Ceremony | Bone Woman

Ceremony

Image: Ceremony acknowledging historical trauma, and clearing a way forward.

We need language, law and customs
that hurl us beyond the boundaries
of our lives, to that space between
worlds where we can see clear.
Starhawk

What is Ceremony: An Introduction

As a Ceremonialist, I design ceremony for all sorts of occasions. In my experience, the embodied act of ritual/ceremony acts as a powerful framework to reclaim parts of oneself, and one’s autonomy. The inner witness is activated, and acts as a reminder or foundation from which to leverage oneself into a new pathway. Previously dormant potential is activated, and can support people to reach their goals, wishes, dreams and better manage the challenges of the future.

Remember the Heroine’s Journey and the triphasic nature of it: Separation, Transformation and Return. This offers a scaffold from which to understand the ritual process and its power to transform. Bone Woman invites you down into the Underworld, where completing the What’s In the Harvest Basket process separates all the parts of you that need examination. We then move into Transformation through synthesizing all we have learnt from that process and moving into ritual.

Ritual has the ability to disrupt old patterns, breaking the spell of habituated responses and old default settings. As we process internalised stereotypes and belief systems, so too does the world around us change, freeing people to have the confidence and courage to be authentic – to live lives

saturated in meaning and purpose.

Ceremony reinforces a commitment to do things differently. It is an intention to consciously engage with the sacred, stopping mundane activities and creating a space of authenticity, beauty and reverence. It is a reset, which enables reinvention and recognises change in a conscious way. I see ceremony as the way to consciously reflesh those bones in a way that is aligned with your values.

Use the new moon as an auspicious time for inviting in the refleshed version of yourself. A regular practice helps to embed information, intentions and our connection to cyclical life. Do you need support in bringing about the refleshed version of yourself? How does that look and what small steps can you take toward that now?

Bone Woman Refleshed is a feminine presence who expresses as a shamanic mystic, conscious journeyer, restores herself on her own terms. And in her restoration, becomes a forerunner in the shift of a new global, collective consciousness. This consciousness has the power to transform the wreckage inflicted over aeons: power over and disrespect of women and this planet.

She is a transformer, a processor of our dormant wounds, a truth speaker and she bears her scars as adornment. She becomes a midwife of the soul supporting others on their journeys. Bone Woman Refleshed has the ability to birth and support new ideas, new concepts and becomes a designer for a future that in unfolding with every breath. Women are awakening!

Queen of the Harvest ritual for a group:

This ceremony is to honour the women who have journeyed through peri menopause and have experienced at least 13 moon cycles without menstruating.

This Ceremony has been designed specifically as a continuation of the 'What's In the Harvest Basket?' process.

Each of the mandalas created, represent the culmination and integration of the Harvest of a Woman’s life and act as a vital circular framework upon which the Queen Of the Harvest Ceremony is performed. They also become a visual focal point for the guests that come as witness to celebrate the Harvest Queen.

Materials needed:

Ceremonial Plate for food offering before the cermony.

A blindfold.

Annointing oil.

A decorated “throne”/chair for the Harvest queen to sit on.

Cloths of warm autumn golden tones.

Flowers harvest foods such as bunches of wheat, pumpkins and pomegranates, seed pods bowls of seeds etc.

The Harvest Mandalas which are placed sequentially in a circle ready for ceremony.

Candles: One for each mandala and one for a centre candle.

A lighter.

A Crown made of natural autumn fibres covered by a cloth so that the Harvest Queen doesn’t see it til her crowning.

Everyone can place a flower to add to golden circle of cloths around the septennials when they introduce themselves and their lineage.

A drum if thats the vibe.

Even a speaker to play music as the Harvest Queen enters.

A Basket that the Harvest Queen has already filled with Harvest offerings to gift her friends.

Some suggestions of What the Harvest Queen can gift her friends from her basket: recipes passed through her family line, herbal teas that they have prepared something crafted by the Harvest Queen, a piece of writing that has been copied to gift everyone.

Something that expresses her essence.

The space is already prepared before the Harvest Queen enters: decorating the space with warm golden Harvest tones of fabric and flowers and Harvest foods such as grains eg bundles of wheat, pumpkins, bowls of grains, dried seed pods etc honour this transition as the Harvest Queen is in her Autumn years and will share with her group the bounty of the Harvest of her Life.

