Sept 16th, 2012
I have brought crow and owl feathers tied with hair, hemp and cotton string to Guardian Ma. Looking about, I find a long strand of grass to tie it to Guardian’s vine. As I tie it, I bind a simple prayer to the offering: May this offering serve as reminder of my path and commitment to you, Ma, as apprentice, and also as reminder that I am here to bring this energy of healing to community.
The friend who gifted me Dark Ma is having his first baby today – I decide, in honour of community, I will do a burning tonight on their behalf.
I sit in the dappled sunlight next to Ma, watching hornets eat the core of the apple that I just finished. I had intended to place the core on the walking-path and gift it to the forest dwellers. Temporarily placing it on the ground near Ma, it only took moments for the hornets to find it. Well, these are as appropriate a recipient as any…
The morning is quiet, and I feel a stirring of heart and sensual aliveness as I sit with my teacher and friends. The forest floor crackles in dryness – insects are audible amongst the tinder dry leaves.
I ask Ma about directions for my heart. She is quiet. A spider walks amongst the leaf litter. I realise I have not made formal offerings as yet. Making offerings of tobacco and sage, four hornets have now found their way to the nearby apple core.
I repeat my question to Ma in the form of images and feelings. “What will serve me better – committing to being alone on my path, or being with an Other intimately while on my path?”
"All in its right time, my child. Directions are always being revealed, shifting with moment to moment actions and decisions, like branches and leaves that blow in the wind. The direction you currently seek will be revealed this week."
She becomes quiet, and in the silence that ensues, I feel an assertion that as much as some part of me wants "the answer," another part has always known "the answer" will never be found definitively. Choices made in the continuous flow and unfolding of life.
Hornet is walking on the feather and hair offering. Another has arrived at the apple. As I shift my hand to touch Ma, they buzz me. Now five in number, they are figuring out how to share the food offering.
I turn my attention back to Ma and ask her for teachings on medicines.
"This is the medicine. Right here, right now. Just sitting in quiet and being, observing. Spaciousness. This is the medicine."
Stepping to Root Ma, I ask, "What is my path of learning as Mol'farka?"
Images of formal teaching, medicine making, and hands-on-healing arise in my mind – my work at the college.
"Go Deeper..." she implores. Sensation, like a charge of emotional energy, fills my heart. "Give it all away. Empty your heart.
Keep your heart fresh and clear. Keep life and love fresh and clear. Open, neither holding onto past stories nor future forms. The love you seek, that is so sweet and deep, is fresh, awake, open.
This is your path as Mol'farka. Love in all its myriad forms, as deeper medicine. The teachings you offer others are just carriers for the deeper medicine, like the oils you use when making salves. Vehicles for relationships between all our relations. Relationship is the vibratory string upon which the deepest medicine vibrates.
Yes, you will be alone on your path – we all are. Can you feel, child, can you know and see -- the world needs you to be in relationship to it all? As teacher, giver, lover. Your path as Mol'farka REQUIRES you to be in relationship. The community of nature and people require it. Your path is not solo. I am the teacher of the heart, of love. Why would I choose you as a student otherwise?"
Silently, she then gives an image of me preparing myself for a burning-ceremony – preparing myself as a vessel for the deepest medicines. Clearing my heart and body and mind. Opening, ready... Offering bouquets of herbs into the fire. Anointing myself with waters or oils.
Breaking her silence, she speaks, “This is a dedication – a wedding of sorts – and the binding will be you to your Heart, you to your path as Mol'farka. You will commit yourself to service of the greater community of Nature and her peoples, to love, to some potential Other – all Others – and to us, your Teachers and Allies.”
~*~
It is late on Sunday evening. Preparing to teach for the week, I feel my tiredness. I do not have energy to prepare for the ceremony tonight in the proper way. And, the level of dryness of the trees and surrounding forest makes it unwise to start a small fire outdoors. The ceremony will have to wait. Instead, I decide to do a small burning in the shell I use for indoor ceremonies. I gather dried leaves from Dark Ma, frankincense, cedar, tobacco, paper from the hornet's nest, as well as oil and honey in honour of Makara.
It is very dark outside – a moonless night – as I head to the small balcony off my bedroom where many potted plants are growing, including Ma and Dark Ma. After many attempts, the herbs and offerings finally decide to burn. As the little fire brightens, I see a very large spider, legs the total span of the palm of my hand, crawling toward the step where I am standing. Remembering the little spider in the forest leaves this morning, I wonder what Spider's message is and then decide not to hang around and find out!
Quickly, smoke and prayers are offered to my friend and his small growing family, and also to those in my community. Glancing at spider who determinably continues to advance toward me, I nod my head and dash inside. I can feel Ma and Dark Ma laughing at me! “Yes, child, direct interaction is not a requirement of relationship and service to the allies!”
