beautiful rituals

[Luma]

I have a dear friend that years ago invited me to participate in a beautiful jewish ritual ( jewish mamas help me remember the name of it) that happens before getting married.
The best part of it was that there were only women, close to her and she got into a bath, and each of us had to wash her, to pour water over her, and then she got out and we made a circle, she was in the middle and her mom with her and began telling her in this incredibly moving way, how much she loved her and how she grew so beautifly, and now she was leaving the house and start a new life in love, and how fortunate her boyfriend was to have found her.... we were all in tears, and then they held and after this, some great joyful music was turned on and we all danced, my friend had to dance in front of each of us, and her mom put some honey on her head and something else. We were dancing and celebrating and then we left. It was so great to be part of this ritual, Im still so grateful she invited me because it was such an intimate and warm, close to the heart gathering.
More great rituals to share?

[BelovedBird]

It is called Mikvah ot Mikveh. If you do a search for those ot "taharat hamishpacha" you should find a few threads on the subject. I have never heard of pouring water. Usually it is the sephardic jews who make a party of the bride's first visit to the mikvah.

-BelovedBird

[Luma]

thanks belovedbirdm, i dont really know if shes sepharadit or what, but it was beautiful!

[FireBrand]

Rites of passage,

Luma,
Thanks for sharing that beautiful experience. Just seeing that picture, brings tears to my eyes, I can feel it just hearing about it and seeing it in my minds eye. That is so healing. so loving, cleansing and nurturing. Ahhh to be loved that much, and we are and can be. we can create our own memories and rituals for healing like that.

Maryanne Williamson has a book of rituals and celebrations.
Have you read the book 'Red Tent' by a Jewish woman? It's Fictional-Historical on Jewish Biblical Women, about Jacobs daughter, Dinah, and her midwife/ herbalist mothers, Rachael, Leah, Rebekka and their loves and losses. Very healing, lots of beautiful female ceremony, rituals, traditions, nurturing.
You've reminded me how we can put these beautiful rituals into our everyday lives and how healing, bonding, opening and centering they are in our lives. I have felt that these kinds of rituals, and ceremonies help to begin a new life and leave the old, "from this day forward"... These help me to feel and mark the time when something real, real change happens. Like in the little I know of magick and using candles, there's something about the candle flame that opens our psyche, our mind to get us ready for the healing or spell it opens us up to the place where we change, sets the stage, this is where the spell begins....... I have heard of a little, 10 yrs at the time, friend who was part of an Easter ceremony, while she was holding a candle, she fell or fainted and was shaking, vibrating, or started having seizures. I wondered if she didn't actually have a very opening spirtual experience. I wasn't there, but heard that Everyone panicked and put her on anti seizure meds, some thought she was possessed.

In healing I call it connecting with the Divine, Fool's Crow talked of 'Becoming the Little Hollow Bones' becoming One with God/ Goddess. Essential Oils, Drumming, favorite Enya CD, mantra, chanting, Breathing can bring us back to that connection, and begin our ritual, our centering, our healing, our prayer, our magical spell.

I have been wondering, visuallizing, to facilitate that rite of passage for my boys and girl. My oldest boy has talked of going on a vision quest. If anyone has any ideas of how to provide a vision quest experience for a 14 year old I would love to hear from you.
We have written letters to the boys when they turned 12 and taken pictures at certain cross roads and advancements. which creates memories and markers for them where they can remember how they felt on that day or during that time.

I feel a really beautiful rite of passage coming for my daughter and would love to plan it and find the perfect elements to make it wonderful for her.

please share any and all ideas, resources and stories...
Love and light,

[Luma]

thats sounds great about your boy and girl Firebrand! I dont know whats a vision quest but would love to hear about it. We have been doing a bath every year for 'ds's birthday, its our special ritual to celebrate him.
I did read the red tent and loved it, Im not so ritualistic, but in special ocasions I do special things depends on inspiration I do love dancing by myself that has always been a way for me to connect with ....... .........
your boys quest, sounds really special!

[FireBrand]

I don't know exactly what it is since I haven't experienced it. But from what I have gathered, I guess a vision quest is where a young man goes out to the woods, as a rite of passage, when he goes from being a boy to a man in the Native American tradition, to find his Spirit Guide or Animal Power, as they appear to him during this fast and cleansing ritual. He fasts while he wait to see what they will teach him and I think they chose a new name at this coming of age ceremony that he must do alone.

Maybe I need to experience it first so I know. Maybe I was hoping his father would do that with him.

The Birthday bath sounds so special, and marks that day for him and you. I love doing Massage and healing work and I feel that it's similar to what you are doing. I can just see it and know how it feels when you are fully present with another person, honoring them and the growth over the last year. That's so different then the usual everyday hurry up bath or massage when your mind is elsewhere, thinking about what's next, but not with the person you are with. I bet that's what make it so rich, so real and loving, so different, very spiritual, connection on a very spiritual and intimate level, which is where and why love is healing and life changing, it reaches deep into us, where we are sometimes to busy to sit in / with and enjoy.

Ahhh thanks again for sharing. Do you use candles or essential oils during this bath, any special music? You don't even have to use them in the bath, just in the air and the smell will be marked in his limbic brain and later in life he will say, "Oh that smell reminds me of my mother and how much she loved me..." and maybe he'll have a clear picture of the ritual in memory. And whenever he needs to have you near or to relax or figure out a problem, or have healing, He can refer back to that feeling, that time. our sense of Smell and Music trigger the brain, memories, knowledge, information we've studied and stored as files in our brain, intuition, creative ideas, artistic abilities, new wisdom and intelligence. Just as relaxation opens the Right Brain and Fear, doubt, logic, anger, (fight, flight, or freeze) blocks it or freezes our access to it and to Spirit, to healing, to our God/dess Connection to so much that is wonderful, Being in the Zone, where everything you do just flows, you flow, life flows. HhhhhhhhMMMMMMMMMMM

At one with God/ Divine in everything you do in life.

I'm going to savor this feeling, and create a beautiful ritual...
Ahhhh It's good to let go and trust. Be with it.

love and light,

[Luma]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS FIREBRAND
LOVE