October Ritual--Thinning the Veil

This ritual is based on an old fashioned puja with a few modifications to time and space. The supply list is a bit comprehensive, but do your best and feel free to make substitutions that seem appropriate to you.

Time:

This can be done at any time, although the 6th would be an honourable day to get started. This is also the new moon of the month in the air sign of Libra. I recommend leaving the altar up through the 14th as that is the actual day of the Double Ninth Festival and has great energy to keep your ritual flowing.

Tools:

A photo of a favoured ancestor, or a piece of parchment with their name inscribed

Seven day glass candle jar

Incense of choice with Incense holder

Essential Oil of choice

Several small bowls & 1 large bowl

A large tray—this will serve as an altar, but if you have dedicated altar space you will not need it

A large leaf—banana if you have it, if not use any leaf or a tray.

Flowers & a small vase—Chrysanthemums are ideal and seasonal

Herbal tea, hot water and two teacups

Blackberries, Almonds, Rice, Pomegranate, Coconut Flakes, Banana

Water

Salt

Garden Sage, Rosemary, Rose, Thyme, Tulsi Basil (or sweet if that’s all you can find) Buy fresh and it will dry as you work with it

Twine

Soft wax (like Beeswax) or molding clay

Location:

Please arrange a space that can remain undisturbed and observed for the week.

Gather all of your tools and settle into your working space. Make arrangements not to be disturbed. Dress comfortably and please remain barefoot. Cast a circle as you usually do, either by calling in the corners, or by casting the personal circle we described in September. Then get quiet and still.

Begin your long, deep breathing, trying to make your breath longer and longer until you are breathing only four times per minute. It may help to count seven seconds on the inhale and a matching seven seconds on the exhale. Observe your interest in the mundane world becoming smaller and smaller as you focus only on the life-giving properties of your breath until all that there is for you is the breath. Stay here for at least 10 minutes, diving deeper and deeper.

When it is time to move on, you will know.

Take the photograph of your ancestor, or the inscribed parchment. Bring it up to your forehead and focus on your memory of this person. It can be a specific memory, or a more generalized remembrance, but hold in your mind these thoughts of this person. Change the pattern of your breath to an inhale through the nose, and an exhale through the mouth. The exhale is gentle, as if you were blowing. Bring the ancestor towards your mouth and blow softly over them, offering the breath of life. Do this for as long as it feels appropriate.

Then place the ancestor on the altar, propped up or in a small frame if you like. Continue the nose/ mouth breath as you gather your essential oil and cleanse it with the breath as well. Do the same with the candle. Then dab a small amount of oil on the corner of your ancestor. Annoint your own forehead, the tops of your feet and the inside of your wrists. Annoint the candle with the oil with strokes that start in the middle and go up, then in the middle and go down.

Begin the chant Akal Maha Akal (“Great, Undying Death”). Long and slow, one chant per exhale. You will continue this chant for the remainder of this section of the ritual.

Light the candle and arrange it on the altar tray near your ancestor. Keep the thought of them firmly in your mind; if you can remember a particularly joyful time, please do. Light the incense from the candle and circle the ancestor a few times, blowing the breath and the smoke towards them. Place the incense in its holder and arrange it on the altar. Continue the chant, keeping your ancestor firmly in mind as you move the flower through the smoke of the incense and arrange it in its vase. Place it on the altar in a pleasing fashion.

Now, release the chant and make the tea. Make one cup for your ancestor and one cup for yourself. Begin to speak as you offer the tea to your ancestor, arranging the cup on the altar. Tell them something of your life, or of your day. Something that they would be joyful to hear. Speak to them as you would were they there drinking the tea with you. Be certain to take a sip of tea before moving on to this next piece.

Keep talking. You’re having a chat now, filling them in. Be open, let the conversation flow. If you are using a leaf, place it on the altar in front of the image. If you don’t have a leaf, place your large-ish bowl there. Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of rice in one section, making a little pile. Keep chatting. Sprinkle a small pile of salt. Offer a few almonds, and eat a few yourself. Then the coconut, the blackberries, the grapes, pomegranate seeds, and banana. Each time you offer, you also eat. This forms the connection between the living (you) and the dead (your ancestor); it builds the bridge. It makes it real. So don’t rush, don’t skimp. Take the time to be here with them.

Be here as long as you need to be. When it is time to move on, you will know. Leave the candle and the incense burning, place your hands in prayer position and tell your ancestor how much you love them, miss them, and appreciate everything they brought and continue to bring to your life. Bow your head and take a moment of silence.

During this moment, begin your long, deep breathing again. Retreat back into that space where everything is dialed down deep into the breath and your mind is very still. Let the ancestor go; they will remain with you but you no longer need to focus on them. You focus completely inward on the next path, the next turn of the wheel. Now we move forward.

Take the clay or the wax and a large bowl that is filled with water. Begin the chant:

Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti Namo Namo;

Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti Namo Namo;

Prithium Baghvati, Prithium Baghvati, Prithium Baghvati Namo Namo;

Kundalini Mata Shakti Mata Shakti Namo Namo.

(Yes, that’s a lot. If you don’t know it there are a zillion recordings on every streaming service including Youtube. I suggest finding the version by Nirinjan Kaur. Its lovely and you can just play it in the background as you work). Keep this chant going throughout the entire next piece.

As you are chanting, begin to mold the wax or the clay into a little fat goddess totem. You know the ones, big boobies, big hips, round and maternal and gorgeous in every way. You are singing the song of the goddess as you are creating a totem of the goddess, so feel deep in your heart a reverence for the divine mother that brings life to us all. As you are molding and shaping, try to come to an understanding of how the great mother energy blesses you, your family, your home, your life and everything that you love. This little totem is the expression of everything that is fruitful in your experience, and in honouring her by giving her shape, you are bringing in even more. More of everything. More to the point of overflowing.

Keep singing, and when she is crafted, gently offer her the breath of life by blowing gently over her form. Return to the chant and then bathe her in the bowl of water. Pour it over her head with your hands. Then dry the figure gently and annoint her head with your oil. Bless her. And do it with reverence. Then place her onto the altar space with your ancestor. She will bless them as well.

Take your herbs and pluck one leaf from each type, placing the leaves under your totem as if you were building her a bed. Then gather the stems and start to create a bundle. Layer the rosemary, basil, sage and thyme until you have the beginnings of a long smudge bundle. As you are rolling these herbs, layer the rose petals on the outside and then wrap the bundle with your twine. Place the bundle next to the goddess. These herbs will dry out over the next several days, and when you break down your altar in a week or so, they will be ready to burn. Please burn the bundle as you are breaking down to complete the ritual.

Stop chanting slowly and return to your breath. This is the time to feel. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t expect anything. Don’t force anything. Just feel and listen. Both the ancestor and the goddess will offer you something at this time. It may be a direct message or just a feeling of good will and peace. Just be present in this space and time that you have created for yourself and for them. Feel absolute presence in this moment suspended on the Wheel and allow it all to come.

Take as long as you like. When you are ready to close circle, please do so and leave your altar running as long as you are comfortable. It is okay to blow out and re-light the candle and to swap out the incense. You may pull the food when it feels right (before it gets yucky) and replace it with water or wine or more tea or whatever feels best. The offering food can be eaten if it is still good, or put outside for the wildlife and insect kingdoms.

Blessings.