As we come forward into this vibration, I, Albion come so that we might share some thoughts that concern the nature of ritual and ceremony. We wish to specifically speak about ceremonies at this time that have to do with honoring the Sun, and why this is important. However, before we begin, we wish to make some comments about the recent hurricane disaster to strike the Gulf Coast of the U.S. We feel that it is more important at this time for you to send earth healing thoughts and feelings to the area and to the people of the area, as well as to do earth healing ceremonies now. This is because the Earth is in greater need of such healing thoughts and ceremonies than it has been in the last 3,000 years! Because of the intensity of the earth changes, we will talk about earth healing and give you some instructions about how to go about this in a ceremonial way in our next lesson. This said, we would now proceed into the lesson at hand.
First, we wish to make a distinction between the words “ritual” and “ceremony.” Oftentimes these two words are used to mean the same thing, but this should not be the case. Ritual is an act that has been performed in the same way by the same process, oftentimes for hundreds of years. Ritual is therefore an “established tradition.” When a tradition is established, it becomes a very powerful thoughtform. Ritual should never be changed. It is not appropriate, for example, for non-Indian people to attend a Native ritual such as the Sundance or the Sweat Lodge, and to suggest that the ritual can be changed, that something can be added to it or taken away from it. When this sort of thing is done, the thoughtform or tradition itself becomes “punctured” like a sharp puncture in the solidity of the tradition itself. No thoughtform can withstand too many such punctures without being entirely changed or destroyed. In either case, the tradition becomes lost. Ceremony, on the other hand, is not performed according to tradition. Ceremony is quite spontaneous. A person can feel free to write and choreograph his or her own ceremony, you see. A group can write a ceremony that they wish to perform together. Ceremony does not require the same amount of preparation as ritual; although we do not want to make it sound like ceremony requires no preparation because it does. Ceremony is a celebration. One can do ceremony to celebrate anything – the life and/or death of a person, to celebrate prosperity, a rite of passage, nature, or to celebrate an individual or any other lifeform, and so forth.
Most of the time, ritual is performed within a group that has a leader – a priest or priestess – that has a title, who can be the “narrator” and who can speak the words contained in the ritual. Those in attendance will then respond to those words. Ceremony, on the other hand, may also be performed in a group, but unlike ritual, it is just as effective when it is performed alone. Ritual requires proper timing. A Hallowmas ritual, for example, needs to be done on that day, and a ritual for the winter solstice on that day as well. It would be useless to perform a ritual for the winter solstice on Easter Sunday! Thus timing is absolutely necessary and appropriate. When it is a time during the year for a ritual to take place – a vernal equinox, winter or summer solstice, and autumnal equinox – all of which are important pagan rituals that must be done at the proper times. Today, very few metaphysical students are aware – and even if they are aware, they do not have the necessary knowledge – that each day of the week, and each hour of the day have its own planetary influence. Saturn’s day is Saturday, while Sunday is the day of the Sun. Therefore, if a ritual involves the Sun, it involves vitality, life, motivation, stimulation, masculinity, and aggression. All of these are relative to the nature of the Sun’s power. So, the proper time to perform a Sun ritual is Sunday. If one looks into the planetary hours and finds which of the 24-hour period, which hours are ruled by the Sun, for during these hours the Sun is at its most intense and because of this the Sun’s power is more easily accessible. No ritual can be successful unless one gains clear access to the nature of, in this case, of the Sun. Words do very little or nothing to raise the cone of energy. However, when one makes visual, heartfelt, soul contact with the Sun, then one becomes, while the ritual is taking place, a living channel for the Sun’s energy and can in turn focus that energy to any place, any person, or any situation. This is true as long as that purpose is traditional, because we are talking about ritual. With ceremony, this would not be the case.
