Letting go that which no longer serves
For many of us, the new growth of spring is beginning to show and we are watching it *mostly* from our windows. From Pagan cultures celebrating the vitality of life and fertility after a cold winter, to Jewish traditions of searching out and burning leavened bread to begin the Passover liberation festival (check out a pandemic-times spin on this ritual here), to Christian celebrations of Easter marking the Resurrection, taking time to observe a process of releasing what no longer serves so that we may welcome what is being born is inherent to this time of year. And in COVID-times, it may be even more important. Maybe you find yourself moving within your own space, confined as we are, in ways that feel uncomfortable. Or you are feeling some constriction around old patterns that no longer serve you, but damn those patterns sure are coming out loud and clear right? As our partnership or parenting unfolds in the magnifying lens of the 24/7 household or you sit with yourself day after day solo. Maybe you see, in yourself and others, how traumas and spirals are playing out in stores and online. How we are oscillating from emotion to emotion, unsure of where we sit.
We have a choice now to bring in a new world (“the pandemic is a portal”!) or return to the painful systems we have normalized. Over generations we have internalized capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy and the hetero-patriarchy. We re-anoint these constraints every time we bow to greed, depletion, extraction, fear and hate. Trapped in our bones by ancestral traumas, it is a church of scarcity that makes someone hoard toilet paper. It is the fear of being alone, worshiped through individualism, which births the need to shore up reserves, lacking trust that others will help or leave anything for you. It is our armor of indifference and distance, forced perfection and performed strength that protected us when we vulnerable children in unsafe homes that keeps us from being vulnerable and honest with our beloveds in and out of our *homes* today. Year upon years of every day rituals to the gods of strident individualism and materialism along with the very real inequality, pain and injustice in this world have embedded fear, shame and grief deep within our bodies.
But we can take a breath and begin to loosen the grip that keeps us in fear and grief. Because this is not a pause. Even for those who have the privilege to stay inside. Or for those who hurt from loss of income, family, touch, celebrations. This is not a pause. We will not return to the before. So this spring, for those that do not celebrate Beltane, Passover, Easter, Eid al-Fitr, and even for those that do, I am gifting you a ritual to cleanse ourselves of what no longer serves.
A ritual of clearing out of what we no longer need
to be enacted during sunset.
as the day ends, so your constraints
Preparation: Ground yourself in Place (Earth)
Setting your space is important in ritual, it is the preparation of the table for the feast of change. Clean your altar space (or wherever you will complete this ritual). Find the little forgotten bits and pieces of dust .
You will need something to burn paper into, such as a spell bowl, a cast iron pan, or an old can that held beans.
If you do not have an existing altar, lay a bandanna (or a favorite piece of fabric) over a part of a table and lay out a few items which make you smile and feel connected with others. If you have an existing altar, make sure you have pieces on it which were gifts or mementos that bring you a feeling of connection and joy, like that rock you found that one time. Gather some old flowers or herbs, a piece of paper and pen, and a lighter/matches.
Embodying Change (Water)
Pause and take care of yourself.
Take a shower. As you are cleaning the day from your skin, think about what you hold internally that no longer serves you. (Alternatively you could journal on these questions first, then bring this inquiry into the healing, clearing waters of the shower if you wish to sit with them longer)
Awareness
What patterns do you fall into?
What stories are told that keep you in fear?
What stories have you told yourself that were not yours to begin with?
What are the postures that keep you tight and constricted?
Hold your hands out in the water and accept that while there may have been need for all that you are becoming aware of, that you do not need it anymore. As the water runs down your body imagine you are losing and shedding what we are told to be, told to produce, told to feel.
Take your time drying off. Love your body. Maybe you have a lotion or an oil that makes you smile when you feel your skin with it. Feel free to complete the ritual naked, only in a towel, or in your favorite relaxing clothes or pajamas.
There is freedom in the present (Air) and in rebirth (fire)
Sit at your altar, be in your body
Breathe
Let any tightness loosen
Breathe
Write on the paper what you are clearing from yourself, what you’re letting go
Write on the paper what you are helping to clear from the world, what we need to let go to breathe
Place the dried and *used* plant material in the bowl (or can!) and light your paper on fire, dropping slowly on top of the material.
Breathe
As it burns breathe out into the silence
You may wish to say something, to fill the silence. Don’t. We are letting things go, and inviting a new world in its place
Breathe out. And when you are ready, stand up- a little bit lighter
