Conscious Choices

Ceremony rises from my core. It is the place where my inner voice and inner authority is cultivated and nourished. Ceremony also grounds me and creates a container of support. It sends a signal to my creativity and calls to it so it can be unharnessed and released.

I have been in Seattle for a few weeks staying with a friend. After this I fly to Los Angeles for six weeks before heading to Baltimore for a month. I live house free and ceremony is a part of every arrival and departure. It is the “how” of my lifestyle. Living house free means I live with family and friends in different locations in the United States and Sweden. I stay in their guest rooms or sleep on the couch or air mattress. Most of my work is online with the computer and phone and video chats. I am free.

This is the ceremony I have established in Seattle. Turn on the hot water kettle for coffee. Light an orange candle and a stick of incense on the desk where I will be working today. When the coffee is ready, I sit in the living room and look out the picture window. The view is of the lake, the mountains, the planes from SEA-TAC Airport, and on a clear day I can see the top of Mt. Rainier. I watch the sunrise, sipping my coffee and alternate watching nature and closing my eyes to be connected with the inner silence that is in me. After an hour, I go to the computer and begin to write and make a plan for the day. Reviewing the goals of a project, setting up Zoom links for coaching calls and group calls, and staying connected to the ceremony that has laid a path of connection for the day.

Tuning in to ceremony and listening for it guides my daily life.

During the writing of stories for Conscious Choices: An Evolutionary Woman’s Guide to Life 10 years ago, I began to have dreams about the sacredness of each woman’s voice. I created an altar with a glass jar for the stories. It was surrounded by symbols of the feminine: Goddesses, words, crystals. As each woman emailed the first 100 words of her 1500-word personal story, I printed a copy of her words. The ceremony had begun. I rolled the paper into a scroll, tied it with a ribbon, and stood in front of the altar. Holding her words in my hands in a prayer position. Repeating the same blessing over each woman’s words, “I bless you. I honor you. May your words heal something in you as you write your story, and in the women and men who read your story. Your words are honored and cherished here. And, so it is.”

Another example of ceremony happened during the Heal My Voice project called, Inspired Voices: True Stories by Visionary Women. The first month of the project is designed for listening. The women are encouraged to create silence in meditation, journal writing, walks in nature, and to tune in to hear their voice. The women in Inspired Voices entered the space in a different way. There was something big and wild and loud about this group from the beginning. It felt like they all came into the group, took off their clothes and jumped into the lake with wild splashing and cannon balls. One of the women was feeling overwhelmed with the loud energy in the group, even reading and feeling the posts in the Secret Facebook group. Sitting in meditation, I had an inspiration to create Sacred Sanctuary Writing Space, 12 audio recordings with quiet space for listening. On each recording, the first five minutes were inspiration from a word or phrase. I had cut out hundreds of words from magazines and placed them into a plastic bag. Closing my eyes, I reached into the plastic bag, holding the intention of being guided to the words that would best serve the group now. Reading the words, I paused to hear an inspiration. Pressing the record button, I shared a download of five minutes of inspiration about the words. Then, I opened an energetic space called The Sacred Sanctuary Writing Space with these words:

“Opening up the doors to the sacred sanctuary writing space. Come on in. Have a seat. Make yourself at home. Use this space to write, reflect, meditate, whatever best serves you at this time. I will be back in 30 minutes to close the space.”

The recording continued in silence. During the 30 minutes of recording, I sat in meditation, sending energy into the space. Sometimes being inspired to write. It created an intentional field of energy that helped each woman to receive the story that would best serve her to write at this time. The story that would help her to understand and heal.

We are powerful, energetic beings. The consciousness of walking through our day to day life with a higher vibration that is cultivated in ceremony, becomes the ceremony of living. And because it is so connected to the creation that comes from the womb, it is a part of everyday. I am woman living a ceremonious life.

Written by: Andrea Hylen; Heal My Voice