Whether we are referring to ritual or to ceremony, there are three steps that apply. First, you should cleanse and “ground” yourself prior to doing the rite. Perhaps there are those who would prefer the words “center” or “focus” one’s self. If one’s mind and thoughts are scattered and one cannot collect those thoughts so as to quiet and calm the mind so that the mind is open and clear, then the ritual or ceremony is going to be quite ineffective, if effective at all. When we say “cleansing” involves the physical self first and foremost. No sacred rite should be done until one has taken the time to bathe in the ritualistic sense one’s body. This can be done by taking a bath or shower, or – and this was a common practice in ancient Egypt and other places – to take a bowl of water (each person should have his or her own bowl of water if the rite is to be practiced by a group) and cup the hands in the water and then pour it or touch your wet hands on each of the seven charkas. This is a cleansing is a self-cleansing. The water is also a symbol of cleansing, and the act itself helps to put one’s mind into the proper mindset for doing the rite. If you do the very same thing every time, barring no exceptions, in a little while your own subconscious mind will know that you are preparing for a sacred rite. The mind will begin to adjust itself automatically if, again, the same routine of cleansing is performed first each time. Sitting and putting the base of the spine down upon the ground can do the physical part of grounding or focusing. The spine acts as a sort of siphon, and will siphon the natural terrestrial energy into the kundalini “tube” that runs parallel to the spinal cord. After a few moments of sitting on the ground and allowing, the energy of the Earth will energize you and connect you to the Earth. These acts will take care of the physical cleansing and grounding.
Please keep in mind that when a ceremony or ritual is going to take place, whether alone or with a small or large group, if your own emotional balance is not in balance, if you are frustrated, or angry, or are feeling negative about yourself or someone else, especially if that person is in the group you are going to do the rite with, then for you it is not an appropriate time to engage in a sacred rite. Your anger, frustration, or whatever emotion you are feeling, will taint the entire group.
Mentally, if your mind cannot be quieted, if you cannot take your mind off your schedule, or get away from thinking about your television program that is going on, or refrain from talking on the phone, and this sort of thing, or if your mind is just a little bit somewhere else other than on the rite, then it is not a good time for you to do ritual or ceremony. The power of the ritual or ceremony will be diminished. No one can determine for any other individual whether they are prepared to do a rite, and because of this, self-honesty is absolutely imperative.
The second step is that all rituals and ceremonies are to be done in the most appropriate and effective manner, they must be done within a Sacred Circle. This has been done for millennia. In fact, in the earliest days, even in the more formal religions, wherever the rite was performed, it was always done inside a Circle. Many temples, though they were square or rectangular, had such sacred Circles inside. A circle, when looked at from its symbolism, is the oldest symbol known to humanity. A circle has no beginning and no end. One could take every degree of a 360° circle and designate it as the beginning or the end. And so, beginnings and endings are tossed aside when one is within a Sacred Circle. If the sacred rite is to be performed alone, then the Circle need only be large enough to contain one person. This means it should be about 3 ½ to 4 feet in diameter. In cases where there will be a group of people, the Circle will obviously have to be expanded. It is also appropriate that if you are going to perform the rite out of doors, then something should be placed to designate the Four Directions. It can be a small vase of flowers, candles, stones, or anything of yours or the group’s choice. The Four Directions are then contained within the Circle. The Circle can be traced with a tree limb or a staff if you are doing the rite out of doors. Or, you can mentally draw the Circle. One of the most effective ways is by holding a wand or staff in the hand overhead, and encircle it around yourself or the entire group in blue flames. It must also be remembered that – to use a Native American term – the Circle is a giveaway. It belongs to the universe. You have made the Circle so that you might do your sacred rite within it, but "I honor and recognize that this ground upon which the Circle is made is not my own, but belongs to all beings on the Earth." You are but borrowing this space for a sacred rite. These are the proper words to say to open any ritual or ceremony. At the end of the rite, the Circle must be properly closed. This is done by verbally announce that the rite is ended, and that the Circle is withdrawn back into your own mind and body and consciousness. Thus, the ground is free once again to be what it was and is before you came there and used it for this purpose. It is rarely appropriate to leave the Circle where you have laid it if it is made from stones, shells, or other kinds of minerals. You do not wish to leave the Circle there and in that way impose yourself and your rite on the ground. Another reason is that after you have gone, then others who come along will wonder what the Circle is and why it is there. They may trample inside it or desecrate it in some way. That in and of itself, although it will not completely diminish what has occurred there, it will taint the energy of that place so that if you choose to go there again to do a rite, you have this obstacle to overcome for the energy will be “scattered,” you see. It is also appropriate that when you do your rite out of doors, that all of the lives – the trees, plants, animals, birds, insects, etc. – whose home is there where you are going to do your rite, be asked if their “homeland” be loaned to you for your specific purpose, which you should state aloud clearly. It is also appropriate to take an offering to the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms when you go out of doors to do your rite. On the other hand, if your rite is to be performed indoors, a Circle should also be laid down. It can be done mentally, or physically with chalk or masking tape. For the same reasons, the room that is going to be used is probably a bedroom or living room, so returning it back to its normal state is necessary. This is a very important point. When one goes anywhere, indoors or out of doors, to perform or participate in sacred rites, the place must be left as you found it or better. We might also add that when there is a rite that is going to be done out of doors, it is best – though not always possible – that there be privacy where the rite is going to happen. An audience will diminish the concentration that you and/or the participants have by being concerned with such interference.
