And in the prayer we talk about our lives and take our time and we may be humorous and informal and we give thanks for all the good things in our lives and we pray for all the things that are stuck or need to change, and we can do this for others too. Some descriptions of the Pipe Ceremony can get very hung up on the forms, as though this is the main thing. And of course those forms are from a foreign culture and may not mean an awful lot to us. So I keep it minimal in terms of the forms, aware that we need to build our own way of doing these things.
And the central symbolism of this ceremony lies within the Pipe itself: the stem is male and the bowl is female, and the joining of the 2 shows us that a balance of these 2 principles is needed in both ourselves and in the world, and in performing the Pipe Ceremony we are bringing more balance in these ways. Indeed, it is said that we are not much use to anyone until we have begun to find a balance of male and female within ourselves. And if you read Jung, this is generally not something that happens until middle age. For me, it wasn't until my mid fifties that my 'other half' began to seriously show up!
At the Gathering, approx 20% of the people were men (which is what I have come to expect) yet 6 men and 6 women came to the Pipe Ceremony, perfectly reflecting the balance that the Ceremony is aimed at. And when we came to smoke the Pipe, the tobacco in the bowl lasted exactly once around the circle: it did not need re-filling, nor was there any left over.
May all the prayers in our Ceremony be answered
I offer skype/FB video astrology
readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1
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