Sensual autum/equinox ritual & other starry things
Lovers,
By the time this e-mail reaches your inbox it is probably too late to call the ceremony I’m about to share an equinox ceremony. Oh well, that’s because I am a wholly living human and not a social media strategist and I have tried for years to plan content ahead and found it utterly boring. So now that I share from the soul, it may arrive a bit late, but time is very malleable anyways.
I have had a pretty wonderful full moon week, that I packed as full of pleasures as I possibly could. All of this here - it’s just divine play anyways, so might as well play along joyfully.
Jumping naked on a trampoline under the harvest moon with my daughter, a girlfriend and her daughters was divine. So was going ecstatic dancing by myself Friday night and to swim in the energies of the beautiful humans around me and let them move me.
Last night, I found myself alone and spontaneously crafting a simple but powerful equinox ceremony for myself to mark the shifting seasons and I wanted to share it with you, in case you feel called to do the same or make it yours.
(you will need: a fire or fire bowl / pencil / paper / 1 rose / honey / music)
It goes something like this:
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Light a fire
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Turn on some music that moves you
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Take a piece of paper and write down all the seeds you planted during the eclipse season this spring
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Turn the paper around and write down all the blooms, all the harvest that grew from these seeds. No manifestations. No expectations. Just observations.
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Offer the paper up to the fire
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Take the rose and feel the softness of it as you caress your face and skin with it
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Then take off petal after petal. Dropping some honey on it. Voicing a gratitude out loud. So many beautiful people and situations came through me that I am deeply grateful for and putting the sweet offering of a drop of honey onto the gentle rose to honor them felt very sacred. I dropped each petal into the fire and watched it dissolve
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Afterwards, with my hands already sticky, I decided to drop more honey on my fingers and over my hands and take great childlike pleasure from licking it off and enjoying the honeyed nectar. Try it! It is pretty amazing.
⋆⭒˚.⋆ With my tongue sweet from the honey and my sticky hands I made a promise to the universe. See for yourself what you would offer up to the cosmos here, but patience, trust and playfulness were part of my promise.
⋆⭒˚.⋆ Lastly, do what feels good, as you spend the evening with yourself, loving yourself. Dance, or howl at the moon, or self-pleasure under the stars.
Speaking of stars.
I recently pondered on this: There is this quote going around that says that the etymology of desire is from latin “from the stars”. In fact, the word “desire” comes from the latin verb “dēsīderāre”, which means “to long for, to wish for, or to want.”
The root of dēsīderāre is “dēsīderium” - a “longing”. The latin pre-fix “de-” (come on, who still remembers this from school?) means “down from” or “away.”
Sīdera - “stars” (plural of sidus, “star” or “constellation”) together with the prefix “de-” poetically really could be interpreted as something that is missing, or far away, as from the stars.
I love the sense of yearning there. A bit of mystery. Unreachable, as the stars.
While the modern interpretation of the word isn’t strictly in line with this mythopoetic notion, I find it to be a beautiful window into how the ancients might have tried to conceptualize a yearning, a longing in connection with the heavens.
This is how I feel about it:
If you like to star travel, or otherwise get into a meditative state I have just the most beautiful song to share with you
Remember,
the journey is the point.
ps: A reminder that its’s time for circle medicine this Wednesday
I will be guiding you through a powerful and transformative breathwork session to reconnect you to yourself AND tie your hair to the stars
please have ready: a yoga mat, or comfortable place to lay on / an eye mask if you have one / water
My paid subscribers can find the zoom link below. If you would like to join just this time, please contact me directly hello.evamariasmith@gmail.com
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