The third step is to know precisely what your motivation is for doing the sacred ritual or ceremony must be clear. If you are working alone, then you only have yourself to be concerned with, but if you are working with a group, then it is best that prior to the rite – if at all possible – that a few moments be taken for the group to come together so that the leader of the group or a designated member of the group will define clearly what you are trying to accomplish by doing the ritual or ceremony. Is it for prosperity, healing, honoring the Earth or Sun, celebrating Nature, or what? All in attendance must agree upon the motivation if the rite is to be effective. Otherwise, there is a sort of elasticity that is created in the Sacred Circle so that it is not connected, taunt, and solid. One person who regrets coming, one person who is not properly motivated, or anything like this can and will disrupt the flow of the Circle energy and thus diminish the power of the rite itself. Again, one person’s energy can determine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the sacred rite.
With both ritual and ceremony, performing a sacred act is for two specific purposes aside from your actual motivation. The first is to get in touch, consciously, with another realm or level of reality, to leave the everyday physical world and to not be concerned with ordinary things, but be able to put those things aside and allow yourself conscious contact and communication via the Sacred with the rite. Second, every ritual or ceremony is designed to alter the state of consciousness. Although these two things are similar, they are also very different. If one is to be in conscious contact with and communicate with the Sacred, then unless one is beyond the ordinary state of human awareness, then the contact and communication will not occur, or will occur sporadically and thus be ineffective.
Now lets think about the Sun. Down through human history there have been solar-based cultures. The Aztec, the Maya, the Olmec, the Druids…. all were Sun “ worshipers,” meaning that the Sun was the foundation of. and at the center of their religious beliefs and practice. The Sun represented their religious values, and the Sun did not just symbolize but embodied the power of the Sun and of light itself. Without the Sun there would be no Earth or any other life in the solar system. The Sun is the giver of life. It also embodies the power of light. Scientifically speaking, light is pure electromagnetism. Light moves and is not static. Light is a force in the universe. The Sun, for this system of planetary bodies and their moons, and all the other bodies in the system, the Sun is the Great Parent, not the Father or Mother, but simply the Great Parent. Therefore, the Sun is the provider of light and life, thus the provider of heat and breath. And so the reference that is often found in the Wisdom Teachings of various ancient cultures, the Great Breath is designated as the Sun, with the Sun being the deity incarnate in the physical world. The Sun is the god, the Creator, and the sustainer of life.
There are four periods in a 24-hour day – one solar cycle – when the Sun is at its most intense, when its power is uninhibited and unrestrained. That force or flow of power lasts for about a half hour to 45 minutes each time in its duration. The first period of power is sunrise. In ancient Egypt this would have been called Ra Horakti – the god Horus with the solar disk on his head to represent dawn. Think of the dawn from the symbolic perspective. Dawn chases away the darkness. The darkness represents the unconscious and the unknown. In many cultures, the darkness embodied or represented death. All sorts of emotions and feelings were associated with the darkness, the most common being fear, particularly the fear of death. The rising sun pierces the darkness, and little by little the darkness is dispersed and disappears. Ceremonies that have to do with new beginnings, genesis, new projects, new relationships, new jobs, and to invoke the power of having opportunities to make new beginnings, and so forth, are best done at this time. If there is no such thing to celebrate, you can always celebrate the beginning of a new day that you have been granted. When you think about it, each new day is a “birth,” just as each night when one went to sleep, it was a “death.” Sunrise dispels the sleep and awakens you to a new life. Each day is like your life is beginning all over again. People who understand that are those who do not get caught up in the past, that do not regret things they have done or omitted from their lives, because they know these things are in the past and cannot be changed. By recognizing this, consciously, you are not as prone to repeating it.
