Equinox Ritual--You Reap What You Sow

This ritual is done in three parts, so you will need to cast a mobile circle, or cast a circle in each place that you move to in order to complete the section. Please do this at the head of the ritual so that you can move through the tasks fluidly.

Ingredients: Water, Salt, New Soap, Clear Quartz, Carnelian, Selenite, Nasturtium Seeds, Pot, Dirt, Apple, 5 Garden Sage Leaves, Knife, Bamboo or Metal Skewer, Washable Marker

Time: The evening of the Equinox

Location: Be prepared to be both inside and outside. If you are unable to feel comfortable outside, then doing everything inside is best.

Preparation:

Ditch the phone. Put on some music. Dress in very loose and comfortable clothing. Remove all jewelry. Please present yourself as humbly as possible, with no adornments or finery.

Please cast your circle. You can cast a mobile circle by placing the sides of the tips of your index fingers together and the tips of your thumbs together, spreading the palms so that the hands are side by side and the joined fingers form a diamond shape. Then curl the fingers that are not connected into the palms, leaving only the index and the thumbs extended. You now have a diamond.

Flip your hands so that the palms are up and your index fingers are pointing towards your body. Insert the index fingers into the navel and inhale, gathering your chi. As you exhale, sweep the hands out and in a smooth motion, flip the palms down and separate the hands to draw a circle around your body, allowing the index and thumbs to meet behind your back. Inhale, return to starting position in the navel. Exhale, sweep and circle. Inhale, return to navel. Exhale, sweep and circle. Inhale, hands to prayer position at the heart. Feel the circle of energy around you and know that this is your personal sacred space.

If you prefer to call your corners and cast a fixed circle, please do so.

Have a seat and begin your breathing. Please begin very slowly, and try to get your breath extended out to seven seconds on the inhale and seven seconds on the exhale. Take your time and see yourself growing calmer and more focused with every breath. Use this time to separate out your daily experience from your ritual experience. Do this for 3-11 minutes

Then begin to tone the vowel sounds, one vowel per exhale. You want to stay in your long breath pattern, only adding the toning to the exhale. These are the “long” type of vowel sounds. A as in Amen. E as in Eeek. I as in I. O as in Om. U as in Usual. Really stretch your mouth, opening it as if you were an opera singer. Do this for 3-11 minutes.

Then begin to breathe in short bursts, as if you were trying to blow a bug out of your nose very quicky and over and over. We call this Breath of Fire in yoga. Just know that the inhale is completely passive, a result of the abdomen relaxing after that sharp, short exhale. When you have the hang of it, add in a hand motion. Make little cups out of your palms, facing the body. Then begin to rapidly scoop the hands towards the body in little circles. Your body may bounce some and that’s okay. The hand motion and the breath may sync, they may not. Don’t stress it. Allow this motion to create energy in your energy field and in your chakra points by moving these circles up and down the front of the magnetic field. So you circles are going in and out and your arms are going up and down. Do this for 3-11 minutes

Release the motion and place your hands casually on your knees. Be present in the body, and observe where you are in your mind. You want to stay in this clear mind space as you move, and also as you begin to clear.

Lets go.

Part One: The Casting off of Sins

Staying in that mental space, take your circle, the salt, the marker, the soap, and the clear quartz into the bathroom. You will be taking a ritual bath, but if you don’t have a tub, the shower will work just fine. If you need to cast a circle here, please do that now.

Start to run the water. Find a temperature that is pleasing. Sprinkle 3 full-fingered pinches of salt into the bottom of the tub or the shower. Disrobe. And here comes the fun part…

With the clear quartz in your hand, think about this past year. Many good things happened to you; many bad ones as well. That’s life. But as we reflect, you may come to notice that certain events stay fresh in the emotional matrix. I find that these events are usually connected to places that we feel some sort of shame; we are always harder on ourselves than we are on others.

We also tend to forgive others way before we forgive ourselves. So lets do that now.

Take your washable marker (Dear goddess MAKE SURE IT IS WASHABLE; if you Sharpie that shit, don’t blame me. I warned you. Twice.) and begin to list the things you need to let go of. Things you need to forgive yourself for. Things you are ashamed of doing. Write them on your skin; these are your “sins”. These are places where your human frailty won and you behaved in a way that does not represent the best of you.

Its okay. We all have them. But at this moment, I want you to remember them and I want you to feel them again. Feel all that shame and the sorrow that goes with it. Feel the sadness, the remorse, feel all of it. Be present with these sins of this last year and know them so that you can consciously move on from them. You can prevent them from becoming habits or excuses or roadblocks. We do that by honouring their moment in our lives and accepting that we are flawed, and yet STILL DESERVING OF FORGIVENESS AND LOVE.

Step into the tub or the shower and take the soap into your hands. Bless the soap. Name it forgiveness. Give it the power of the God of Light to wash these sins from you. Scrub each one from your body one at a time, slowly, with presence, and as you do this let them go. I mean it, hon. Let it go. These are not things that you are going to carry forward with you into this next year. When they are all clear, give yourself a general all over scrub down, rinse down and then dry down.

Go ahead and get dress in your loose and humble clothing to move on to part two, taking the clear quartz with you.

