Some of the rituals that I work with regularly and often recommend to clients are:

1. Letting go of that which no longer serves us by breathing into where you feel it in the body, then breathing it out into a stone, then giving it to Mother Earth, or Water, or breathing it out into a stick and giving it to a fire. This is first an observation and acknowledgement of the problem and second an intention to release it and not carry this wound or burden any more. The former helps us to change our perceptual state and activate the pre-frontal cortex. The physical action helps us to envisage the heavy energy leaving our bodies, while the breathing also helps us to switch the nervous system from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic mode, and visioning the heavy energy being absorbed by the earth, the water or the fire helps to reprogramme the neural network, forming a new perception in the brain.
2. Acknowledging gifts and lessons we have received from people who may be leaving our lives in one way or another, then releasing that person with a ceremony, while retaining and integrating the gifts and lessons. This is an acceptance of non- attachment. It is also a closure of the past with gratitude and blessings rather than with ill-thoughts or psychic daggers, which may involve a reprogramming of the neural network. The closure may be in the cosmic consciousness, especially if the people involved are already dead, but then a physical ceremony can help to bring the change that takes place at the mythical/energetic level in the inforealm into our waking, left-brain reality.
3. Respecting people’s fate and not trying to carry it for them – leaving them their dignity and their choices, which may involve giving back a burden which you have tried to carry for them. Accessing what you are carrying on behalf of another, perhaps on behalf of the ancestral lineage, may initially need to be done through a combination of shamanic bodywork and right-brain connection with the inforealm. This may facilitate downloading information from the ancestors, or even an energetic conversation with the living, followed by a change of perception and a reprogramming of the neural network.
4. Including and acknowledging a person who has been excluded from the family system (excluded people are often those who have borne illegitimate children, suicides, mentally ill, perpetrators – see all the information in the Constellations blogs previously posted). Once more this starts with a connection with, and conversation in the inforealm, or the Knowing Field, followed by a change of perception and reprogramming of the neural network regarding our stories and limiting beliefs.
5. Using a fire ceremony. This ritual has been and continues to be of huge significance to shamans and other healers around the world, who believe that we can give things to the fire for closure; take things from the fire in renewal; feed our energies from the fire, and connect across space and time through the fire. This is why shamans hold global vigil fire ceremonies, when fires are lit and tended across the world simultaneously, usually for a minimum of 48 hours and perhaps for as much as a week. These global vigil fires create a strong transmission signal of our intentions or prayers for change and healing, visioning the world we would like to bring into existence as co-creators of the reality we live in and acknowledging that these intentions create a cosmic, resonating, coherent wave-form held in the field. This signal is accessible to others seeking change and gradually creates a greater awareness of our interconnectedness and symbiosis with the planet we are living on.

Because of their sacred nature and their intention to connect with the inforealm, it is important not to rush rituals – give them time for the deep energies to emerge from the unconscious. Rituals take as long as they take – they don’t run to a timetable. Chill, relax, wait.