Offerings Upon the Alter

I have returned from retreat- no new hairdo perhaps, but a new attitude. Every internal belief and mental construct has been challenged. I feel like humpty dumpty- shattered to pieces and in dire need of reconstruction. Yet I am at peace and full of hope and the clarity continues to come to me...

At the retreat, Morningstar had a reconsecration on Sunday night. It was a beautiful ceremony. She renewed her vows as a hermitess nun. One the the things that Morningstar is gifted at is creating ceremony. (She created one for me two years ago when I was pregnant) Folks come to her needing a ritual of celebration or mourning or whatever and she creates it for them at the Holy Land. (She makes alters like most folks bake a dozen cookies or fill a vase with flowers. I've decided to come home and make my own household alter- been wanting to do it for years) Morningstar literally created an outdoor church, hanging banners from her small forest of trees, setting up several alters, and tables for feasting afterwards. Her priest came to consecrate her(he was quite a sight in his long flowing white robes and white hair and beard- he looked like Saint Francis of Assisi in his church of the woods). About 50 people came bearing food and gifts and loving intentions including many of Morningstar's family and a small army of children she midwifed. Morningstar incorporated many of her native Cherokee elements into the ceremony. When she could not find an order that fit her beliefs and culture- she started her own- an order devoted to simple and sacred living. Ten years later she remains an order of one- with a worldwide community of supporters.

It occurred to me watching the ceremony play out, that Morningstar created something where there was once nothing. (her hermitage, her order, her priestesshood, her community) Surely this is what God wants of each of us. To join in and become a part of the creative process for good wherever we are, and where the capacity to perform our soul's work doesn't exist- to create it. This is my task in the work of birth.