Her Mandalas are laid out in a circle with a candle for each one that the Harvest Queen will light once the ceremony begins.

Before entering the space the Ceremonialist that is holding the ceremony makes a respectful acknowledgement of the country that the ceremony is to be offered on.

Naming the cultural group of the land and guiding each woman to introduce herself to the ancestors of place by saying their name and touching the ground. (Smoking smudging?)

An offering of food flowers and fresh water to the spirits of the land and saying why everyone is gathered allows everyone to have a reciprocal relationship to the land where everyone is gathered.

The Harvest Queen is then blindfolded and guided to the place where the ceremony is to be held where the women await in circle to witness her.

Drumming here as she walks blindfolded activates the ceremonial process and brings everyone into communion with each other.

At the entrance of the ceremony circle the blindfold is taken off and she is annointed with a beautiful oil and welcomed in and taken to a special chair that is decorated and waiting for her.

The ceremonialist lights the centre candle and calls in the ancestors of loving compassion of everyone gathered and it can be quite beautiful for each woman to say her lineage and add a flower to the circle.

When she finishes she lights the candle beside that mandala.

She continues in this manner until all of the candles are lit beside the mandalas.

Once she is seated again the ceremonialist or perhaps an elder can crown the Harvest Queen by putting the pre prepared crown upon her head.

This is a special time and whoever does the crowning can honour the Harvest Queen by speaking of her special qualities. Each woman comes one by one to pay their respects offering a blessing and a gift to the Harvest Queen.

The Harvest Queen then takes out her basket where she has Harvest gifts to distribute to everyone. This is a joyous time and allows the Harvest Queen to be recognised as having journeyed through lifes gifts and hindrances and is ready to take on the mantle of Eldership.

Diana Belot: Septennial Journey images, Bone Woman Immersion Weekend.

The Ceremonialist closes the ceremony by thanking the ancestors of Loving compassion for their witnessing and calling forth for the continued guidance and protection for the Harvest Queen to continue to activate her Calling upon the Earth.

A song could be sung here and the Harvest Queen can be lead out to a bounteous banquet of delicious celebratory foods

Before everyone leaves to go home, Closing the Ceremonial activation by giving thanks to the spirits of the land allows for the whole experience to be grounded and completed.

If the Ceremonialist has called in the 4 directions acknowledging and closing is part of this.

The ceremonialist explains that the circle of mandalas represent seven year cycles of the Harvest Queens life Harvest and acknowledges that the Harvest Queen is stepping into the beginning of her eldering years,

her wise woman years, and through the process laid out before her has taken responsibility for her own Life story and integrated the lessons learned.

Then the Ceremonialist invites the Harvest Queen to share from her bounty of Life. The Harvest Queen stops at each of the septennials starting from 0 to 7 and shares with the women gathered the significance of the mandala as a short synopsis of that time.

Harvest Queen Ritual: Solo

Solo rituals can be very powerful and transformative. Don't skip on the details - dress up, arrange some special food and treat yourself with all the respect you deserve.

Create a space of time where you will be undisturbed. You may like to create a sacred or altar space, with a candle and some symbolic items. Begin the process by purifying yourself with a cleansing bath with salts or oils, imagining past patterning dissolving into the water and being carried from your body.

Some prompts for your writing:

How have your life experiences shaped the woman you are now?
Do you recognise that the difficulties, obstacles and pain that you experienced were valuable life lessons that helped you to grow and develop?
Do you feel aligned to your life purpose? Is there more that wants to be birthed? Write it down as a statement.
List your strengths and attributes. How do they serve your life purpose?
Are there still patterns, shadows or thoughts that inhibit you from completely realising and manifesting the love that your soul wants to express? Write these on a separate piece of paper and burn them – release them into the light and give thanks for the gifts revealed. Return the ashes to the earth, as an offering to the Great Mother.

Dry your body an anoint her with oils or some sacred element, honoring the unique being that you are. Go for a walk outside, the path in front of you symbolising your direction from this point on, the path behind you having guided you to this point.

Return and look in the mirror. Welcome the woman that you are now, notice her changes. They tell stories of pain, joy and rich experience. Connect to her eternal spirit – now Queen of the Harvest.

Write down your goals for the future. Like the goddess Hera, who dipped each year into the sacred spring, we as women have the ability to renew our spirits and to birth new futures out of our uniqueness. An astute Queen always lays the foundation for future harvests.