The Dogma of Tradition

Dogma, regardless of the school of thought or belief system, is still dogma.

I received this reminder in a very unexpected way over the weekend when I participated in a traditional Native American dance ceremony. The opportunity to dance came across my radar about a month and a half ago in that insistent, nudging way that Spirit so often uses to get our attention. I knew immediately that I needed to participate and experience connection with Source through the magic of this ceremony.

When I completed my registration and had all the introductory conversations with the leaders, I received a long list of specific items I would need in order to participate. I spent weeks assembling the ceremonial tools and attire, carefully following all the directions. That was the first sign of what I would take away from the weekend, but I didn’t see it at the time.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon, when the group of dancers received instructions from Leadership regarding the extensive list of rules for the ceremony. Throughout the teaching, I heard a lot of “Never do _____,” “Make sure you always ______,” and “You are not ever allowed to ______.” The words “never” and “always” tend to be big red flags in my book, but I absorbed the teaching and took great care to memorize the protocols.

On Sunday, when we held ceremony and danced for about 12 hours, I made sure to follow all the instructions. I walked in the correct direction, I never turned my back a certain way, I always carried my specific items, I used the scripted language when offering prayer, I made sure never to cross certain lines in the space, and I didn’t sing. Out of respect for the privacy around this tradition, that is the only specific detail I will share: the dancers were not allowed to sing. I felt completely taken aback when they told us on Saturday that only certain people sang during the ceremony. For me, sharing my voice and channeling my heart song feels integral to my connection with Spirit. Not allowing me to do so felt like robbing me of one of the sacred tools of my own practice.

In fact, I spent so much time throughout the day making sure to follow directions that my moments of feeling a deep connection with Spirit were rare, and usually when I was not actively dancing. I experienced flares of anger at being instructed in such a rigid system how I was to go about connecting with Spirit, and at one point was completely dumbfounded at the hypocrisy when the Dance Chief called a dedication dance to “burn away all that which does not serve us: bigotry, ignorance, and (you guessed it) dogma.” Fully realizing the irony, I dedicated a dance to eradicating dogma while stifling the urge to blurt out, “Are you kidding me?”

Let me make it clear that I hold nothing against these people or against appreciating tradition for tradition’s sake. I feel so honored for the opportunity and I greatly enjoyed connecting with many welcoming members of the community. I also feel certain that these people understand that there are many paths of Spiritual practice and appreciate that everyone follows their own journey.

That being said, it is very hard for me to accept a tradition that utilizes mechanisms of control and exclusion to promote Spirituality as anything I would ever want to pursue. This holds true for any tradition/school of thought/religion, not just the one I experienced over the weekend. Again, I appreciate these traditions and ceremonies for their cultural value and their importance as precursors for the continually evolving energies we experience on Earth, but telling someone that they have to follow all these rules to connect with Spirit feels very “old paradigm.” (I absolutely loathe the terms “old paradigm” and “new paradigm,” but I feel called to use it here. Hopefully that indicates how strongly I feel about this issue.)

Imagine the case of art: there was a time when artistic dogma dictated that you were only supposed to work with certain media, that portraying people or items in ways other than the prescribed norm was “wrong,” that you were never supposed to mix certain colors or work outside the artistic ideals. Many artists throughout history were considered crazy or profane as they pushed the boundaries of what popular opinion considered “art,” but they were later recognized as revolutionary for their stylistic choices (sometimes during their lifetimes, sometimes not). Eventually, society honored them for breaking out of artistic dogma and creating their work intuitively. Today, artists who receive formal training learn certain techniques and skills, but their instructors encourage them to develop their own style and produce original work that comes from their own internal truth.

So why is Spiritual practice not taught or passed down in the same way? That’s probably the biggest thing that I emphasize with my Reiki students: there are certain techniques and procedures that I teach them, but ultimately I tell them that their practice will continue to evolve over time as they cultivate their own intuition. The only times I offer specific “must do it this way” directions are in health- or safety-related situations that require certain protocol. Otherwise, I am always delighted to hear stories from my students or clients as they share their excitement with me regarding a new development in their intuitive practice. I am always happy to offer mentorship and guidance, or suggest directions for further investigation, but I never tell anyone what their Spiritual practice should look like. In fact, my Spiritual Mentorship page looks like this: http://joyofenergy.com/reikiclasses.html In every class description, I emphasize the importance of cultivating one’s own intuition.

