4 Week Introduction to Ceremony
SEPT 22, 2020 - OCT 11, 2020
For healing and thriving in community during times of transition
Welcome to the Ceremonia Sessions.
We created this series as a virtual space to cultivate global community and provide an opportunity to journey into and learn from ancient Indigenous knowledge, from the sacred lands of Oaxaca, Mexico. The intention behind the first of this series is to introduce you to our community in Oaxaca, who live and breathe the wisdom of traditional Indigenous healing principles in their contemporary lives. This beautiful and heart-opening ceremony experience will provide you with profound tools to support you in taking care of yourself, while lifting your community, and remaining connected to your spirit in these shifting times of intense change and growth.
A guided virtual journey into traditional indigenous ceremony and healing, beginning on the Autumnal Equinox as we transition into a new season.
On the other side of fear, uncertainty and grief exists the great opportunity for self-discovery – a call to live with intention, cultivate deeper connections, and build vibrant, healthy and inclusive communities from new foundations. Ones based on principles of co-operation, reciprocity, collective wellbeing and land stewardship.
To ride the wave of this time, anchor into our strength, and be guided by our hearts – we require tools. Ones that help us to remain grounded, alchemize our emotions, connect with our innate wisdom, inspire curious creativity, and maintain our connection to Source.
Join us in ceremony and cross-cultural community as we connect with the wisdom of traditional indigenous healing, guided from the sacred lands of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Experience the transformative wisdom of these ancient principles of healing and connection, from the intimacy of your home.
+ COMMITMENT: ALL 4 SESSIONS OVER 4 WEEKS
+ WHERE: Online via Zoom (& private WhatsApp group for integrating in community)
+ PRICING: ENERGY EXCHANGE AND SLIDING SCALE
$80-$160 CAD ($20-$40/session)
*Sliding scale is being offered to help make this ceremony experience more accessible. Please choose honestly based on your current financial situation
*Profits from this experience will be going directly to our partners in Oaxaca, Mexico in continued support of their communities and important work (scroll down to meet them).
+ BIPOC FUND: We acknowledge that ceremony and working with sacred plant medicine is ancient traditional knowledge. Due to colonization, many have lost connection to their birthright and inheritance. We recognize that these types of experiences are then frequently made inaccessible to BIPOC due to price. We're committed to creating future spaces where accessibility to traditional wisdom and cultural exchange is made more available to diverse communities as a way to help break down existing barriers.
* If you're a BIPOC experiencing financial hardship but feel called to participate in ceremony, please send an email with the subject line “Ceremony Funding Request” and tell us a little bit about yourself. Once we receive your request we’ll reach out to you directly to learn more about how we can best support you to be a part of this experience.
+ WHO IS CEREMONY FOR? Anyone who is being called to remember who they are. You are the adventurous and curious seeker who truly wants to discover the depths. You want to understand your personal, human experience and how to clear away the noise so you can hear the stirrings of your soul with more clarity. This experience is for anyone who in their core understands that we heal, grow and and are supported in community. You believe in the power of kin and of the village. You know that what you give becomes what you receive. You openly want to learn from others. You embody something uniquely yours to contribute to the world. You may be the young student or the wise teacher. An entrepreneur or an artist. A caretaker or an activist. A community builder or a misfit at a crossroads.
How To Prepare & What To Expect
+ WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO PARTICIPATE:
A laptop or smartphone with the Zoom app, and reliable internet access for each Session date.
+ CEREMONY BUNDLE YOU’LL BE RECEIVING: After receiving your registration, you’ll be mailed a beautiful handmade ceremony bundle made with a lot of intention and love between our homes here in Montreal and Oaxaca.
Included: Welcome packet with more details on each session and how to prepare yourself and your space for ceremony, artisan blended teas, hand-made smoke cleansing stick, ceremonial cacao, cedar-wood essential oil, clay, protective bracelet cleansed with Copal from Oaxaca, a few special items to create your mandala for our opening ceremony, and a specially curated Spotify playlist.