From sunrise the Sun moves into the position of noontime, 12:00 o’clock, when the Sun is at its zenith. To see the Sun at noon, one must look up, which is a gesture of receiving blessings and energy through the palms of one’s hands, of looking up and reaching up toward the Deity and all above. The noonday Sun is the most intense time is that the Sun is halfway through its day, as are you. This is a good time to do ceremony that is petitioning the Sun for guidance, for direction in life, and for the power to do what you need to do to complete your chores and to meet your responsibilities for that day, as well as to know your priorities.
The next is sunset. All through ancient and modern pagan cultures, heralded the time when the darkness was coming again. This always reminds each person, on the deepest subconscious levels, that there is much that is unknown, and still much that humanity fears because it is unknown. To many, again, the darkness represents death and to others it even represents evil. This does not seem like an appropriate time to do ceremony, but it is if the ceremony you are going to do has to do with “endings.” Let’s say, for example, that you have had to bring an end to a relationship in your life, or the end of a job. Oftentimes these “endings” are difficult to go through. But if you have decided that it is the right thing for you to do, then for the strength and the power to accomplish this should be done when the Sun is setting. Sunset also represents the “night of the Soul,” for in the dream state it is the soul that is dreaming, that is experiencing, and oftentimes even reacting in fear to images shown in the dreams. Dreams are the “language” of the unconscious, you see.
The fourth and final period of the Sun’s daily cycle is midnight. Many times this is referred to as the “bewitching hour,” and this is because the midnight hour is the midpoint between darkness and light. It is the Netherworld, if you will, the time when it is most easy to gain access into the astral and the spirit worlds. So if your rite has to do with these types of things, then midnight is the best time.
The Sun guarantees survival of the lives on Earth. It does so by its cycle of appearance and disappearance from the light back into the darkness. In the earliest of human times, there was no guarantee (based on scientific data) that the Sun would rise out of the darkness. And so the Sun was “prayed up,” and its return was celebrated because it represented to the people that the light would always come after the darkness.
If you choose to orient your spiritual life and ceremonies, meditations, and prayers to the Sun, then we should say that this would be best only if you are most comfortable in the power of the light, thus a “day person,” and for those who knows that their energy is more masculine than feminine, one who is more aggressive and extroverted than passive and introverted. An active person whose energy is masculine will be more in balance and harmony with the Sun’s frequency. Native Americans refer to the Sun as Father Sun or Grandfather Sun. Down through history, all cultures had a name for the Sun, i.e. Apollo, Tonatuih, Tawa, Ra, Ra Horakti, and many more. To address the Sun by a name or a title such as Father or Grandfather is good, though we feel picking a particular name is better. You can use a name from mythology, or you can choose your own name for the Sun. Having a relationship with any lifeform means knowing that lifeform’s name, you see. Then you can speak to the Sun by name rather than addressing it simply as an object.
If you do choose the Sun to orient your spiritual practice, we will suggest two ways that you can achieve this. First, to perform solar-based ceremonies indoors, keep in mind that the Sun is yellow. It is a star about the age of a human teenager or young adult. It is still young and this is based upon its composition of gases and so forth. The Sun is of the element of fire. We suggest that you obtain for yourself a yellow candle – a taper, a votive, or pillar, or a seven-day candle in a glass container – and every morning when you get up, preferably before you get into the activity and business of the day, take a few moments and light the candle and give thanks for the new day, for its light and your life and breath this day. Also give thanks for your personal, inner solar power. You can let the candle burn for a few minutes or leave it to burn itself out. This is your choice. Do this every morning. We would also suggest that some sort of an image of the Sun, a little photograph, or artwork, or a clay image should be placed beside the right side of the candle. On the left side, a small container – as small as a thimble – should be used to contain a bit of cornmeal, which is a traditional offering for the Sun. Another such offering could be corn pollen, which is even more powerful in its energy. Change the pollen or cornmeal every seven days. Do not throw it into the garbage, but take it out of doors and offer it to the Sun and place it on the ground.
