Last Saturday night we sat in the natural amphitheater and let sound quiet our minds.
The ceremony started with the incomparable Neysa G! describing the ancient healing power of chocolate. It's Latin name, she explained, is Theobroma cacao: food of the gods and it has a remarkable ability to open the heart. We sipped small cups of dark, fragrant cacao, its bitterness balanced by mesquite and its magic magnified by essences of iris and other flowers. We dipped fresh strawberries into the chocolate that remained in our cups, slowly chewing and watching the sun dip down.
Neysa led us into a meditation that took us into our heart's desire, into healing ourselves, the land, the country and the world. Then she began to sing - calling in shamanic spirits of the four directions, of the plants, of the earth - calling in our ancestors to support us in love.
We lay back and relaxed and closed our eyes. One of the musicians began a heartbeat on a cajón - a muted box drum. Slowly his voice rose in what... a lament, a prayer, an acknowledgement of our communal wounds? Or was it a lullaby, a promise of resilience, an invitation to enter the spirit world? Other drums entered from behind us, a flute, a rattle like rain on a roof.
I opened my eyes. The sky salmoned, lavendered and shifted to bluish grey. I saw small white light against the darkening sky - the night's first star dim and subtle. Fairy lights in the trees surrounded us. The first star brightened and was joined. I thought to myself, "When was the last time I lay back and watched the stars come out?" and then, as the sound changed again from resonant gong to a keening crystal hum, to flute and drum I forgot to answer, I forgot to think.
Without thought, time slips. My eyes shut and opened again and the sky was indigo, the stars were thick like clouds. "Where am I? How long have...?" A small white star streaked across the sky. Vincent began to sing again, softly and then stronger - like the music it penetrated into the body, into the heart. Wordlessly he sang his blessing into us, imprinting hope, lifting us with healing love.
And then it was done and many of us were surprised... Done so soon? And then we looked at the time and many of us were surprised...Two hours in bliss don't seem very long at all.
We will be having another sound ceremony on October 13 - I hope that you will join us then.