2012

Here we are in the year of 2012 which is a fire year connected to the ancestors, according to the Dagara people of West Africa, and the year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar, which is about transformation, and of course the coming together of all the cycles and counts in the Mayan calendar culminating at the Winter Solstice marking the birth of a new era.  All this is only a small cycle in a much larger cycle as the universe as a whole is going up the stairs of evolution into, what some say, the fifth dimension.  We do not know what it is going to look like but we have the opportunity to become conscious co-creators in the evolution of the planet.  The Maya and the Hopis are concerned with how we enter this time of transition.  Are we doing it with resistance, which may bring cataclysmic changes, or are we doing it with acceptance, which may result in more gradual peace and tranquility?  It is in these times we come together to weave the multicolored cloth as we shift consciousness.  This transition marks the return of the Feminine Divine, the return of the Christ Consciousness, the return of the Feathered Serpent and a return to the many world prophesies that herald a time of balance and harmony on our planet Mother Earth.  It is important to gather at key points on the Earth’s grid on the Winter Solstice of this year and meet this transition with an open heart and joy as well as it is important to live this shift in consciousness awareness in each step we take to make this transition a reality. 

We keep building the rituals on all the spiritual prep work that has been done over the years at America’s Stonehenge by the various light workers to bring it to a culmination at the dawn of the Winter Solstice.  The Winter Solstice moment is at 11:11 UT that is 7:11 AM.

So many times in ritual I see people struggle with prayers that I decided to write something up on that to help you maybe making a more effective prayer.  This could be a useful thing in times of change. 
Click here for ‘How do we pray?’

Schedule of Rituals for 2012

Vernal Equinox - Sat. March 17 at Earthlands

Vernal Equinox - Sun. March 18 at America’s Stonehenge

Summer Solstice - Wed. June 20 at America’s Stonehenge

Autumnal Equinox - Sat. Sept. 22 at America’s Stonehenge

Autumnal Equinox - Sun. Sept. 23 at Earthlands

Winter Solstice - weekend of Dec. 15 – 16 at Earthlands

Winter Solstice - Fri. Dec. 21 at Dawn, America’s Stonehenge

VERNAL EQUINOX RITUAL

2012

Bursting out of the Quivering Skin

Saturday  March 17, 2012

9:00 AM – 9:30 PM daylong ritual and workshop

7:00 pm evening ritual open to all,

Near the ‘Cottage’ at Earthlands, Petersham MA

Sunday March 18, 2012 

1:00 – 4:00 PM Ritual

At America’s Stonehenge, NH

The 2012 rituals are focused on feeding the Mother, the Ancestors and the Living World around us.  Each ritual will build on the next one culminating at the Winter Solstice on December 21.

To honor the appropriate feeding of the spirit world there is some preparation involved that you need to do at home.  If you do not have time to read it all please go to ‘What to bring’ below.                     

Your barren frozen skin, with your silvery hair pushed down like a sea of shimmering waves, rests in the embrace of the glowing ember smiling from the sky.  A dormant world lingers, yet not with the deep silence that comes with the breath of winter.  The Mother is not wearing her white fluffy cloak that much.  How abundantly she flowed in the year of water and how dry she looks in this year of fire.  Winter, however, is still clawing at her stirring womb.  She has been prematurely going through her birth pangs, contracting, expanding, so ready to shift into something larger… different… to reroute the course of life.  We await the time to come together to feed her so we may see her face again and catch a glimpse of her bursting smile of yellow, blue and green and listen to the humming of life singing itself into existence.

These are the times we have been waiting for.  Not everybody totally agrees if the Mayan calendar exactly comes to a completion at the Winter Solstice but if enough people agree about this date things will shift.  This is an exciting time, an unknown time, as it marks the birth of a new era.   How this transition will play out has a lot to do with how we show up.  The transition is already happening as we see the changes intensified in our lives, our culture and our environment.

Birth is a tricky moment; it is not something that happens by itself.  Readiness, urge, and a push for life are needed for the new life to birth and begin the long move through the birth canal.  And the mother in her response stretches, contracts and sinks into a rhythm of quickening pulses where life and death hang in the balance.  And so is our Mother evolving and we have a choice to consciously join her and choose our own evolution.                 

At this Spring Equinox we intend to go deeper into ritual where we become the midwives and cheerleaders to assist the birthing process of the Mother and ourselves.  We weave beauty from our stories and prayers and allow it to become food for the other world.