If you are energetic in the mornings and prefer to do your ceremony out of doors, then we suggest that you find a space on your land where you are living; a very small space about the size of a dinner plate. You may wish to mark that circle space with stones. In that place, take the topsoil out and dig a shallow hole about 3 inches deep. Inside that, place a few twigs. You don’t need a bonfire! Every morning, go out and light your fire in honor of the Sun and to give thanks to the Sun for the things mentioned earlier. This way your eyes can see the Sun and give thanks for new life. Then, put the fire out. If you do this – maybe one sometimes, and the other at other times – every day at the same time and place. The same applies to that which is done indoors. This makes it a habit. Also, at least once a day, speak to the Sun, and look at the Sun’s rays and brilliance, and remember that it is the source of your life and the lives of all your earthly relations. At sunset, remember to bid the Sun farewell.
When we come together again, we will speak about earth-healing ceremonies. We think this is best due to the current condition on the Gulf Coast of your nation. So be it. God bless yourselves.
First published June 14, 2008
(c) Copyright Page Bryant, 2008 & 2011. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.
Most of the time, ritual is performed within a group that has a leader – a priest or priestess – that has a title, who can be the “narrator” and who can speak the words contained in the ritual. Those in attendance will then respond to those words. Ceremony, on the other hand, may also be performed in a group, but unlike ritual, it is just as effective when it is performed alone. Ritual requires proper timing. A Hallowmas ritual, for example, needs to be done on that day, and a ritual for the winter solstice on that day as well. It would be useless to perform a ritual for the winter solstice on Easter Sunday! Thus timing is absolutely necessary and appropriate. When it is a time during the year for a ritual to take place – a vernal equinox, winter or summer solstice, and autumnal equinox – all of which are important pagan rituals that must be done at the proper times. Today, very few metaphysical students are aware – and even if they are aware, they do not have the necessary knowledge – that each day of the week, and each hour of the day have its own planetary influence. Saturn’s day is Saturday, while Sunday is the day of the Sun. Therefore, if a ritual involves the Sun, it involves vitality, life, motivation, stimulation, masculinity, and aggression. All of these are relative to the nature of the Sun’s power. So, the proper time to perform a Sun ritual is Sunday. If one looks into the planetary hours and finds which of the 24-hour period, which hours are ruled by the Sun, for during these hours the Sun is at its most intense and because of this the Sun’s power is more easily accessible. No ritual can be successful unless one gains clear access to the nature of, in this case, of the Sun. Words do very little or nothing to raise the cone of energy. However, when one makes visual, heartfelt, soul contact with the Sun, then one becomes, while the ritual is taking place, a living channel for the Sun’s energy and can in turn focus that energy to any place, any person, or any situation. This is true as long as that purpose is traditional, because we are talking about ritual. With ceremony, this would not be the case.
Whether we are referring to ritual or to ceremony, there are three steps that apply. First, you should cleanse and “ground” yourself prior to doing the rite. Perhaps there are those who would prefer the words “center” or “focus” one’s self. If one’s mind and thoughts are scattered and one cannot collect those thoughts so as to quiet and calm the mind so that the mind is open and clear, then the ritual or ceremony is going to be quite ineffective, if effective at all. When we say “cleansing” involves the physical self first and foremost. No sacred rite should be done until one has taken the time to bathe in the ritualistic sense one’s body. This can be done by taking a bath or shower, or – and this was a common practice in ancient Egypt and other places – to take a bowl of water (each person should have his or her own bowl of water if the rite is to be practiced by a group) and cup the hands in the water and then pour it or touch your wet hands on each of the seven charkas. This is a cleansing is a self-cleansing. The water is also a symbol of cleansing, and the act itself helps to put one’s mind into the proper mindset for doing the rite. If you do the very same thing every time, barring no exceptions, in a little while your own subconscious mind will know that you are preparing for a sacred rite. The mind will begin to adjust itself automatically if, again, the same routine of cleansing is performed first each time. Sitting and putting the base of the spine down upon the ground can do the physical part of grounding or focusing. The spine acts as a sort of siphon, and will siphon the natural terrestrial energy into the kundalini “tube” that runs parallel to the spinal cord. After a few moments of sitting on the ground and allowing, the energy of the Earth will energize you and connect you to the Earth. These acts will take care of the physical cleansing and grounding.
