The lodge on the Adelaide site was made of pine branches. It had a layer of white fabric inside and a wooden door. The lodge was spacious and felt clean and still inside. The side were sloping which meant you had to be more self supporting during the ceremony. We sweated each day with the sweat on the final day being a public sweat. It felt good to be with and talk to women again after 2 days of being and talking only to men, as beautiful as the men were!
We used the Adelaide crews Dreaming wheel and lodge, feeling the love and (literally) the sweat, commitment and ceremony undertaken on this site across the years. The land here supported us, taking us deep within her, creating safety and play. It was beautiful to see the Adelaide crews connection to their wheel The way they came out after the sweat and prayed in it, it holding them.
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There is one half day to go of the training. Tomorrow we have to be at the Sweatlodge at 7.30 am for an 8 am sweat. Hopefully we will get to meet more of the Adelaide brothers and sisters.
I have journeyed with my dear brothers across theses 2 long deep days. The only woman amongst 5 sometimes 6 men. At times I have felt privileged as if I am on the edge of secret men’s business. I know almost all of these men well. I have journeyed deeply with them in medicine ways and ceremony. Love and respect have been ingredients in our work this weekend. Our teacher has taught us calmly. He imbues the words and actions of medicine ways with honesty. Working in the realm of healing he sees clearly and works with hands and spirit. His knowing teaches us not just in his words but also in the calmness of his being. We worked through our medicine into knowing through spirit. We danced and danced our medicine,slowing down to amplify the inside space of the dance. I found my voice. I sang my medicine. I sang my world and the space between me and spirit. We became part of the earth, no longer separated from it or each other. In this quieter space our unique voice, our personal connection to nature and spirit spoke through our hearts. I head to Adelaide today to learn more about snake medicine; working with the two snakes we utilise in the traditions I work in, Sanara and Ungur. Sanara and Ungur are sister. Sanara is red and black, fast like lightning and bitey, working inside to clear what's no longer required. Ungur is black and green, a python, languid and slow, enveloping, taking you into her belly so you can shed.
I have effigies for each snake, made in the desert during my training. I sat with the effigies today. Reflecting on my Sandra Ingerman's wisdom, of the usefulness of a clear intention going into a journey space, after praying, I asked for each snake to come forward, and show me what I needed to know about the work ahead. At first the energies of both snakes was confusing, and I wondered if I should have just worked with one. The inside space felt vague, as it often does, and I remembered Ingerman's words re breathing into the heart space. This helped. I experienced the electricity of Sanara, and the slow consuming nature of Ungur. A part of me felt foregrounded. a part that needs to make itself big to protect a sense of being too vulnerable. The biting of Sanara felt shocking, I notice the biting bringing me into the present moment. I could feel the fear of stepping into Ungurs mouth. But I feel ready to let stuff go now, and shed my skin. I feel the work I have done over the last month has prepared me to let go of wounded parts of me. I no longer need to have the same, limiting relationships with these parts of myself and story. Previously, I have energetically 'fought' to keep things as they are, even while I could feel the discomfort and inhibition the beliefs around the old wound were causing, not on purpose, but that's just what was there. I wasn't ready for a new way of being. Through deep engagement with my feeling/spirit landscape I feel like I have created a context for a new way of being to take hold. I am noticing more resilience, and a quieter 'inner critic', less resistance to change. |
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