious ceremony. This can be as simple as washing your hands or taking a special bath - beginning a period of fasting. Whatever the act itself, though, it is less important than your own imagery of the intention of purifying yourself. For this reason it can be as effective to wash with sand, say, as with soap and water.

Next we need a statement of intention- What is the occasion? The ceremony and its purpose need to be clearly identified-name it to yourself in the clearest possible terms. Here I'm struck by the usefulness of a profound pair of questions that have come own from very old sources. Put one way, as if addressing the spirit inside the ceremony: "What do you have for me that I need?", "What do you want, from me in my life that I can offer you?".

Oftentimes when you state the intention, a need reveals itself-even the need to give thanks. But if you need and want something, you must offer something in return. That offering can -take many forms, but offering one's open heart is probably the place to at least to start. At the very least one must say, in effect, "I set aside my critic, my judge, my cynicism, my doubt, and I come here with an open heart to perform this ceremony with my full energy and attention."

In the modern idiom, the ceremony is an ' occasion for cultivating a dialogue between the conscious up-front mind and the deeper parts of the psyche This is a matter of pulling up the imagery of one's own myths and giving expression to them in some way. It is as if you find a visual inner representation of your emotional field, then see how it relates to the situation you find yourself in and the particular passageway you are traversing.

One kind of exercise you might use here is to ask, "What do I really want?" In this culture it is very hard for people openly to acknowledge what they really want. To do this forthrightly gives the ceremony a qual ity of initiation, the passing of a threshold. Of course there are many levels to "I want"-from "I want a red sports car" to "I want enlightenment." But the finest essence of "I want" concerns the personal desire most in harmony with the ecosystem of the universe of which we are a part.

Here and elsewhere in the ceremony, don't be shy about saying things out loud or writing them down- it is important to commit them to some form outside the elusiveness thought. Remember that 'to name is to create and that the universe is all sound'.

After such an exercise, it is vital to move beyond the verbal cognitive level and express these things in other ways. I prefer dance for this. If you get your body moving, it moves the mind it moves the nervous system, it moves the whole arrangement of your molecules and ends up affecting the nonphysical body. And everybody can move something.

Let your dance be rhythmic and repetitious, free-flowing on the sound so that rather than "making a dance" you feel you are "being danced." This way you are carried beyond the limits of your ordinary reality into larger fields, into being-in-the knowledge-of-the-oneness-of-all-energy. It is in allowing this return to the center, to the field of essences, to the no-point beyond time and space and beyond name and form, that your own energy is recycled and that the patterns of life situations may be dissolved and reformed through the molds of new intentions, new sharper images of what it is you need. This is the alchemy of ceremonials.

Ideally the dance continues for a considerable time, at least for one side of a record. Working in groups, I often start people at two hours. There are always gasps about moving continuously for two hours, but at the end of the time no one can believe that two hours has actually gone by. Of course there's more energy available in a group situation. But the dance needs to come out of and express the whole intention of the ritual. The clearer you make your im agery around what it is you need, the clearer will be the resulting changes. The richer the field of sound, movement, smell, touch, and symbolic association, then the more circuits you open connecting yourself with deeper layers own mind and with energy fields beyond yourself.

Many crafts and art forms can work the same as dancing if approached as ritual centering. And of course many people find this centering in sitting meditation. Dreams, daydreams, and visions sometimes indicate procedures or give instructions for resolving a situation through a ritual prac tice. I can mention one example of a woman who was told in a dream to plan, construct, and send out into the world a very finely worked wooden box in order to re-center herself after the loss of a child. I know of another person who was sent by a dream to find a certain shell on the beach and carry it to a certain hill where it was buried at twilight.

Finally, the ceremony needs a closing. Usually something evolves that feels right, so long as you are aware of the need to make a closure. Maybe you reverse the circle you made when you opened the ceremony, thanking the energies of the four quarters and the four elements for being with you and contributing to your ritual. Or you walk around the room making a spiral to the center and out again, as if coming back to your ordinary self from whatever mo ment of silence and motionlessness you found at the center. Such a ritual closing act pulls everything together, so we are no longer half open to a ritual state of mind where we might drive through traffic lights and such. Eating is a good way to end. You are likely to be hungry by now, and mindful eating is an important part of the ritual re cognition. Eating also helps to ground your energy and reestablish your presence in ordinary reality.

"The ceremony is an occasion for cultivating a dialogue between the conscious mind and deeper parts of the psyche. The ritual act is the bridge that connects these two realities. "

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