Please keep in mind that when a ceremony or ritual is going to take place, whether alone or with a small or large group, if your own emotional balance is not in balance, if you are frustrated, or angry, or are feeling negative about yourself or someone else, especially if that person is in the group you are going to do the rite with, then for you it is not an appropriate time to engage in a sacred rite. Your anger, frustration, or whatever emotion you are feeling, will taint the entire group.
Mentally, if your mind cannot be quieted, if you cannot take your mind off your schedule, or get away from thinking about your television program that is going on, or refrain from talking on the phone, and this sort of thing, or if your mind is just a little bit somewhere else other than on the rite, then it is not a good time for you to do ritual or ceremony. The power of the ritual or ceremony will be diminished. No one can determine for any other individual whether they are prepared to do a rite, and because of this, self-honesty is absolutely imperative.
The second step is that all rituals and ceremonies are to be done in the most appropriate and effective manner, they must be done within a Sacred Circle. This has been done for millennia. In fact, in the earliest days, even in the more formal religions, wherever the rite was performed, it was always done inside a Circle. Many temples, though they were square or rectangular, had such sacred Circles inside. A circle, when looked at from its symbolism, is the oldest symbol known to humanity. A circle has no beginning and no end. One could take every degree of a 360° circle and designate it as the beginning or the end. And so, beginnings and endings are tossed aside when one is within a Sacred Circle. If the sacred rite is to be performed alone, then the Circle need only be large enough to contain one person. This means it should be about 3 ½ to 4 feet in diameter. In cases where there will be a group of people, the Circle will obviously have to be expanded. It is also appropriate that if you are going to perform the rite out of doors, then something should be placed to designate the Four Directions. It can be a small vase of flowers, candles, stones, or anything of yours or the group’s choice. The Four Directions are then contained within the Circle. The Circle can be traced with a tree limb or a staff if you are doing the rite out of doors. Or, you can mentally draw the Circle. One of the most effective ways is by holding a wand or staff in the hand overhead, and encircle it around yourself or the entire group in blue flames. It must also be remembered that – to use a Native American term – the Circle is a giveaway. It belongs to the universe. You have made the Circle so that you might do your sacred rite within it, but "I honor and recognize that this ground upon which the Circle is made is not my own, but belongs to all beings on the Earth." You are but borrowing this space for a sacred rite. These are the proper words to say to open any ritual or ceremony. At the end of the rite, the Circle must be properly closed. This is done by verbally announce that the rite is ended, and that the Circle is withdrawn back into your own mind and body and consciousness. Thus, the ground is free once again to be what it was and is before you came there and used it for this purpose. It is rarely appropriate to leave the Circle where you have laid it if it is made from stones, shells, or other kinds of minerals. You do not wish to leave the Circle there and in that way impose yourself and your rite on the ground. Another reason is that after you have gone, then others who come along will wonder what the Circle is and why it is there. They may trample inside it or desecrate it in some way. That in and of itself, although it will not completely diminish what has occurred there, it will taint the energy of that place so that if you choose to go there again to do a rite, you have this obstacle to overcome for the energy will be “scattered,” you see. It is also appropriate that when you do your rite out of doors, that all of the lives – the trees, plants, animals, birds, insects, etc. – whose home is there where you are going to do your rite, be asked if their “homeland” be loaned to you for your specific purpose, which you should state aloud clearly. It is also appropriate to take an offering to the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms when you go out of doors to do your rite. On the other hand, if your rite is to be performed indoors, a Circle should also be laid down. It can be done mentally, or physically with chalk or masking tape. For the same reasons, the room that is going to be used is probably a bedroom or living room, so returning it back to its normal state is necessary. This is a very important point. When one goes anywhere, indoors or out of doors, to perform or participate in sacred rites, the place must be left as you found it or better. We might also add that when there is a rite that is going to be done out of doors, it is best – though not always possible – that there be privacy where the rite is going to happen. An audience will diminish the concentration that you and/or the participants have by being concerned with such interference.
