WELCOME TO THE

✨ AUTUMN EQUINOX CEREMONY ✨

I’m so glad to have you in the circle!

​​You’ll find that the ceremony consists of smaller rituals- some that start before you step into the circle. Though nothing is mandatory, I’ve found that the more one participates the more they receive from the experience.

I promise to guide and lead you through these rituals and the larger ceremony. It’s also my intention to help you more greatly understand how to be in ceremony, because most of us did not grow up in ceremonial traditions. I take on the responsibility of keeping the container, the group, and you as spiritually safe as I can, and I invite you to cocreate safety for yourself and others in the circle.

The rituals included in the Autumn Equinox Ceremony reflect this season's energies. 

In my spiritual traditions and the indigenous ways of my training, we honor each direction of the medicine wheel. In the Fall, we acknowledge and welcome the direction of the West.

Our lives ‘walk the spiral of the medicine wheel’ just as the seasons do in nature. The honoring of the Autumn Equinox and the medicine of the West allows us to gracefully transition. Like the tides, the energy of the West is the shift to ebbing. Nature invites us to slow, reflect, recenter to gain clarity, and release the excess.

It is time to begin an inner voyage!

THIS IS YOUR GUIDE

RITUALS & PREPARATIONS

CREATING A PRAYER STICK

In this practice, you will be praying through action and thoughtfulness. As you pray, I invite you to think of your desires and envision how you will feel when they manifest. 

As you wind your string around your stick, as I’ll describe below, be in an intentional prayer-state: imagine feeling and being in your new reality. If emotions come up, honor them, and let them flow through you. 

Lean away from judgment, and lean into the process.

[Scroll down for steps and video.]

Reciprocity with nature

Find a stick from nature. As you acquire this stick, pause and ask the stick if it would like to be used. Feel for a yes; lightness, ease, or expansive. Or a no; heavy, apprehension, or tension. To ‘take’ the stick in the energy of reciprocity, place an offering in exchange. This can be a song, a prayer of thanks, reiki, or a specific lineage offering you know of.

We are conditioned and taught to take what we need or want without the thought of asking permission or considering reciprocity. As we practice this in our spiritual endeavors it invites us into leading with reciprocity in all our relationships in our everyday lives.

step-by-step PRAYER STICK

 [*Refer to the video and written directions below.]

SUPPLIES TO GATHER:

String or twine

Scissors

Red cloth, handkerchief, or napkin

You will be wrapping the stick with the string – each round as a prayer.

You may like to have sound-healing music with no words, drumming, or meditative music. [Click here for suggestions]. 

Set your container: Ask your protectors and guardians to keep you spiritually safe and sovereign.

Speak your intention aloud: For example, “My intention is for my prayers to be held and imbued into this prayer stick. I thank you benevolent ones.”

You may also like to have an altar or a candle for this process.

Feel into your heart. What prayers are there? Start to wind your string around the stick. You can fill the stick in one sitting, or you can come back to your stick as many times as you wish before bringing your finished prayer stick to the equinox ceremony.

You may also find that some of your prayers have feelings or sound. Weave these into the string around the stick, intertwining your voice and energy into each turn. (I often sing while making prayers, feeling and imagining my prayers manifest or the issue at hand finding resolve.)

When you’ve finished, hold it to your heart. Ask for your unspoken and unknown prayers to be imbued into your payer stick. Ask for the most benevolent outcome for all. 

When it feels complete, you might adorn it with a found father, a flower, a gem, or something else.

BE SURE TO: Wrap it in cloth, red is traditional to the indigenous peoples. At the ceremony, I will prompt everyone to unwrap their prayer sticks.

↡THE VIDEO BELOW WILL GIVE YOU A VISUAL DEMONSTRATION ↡