In this Sedona Meditation Adventure, I explore ritual and meditation. And what better place and time to do so than visiting Tucson for the All Souls Procession!
The All Souls Procession is, among other things, a ritual to remember the dead. It has elements of Day of the Dead - a Mexican tradition where people visit the graveyard and picnic at the grave site of their loved ones as a way to remember them. Favorite foods, drinks, and other offerings to the dead are part of the ritual.
Rituals like this are important. They ask us to step outside of our everyday routine and tune in to the spirit world. That can be to remember the dead, as in the All Souls Procession, or to mark a special time in life, like a graduation ceremony, or to bring healing and wellness to a home, the land, or a person, as in a home blessing ritual.
Ritual puts us in partnership with the spiritual world. In ritual, you honor the spirits and ask their blessing and/or assistance to do a thing. It works as if by magic. I recall the "Tony, Tony turn around, something's lost that must be found" ritual I learned as a kid that invokes St. Anthony and spinning around a few times to help find a lost article. It worked every time.
Ritual can also take place on the inner landscape and this is where meditation comes in. Though not meditation in the strictest sense of the practice, ritual can be a subtle injection of inquiry into the peaceful inner space that is meditation.
From that calm and embodied inner space, you can call on the spirits you know and trust to bring insight and wisdom to some area of inquiry. It is a lovely way to commune with your spiritual network as well as a practice to check in and make sure you're on the right track.
In today's video, I will guide you through this very practice.
As I mention in the video, I have pieces of a broken ring that I wanted to use in a ritual somehow. After filming the video, I worked with the pieces and performed a simple gratitude and letting go ritual. After leaving the beautiful pieces of the stone ring on a rock in Sabino Canyon, a roadrunner came over to inspect them. It felt completely magical and I knew that my ritual was effective and well-received. If you zoom in on the picture below, you can see the pieces of the ring.
Maybe you can find a simple way to bring ritual into your spiritual practice. I'm happy to help.
