The birth of Scorpio

On Friday night I celebrated the birth of a new moon Scorpio at Findhorn. I stood in the dark of the garden of cluny college of the findhorn foundation surrounded by a group of 11 people, 3 men and 8 women gathered from across the globe.

We walked down to the gardens in silent, moving to a pre-prepared area where we were to light a candle and stand around in a circle. The priestess, an eastern European woman, invited us to hold some silence for a few moments whilst she lit the candle.

In a small bowl she placed a mixture of sweet grass and sage, she then set them on fire before blowing them out leaving some smouldering ashes. Taken a feather she fanned the ashes created a consistent plume of smoke. This bowl of smoke was carried around the circle as we were invited to smudge ourselves - to fan the smoke onto ourselves - and invite blessings down. The bowl was carried around and I covered myself in the smoke from the smouldering ashes.

We were there invited to burn any negative patterns that we had in our lives. We’d previously written these down on a piece of paper, and as the candle was passed around we burnt our papers in a pile on the floor. The priestess cried out ‘Ho’ and we responded with a ‘Ho’. ‘Ho’ meaning ‘I have spoken’ and the response meaning ‘We have heard’.

A bag of seeds were passed around the circle and we were invited to take a seed symbolising our hopes for the new moon. We were invited to hold the seeds next to our heart, so that our energy field could envelope the seed and our positive energy transfer onto the seed. We then individually placed our seeds into a large ceramic bowl in the centre, and as we placed our seed in the soil we called our ‘Ho’ which was responded to with a “Ho’ from the rest of the group.

The bowl was passed around the group and held aloft as we held one another’s hopes and dreams in our hands. The bowl was placed into the centre of the group and we held hands with one another and sang a chant four times through.

We moved to the fountain where water was placed upon the seeds by the priestess whilst a blessing was spoken, finally we moved around the garden in silence before resting at the compost where the seeds were returned to the earth. Placed in a place that would bring new life into the garden, our hopes and dream infecting the whole garden.

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, Findhorn, Scorpio

Comments

[gareth powell]

hey ben,
my first reaction was that you were quoting something - but the it became obvious that your were involved in this service/event...

I must admit to being a little shocked that someone training for ministry in the c of e would attend and partake in a service like this... but this reaction could be because I am at vicar college with a bunch of anglo-catholics who would scream heretic if I mentioned the new moon :-)

Just wondering why you partook in the service and what your response as someone training would be to it?

Maybe its because I am studying liturgy at the moment and how it should be transformative in how it uses christian narrative to redescribe the world. this service does that but I am having trouble seeing how it does it in a christian way - (maybe it was not a christian service)??

ummm good things to ponder - better get back to +rowan on hooker :-)

[gareth powell]

sorry just read your last post - doh! now I realise why you were there :-)

[Ben Edson]

It was part of research, but also - whilst i did not agree with a lot of the language that they used - it was a celebration of the cycle of life. I'd like to suggest that this is what liturgy does, it keeps us in a cycle, and this cycle is tied to the seasons and hence that ties us to the lunar calender.

I'd happily go along to a service from one of the worlds great faiths, not to agree with all that they are saying but to understand the culture, the worldview and the values of their faith. this means that i can engage with the culture, find points of correlation and see where God is at work in their culture. Do we remove ourselves into our own bubble of christendom and bury our head in the sand? or do we engage with events like this?

I'd draw the line at a satanist event, which is see as destructive to the human spirit, but this was a pagan festival focused on the natural elements. natural elements that for me are icons into the divine, and at times probably more...

[Craig Gilman]

Just sent you an email BTW... It's good to find you after all this time since Wolves Uni!

Good to see what you're doing. I'm involved in B1 in Birmingham :0) Small world hey!