What is SACRED?
Everything. It is all sacred. It is all divine. We are divine. We are sacred. Each breath, each step, each moment, each mundane task. Even the dishes. Even scrubbing the toilet. That is what Spirit imprinted into my mind during the last rite of Munay – Ki last night.
I bring myself to the wild plants and to the Earth in humble and sacred gratitude. I create space for sacred ceremony in community, with plant medicines, with spirit.
But somehow, I’d forgotten about how ALL aspects of this work need to be treated with sacred attention. Even answering email. Even sitting in front of this computer to create this blog post, or next months Winter Solstice lesson. Straining the tinctures, labeling the bottles. Cleaning the jars. Not just the hours spent under the trees gathering the plants, leaving offerings, prayers, songs. Not just the journeys taken in circle, or alone sitting with a plant.
Why is it that the mundane tasks easily become the ones we dread? Why do we let them become so mundane, that we can’t see the sacred in each and every moment?
Its the question that Spirit asked me last night, as I received the last rite of the Munay-Ki. When did I let that slip? When did the mess piling up in my too small house take over my need for peaceful, functional surroundings. How can I expect myself to work in peace, and in sacredness, when I don’t treat my space with sacred energy?
Its not just the smudging I do each morning, or the prayers and offerings made at sunrise to the Earth. Everything I do is SACRED. Each moment is precious, unique, irretrievable, and SACRED. It is all important, nothing is really meaningless or without worth.
It is said, as within, so without. And I know the disorder, stress, overwhelm, frustration I feel inside, is truly a reflection of what’s going on outside. The lack of attention, the resistance to taking care of things now, the resentment of not asking for what I need. As within, so without. If I am not treating my space with care and attention, how am I treating my body and mind? If I am not giving each task my full attention and sacred awareness, how am I going to treat the wounded places in me with care and sacred healing?
I can’t just smudge away the mess or hide it under the rug, nor can I only smudge away a negative thought or bury it under mountains of endless “tasks”. It requires actually getting my hands down in the toilet to scrub it clean, and getting my mind and heart aligned to change a repetitive negative thought pattern. Over and over again. Not just once or even twice.
Each and every task, both externally and internally- mundane or grandiose- must be attended to with Sacredness. We are divine, we are creators, in union with divine creation. In that light- everything is sacred. To not attend with awareness, honor and respect : the sacred within ourselves, and within each and every creation, task, chore, responsibility, practice: is to deny the magic and power in each and every breath. The existence of this Earth as she is, supporting the multitudes of life, is SACRED. The very fact of our conscious life is SACRED. Every moment is SACRED.
That is my task now- to reinfuse my life, my work, my daily chores, my relationships & interactions with others, with creation, with the SACRED power they deserve. Down to the pile of dishes, the most tedious, repetitive tasks in front of the computer.
But what does SACRED look like? How can doing the dishes and scrubbing the toilet be sacred, how can answering the umpteenth e mail or uploading the millionth product photo become SACRED?
For me, at this point, is both a change in mental attitude- just remembering, and attention to PRESENCE. What most needs attention in this moment? How can I bring my FULL self- heart, spirit, body & mind to the task at hand? Cultivating presence means a smudge and a prayer before sitting down to work on lesson or blog post. It means taking 4 breaths and noticing the moment before washing the dishes. It means doing the dishes, and treating my space with respect and care. It means going for a walk to get fresh air and treating my body with respect and care. It means asking for help from friends or from Spirit, from Plant and Animal allies when going gets tough. It means asking, and answering in all honesty, what does my heart need most right now? What do I need most right now to nourish myself? It means recognizing the beautiful imperfect, sacred divinity in each and every person I interact with- and giving them the respect and honor of my full presence- not getting mired in the stories I tell myself or assumptions, but really being clear with my feelings and needs, and honoring and really listening to another’s feelings and needs. It means having compassion and love for self when I forget. It means giving my ALL to the moment- to the magic that exists because I breathe in and out, because my heart beats within my chest.
Everything is SACRED.
I shall build a temple
to every land I have loved with my deepest heart
to every water course that has caressed my skin
to every fallen trunk I have straddled between my legs
to each wild tree that has beckoned me to press my breast
against their firm body
to every lover’s skin I have tasted
to each steamy breath exhaled in reverence for beauty before me
to every anguished cry uttered to the wind to carry away
to every ardent kiss of warm sun on my body
to each rock that has begged to be touched with tender lust.
I shall build this temple in bones
with walls of muscle and sinew
with fountains overflowing with fertile blood
with my voice in song
and passionate drum throbbing of my heart.
My tears to purify, my breath to stoke the sacred fire
Each moment of blissful ecstasy the daily prayers
each agonizing moment of grief the offering and sacrifice.
I shall build this temple in my living body
that each cell become a testament to holy presence
that each morsel, each thought, each memory
be sanctified in its consumption.
That when I die my temple will live on in the fecund Earth
live on in the song in tree leaves
live on in the mystery of blooming flowers
live on in the magic of rapturous lovers in the moonlight.
I shall build a temple to a sacred
Life.
~~Darcey Blue, November 2011~~
SHAMANA FLORA 