My biggest takeaway from the weekend feels like a very definite affirmation of the intuitive nature of my practice. I hold great appreciation for traditional ceremony and ritual, and now I feel like I can honor it in a different way for its own sake, rather than looking to it as a mechanism for Divine connection. After all, the “practice” part of Spiritual practice is only a means to achieve the goal of connection with Spirit. When practice itself becomes the main focus, the true intent is often lost. This is why, rather than following rigid protocols and dogma developed by humans, I prefer to receive my guidance directly from (the) Source. My practice will continue to evolve as my wealth of intuitive guidance grows, but I know that, as long as I hold the intention of living in service to Self and Spirit, my work will reflect this state of ease and harmony as I work directly with the Divine.

Summer Solstice and Eagle Magic

For the last several years I have taken the solstices and equinoxes as personal holidays. This always includes holding some type of sacred ceremony, and will often involve dancing, camping, fire and meditation. Last weekend, I went out to stay at my friend’s place on the coast for the summer solstice. She lives on 140 acres of beautiful forest just south of Newport. It felt wonderful to arrive in such a natural, sacred place, especially after a few days of hectic appointments. Feeling the need to be sleeping on the earth, I set up my tent in a lovely field near her house.

The whole weekend included many beautiful moments of connection, ceremony and aligning with the vibration of the land, but my highlight experience came on Sunday–the day of the solstice. I had brought my drum with me, and while I had played it the night before during the fire ceremony, I wanted some time alone to drum and sing and pray.

Feeling called to go out to the field where my tent was set up, I waded through the tall grass and flowers to stand under the open sky. I started drumming, and immediately, two birds appeared from over the treeline and started circling toward me. They drifted slowly overhead, and when they reached me I started to sing to them. To my surprise, three more of the same birds appeared and circled to join the previous two! I stood there completely in awe, playing my heartbeat on the drum, feeling the elk hide sing out in reverberating waves and singing my own song to the birds above me. They flapped lazily and drifted across the field, returning again to circle over my head. After several minutes they made their way back over the treeline and beyond my view. I continued to drum and pray, walking through the entire field and marveling at what had occurred.

As I made my way back to the house, I puzzled over what type of birds had graced me with their presence. Their silhouettes against the bright sky made it difficult to distinguish detailed markings, but it was clear that they did not have the white heads and tails of bald eagles. I wondered if they were buzzards or vultures, but they had the fuller-looking feathered heads and flight pattern of eagles, and they were too big to be hawks. In addition, their presence had felt like eagle energy. Still wondering who they were, I entered the house and told my friend what had happened. She told me, casually, “Oh yeah, there are bald eagles that live over beyond that field, and there are five juveniles.”

I felt simultaneously amazed and completely unsurprised to hear that they had been eagles after all. Eagle medicine has been coming through particularly strongly for me lately, and that powerful encounter was maybe the fourth or fifth instance that week (to be followed by another two days later, but that’s a different story).

In musing over my connection with animals (and with birds in particular), I’m wondering why Eagle is presenting itself so dramatically right now. I have cultivated a deep relationship with red-tailed hawk, especially since she gave me my medicine name two years ago, but my interactions with eagle have largely been in the context of speaking with the two ambassadors at the Oregon Zoo. And now I’m feeling silly, because they’re reminding me of all the work I’ve done for them–past life clearing, healing, translating their messages… not to mention they gave me the name of my book (and blog) three years ago. Okay, I guess I do have a connection with eagles. And, as they are reminding me, any representative animal carries the collective energy of their species. Thus, the extensive work I have done with two specific eagles is reflected as working with eagle medicine as a whole.

The fact that they were juveniles also feels particularly interesting to me. Here I am, a fledgling Shaman and healer coming into my calling as a Warrior of the Light, where it feels like my work and energies are shifting around so rapidly that they hardly look the same from day to day. It seems appropriate that these five young birds would reveal themselves to me in their juvenile plumage–on their way, but not quite ready to assume the full decoration and symbolism of a mature eagle’s white feathers.

