A HEALING CEREMONY
FOR
PLANET EARTH
LUNATION COUNCIL:
TRANSFORMATIONAL
STRATEGY
FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
Real Peace, Real Unity is
desired by the human heart. It strives to labor creatively and
actively. For its labor is a source of joy. It wants to love
and expand in the realization of Sublime Beauty. In the highest
perception of Beauty and Knowledge all conventional divisions
disappear. The heart speaks its own language; it wants to rejoice
at that which is common for all, and leads to the radiant Future.
All symbols and tablets of humanity contain one hieroglyph, the
sacred prayer--Peace and Unity. Nicholas Roerich
Over
the last several years, I have had the pleasure of participating
widely in an increasingly popular learning and teaching mode,
called simply, council. Council has its roots in Earth-based,
aboriginal cultures whose traditions honor the unique spiritual
gifts within each of us. It springs from the dynamic notion of
"learning and teaching going on", rather than from
a fixed notion of "the teacher and the taught". As
a result, council is naturally concerned with process more than
with product. It furthers all forms of consensus decision-making.
Council, as I have experienced it, has always involved meeting
with others, in a circle. Universally, a circle symbolizes wholeness
and completeness. Meeting in a circle can accentuate these qualities
and can make them part of our direct experience. We can be enlivened
and empowered by them.
Most of the councils I have been involved with have been very
spontaneous in nature. Generally they have been "agenda-less",
thereby being open to the present moment, and to what people
are really up to, now. Such a format requires a high level of
both courage, and patience; courage to be true to who you really
are, in the moment, and patience in honoring the natural process
of unfoldment required for full group participation.
The most successful councils I have participated in, have adopted
a format wherein a short period of mindfulness meditation precedes
the opening exchange. This meditative pause facilitates a grounding
of the group's energy. A natural feeling of ease and spaciousness
occurs as everyone relaxes into the moment. When a round of sharing
follows such a grounded beginning, the results can be truly satisfying
to all involved.
Within such a supportive circle, everyone is given the opportunity
to share from the heart, what they are feeling, or what inspires
them, in the moment. Ideally, the group consciousness is without
judgement or expectation as to what each person will do. If someone
chooses to silently pass, letting the process simply move on
to the next person, so be it! What is important is that each
person be given the opportunity to share. This can be a very
healing experience for both speaker and listener, for in the
sacred space of council, the practice of "devout listening"
is possible.
Easy to initiate but difficult to maintain, devout listening
can be enhanced by having the group designate some object, be
it a stick, a flower, a crystal etc., as a symbol of authority.
It then becomes a rule of conduct, for all members of the circle,
that whoever has the "talking object", is to be listened
to, without interruption, no matter what he or she is saying,
or expressing. The talking object is initially passed from person
to person, around the circle, until everyone has at least had
the opportunity to speak. In this process, the attention we give
to each other is a gift which is exchanged many times, over the
course of the time spent in council. A "circle of mirrors"
emerges, as we find the circle providing each of us with a reflection
of a different part of ourselves than we might otherwise encounter.
What we find in sharing circles conducted in this way is that
our collective process of "becoming", grows naturally
out of the ground of our collective "being". As a result,
we end up feeling nourished and supported in a very deep way
and are empowered to go ever-deeper into the truth of who we
actually are.
LUNATION BIRTHDAY
/ LUNATION COUNCIL
When we bring to council, an
astrologically-determined sequence of sharing, everyone in the
circle is given the opportunity to learn about themselves through
an intimate and direct experience of cosmic process. If that
process is modelled after the cycle of moon phases witnessed
from one new moon to the next (the lunation cycle), a very powerful
significator of personal presence can be revealed. That significator
is known as the lunation birthday. Most simply, it is
the phase of the moon at a person's birth.
Knowing your lunation birthday,
means knowing a deep inner part of your psyche that has a specific
orientation to the world at large. For example, if you were born
just after the new moon, you tend to learn about life most quickly
and naturally, by jumping in, experiencing spontaneously the
world around you. On the basis of this direct experience, you
learn. People born when the Moon is full, on the other hand,
have a much more objective approach to life, operating best from
forethought, and from visions of what is possible. These people
are the translators and interpreters of experience. First-Quarter
Moon people are best aligned with action and decision-making,
guiding a budding process toward a future fulfillment. Last-Quarter
Moon types are most naturally concerned with mastering the art
of letting go, moving on, dissolving the past.
No matter what phase of the Moon you were born at, a conscious,
fixed, and vital alignment to the changing phases of the Moon,
is possible for you. This alignment can be amplified by participating
in lunation council. By having each person share, in council,
from his or her respective lunation birthday position, a conscious
connection to the center of the Earth as a mysterious force is
possible. It is a force harmoniously unifying within each of
us, the cosmic masculine force of the Sun, and the
cosmic feminine force of the Moon.
A lunation council sharing proceeds from the New Moon people,
to the first quarter people, to Full Moon people, and back to
New Moon people. Each person is, therefore, witnessed within
the overall framework of the lunation cycle at his or her lunation
birthday. As a result, a natural, intuitive, learning and teaching
mode opens up as we allow the process itself, to guide us.
The Lunation Cycle
Cycles of relationship are cycles that relate two distinct entities
for a specific length of time, hence we call them "wholes
of time". Wholes of time reveal themselves through a process
having a beginning, a middle, and an end. When cycles repeat,
what changes are the contents of the cycle, not the structure.
The lunation cycle is the most obvious astronomical analogy to
this cyclic process. It is a visual metaphor, capable of guiding
us into a deep remembrance of our cosmic origins. Seen in this
way, the lunation cycle is an ordered and measured process of
change which periodically and perennially, returns to its point
of origin: new moon. We may regard the lunation cycle as a basic
building block of experience. It is a discrete unit in an ongoing
evolutionary process sourced by the Sun.
A story emerges from council modelled on the lunation cycle.
Conducted in this way, lunation council reveals a story of our
our deepest connections, the real story about why we have come
together. Often we are surprised to find a totally different
story than we dreamed, or thought, possible. Through the power
of love and trust available throught this kind of encounter,
we are very often transported beyond our usual boundaries of
self-interest, into the realm of collective service and support.
EARTH PEOPLE
Because it places the Earth
so central, lunation council may find us truly honoring the Earth,
by speaking more authentically and more courageously, enlivened
and empowered by a deep awareness of our cosmic, bipolar, birthright:
our lunation birthday. If we can share in lunation council, openly
and freely, what actually is most meaningful to us, and if we
can learn from the structure of the lunation cycle, something
about our cosmic heritage, perhaps we can carry that knowledge
out into the world at large, creating truly transformative lifestyles,
lifestyles that emerge from the deepest recesses of our common
humanity. Let us support each other in the full and complete
manifestation of such a quest. Ho!
"Together
with all nations,
we protect both land and life
and hold the world in balance."
Hopi
prayer