Sacred Becoming

Category: Sacred Ritual

  • When the Truth Aches

    When the Truth Aches

    I barely even sit down to try to gather words these days, save for my morning pages which still happen most of the time, fluttering between drivel and aching truths.

    I think of you often and wonder, “Why reach out if I don’t even know what to say?” and I know that is silly, because reaching out is saying I am here, is saying you’re not alone, is saying we’re still breathing.

    I have talked to a number of friends in recent days about how alone and lost I feel, and have been met with the message that I am not alone in this, that so many of us are feeling this way.

    Writing here grounded me for a decade, and I didn’t realize right away how by undoing that rhythm I was uprooting myself. And maybe I needed to for a time. Sometimes we slip back into a practice that we had abandoned and realize how much it feels like home. Sometimes it takes a little longer to find our way back, like searching for a keyhole in a door now covered over by moss so thick you wonder if they key will even still turn.

    There may come a time in your life (or many times) when the key doesn’t seem to turn, when what once felt like a second skin doesn’t quite fit right anymore. That can be disconcerting, and when the space between what was and what is yet to be stretches out longer than you’d hoped it would, it can feel like being lost without a compass, and maybe even without hope.

    When all this goes on alongside a world that feels like it has started spinning on a completely different axis, it can feel disorienting and overwhelming.

    I do not think that we, as humans, were built for this constant barrage of trauma that we are currently experiencing – collectively and individually. It is like wave after wave pushing us down before we have a chance to take a breath of air and set ourselves for the next knock-down.

    What we do have is community.

    When I was teaching mantra mediation in person, it was mostly to people who were unfamiliar with the practice, and the idea of having to chant 108 rounds of a mantra they were not familiar with sometimes felt like an impossible task set before them.

    As we sat in a circle, I would remind them that the space was being held – by myself and those who formed our community that day. I would chant every round, I told them, and they could be assured if they needed to rest, to pause, to listen and feel and not chant out loud, for a few rounds or even all of them, that their community was there to hold them.

    We can’t all do all the things all the time. There are moments when we need to rest. There are moments when we need to care for our small and sacred corner of the world. There are moments when we need to jump into action in many of its various forms. All of it is necessary, and all of it is okay.

    I do not want you to feel shame for the moments of rest, for the moments of quiet, in a world that seems to to be screaming for us to do something, anything, to make things less unbearable every minute of every day. Because caring for your heart, for the universe that is you, matters too.

    I may not know where this uprooted sense of self will land and replant itself, but I know that I am here, that I am breathing, and that I am writing these words to you.

    With deepest love and gratitude,

    Xandra

  • Dark Side of the Moon Mala – August Art Show Preview

    This mala will be available in the August Art Auction, which you can learn more about here.

    Dark Side of the Moon Mala

    There is always more than meets the eye, and to find true understanding you must be willing to sit in the quiet, in the unknown space, and listen. This mala invites you to connect with the idea of sitting with self, sitting with the world, and making space for the unseen to share its messages with you.

    The flash in the rainbow obsidian when caught in the right light reminds you that the flash of insight may be hidden right in front of you and you need to take time to slow down and view things from different perspectives to glean the meaning.

    The amethyst strengthens your intuition, allowing you to more deeply tune into these messages, and the moonstone illuminates all there is to be learned. The quartz crescent moon amplifies the energy of the mala and reminds you once again that even when you can only get a partial glimpse, the whole is there.

    Learn more about mantra meditation.

    Take your practice deeper.

  • I Am Pursuing Subtle Threads

    IMG_20160719_160333Each bead, like each part of the self, holds its own energy. Each bead is unique in color, in exact size, in design. Each bead is a reflection of what has come before and holds the promise of what is yet to come.

    As I pick them up, hold them gently in my hands, begin to place them side by side, I begin to see the story that they tell together.

    This one pulls out the color of that one. Contrast can sometimes create powerful energy, and sometimes more consistency allows for a sense of calm.

    Each one of us is made up of many parts, whether we label them or not. The stories of who we have been, of who we think we are, of who we are becoming, are similar in a way to the beads. They can feel similar to one another, they can feel separate, they can lead us to feel like we are struggling to find a way to hold it all together, to see how all of these pieces fit.

    There are the beads, and then there is the thread.

    The thread that holds them all together while still allowing each bead space to breathe, to contribute its own energy to the whole.

    And it makes me wonder sometimes about the thread that holds all of my parts together….

    “I’m searching for the thread that holds it all together,” I said recently to some friends. In the days that followed I realized that I am that thread. All the parts of me are held together by the essence of who I am, that which is beyond the labels.

    I am mama. I am wife. I am daughter. I am yoga teacher. I am writer. I am coach. I am mala maker. I am friend. I am all of this and more. These are the beads of self and I am the thread.

  • Why We Practice Sacred Ritual

    Ritual ImageAs you begin to rewrite your stories, to shape your future, to step into your sacred becoming, you can often feel uprooted and ungrounded. Everything around you can feel as if it is changing all at once and that can leave you feeling out of control.

    These are the moments that show the importance of ritual.

    If nothing else, ritual can give you a place to land, an opportunity to catch your breath, a reminder that there is some steady ground underfoot.

    When you look back over history, you see rituals during times of transition all the way from birth to death.

    To me, Sacred Ritual is about calling forth the rituals that ground you, that bring deeper meaning to your days, that allow you to have a connection that feels like home when the world is swirling around you.

    Knowing that each morning, with rare exception, I begin my day with morning pages and lemon water, gives me at least something each day that I can count on, that can make me feel sacred, that allows me to take deep care of my needs.

    Knowing that when I feel stuck and overwhelmed I have rituals I can turn to that have pulled me out of a funk before, I am reminded that this moment is just another part of the cycle and it will ease.

    Knowing that when I can feel myself stepping into a new iteration and the fear and doubt begins to creep in, I can turn to my rituals to guide and reassure me.

    Knowing that when something must come to an end – a project, a situation, a life, I have a place to rest in comfort and to rebuild that feels like home to my soul.

    We practice Sacred Ritual Everyday so that the loops life throws at us don’t unhinge us quite so much.

    We practice Sacred Ritual Everyday so that we can gel the rhythm and flow and be guided back more quickly when we fall off course.

    We practice Sacred Ritual Everyday so that we are reminded constantly that we are sacred vessels, that this journey is powerful though not always easy, that there is a cycle and a flow to all of it.