Happy New Year 2021!
2020 has been an extraordinary year in so many ways. We have been challenged in ways we may not have imagined before and we have found the ways to cope and to get through the difficulties. We have learned how to stay connected with one another even when we can’t meet in person. And we have had many opportunities to learn how to be flexible, responsive, and resilient in the face of loss and death and change (even as we were sometimes worried, frightened, or grieving).
We have done a Mayan Oracle Reading for 2021 and attached it to this newsletter. It’s a quick listen but a deep dive into some refreshing hope and guidance for the coming year. As part of that reading there is a recommendation to do a short ceremony to release any remaining burdens you may be carrying from 2020 so you don’t take them with you into the New Year.
Releasing the Burdens Ceremony
Items needed:
Smudge and bowl
Lighter
5 Candles with candle holders
Loose tobacco
6 squares of red or rainbow cloth
String to tie the prayer bundles
Paper cut into small squares (enough for 50-100 3”x3” squares)
A metal box or container for burning the papers safely outside (after the ceremony is completed)
Scissors
Pen
Compass
This ceremony will take 1-2 hours to do and can be done indoors (or outside if the weather is good!)
Create a medicine wheel with your 5 unlit candles in candle holders (in the east, west, south, north, and centre) making sure there is enough room for you to sit inside it. Use a backrest or whatever else will keep you comfortable. Bring all your items into your medicine wheel. Smudge yourself and your wheel. Call spirit and ask that all the energies of the light come to work with you.
1. Face the east candle and ask yourself what spiritual burdens you have carried from this difficult year. (East burdens might include things like disconnection, hopelessness, isolation, disillusion, desolation, depression)
Write each one as it comes to you on a square of paper. As soon as you have written one down, find everywhere in your body you are carrying that burden and pull it out of your body (giving the burden to the earth) until you feel it all fully removed. Then put that square of paper in your metal box. Continue in this way in the east, writing down each of the spiritual burdens you have been carrying, pulling them out of your body and placing the paper in your box.
When complete with removing all of your spiritual burdens light the east candle. Pick up a square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for what you want to bring in for yourself spiritually in the new year. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
2. Turn and face the west candle and ask yourself what physical burdens you have carried from this difficult year. (West burdens might include things like any illness, physical pains, disabilities, lack of strength or lack of fitness)
Write each one as it comes to you on a square of paper. As soon as you have written one down, find everywhere in your body you are carrying that burden and pull it out of your body (giving the burden to the earth) until you feel it all fully removed. Then put that square of paper in your metal box. Continue in this way in the west, writing down each of the physical burdens you have been carrying, pulling them out of your body and placing the paper in your box.
When complete with removing all of your physical burdens light the west candle. Pick up a square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for what you want to bring in for yourself physically in the new year. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
3. Turn and face the south candle and ask yourself what emotional burdens you have carried from this difficult year. (South burdens might include things like fear, anxiety, anger, despair, a heavy heart, or even self-pity)
Write each one as it comes to you on a square of paper. As soon as you have written one down, find everywhere in your body you are carrying that burden and pull it out of your body (giving the burden to the earth to care for) until you feel it all fully removed. Then put that square of paper in your metal box. Continue in this way in the south, writing down all the emotional burdens you have been carrying, pulling them out of your body and placing the paper in your box.
When complete with removing all of your emotional burdens light the south candle. Pick up a square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for what you want to bring in for yourself emotionally in the new year. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
4. Turn and face the north candle and ask yourself what mental burdens you have carried from this difficult year. (North burdens might include things like relentless inner dialogue, thoughts of doom, being hard on yourself, being judgmental of others)
Write each one as it comes to you on a square of paper. As soon as you have written one down, find everywhere in your body you are carrying that burden and pull it out of your body (giving the burden to the earth) until you feel it all fully removed. Then put that square of paper in your metal box. Continue in this way in the north, writing down each of the mental burdens you have been carrying, pulling them out of your body and placing the paper in your box.
When complete with removing all of your mental burdens light the north candle. Pick up a square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for what you want to bring in for yourself mentally in the new year. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
5. Turn and face the centre candle and ask yourself what life-force burdens you have carried from this difficult year. (Centre burdens might include things like energy loss, fatigue, wildly spiking energy, lack of interest in sexuality or intimacy)
Write each one as it comes to you on a square of paper. As soon as you have written one down, find everywhere in your body you are carrying that burden and pull it out of your body (giving the burden to the earth) until you feel it all fully removed. Then put that square of paper in your metal box. Continue in this way in the centre, writing down each of the life-force burdens you have been carrying, pulling them out of your body and placing the paper in your box.
When complete with removing all of your life-force burdens light the centre candle. Pick up a square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for what you want to bring in for your life-force energy in the new year. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
Pick up your final square of red cloth and a pinch of loose tobacco. Gazing into the flame, hold the tobacco up and speak your prayers for all the people who have passed during this pandemic and for their loved ones left behind. Place the tobacco in the red cloth and tie the top closed.
When you are complete look around you to all the light you have created.
Thank spirit for working with you.
Take the paper squares with all the writing on them in the metal box or container outside and burn them safely and completely.
Then you can either create an altar with the 5 candles and prayer bundles for the new year or you could hang the prayer bundles on tree branches outside for the wind to take the prayers.
Clean your ceremonial space and leave it in beauty!
MAYAN ORACLE READING FOR 2021
Happy New Year everyone!
2020 was certainly a year we will never forget – a year of huge change, challenges and learning on many levels.
We are pleased to offer you the Mayan Oracle Reading for 2021. The reading was done by Gael Carter, co-founder of the Institute of Shamanic Medicine.
These annual readings offer insights about the year ahead and guidance about how we can all move forward, even in the midst of challenges. We are all ready for new beginnings and the opportunity to move in new directions.
We hope you enjoy the reading.
