Mary Christ Mas
In this ceremony, we will use Madonna and Child and Christmas elements if they are on hand. Ceremonies are done in private, and in a comfortable location.
This ceremony is named the Mary Christ Mas Ceremony, because we explor the true nature of Mary and Christ, and our own personal relationship with our Mother Mary, each of us as Her little sun in Her loving arms locked in an eternal embrace. There is no dancing, music, or special costume etc. The idea behind the simplicity of this scenario is to arrange a small comfortable area in which to take the medicine, and to quietly meditate and invite Mother Mary of Guadalupe to communicate with the group. If people are chatting, laughing, carrying on, dancing, chanting, singing, this is completely disruptive to this process. If you are not ready to sit still, be quiet, open your mind and listen, then the Great Spirits will find no reason to come and sit among you and speak to you.
In this ceremony, there is no shaman, and no one plays that role. We call upon Mother Herself to come to us and teach us personally. Although there may be a facilitator who advises the other participants about why things are done as they are and what to expect, the ceremony is given over to the spirits entirely once initiated and the participants sit and listen. Usually there is a security role (4 or more participants), where one agreed upon person will assist any member who is having issues, and make sure no one leaves the circle once the ceremony has commenced. All members must agree to this prior to taking the medicine. If anyone does not agree then exclude them from your ceremony. If the experience was not profound enough, then not enough medicine was used, or someone in the ceremony is not ready for the full experience. The ceremony can only come up as high as the lowest participant. Ideally, one would have a group of similar minded people to be involved with, where everyone knows the rules and respects each others roles, and this group would eventually experience many ceremonies together as a class.
Types of medicine:
Items to have on hand:
- Large picnic blanket or nice area rug
- candle (bees wax is preferable, paraffin wax is toxic)
- incense (copal, white sage, sweet grass – other incenses may smell nice, but are quite often synthetic)
- two lighters
- cocoa, dry rice, beans
- some bring the Mother Spirit nice flowers
- toilet paper / bucket
All electronics off. Prepare the area and go over the room and put everything in its place and remove the clutter. If you have a fireplace, have it lit, stoked and ready so you don’t need to tend it when you are in the medicine. Once the area has been cleaned, move swiftly to conserve the time you have for being in the experience. Lay out the blanket, and arrange any offering you may have brought. Offerings are not required, the only thing the spirit really wants from you is a sincere intention, and your undivided attention.
Once the candle or fire has been lit, the ceremony is under way. Form a circle of participants, and do not move the circle until the medicine has subsided to a near normal state. It is considered very disrespectful to stand up and walk out on the spirits that are summoned by the medicines, even if you cannot see them, they are there, and they don’t like it when you move the circle after the ceremony is under way. If for some unforeseen reason, you must move the circle due to weather or privacy issues, ask permission. It was the spirits who told us this during one of our ceremonies directly, the fire spoke as we got up to move our group due to rain. The fire told us it doesn’t matter even if we have our ceremony in our hotel room, as long as it is private, and we are comfortable and safe, as long as we do not need to leave the area once the spirits have arrived. They do not like it when people take these medicines, and go about in public, at all. Do not consume medicines outside of the ceremony of any kind for any reason.
The duration of this ceremony will depend upon which medicine you use, and if you are interrupted or not. I have experienced ceremonies which go on for some hours. During such ceremonies, the spirits arrive and speak with us. The form this will take depends upon the participants and the elements, and intention. The focus of this ceremony will be Mother Madonna. This will be your spoken intention before you take the medicine. For people who are just beginning, they may have an encounter with nature spirits. These are the inspiration behind such creatures as pixies, elves, gnomes, smurfs, and trolls, and the inspiration behind such movies as Narnia, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. In the beginning stages, the spirits work through these creatures to teach you that the truth is stranger than fiction, and that these worlds do exist, and you should pay close attention, because others have been here before you and have left many stories and works in literature and cinema that will assist you with discovering the truth of nature.
When the effects of the medicine have subsided, and you are done your ceremony, say a small thank you to acknowledge your guides, and their participation. When you have done this, you may blow out the candle, and this will conclude your ceremony.