Jump to: 1: Water Ritual • 2: Less Water for Lent
      • 3: Looking at Things from the Collective

EXPERIENTIAL 1 — WATER RITUAL

Inspired by the work of Masaru Emoto (The Hidden Messages in Water), we have created the following Ritual which will be experienced by our staff. We invite you to do the same with your family or community.

Elements needed:

• Bowl (preferably glass)
• Pitcher full of water (a glass one is nice)
• Slips of paper, pens and/or crayons
• Selected pieces of music/CD player
• (1 or 2) smaller bowls

Step/Day 1:

1. Gather everyone together. Place the glass bowl in the center (on a table) and have everyone gather around. Slowly pour the water from the pitcher into the bowl - allowing the sound to be part of the meditation.
2. Read the following (excerpts from Masaru Emoto's The Hidden Messages in Water, pp. 51-56 [text in brackets added by the CAC] )

   Water is something so common that we seldom pause to think about. Although we drink it, wash with it, and cook with it every day of our lives, few of us spend much time thinking about water. But there is probably nothing more mysterious.

   Indeed, water is the force that creates and gives life. Without water, particles wouldn't mix together or circulate. Water created chaos on the earth and it also gave birth to order - resulting in a planet overflowing with life.

   Water is the mother of life, while also being the energy for life.

   Humans are the only creatures that have the capacity to [consciously] resonate with all other creatures and objects found in nature. We can speak with all that exists in the universe. We can give out energy and also receive energy in return. However, this ability is a two-edged sword. When people act out only of their greed, they emit an energy that serves to destroy the harmony within nature.

   The defiling of our earth is the result of an unrelenting hunger for convenience and the fulfillment of greed, initiated [or increased] by the industrial revolution. This has led to lifestyles of mass consumption that seriously threaten the global environment.

   We have embarked on a new century, a time in history when we must make serious changes in the way we think [and act]. How will you choose to live your life?

   What will happen if your heart emits signals of hate, dissatisfaction, and sadness? Then you will probably find yourself in a situation that makes you hateful, dissatisfied, and sad. But, if you fill your heart with love and gratitude, you will find yourself surrounded by so much that you can love and that you can feel grateful for, and you can even get closer to enjoying the life of health and happiness that you seek [that God desires for us].

   The life you live and the world you live in are up to you.

3. Now invite those present to think about what they want to communicate to the water or what they might need or want to ask of it. Perhaps an offering of forgiveness, a love note, a poem, a request for healing, a prayer of gratitude. Invite people to take a slip of the paper and the writing utensils and to write it down and then have them place it around the water.
4. When everyone is finished, now share with the group that you would like them to continue visiting the water throughout the week. If comfortable, speak to it. Leave it more notes. Come and anoint yourself with the water if there is a part of your body/soul in need of healing. A CD player will be set up and if you want to bring a favorite piece of music to play for it, please do. The work of Dr. Emoto shows how water crystals form with such positive interaction. We will gather again next Tuesday morning to have one final part with our Sister Water. You also might want to do the same at home.
5. For our closure, we will already use some of this sacred water — to sign one another. Last week, we marked one another with the ash. This week, we will sign one another on the same place (the forehead) with the water. At this time we will fill the two smaller bowls from the larger bowl and you will turn to the right and sign the person next to you, using the words: "Out of your heart may a river of living water flow."

Step 2 - several days later:

Hopefully all that were present at the first part of the ritual have returned. Greet them and thank them for their presence to the water and the water to them during these last days. Thank the water, too. Read John 7:37-38.

After the reading, any of the following (or create your own) can be done:

• Fill a blessing cup with the water and allow each person to hold it and then pass it to the next person when ready (until all have held it).
• Fill a cup with some of the water and allow one another to drink of the water.
• Take the water, and with a branch / sage, bless the group with the water.
• Take some of the water and pour it on a sacred tree(s) / flower bed, etc.
• Have some small vials and allow people to fill and take some of the water with them

back to top

EXPERIENTIAL 2 — LESS WATER FOR LENT

Inspired by the work of thewholepeace - we invite you to participate in their Lenten offering:
http://thewholepeace.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/less-water-for-lent/

back to top

EXPERIENTIAL 3 — LOOKING AT THINGS FROM THE COLLECTIVE

While we change our individual habits, we must be aware that many of the issues with water are related to how it is used by industry, in energy production, and in our collective practices. To grow in our collective responsibility can be quite stretching, because it means we have to speak up — to speak to the powers that be — to organize and work together for change.

You are encouraged to read the following article from Derrick Jensen: "Forget Shorter Showers: Why personal change does not equal political change" that was published in Orion Magazine.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4801/

Find some others to talk about the article with — what does it speak to me? What does it ask of me?

back to top