The third step is to know precisely what your motivation is for doing the sacred ritual or ceremony must be clear. If you are working alone, then you only have yourself to be concerned with, but if you are working with a group, then it is best that prior to the rite – if at all possible – that a few moments be taken for the group to come together so that the leader of the group or a designated member of the group will define clearly what you are trying to accomplish by doing the ritual or ceremony. Is it for prosperity, healing, honoring the Earth or Sun, celebrating Nature, or what? All in attendance must agree upon the motivation if the rite is to be effective. Otherwise, there is a sort of elasticity that is created in the Sacred Circle so that it is not connected, taunt, and solid. One person who regrets coming, one person who is not properly motivated, or anything like this can and will disrupt the flow of the Circle energy and thus diminish the power of the rite itself. Again, one person’s energy can determine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the sacred rite.
With both ritual and ceremony, performing a sacred act is for two specific purposes aside from your actual motivation. The first is to get in touch, consciously, with another realm or level of reality, to leave the everyday physical world and to not be concerned with ordinary things, but be able to put those things aside and allow yourself conscious contact and communication via the Sacred with the rite. Second, every ritual or ceremony is designed to alter the state of consciousness. Although these two things are similar, they are also very different. If one is to be in conscious contact with and communicate with the Sacred, then unless one is beyond the ordinary state of human awareness, then the contact and communication will not occur, or will occur sporadically and thus be ineffective.
Now lets think about the Sun. Down through human history there have been solar-based cultures. The Aztec, the Maya, the Olmec, the Druids…. all were Sun “ worshipers,” meaning that the Sun was the foundation of. and at the center of their religious beliefs and practice. The Sun represented their religious values, and the Sun did not just symbolize but embodied the power of the Sun and of light itself. Without the Sun there would be no Earth or any other life in the solar system. The Sun is the giver of life. It also embodies the power of light. Scientifically speaking, light is pure electromagnetism. Light moves and is not static. Light is a force in the universe. The Sun, for this system of planetary bodies and their moons, and all the other bodies in the system, the Sun is the Great Parent, not the Father or Mother, but simply the Great Parent. Therefore, the Sun is the provider of light and life, thus the provider of heat and breath. And so the reference that is often found in the Wisdom Teachings of various ancient cultures, the Great Breath is designated as the Sun, with the Sun being the deity incarnate in the physical world. The Sun is the god, the Creator, and the sustainer of life.
There are four periods in a 24-hour day – one solar cycle – when the Sun is at its most intense, when its power is uninhibited and unrestrained. That force or flow of power lasts for about a half hour to 45 minutes each time in its duration. The first period of power is sunrise. In ancient Egypt this would have been called Ra Horakti – the god Horus with the solar disk on his head to represent dawn. Think of the dawn from the symbolic perspective. Dawn chases away the darkness. The darkness represents the unconscious and the unknown. In many cultures, the darkness embodied or represented death. All sorts of emotions and feelings were associated with the darkness, the most common being fear, particularly the fear of death. The rising sun pierces the darkness, and little by little the darkness is dispersed and disappears. Ceremonies that have to do with new beginnings, genesis, new projects, new relationships, new jobs, and to invoke the power of having opportunities to make new beginnings, and so forth, are best done at this time. If there is no such thing to celebrate, you can always celebrate the beginning of a new day that you have been granted. When you think about it, each new day is a “birth,” just as each night when one went to sleep, it was a “death.” Sunrise dispels the sleep and awakens you to a new life. Each day is like your life is beginning all over again. People who understand that are those who do not get caught up in the past, that do not regret things they have done or omitted from their lives, because they know these things are in the past and cannot be changed. By recognizing this, consciously, you are not as prone to repeating it.
From sunrise the Sun moves into the position of noontime, 12:00 o’clock, when the Sun is at its zenith. To see the Sun at noon, one must look up, which is a gesture of receiving blessings and energy through the palms of one’s hands, of looking up and reaching up toward the Deity and all above. The noonday Sun is the most intense time is that the Sun is halfway through its day, as are you. This is a good time to do ceremony that is petitioning the Sun for guidance, for direction in life, and for the power to do what you need to do to complete your chores and to meet your responsibilities for that day, as well as to know your priorities.