Part Two: Clearing and Annulling Contracts and Commitments

Gather the apple, the knife, the sage, the selenite and the skewer. Return to your working space and get comfortable. Check in with your circle, and if you need to freshen it up, do so at this time.

Slice the apple in half to reveal the natural pentagram in the center. Set one half aside for later, and take one half into your palms. Sit quietly and return to your earlier deep breathing pattern. Do this for 3-11 minutes. Allow the mind to be clear before starting to chant ONG NAMO in long, slow, soft, melodious exhales. Do this for 3 more minutes before moving on.

In this mental space, begin to think about the contracts and commitments you have in your life. They can be to friends, lovers, family, acquaintances, situations, employers...practically anything to which you agreed to participate is up for assessment. Focus on what you feel is no longer in balance with your growth and begin to compile a list of the five most important contracts in your life at this moment that your would like to terminate or alter.

Remember, this is not about “clearing” as much as it about “balancing”. We all have situations in which we participate where the scale starts to tip. You may want to remove yourself entirely from these contracts, or you may just want to bring them into greater equality. That is what you are doing here.

Start to observe your five karmic contracts and mentally sort them into elemental associations. Try to sort them by feeling into situations that reflect the nature of the element: earth (home, body, food, work, etc), fire (sex, purpose, struggle), water (relationships, family, friendships), air (education, work, philosophy) and spirit (spiritual practices and beliefs). You may find that your situations don’t exactly reflect these placements, and that’s okay. Just use your gut to orient your contracts into elements.

Now, with the desire to alter or release each of these contracts, hold the apple so it is showing you a 5 pointed star with the point up. That top point is spirit. The point to the right is earth and you start there. Take the skewer and with your desire around this contract firmly in mind, pierce just above the point of the star and make a hole. Say out loud how you want this situation to be re-balanced in your life, and as you are speaking out loud (to the apple, yes, you are telling the apple what you want) roll up a leaf of garden sage and stuff it into the hole. Do this with all of your points, leaving spirit for last.

Then run the selenite over your magnetic field and the surface of your apple, severing any attachments you may have subconsciously clung to. Let it go, hon. Let it go.

When this is complete, take your apple outside. The more outside the better and if you are in an urban environment you are going to have to plan ahead and think creatively. In gratitude, yes, gratitude, think of all the ways you have benefited from these contracts but acknowledge that they cannot go on as they are. Be firm that this last year was the last year that they get to be as they were and as you move forward from this very moment, they will begin to re-balance as you have determined.

Give that apple a little kiss and then hurtle that sucker out into the dirt. If you can throw it in water, yay. If you can toss it into a forest, yay. If its going to land in your neighbours backyard, then go ahead and bury it at the base of a plant. You want this apple to be able to return to the earth, giving back the nourishment in a version of the life/death/life cycle. Remember that when you are making that list.

Part Three: The Planting of the Future

Return to your working space. If you have to move locations, and need to cast circle, go ahead and do that now. You will need the carnelian, water, Nasturtium seeds, pot, dirt, apple, and bamboo or metal skewer.

Take the second half of the apple and hold it the same way, with the spirit point up. Shift your gears a bit and allow yourself to feel immense gratitude for things that have come to you. Things that may have been unexpected, or things that have become more than you ever imagined. This next piece is about drawing in more of what you have already sown. This is planning for the next year’s harvest by identifying the seeds you already have, and starting to allow them to develop more deeply.

So don’t go asking for things you haven’t already been working with. This isn’t base manifestation; that’s a different holiday. This is harvest time thinking, and never did a good farmer take harvest without saving seeds, right?

So start this process of identification, and sort the list by element much the same as you did before. Again, it won’t be precise, but you are just giving a little more power to each intention when you give it an element to root in. Be very clear in your mind about not only what each item is, but why you are grateful for it, and why you want to see more of it in your life. Be gentle in how you frame this wisdom, you are literally blessing each seed and creating an environment of such gentle thankfulness and wonder that they literally want to grow for you, just to be able to experience your joy in their presence.

Get it? By loving these concepts, you are creating space for them to love you.

Now, with your skewer, at each point, carve the idea in. Maybe you use words, maybe it is just a symbol, but for each elemental point, you are engraving your gratitude and desire. Start with earth and save spirit for last. Sit with the completed apple half for a few minutes of deep breathing and just be in that space.

Then eat it. Eat all of it, leaving just the star pod with the seeds. Start to chant the HAR, HARAY, HAREE WAHE GURU as you fill your pot halfway with dirt. Keep chanting as you nestle the apple seed pod into the pot and continue to cover it with dirt. Take the nasturtium seed and blow gently on it as you chant before planting it in the pot. Keep chanting and water the pot thoroughly, seeing your bounty rising up in the future. Place the Carnelian into the pot and then set it where it can get the light it needs to grow.

Nasturtium is a hearty plant that likes sun, and grows well both indoors and out. Its flowers represent love, loyalty, strength and fighting for what you believe in. Nasturtium is also a very good companion plant for apple, so it lends the right amount of energy tot he process. If you live south, you probably won’t get any apple sprouts, but that Nasturtium will grow like crazy. If you live up North and get that apple to sprout, love it like the rare gem that it is.

When you are complete, close circle, thank the spirit that joined you and be at peace.