+ MADRE TIERRA: Our greatest teacher and healer. We’ll be inviting Mother Nature into our ceremonies by working with the forces and cycles of nature, the elements, introducing herbal remedies and bringing attention to the wisdom of her cycles that also exist within ourselves as part of nature.
+ RITUAL: At the core of ceremony is ritual. What we practice with intention, we become. As you begin using the tools and techniques shared in these Sessions you’ll begin to develop your own personal practice to support your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
+ GROUNDING: Grounding into the earth is a fundamental practice that maintains our unwavering centre in times of challenge and supports us in processing our emotions.
+ MEDITATION: Cultivating greater stillness and presence allows us to turn down the inner chatter and observe our mind from a place of grounded curiosity and greater presence.
+ BREATHWORK: Connecting to our breath helps us release trapped energy and stuck emotions. Engaging in breathwork practice can be used to encourage the circulation of energy or to calm our nervous system, allowing us to feel more grounded, lighthearted and present.
+ SOMATIC TECHNIQUES: Embodiment practices recognize the relationship between the body and the mind. Working with somatic techniques support us in becoming more present, grounded and help us to process the emotions we store in our bodies. Breathwork, grounding exercises, meditation, movement, somatic release (screaming, stomping, singing, dancing), music, mindfulness, are all embodiment exercises that we’ll be exploring.
+ BOTANICALS: Plant allies are an essential part of Traditional Medicine. We’ll be working with herbal remedies in the form of teas, baths and aromatic medicine. Indigenous traditions believe that by consuming plants we have access not only to their physical benefits but also, to their expanded states of awareness via their spirit. In our final session, you’ll learn the basics of how to prepare your own tinctures and teas.
+ CACAO CEREMONY: Cacao is a ceremonial medicine and sacred plant elder to Mesoamerican cultures. A way to develop a relationship with cacao is by creating a ritual with a cup of warm drinking chocolate. You’ll experience the most BEAUTIFUL and ethically sourced and harvested cacao from Firefly Chocolate as a closing to our ceremonial experience.
QUESTIONS?
Please reach out and send us an email!
Autumn 2020 Schedule
The changing seasons are touchstone points for the cycle of life in nature. Indigenous cultures are intimately connected to earth-based wisdom and understand that the four transition points of the year – Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox – also illuminate stages of an inner journey – a spiritual cycle the individual takes within themselves. As we consciously link our awareness with nature's cycles, our understanding of our own existence as a part of nature, as opposed to outside of it, begins to deepen.
The significance of the Autumnal Equinox is the time of year where we set our intention for a new cycle of growth. As we enter a time of more stillness, rest and introspection we cultivate space for a greater vision to emerge.
The Autumnal Equinox is on September 22nd and will be a potent time to begin our Ceremonia Sessions together.
*Each session will be recorded, and be sent out within 24 hours.
SESSION 1
Opening Mandala Ceremony
TUESDAY, SEPT 22nd (AUTUMN EQUINOX) @ 4PM EST
DURATION: 90 Minutes
We’ll begin the 4 week Ceremonia Sessions with an opening ceremony. Together we’ll set our intention for our collective experience over the coming weeks and each create a mandala. Lorena and Claudia will guide us in meditation, share the importance of having a personal altar, and the elements we’ll want to incorporate when creating our own.
We’ll learn the fundamentals of Traditional Indigenous Medicine (from Mexico) and about the basic elements and concepts of the ceremonies traditionally done in Mexico (Limpias and Temazcales), the significance of the cardinal points and the Autumnal Equinox.
We’ll also explore the eternal relationship between light and darkness within the balance of life, and the role of Light-workers in this time of great transition.
SESSION 2
Cleansing & Grounding
SUNDAY, SEPT 27th @ 4PM EST
DURATION: 90 minutes
In the second Session we’ll explore the concept of grounding, why it’s essential to our physical and mental wellbeing, and how it serves to reconnect us to nature.