The next is sunset. All through ancient and modern pagan cultures, heralded the time when the darkness was coming again. This always reminds each person, on the deepest subconscious levels, that there is much that is unknown, and still much that humanity fears because it is unknown. To many, again, the darkness represents death and to others it even represents evil. This does not seem like an appropriate time to do ceremony, but it is if the ceremony you are going to do has to do with “endings.” Let’s say, for example, that you have had to bring an end to a relationship in your life, or the end of a job. Oftentimes these “endings” are difficult to go through. But if you have decided that it is the right thing for you to do, then for the strength and the power to accomplish this should be done when the Sun is setting. Sunset also represents the “night of the Soul,” for in the dream state it is the soul that is dreaming, that is experiencing, and oftentimes even reacting in fear to images shown in the dreams. Dreams are the “language” of the unconscious, you see.
The fourth and final period of the Sun’s daily cycle is midnight. Many times this is referred to as the “bewitching hour,” and this is because the midnight hour is the midpoint between darkness and light. It is the Netherworld, if you will, the time when it is most easy to gain access into the astral and the spirit worlds. So if your rite has to do with these types of things, then midnight is the best time.
The Sun guarantees survival of the lives on Earth. It does so by its cycle of appearance and disappearance from the light back into the darkness. In the earliest of human times, there was no guarantee (based on scientific data) that the Sun would rise out of the darkness. And so the Sun was “prayed up,” and its return was celebrated because it represented to the people that the light would always come after the darkness.
If you choose to orient your spiritual life and ceremonies, meditations, and prayers to the Sun, then we should say that this would be best only if you are most comfortable in the power of the light, thus a “day person,” and for those who knows that their energy is more masculine than feminine, one who is more aggressive and extroverted than passive and introverted. An active person whose energy is masculine will be more in balance and harmony with the Sun’s frequency. Native Americans refer to the Sun as Father Sun or Grandfather Sun. Down through history, all cultures had a name for the Sun, i.e. Apollo, Tonatuih, Tawa, Ra, Ra Horakti, and many more. To address the Sun by a name or a title such as Father or Grandfather is good, though we feel picking a particular name is better. You can use a name from mythology, or you can choose your own name for the Sun. Having a relationship with any lifeform means knowing that lifeform’s name, you see. Then you can speak to the Sun by name rather than addressing it simply as an object.
If you do choose the Sun to orient your spiritual practice, we will suggest two ways that you can achieve this. First, to perform solar-based ceremonies indoors, keep in mind that the Sun is yellow. It is a star about the age of a human teenager or young adult. It is still young and this is based upon its composition of gases and so forth. The Sun is of the element of fire. We suggest that you obtain for yourself a yellow candle – a taper, a votive, or pillar, or a seven-day candle in a glass container – and every morning when you get up, preferably before you get into the activity and business of the day, take a few moments and light the candle and give thanks for the new day, for its light and your life and breath this day. Also give thanks for your personal, inner solar power. You can let the candle burn for a few minutes or leave it to burn itself out. This is your choice. Do this every morning. We would also suggest that some sort of an image of the Sun, a little photograph, or artwork, or a clay image should be placed beside the right side of the candle. On the left side, a small container – as small as a thimble – should be used to contain a bit of cornmeal, which is a traditional offering for the Sun. Another such offering could be corn pollen, which is even more powerful in its energy. Change the pollen or cornmeal every seven days. Do not throw it into the garbage, but take it out of doors and offer it to the Sun and place it on the ground.
If you are energetic in the mornings and prefer to do your ceremony out of doors, then we suggest that you find a space on your land where you are living; a very small space about the size of a dinner plate. You may wish to mark that circle space with stones. In that place, take the topsoil out and dig a shallow hole about 3 inches deep. Inside that, place a few twigs. You don’t need a bonfire! Every morning, go out and light your fire in honor of the Sun and to give thanks to the Sun for the things mentioned earlier. This way your eyes can see the Sun and give thanks for new life. Then, put the fire out. If you do this – maybe one sometimes, and the other at other times – every day at the same time and place. The same applies to that which is done indoors. This makes it a habit. Also, at least once a day, speak to the Sun, and look at the Sun’s rays and brilliance, and remember that it is the source of your life and the lives of all your earthly relations. At sunset, remember to bid the Sun farewell.
When we come together again, we will speak about earth-healing ceremonies. We think this is best due to the current condition on the Gulf Coast of your nation. So be it. God bless yourselves.
First published June 14, 2008
(c) Copyright Page Bryant, 2008 & 2011. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.