I have brought crow and owl feathers tied with hair, hemp and cotton string to Guardian Ma. Looking about, I find a long strand of grass to tie it to Guardian’s vine. As I tie it, I bind a simple prayer to the offering: May this offering serve as reminder of my path and commitment to you, Ma, as apprentice, and also as reminder that I am here to bring this energy of healing to community.
The friend who gifted me Dark Ma is having his first baby today – I decide, in honour of community, I will do a burning tonight on their behalf.
I sit in the dappled sunlight next to Ma, watching hornets eat the core of the apple that I just finished. I had intended to place the core on the walking-path and gift it to the forest dwellers. Temporarily placing it on the ground near Ma, it only took moments for the hornets to find it. Well, these are as appropriate a recipient as any…
The morning is quiet, and I feel a stirring of heart and sensual aliveness as I sit with my teacher and friends. The forest floor crackles in dryness – insects are audible amongst the tinder dry leaves.
I ask Ma about directions for my heart. She is quiet. A spider walks amongst the leaf litter. I realise I have not made formal offerings as yet. Making offerings of tobacco and sage, four hornets have now found their way to the nearby apple core.
I repeat my question to Ma in the form of images and feelings. “What will serve me better – committing to being alone on my path, or being with an Other intimately while on my path?”
"All in its right time, my child. Directions are always being revealed, shifting with moment to moment actions and decisions, like branches and leaves that blow in the wind. The direction you currently seek will be revealed this week."
She becomes quiet, and in the silence that ensues, I feel an assertion that as much as some part of me wants "the answer," another part has always known "the answer" will never be found definitively. Choices made in the continuous flow and unfolding of life.
Hornet is walking on the feather and hair offering. Another has arrived at the apple. As I shift my hand to touch Ma, they buzz me. Now five in number, they are figuring out how to share the food offering.
I turn my attention back to Ma and ask her for teachings on medicines.
"This is the medicine. Right here, right now. Just sitting in quiet and being, observing. Spaciousness. This is the medicine."
Stepping to Root Ma, I ask, "What is my path of learning as Mol'farka?"
Images of formal teaching, medicine making, and hands-on-healing arise in my mind – my work at the college.
"Go Deeper..." she implores. Sensation, like a charge of emotional energy, fills my heart. "Give it all away. Empty your heart.
Keep your heart fresh and clear. Keep life and love fresh and clear. Open, neither holding onto past stories nor future forms. The love you seek, that is so sweet and deep, is fresh, awake, open.
This is your path as Mol'farka. Love in all its myriad forms, as deeper medicine. The teachings you offer others are just carriers for the deeper medicine, like the oils you use when making salves. Vehicles for relationships between all our relations. Relationship is the vibratory string upon which the deepest medicine vibrates.
Yes, you will be alone on your path – we all are. Can you feel, child, can you know and see -- the world needs you to be in relationship to it all? As teacher, giver, lover. Your path as Mol'farka REQUIRES you to be in relationship. The community of nature and people require it. Your path is not solo. I am the teacher of the heart, of love. Why would I choose you as a student otherwise?"
Silently, she then gives an image of me preparing myself for a burning-ceremony – preparing myself as a vessel for the deepest medicines. Clearing my heart and body and mind. Opening, ready... Offering bouquets of herbs into the fire. Anointing myself with waters or oils.
Breaking her silence, she speaks, “This is a dedication – a wedding of sorts – and the binding will be you to your Heart, you to your path as Mol'farka. You will commit yourself to service of the greater community of Nature and her peoples, to love, to some potential Other – all Others – and to us, your Teachers and Allies.”
~*~
It is late on Sunday evening. Preparing to teach for the week, I feel my tiredness. I do not have energy to prepare for the ceremony tonight in the proper way. And, the level of dryness of the trees and surrounding forest makes it unwise to start a small fire outdoors. The ceremony will have to wait. Instead, I decide to do a small burning in the shell I use for indoor ceremonies. I gather dried leaves from Dark Ma, frankincense, cedar, tobacco, paper from the hornet's nest, as well as oil and honey in honour of Makara.
It is very dark outside – a moonless night – as I head to the small balcony off my bedroom where many potted plants are growing, including Ma and Dark Ma. After many attempts, the herbs and offerings finally decide to burn. As the little fire brightens, I see a very large spider, legs the total span of the palm of my hand, crawling toward the step where I am standing. Remembering the little spider in the forest leaves this morning, I wonder what Spider's message is and then decide not to hang around and find out!
Quickly, smoke and prayers are offered to my friend and his small growing family, and also to those in my community. Glancing at spider who determinably continues to advance toward me, I nod my head and dash inside. I can feel Ma and Dark Ma laughing at me! “Yes, child, direct interaction is not a requirement of relationship and service to the allies!”
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