“There is a morning inside you waiting to burst open into light.” ~Rumi

Until this morning, I’ve felt incredibly, creatively blocked, for three weeks. Practical and Responsible; my first and middle names. This morning, my friend, Karen, said, “You sound down.” I was down. “I’m concerned about myself,” I said. “I’m so blocked. I’ve been out of school for three weeks and haven’t done anything creative.”  She asked me about writing on my blog and reminded me that writing get’s things flowing for me. “But I haven’t been inspired,” I lamented! “What can you do to change that?” she challenged.

Later, at home, I went to my desk and played, “The Medicine Wheel” by Robert Gass.  Facebook was up on the screen.  I saw the above quote and felt an immediate sense of hope in my ability to feel on-fire again.  Oh, how I could relate to this quote by he-whose-quotes-always-show-up-on-Facebook-just-when-you-need-them!  Rumi.

“A morning inside you waiting to burst open into light.” I love the morning; the dawning of day and another chance. I know there is a morning inside me! What am I not doing? What am I doing wrong? Is there anything I’m doing wrong? I knew the answer was that I am holding back my impulses, my spontaneous desires. 

Fire signs need to be free, need to blaze and shine. I’ve been too grounded in rules and roles and running errands and ruminations about my future goals. My Divine Child, within, is stifled! A fellow Leonine Goddess, Ande Lyons (real name), posted a beautiful picture of a bursting-forth sunrise through trees with this Rumi quote and everything shifted. I was on fire. 

I then stopped by my MotherRoots Healing Arts page and I saw a picture I'd posted of a weaving ritual in early May.  (More joy rising as I looked at this picture – I love ritual! I miss doing my rituals!) Feelings and words and flowing and openness filled me up!  Spiritual fulfillment is so important to me. “Have I taken time for rituals?” I asked, demanding a truthful, clear answer of myself. No.  A flat, simple, NO.  I started to write in the “comment” field below the weaving-ritual picture, and in three seconds, I felt better. I began writing about doing a weaving ritual.  Simply writing and imagining doing this ritual, created a feeling that my heart was wide-open and filling up with universal love and joy. The words flowed from inside me (or do they channel down into my crown from above?)  It transformed into this piece of writing.

I needed to find the official author of the chant I "sing" below. It brought me to the beautiful photograph of the woman doing a weaving ritual above.  Synchronicities are the Goddesses way of saying she is hearing the needs of my soul! I decided to use her picture and I've credited them below.

I have always said that creativity is the doorway to my joy. Creating and participating in sacred ritual and even, simply, writing about sacred ritual provides me with an opportunity to express my spiritual passion, my joy, my emotions, and my creative ideas.

When I saw the photograph of the weaving ritual that I’d posted on Facebook last month, I became inspired to create a weaving, myself, to move stuck energy, to light the fire of joy in me, once again.

Weaving my intentions, dreams, thoughts, ideas, love, sadness, grief, joy, fears, burdens, and gratitude into a structure such as the one shown above, is a powerful, healing, inspiring, ritual that moves my stuck emotions, that frees the fire of creativity within me, that provides a channel for releasing any intense, overpowering emotions I might have.

I can sing and move my shoulders and hips while in ceremony. I can chant songs like wind or thunder from my deep-inside place. I can roar or cry, then laugh while I infuse my ritual weaving with sacred intentions and prayers.

I am healing. I am dreaming a new life into my world. I am giving my pain to the earth to heal. I am pouring out this huge gratitude to my Higher Power for all the things I'm so thankful for.

Weaving also connects me to the healing, restorative, comforting memory of my ancestors - The Ancient Ones - who live in my blood and bones. I've learned that each of us has at least 30,000 great grandmothers and grandfathers! Can you even imagine! So when I do a ritual like this, I remember them in my blood and all is well.

I feel transported back to a time and energy that I can see in my mind's eye and feel in my heart; the women are together cooking and they are near giant boulders in the forest. They're telling stories and laughing. Some women are weaving.  There's a fire and children are playing all around them.

Although living in these ancient times would have been more challenging, in many ways, they were also simpler times. Living so closely to nature would have made it a natural state to be grounded – to be really connected to the cycles and rhythms of the moon and sun, of the seasons, of the sacred pulse of Mother Earth’s heartbeat. 

I can truly feel that sacred flowing river of nature’s peaceful energy, when I imagine the ancient days, because I know how I feel when I am sitting on a rock, lying down on the beach, listening to the waves, or resting under a tree with soft grass under my bare feet.  Rituals in nature are particularly healing and powerful for me.

A weaving ritual like this one is just what I need right now!  This is the vision I have: I can go out in the woods or into my yard or anywhere there are trees close enough together for me to tie strings back and forth. I can make any pattern I want to. After this structure is created, I can bring to it feathers, twigs, strips of fabric, or wildflowers. Each natural item can represent an emotion, a prayer, a goal I want to set, an experience or person I want to release, a feeling I want to transform, a lesson I would like to learn, a giant thank you to nature for being so sacred and beautiful and healing for me! One by one, I’ll begin weaving these beautiful objects and symbols into the web.

Flowers, string, grasses, twigs – feathers, cloth, strips of paper, and photocopies of pictures – all of these things can be added into a ritual weaving.   Before I begin, I can light some candles, burn some sage or cedar, and invite my ancestors to silently and sacredly surround me. Ancient Ones, Basket Weavers, Rug Braiders, Bread Makers, and wisdom-weaving, Storytellers – be with me today.  I will sing to you a song I love.

There is an Old Woman

Who weaves the night sky

See how She spins

See Her fingers fly

She is within us

Beginning to end

She is our Mother, our Sister, our Friend

She is the flow

She is the ebb

She is the weaver

She is the web

We are the flow

We are the ebb

We are the weavers

We are the web

She changes everything she touches

And everything she touches changes

She changes everything she touches

And everything she touches changes

Change us, Touch us

Touch us, Change us!

(This is a chant sung in many of our sacred circles. It is a compilation by chants written by Shekinah Mountainwater, Starhawk and Lauren Liebling. When we sing it as a group, our voices and passion for the Goddess weave a vibrating, healing, magical cone of power and energy around us.) 

The  photo above was taken at the Wild Star Gathering, “Natural, Creative Workshops and Seasonal Arts Celebrations” at Stanmer Park, Brighton, on August 19, 2012 to celebrate Lammas, an ancient harvest festival practiced by my Celtic ancestors. In searching for the author of the chant, I came upon this picture, whose caption was a version of this chant! How synchronistic! I decided to use her picture. Please take a minute to visit the Wild Star Gathering page on Facebook. It is beautiful! From there, you can go to their website and watch a video of their Labyrinth Ceremony. I enjoyed it very much. The other photo of the weaving ritual, that I refer to in this writing, can be found on the May 11, 2013 posting on my MotherRoots Healing Arts page on Facebook.