Join us in real time!

a Cancer New Moon Ritual:  July 1, 2000 20:21 GMT 13:21 MDT 15:21 EDT 12:21 PDT 14:21 CDT 17:21 GST (July 2)

Rituals lift us from mundane concerns and connect us to the greater flow of things.  Our MoonCircles CyberRitual is a monthly experiment in collective attunement -- to each other and the moon.  Across time zones, we collect our creative energies into a healing meditation, as a gift to ourselves and the world.  Join us in real time "on the astral plane."  Or harmonize at a time of your own convenience, so that our astral voices may continue throughout the moon's waxing and waning cycles, as in a round.

PREPARATION
Before the exact hour of the CyberRitual, you may wish to find a quiet place where you can protect yourself from intrusion. Then, as the Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan recommends, take steps to "surround yourself with a zone of silence." Light candles and incense, or play a piece of contemplative music to help shift attention from the periphery, to the quiet center within.   You may wish to recite a prayer or sacred phrase, or repeat the New Moon invocation in this month's Moon Meditations to calm your spirit.  Watching the breath - inhaling in, exhaling out - further deepens the energy.

You may plan to join us at the appointed time, but suddenly find yourself surrounded by others, unable to light a candle or set aside a special place.  At such moments, clearing sacred space can be as quiet as breathing, and finding your center yet possible even when all is commotion around you.  If you've familiarized yourself with the flow of imagery ahead of time, you may still be able to add your spirit to our circle!

RAISING THE ENERGY
As you do any of these contemplative techniques, you may begin to feel filled with a mood of sacred expectancy. Like a curtain parting, imagine next that you are walking down a pathway through a forest. As you approach a clearing, you see a beautiful temple.  With its spacious interior and graceful columns, it is open to the sky and surrounding nature. Within this temple sit a circle of figures, immersed in meditation. Stepping up to the circle, you join in, finding your place among them.

As you join in this meditation, feel linked by the love encircling the group. Within the center sits a wise spiritual being.  He or she may be in a familiar guise, a beloved teacher, or a spiritual being not of the earth plane, perhaps Luna herself.  Allow your imagination to create an image of the figure at the center, who is now guiding the circle in a meditation.

The meditation is on the image of the chalice, receptacle of light.  As guided by the wise being, experience your heart as a chalice, receiving divine light.  Then, as the circle breathes in together, feel each heart joined together, becoming a living chalice filled to overflowing. As the circle breathes out, feel light flowing out from the group, as water would ripple out from a chalice - holy water.  Continue this concentration, breathing in light,  breathing out light, until you feel that the group has become a living chalice of light. A feeling quality of Cancer's compassion, blessing, and nurturing care
pervades this liquid light.

THE HEART OF THE RITUAL
Now, imagine that the liquid light within this living chalice is extending to the farthest corners of all the earth, encompassing all living creatures and beings in an embrace of love and compassion.  Next, imagine that the liquid light within this living chalice is extending to the farthest corners of all the universe, encompassing all living creatures and beings in an embrace of nurturing love and compassion.  Continue this concentration for a few minutes. 

CLOSING THE CIRCLE 
Then, withdraw your attention back into the circumference of the circle, and then to your own heart.  Listen as the wise being  leads a closing prayer.  Rising, give thanks for your participation in this ritual, then walk back down the path through the woods, come back to yourself in contemplation, and, finally, come back to your home and life.