This ritual may be useful for preparing yourself for your personal celebration of creative spirit.

The purpose of this ritual is to acknowledge and honor the cycles of life as they are experienced through the creative process.

According to the seasons and cycles of life this is a time of darkness, long nights, going within, and waiting. Waiting for the creative to take hold, germinate, take root in the dark, unseen, just below the surface of our conscious awareness. As the seeds in the ground in winter seem lifeless, and as sleep seems unproductive, creative activity is constant regardless of appearances.

Sometimes something else lies just below the surface, something that blocks the flow of creative energy. Sometimes we know what this is, other times we just know it is.

The first phase of this ritual consists of clearing the field and adding the compost. During the second phase you plant the seed of new creativity in your cleared and fertile field. Then celebrate the germination of this dream-seed—it is happening right now.

You may want to incorporate some, part or all of this type of ritual as you call forth your creative energy and make it part of how you celebrate this time. Some of you will do this together. If you are celebrating in solitude know others are joining with you in ritual to honor the sacred nature of your creative process.

Allow an object that is willing to be buried to make itself known to you for this purpose. In the way that best works for you, simply be with this object with the intention of letting all sluggish, stagnant, inert, stuck ideas and energy move into the object. With honor and respect acknowledge this energy and these ideas have served you in some way up to now.

Find a sacred place in nature, your backyard, a park, the banks of a river, or create a sacred burial/planting space within your home using a flower box and soil of some sort.

During the dark-of-the-moon, Dec __, go to that place and bury that object. This need not be solemn, but with honor. You are not throwing this object away. Upon merging with the living soil, the stagnant energy that leaves you, symbolized by the object you bury, is now being transformed, enriching the soil and being enlivened by the soil.

Allow another object to identify itself to you as a symbol of a new idea just taking shape. You may have an idea already about what this new creative venture may be. You may simply know that an idea yet to be revealed is lying just below the surface of your conscious awareness. Be with this object in a way that speaks to you until the object truly symbolizes your creative seed. Sometime during the full moon (Dec 22-23) following the longest night of the year, plant this object near the dark-of-the-moon burial site. I am reminded of my grandfather, or a native of the land, burying a dead fish with the sacred corn seed to nourish the soil and ensure a full harvest.

Dance your dance, sing your song, do what you do, or what you have never done until now. Celebrate that burial of what no longer serves this cycle nourishes the seeds of the next.

On the next dark moon time, Jan 6/7, celebrate the germination of your dream seeds and await the new growth and promise of the vision of what can be.

If you like, you may use this chant for your dance:

Dark-of-the-Moon Spellbinding

earth air fire water
feather fin and fur
sky-blue winds blow
moondark night

star glow
river flow
trees speak
feet creep
to the water's edge

nymphs appear
a warrior's spear
cuts the air
ruffles the bear
and meets its target

all is right
on moondark night
the silent, motionless dance
continues to dawn
and the next, brighter night

-jeanmarie marsden, 1994
copyright: lonebear productions. Reproduce and distribute freely, always including this notice.