I hold so much gratitude for these amazing beings, and all members of the animal collective, for guiding me as representatives of Spirit on the earth plane. I am honored to work in service to them and to receive their acknowledgement and blessings in return.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Call Me Reverend: Ordination and Sacred Ceremony

It’s official! I decided to become ordained as a Minister. Even though the paperwork already went through, I decided to hold ceremony for myself tomorrow, so that will be my “real” day of ordination.

A common response when I’ve told people that I’m getting ordained has been, “Oh, I (or my aunt/neighbor/best friend/brother/etc) am ordained, too! Now you can marry people and stuff!”

Well sure, I guess so. Although “marrying people and stuff” doesn’t really begin to describe what I feel like I’m really doing, or approach my reasons for doing it. Let me explain.

As a self-employed Reiki Master, I’ve been in business since 2008, though I’ve been practicing Reiki since 2006 (and even before that, back when I was doing it intuitively). Reiki is an energetic practice that falls under the category of “non-manipulative touch therapy.” Clients remain fully clothed and receive gentle, hands-on healing energy. Over the years, my practice has grown to include Shamanic work, Channeling and psychic work, sound healing, crystal healing and more. I began teaching Reiki classes in 2010 to teach others this healing modality. In the last few years I have also taught many Shamanic Journey workshops and in the last year I’ve held monthly Channeling Circles… all of this while stepping into a greater role of Spiritual mentorship for my students, friends and community at large.

Currently, in Oregon, there is no specific licensure required for Reiki practitioners or other modalities of energetic healing. In several other states, however, those who practice hands-on healing in a non-medical setting must either be a licensed massage therapist or a Minister. Thus, my first reason for choosing to become a Minister is around protecting myself and my work. If the laws in Oregon were to change, or if I were to move to an area which required it, I will be able to say, “I’ve been a Minister for ___ years.” Practicing Reiki as an  ordained Minister places me under the protection of the 1st and 14th Amendments, which allow for freedom of religion and the practice of religious ritual.

I already mentioned the piece about Spiritual mentorship, but I’ll speak to that a bit more. Clearly I’m mentoring the students who come to me for Reiki training, but I’m teaching them far more than just the techniques and skills of their practice. My focus in teaching has always been on the integration of these energies, or as I tell my students, living the “Reiki lifestyle.” Although I’ve noticed, as I have continued to grow in my own Spiritual path and practice, that the circle of people coming to me with questions or seeking some type of guidance has grown far beyond my students. I’m glad that people feel comfortable talking with me, and it has become the conversational norm for someone to tell me, “I can’t believe I told you that! I’ve never told anyone that!” Or something along those lines. And so, after many nudges, I’m taking the Universal hint to feel more comfortable stepping into this role of Spiritual mentorship. For whatever reason, more and more people are finding me when they need help, and whatever combination of personal and Divine guidance I offer them seems to be what they need.

As for “marrying people and stuff,” there is an element of that in there as well, although I’ll call it “facilitating Sacred ceremony.” I do this in so many ways already, personally and professionally; I facilitate ceremony during a Reiki session, while hosting a Channeling Circle, by creating the musical and energetic container when I DJ at dance, or by holding ritual for a deceased friend. Facilitating a wedding would be another way to hold Sacred ceremony and do some work around normalizing ritual, especially for those who may not be used to experiencing it.

And I just heard this while I was writing, but becoming ordained as a Minister is also a way for me to do some healing around my personal relationship with religion. I was raised “casually Catholic,” but attending mass or studying religion never interested me while I was growing up. I actually developed a lot of resentment around going to church and having someone tell me what to do and what to believe… a resentment that was further compounded by hearing many stories as I grew up about people who twisted religious tenets for their own gain or to justify horrible actions. I also felt a lot of mistrust of religious institutions which I couldn’t really place, until I began examining ties to past lives in which I was condemned, abused, forsaken, tortured or killed by the church. Technically, as an ordained minister, I can go and start my own church and practice religion in exactly the way I choose. I see that manifesting in exactly the way I’ve been practicing my own Spirituality, and by helping others to find their own Divinity within themselves.

And so (even though my certificate came in the mail while I was writing this article), tomorrow I’ll be holding some Sacred ceremony for myself and stepping into the new, Ministerial energies.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the blessings.

-(Soon-to-be) Reverend Michelle