The Land Dreams in Ceremonies: Reparation Ceremony #3 *Glenora*

 

Gift for Land as Reciprocity: Talismanic Motanky are crafted with prayers and intentions along with adherence to traditional “rules” of making. Giving one’s time, efforts, and resources, along with prayer and discipline, is an act of reciprocity – a “giving back/ giving forward” for all that Mati Zemlya provides, Efforts to clean-up any energetic messes, unfinished business, and echoes left in a location are part of reparation with the land.

Motanka for Land: This simple Motanka is an acknowledgement of the “grey zones” – and a prayer that extremes in thinking and behaviour give way to nuances, complexities and a recognition that different world views can coexist.

Motanka for Exhibit: Carrying prayer bundles around her neck and on her vest, she brings empowerment to those she  interacts with. This Motanka emerged with a spiritual forthrightness – she wears a variation of the horned headdress, a hint to her pre-pagan roots and spiritual warrioress status.

Pysanka, Gift for the Land: A deer skull with trees for antlers was written as protection for the forests that feed the waters of the two watersheds that Glenora traverses, and in recognition of the trees/ antlers as cosmic conductors. An 8-pointed star crowning the Pysanka represented the Tree of Life as viewed from above, with 8 branches; teachings encoded in the “+” combined with “x” (solar cross/ Mati Zemlya). Onion dye = blood of the land = waters of rivers and aquifers.

Pysanka for Exhibit: Ancestor’s footsteps – mine, yours, those of these lands – are embedded in the earth forming pathways for us to learn from and follow. The echoes (footprints) we leave today as energetic traces on the lands we walk and live upon form pathways for the coming generations. As you consider your own footprints, is there anything you need to “clean up” or take care of?  Which footprints are useful and supportive, and which are not?  In what way can you make reparations with the lands you have lived and walked upon?

Shadow Walking: Just as the photo of trees above reminds us, it is light that generates shadow. I often needed to remind myself of this fact as I continued the shadow walk. This moon (month) also marked the beginning of the Season of Darkness in olde Slavic traditions.

 

For detailed ceremony notes, please see this post n my sister-blog, The Land Speaks.