Kate Bowditch invites you to
Join us in Ceremony at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park
(left of the ferry dock)
August 14 – 4-6pm
The Ocean is calling us again to gather by the shore to drum and sing to her.
[T] he Ocean Healing Ceremony at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park began about eight years ago, and was perhaps the first Ocean Healing Ceremony in the Sound. Time has seen the flowering of many circles and drumming to honor the ocean from here to CA, the East Coast, the Great Lakes and beyond.
We gather again at the beach in Mukilteo to sing, honor, and heal the ocean waters, knowing that we are now a part of a great drumming that is circling the oceans of the Earth. Come, be part of this, lend your energy, song, and sound to this day.
What to expect: A beautiful beach, a sacred fire, a circle gathering, song (song sheet provided), ceremony, drumming, joy, friends, and feasting.
What to bring: Drums and/or rattles, food or drink to share (NON alcoholic), blankets, and maybe a folding chair (We will provide some). Bring one stick of firewood, decorated as you like (or plain), for the sacred fire.
If you come early, you will “get” to help set up and/or pick up any trash on the beach around us. If you stay late, you will get a nice fire, a cozy beach and some drum-jammin’. What could be better?
If you would, let me know if you can come. Not sure ‘til the day? Come anyway!!
Kate, Sophie, and all the old-timers…
Fire and Water – Healing Flames for Mother Ocean
by Kate Bowditch, MA (Publ: Circle Mag, Spring 2010)
[O] n a chosen summer day, for five years now, we have gathered at the edge of the water here in Puget Sound, to honor the ocean, sing to her, drum to her, and pray to her. We come to bless the water and to perform healing magic for the animals and plants within the water, and for the water itself. It is an open and public ceremony. We perform this ceremony in the middle of a beach full of people. We notice who watches from their distant picnic benches, who walks away. We notice the ones who sit nearby, absorbing it without being in it. All the flags we use, the objects, the altar and its decorations, and clothing we wear in this ceremony reflect the motion and the colors of the sea. We sing, drum, and sway to the rhythm of the tides and all that they hold. It is truly a powerful, beautiful water ceremony.
[T] hree years ago, a woman joined the group as Fire Tender and all things changed. The Sacred Fire became our counterpoint, our balance. When we began five years ago, we built a simple fire for warmth and gathering, and post-ceremony trash burning. The Sacred Fire is an entirely different experience. It has become a living part of the ceremony. The Sacred Fire now begins, holds, and ends the ceremony. The fire warms our hearts more than our bodies. It participates in the ceremony itself through its flame, smoke, and rising heat.
[A] s we became aware of the Fire’s true purpose, our behavior around it changed. We see it as a powerful force, a participant in the ceremony. We stay in awareness of it, no longer casually tossing things into it, or leaving it to smolder while our attention is elsewhere.
[T] he Fire Tender does not attend the ceremony itself as a participant. Rather, she expands the ceremony by keeping the fire fat, holding the space for the fire so it is never unattended. She is guardian of the entire ceremony. As guardian, she fields questions from curious beachgoers, keeping us protected from interruption. She calls us to the fire at the beginning and at the end of the ceremony. At these times, she directs our relationship to the Fire by how we sing to it, how we put the wood on it, and what we ask of it. During the ceremony, she alone tends the Fire.
[T] he Fire Tender carefully builds a basic structure of cedar logs and crumpled newspaper. She decorates this structure with rose petals and other flowers, herbs, lavender and incense. What was once a dark, silent fire-pit becomes a colorful and sumptuous feasting-table for the gods and goddesses of the Sea. Through her, our intent for the work before us becomes focused. Through her guidance at the very beginning, we release all distractions, allowing our intent to become huge in our presence.
[W] hen the Fire Tender called us to the Fire again this year, she gave each of us a piece of split cedar. Some had also brought their own wood. Stating our personal intent for this ceremony, each spoke and placed the honoring wood onto the stack. Some of us spoke for healing of the oceans, some for understanding of our connectedness to the ocean. Others spoke for right relationship to her, for fertility and bounty within her, for universal love. The youngest, a seven-year old girl, said, “ for it staying beautiful”. One by one, we laid our sticks on the Fire, as seagulls called overhead. Four of us lit the Fire, and we drummed and sang our prayers into its rising flame. The billowing smoke raced across the beach, carrying our intent far out over the waves.
[W] e gathered in a great Circle for our ceremony, to the side of the Fire. In the center of the Circle we sheltered little paper cups written with the names of the many life forms in the Ocean. Each cup had one name; each was filled with salt water drawn from the Sound just before the ceremony. We called to the oceans of the four directions to hear us and receive our intent. We blessed the water of the Sound, sang and drummed to it; we prayed to it. During the ceremony, in a deep meditation-prayer we gave healing energy to the water of Puget Sound within the little cups, and to all the life forms, known and unknown, within them. At the end of the ceremony, we carried the little cups to the water’s edge and released their water back to the Sound to carry the healing and blessing far out to the deep currents of the Pacific Ocean. We sang to the water again, prayed again for its healing, and we blessed it.
[A] t the calling of the Fire Tender, we gathered again around the Fire. With gratitude, we burned the cups, releasing all residual blessing and healing to the sky. We sang again to the Fire. Interestingly, there was little smoke this time. The fire’s work was done. We closed with a gratitude song to Mother Earth, Sister Water, and Father Sky.
[I] n this ceremony, the Sacred Fire is not central. It sits to one side of the ceremonial Circle, like a parent guarding children. We know it is there. We feel its grounding power throughout the ceremony. It is the Alpha and the Omega of the ceremony, the beginning and the end. The Sacred Fire is the strength that supports our watery work.
[B] y its nature, Sacred Fire enhances the circle of energy throughout the ceremony. Fire both receives and gives energy to do its sacred work. It takes the energy from the wood of its own structure, the oxygen in the air around it, and from our matches. It takes energy from our intent and our prayers, our drumming and our singing. Fire then internalizes this energy in the cauldron of its heat and flame to transform it and release it to the Universe as pure energy.
[W] ith the addition of Sacred Fire to our Water Ceremony, we combine two great circles of energy. We, on the beach, form the first Circle, drawing, blessing and releasing water. We stand on the earth; the water is drawn from the Sound and released at the water’s edge. This Circle is horizontal in nature. The beach and the water flow away from us in a radiant disk, marked by distant islands and the rising bluff behind the beach. Sacred Fire, however, draws from deep within the earth. The wood it burns remembers its roots holding fast to the stone and soil far beneath the trunks that now yield up their energy to the Fire. Sacred Fire honors us by absorbing our heart’s prayers, and sending them upward on heat and smoke to the ever-listening Universe. This Circle is vertical in nature, rising from deep within the earth and lifting its energy far into the atmosphere above. This energy is fed again, added to and returned to the earth by all the natural forces above us. Fire’s vertical work joins with the Circle’s horizontal work to complete a perfect form, echoing the first shape in the Universe itself: the sphere. The sphere provides a womb for a huge dynamic potential to incubate and form. Our prayers and focused intent are gathered within this sphere. They are fed, increased and released to the pure energy of the Universe, which receives them and feeds them again. The Universe then releases our prayers and intent back to the hungry Earth and Her thirsty Oceans.
Sacred Fire, we thank you.
Fire Tenders, who understand the ways of Sacred Fire, we thank you.
Kate Bowditch, MA kbowditch@juno.com For more information about Ocean Healing, please visit our website: www.oceanhealers.netfirms.com
