New Year Ceremony (New Year’s Day, 2012, near Rattery, Devon)
2012: a year of great potential for change – at the personal and collective level. Ininto the new year this ceremony we will review the past year to fully reap its harvest of learning – and dream ahead into the new year.
In the “kiva time” of midwinter darkness our power to dream is especially strong. This is an opportunity to look deeply at what we want to co-create with the Universe in the next cycle and to send the power of our dreaming thoughts forward into the year.
One of the teachings we’ll use to open this dreaming time is a Medicine Wheel called “The Wheel of Balance and Self-Relationship”. This old map enables us to look deeply into eight aspects of our Self and to choose how to nurture all of them. What gifts will we give to our Self to create more harmony, health and fulfilment?
We will also create seed bundles to represent these dreams. This will empower the dreaming we’ll carry through the winter and the shoots of new growth in the spring
In Earth Wisdom tradition the four moons from November 21st to spring equinox is called “kiva time”. A kiva is a ceremonial chamber that is half underground, and it has the sense of a more inward, introspective energy. The old people of the tradition thought of this as more a time for being than doing.
They honoured the Earth’s cycles and rhythms in order to be in harmony with her. They saw that the Earth is covered with a blanket of leaves or snow at this time and that animals retreat to their dens and burrows to sleep and dream; that the energy of trees goes down into their roots, and seeds of new growth lie dormant in the dark earth. So like the animals the old ones gave themselves time to go into silence. They allowed the energy of the void, of pure potential to inform them and bring renewal. Thus the ground of all potential, the feminine void of Great-Grandmother Wakan would bring them dreams of who they would be and how they would manifest in the spring.
So this ceremony is an opportunity to connect with our own void of pure potential and renew ourselves on the inward aspect of our journey.