We’ll be introduced to Breathwork (Pranayama), delve into the importance of this important breathing technique and how it aids us in maintaining our centre while preparing to physically receive new energy.
Claudia and Lorena will share the importance of “cleansing” our energy and spaces. They’ll demonstrate a traditional "Limpia" ritual cleanse and share how we can use this ritual at home. We’ll also explore our personal relationship with our emotions and learn how to allow ourselves the space to feel and release them.
Throughout this process, you’ll be working with clay as a way to connect with earth and create an object of your choice, such as an incense holder for your smoke cleansing stick.
SESSION 3
Sacred Elements & Emotions
SUNDAY, OCT 4th @ 4PM EST
DURATION: 90 minutes
The third Session will begin with a reconnection to the 4 sacred elements (earth, fire, wind, water).
Claudia and Lorena will illustrate the important concepts and elements of a Temazcal ceremony. They’ll then guide us in the principles of a Temazcal (recreating the experience of being inside the womb) which include the 4 elements and “opening the doors to the elements”. All the while working with beautiful chanting and drum-work.
We’ll also spend some time exploring the power of our emotions and the importance of developing a healthy relationship with them so that we can learn to flow with and release them vs. suppress and physically store them.
SESSION 4
Closing Fire Ceremony
SUNDAY, OCT 11th @ 4PM EST
DURATION: 90 minutes
In our final Session we’ll spend time with our personal intentions and missions as Lightworkers. We’ll explore the importance of keeping our hearts open and learn some rituals to help us care for ourselves especially when we’re feeling fearful, overwhelmed, or “heavy-hearted”.
We’ll also work in a hands on capacity learning:
+ How to prepare tinctures and teas
+ Recipes for baths and rituals
+ The beauty of moonwater and how to use it
This final part of our 4 week Ceremonia Sessions will conclude with a fire ceremony and closing cacao ceremony.
Rosario and Cata are two traditional Indigenous healers who often work with Claudia and Lorena in Oaxaca.
They both come from very remote areas of Oaxaca State. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most of the Indigenous communities in the State of Oaxaca are closed off from any outsiders. People have to stay in their villages to protect themselves and one another, and only the village authorities are allowed to go to the cities to buy supplies for the community.
A portion of profits from the Ceremonia Sessions will be shared with Rosario and Cata, so that they can be of further service to the health of their communities during this challenging time.
Rosario Pascual López,
Curandera (Healer)
Rosaria Pascual López was born in 1955 in Laxopa, a Zapotec community deep in the mountains of La Sierra Norte.
Her mother died when she was only 13 years old and so she took on the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and her father at a very young age.
She lived a challenging life as a single mom in rural Mexico and had 7 children from 6 pregnancies. Only 2 two of her children are still alive today. When she was 30 years old she started working as a health promoter in her community, a project started by an NGO. This opportunity changed her life. She received a small income, and in only 6 month she finished elementary and secondary school.
Rosario’s father was a traditional healer, a Curandero, in the village, and having gained more freedom in her life she was able to give time towards reconnecting with her ancestral roots.
Today she works as a Curandera in her community.
Catalina Jiménez Ramos,
Midwife and Curandera (Healer)
Cata was born in 1978 in Santa Maria Yacochi, a village in La Sierra Mixe.
"Los Mixes" were never conquered by weapons, neither by the Aztecs or by the colonial Spaniards because they’ve continuously inhabited the very high mountains of Oaxaca’s Sierra Mixe. Because of this, there’s no other Indigenous group in Oaxaca today who still live so close to their traditions and rituals.
The Mixe still use the prehispanic calender, and of course, Cata was born on the day of The Healer. She’s a traditional Midwife and Curandera in her community and has 5 beautiful children.
Like Rosario she was formed as a health promoter by an NGO in her community when she was only 15 years old. Echoing Rosario’s experience, this opened her world as well.
Cata lives in a very traditional way in her community and receives no payment for her services as a Midwife or Healer. Staying true to the old ways of reciprocity, people in the community bring her vegetables, a chicken, or beans and corn, in exchange for her service.