The Shamanic Corner - Giving Thanks And Moving On Ceremony
This ceremony can be applied to any situation in your life that involves an ending of the old and a welcoming in of the new. Whether you have decided to change homes, are ending a relationship, or moving onto a new stage of your life, this is your opportunity to take this simple ceremony and turn it into your own personal ritual.
As an example, I will use my client’s situation. She is selling her home, where she raised her children and had a successful business, in order to move into another beautiful home that is on the Hudson River and is more manageable in terms of maintenance and personal needs.
The heart of this ceremony is your Heart. We are clearing the old energy by giving thanks and sending it away with Love. The result will be the creation of an expanded space in our life that is ready to welcome in the energies of a new future.
What you will need for this ceremony:
1) Make a list of good memories/blessings that have taken place throughout your life while living in the home. This shows appreciation for the bounty of blessings that have been bestowed upon you.
2) Set up a ceremonial space on a table or on the floor. Cover the area with a nice cloth or tapestry. On it place a candle, a plate, and photographs or objects that are meaningful to you and symbolically represent important people and experiences. For example, the stone rose quartz can represent love, you can have photographs of yourself and loved ones, flowers from your garden, and anything else that feels important for you to have there.
3) Using smudge, first purify yourself and then any other person taking part in this ceremony. Then proceed to purify your home by walking the perimeter of every room with your smudge stick or leaves, and finally smudge over the ceremonial area once everything is placed on it.
4) Take a seat, light the candle, and meditate on it by watching the dancing flame. Let your mind relax and let your thoughts settle down. Once you feel peaceful, close your eyes, and place your attention on your Heart. For emphasis you can even place your hands over your Heart. This is the part where you invite in your Spirit Guides to take part in the ceremony with you. If you don’t practice any particular Spiritual Path and don’t know who your Guides are, you can invite in your Spirit Guides by asking for your Spirit Guides that are here “for your best and highest good” to come in and add their helping energies to the ceremony. You can also invite in your Higher Self along with your Spirit Guides, or instead of, if you are not comfortable with the idea of Spirit Guides.
5) Take your list out and start to read from it. Take time over each memory to allow the positive feelings to arise savoring each experience, relationship, and achievement and offering gratitude for each one. In addition to giving thanks, this is also the time to say your farewells. In my client’s case, this was the equivalent of packing up her energy and with gratitude giving away what she did not need anymore leaving the home clear for the next people to fill it with their own energies. It also allowed her to tie up loose ends and move on with a clear slate allowing for new possibilities to unfold and enter into her life.
6) After you have gone through your list of blessings, reflected on each one, given thanks, and sent them on their way, place the paper on a plate and burn it using the candle's flame. Imagine the rising smoke carrying your gratitude and intentions to Spirit or your Higher Self where they will be heard and acted upon.
Imagine doing a ceremony like this after a relationship has ended through separation or death. By honoring what was good in the relationship and sending it on, we give ourselves a sense of finality that allows us to move on more easily and happily. Creating a ceremony to honor endings recognizes this intrinsic aspect of human life. Oftentimes we race away from it, wanting to forget it, and just move on to the next thing. That might seem easier, but doing so just puts off understanding and integrating what we have learned from it. This ceremony is one that allows for self-reflection, understanding, and integration. It’s simple to carry out and can be used in a myriad of ways. I hope you will try it and benefit from it!