The whole day will be spend in ritual as we work with our skins and umbilical cords, gathering, shedding, creating and sanctifying all the ingredients to have it culminate in the evening ritual.  The evening is open to participants that can only commit to the evening ritual.  Your work during the day will allow everybody else to go deeper.

Preparation is a big piece of the ritual.  What you put in is what you will harvest or in this case birth.  Katja Esser facilitates this community oriented ritual and you can expect it to be very participatory.  It is important that you bring the items described below to the ritual to give it its full effect to feed us and the other world. 

What to bring:

- A piece of colorful cotton fabric about 1 square yard that is your old skin, the skin of your beliefs that kept you in a small and limited reality, the one that made you choose to fit into other people’s judgments and reality. Thank this piece of skin for how it has given you the exact information to now be able to make the change to step into a place of infinite choice.  You will not get this piece back.  You can add things to it that pertain to your old story that you want to shed. 

- An umbilical cord made with 4 different colored strips of biodegradable fabric of about 1 yard long each in length in which you tie many knots that for the first yard represent all the ways you have judged or had conclusions about another.  The second one all the ways you have judged and had conclusions about yourself and did not take in the gift of receiving.  The third one all the ways you have gifted another.  The fourth one all the ways you were present with yourself, received yourself and also received another to gift you.  The strips get tied together in one umbilical cord. 

- A prayer stick made from willow or birch that has the length from your elbow to the tip of your fingers in which you with a knife carve your prayers.  Please, safe the little chips of wood that come of it.  And please, bless you knife before you carve.  The focus of the prayers is for the Earth.  You are welcome to make more than one prayer stick.  Make sure one end is up and the tip has a point to it. 

- Bring Spring flowers that are open, a flash light, drums or other sound makers if you have them, some finger food for after the ritual, raingear if needed and your own water to drink.  Make sure you dress warm.

Cost: At Earthlands ritual $8 - $12 for the evening ritual only, $70 - $50 sliding scale if you do the whole day, dinner and evening ritual included.  Details about the day will be given once we receive a $20 deposit.  

At America’s Stonehenge the entry fee paid to the visitor center is $10 and an additional donation of $5 at the ritual site is appreciated.

Registration March 17 workshop: Because of the preparation involved for food, but also your personal preparation we’d like our deposits in by Thursday March 15 for the Saturday daylong ritual and workshop at Earthlands.  We suggest you bring your own bag-lunch since we are far from any facilities that provide food.  The country store has a limited selection of sandwiches.  There is a possibility to stay overnight for an additional $35, breakfast not included.  There is a kitchen facility to prepare your own food.  There is a non refundable $20 deposit of checks received after March 9.  Checks can be made out to North Quabin Farm, 19 Oliver St, Petersham MA 01366.  To register please click here .

Who to contact: Please contact Katja at (617)365 4024 or email at katjacreates@ritualexpressions.com

Directions to Earthlands - From Rt 2 take exit 17, take 32 South to Petersham.  At center of town, at country store, take a left on East St. Go for about 2 ½ miles.  Take a left on Glasheen Rd, follow the sign to Earthlands/ University of the Wild. Park in lot A and follow signs to the left to ritual site.  Address: 39 Glasheen Rd, Petersham MA 01366

Directions to America’s Stonehenge: From I 93, take exit 3 in NH, take Rte 111 East (app. 5 mi., crossing Rte 28) to Island Pond and Haverhill Rds. (there will be a sign here for America’s Stonehenge on your right).  Follow Haverhill Rd. south to entrance.  The address is 105 Haverhill Rd, Salem NH 03079.

Katja Esser is an inspirational artist, mask and costume designer, ritualist, teacher, photographer, and performer. She has exhibited her work in the Netherlands, New York and Boston. Katja has studied different forms of movement and voice. She has created sacred ceremonies for the seasons since 1992 for small and large groups of people of which the summer solstice at America’s Stonehenge is most well known. She is very involved in African based spirituality with Malidoma Somé and the East Coast Village which has brought her to Africa a few times.  She draws from a variety of great teachers such as Martin Prechtel and Emilie Conrad. Katja creates rituals and gives talks at colleges and universities. Katja has sung with Bonesong, an improvisational sacred singing quartet that sings in a cave. She performs with the Theater Behind The Mask in schools through Young Audiences and at First Night. She created a performance around ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ with Ricardo Frota in which she appears in a full tree costume that took her a year and half to make. Katja launched last year her Apprenticeship program ‘Courting the Living World’ in which participants activate their intimate connection to self and planet.  Katja has an extensive website www.ritualexpressions.com at which her work can be viewed.