Here are the guidelines for the event:

EARTH HEALING CEREMONY

There should be one person to guide ceremony. Guests will repeat blessing & prayers after this person. If doing ceremony by yourself feel free to print & read prayers, etc... or say your own if it's easier.
If making a medicine wheel here are some sights if you need guidance:

http://www.spiritualnetwork.net/native/medicine_wheel.htm

http://www.spiritualnetwork.net/native/making_your_own_medicine_wheel.htm

Ask your guests to bring items to make mandala such as, feathers, stones, shells, leaves, flower petals, etc . . .
Everyone participates in building mandala. Make mandala small enough so that all guests can hold hands around it in a circle.
Once mandala is made everyone join hands in a circle and have guests repeat this blessing:

"Great Spirit, God, Creator of All"

Great Spirit, God, Creator of All

I welcome You into my heart, mind, body and soul

There is always room for You here.

Grant me the wisdom to heed my inner voice

And the strength to stay grounded while I sing my sacred song.

Guide me down my chosen path and give me the courage to pursue

what is available to me.

I am thankful for the lessons and grateful for my struggles;

I have not forgotten what has brought me to where I am today.

Open my heart to the healing wholeness of nature;

We are all related, and through this I will find serenity.

Great Spirit, God, Creator of All

Cleanse my spirit and wash my soul.

There is always room for You here.

After this blessing have your guests repeat these prayers:

"Give Us Hearts to Understand"

Give us hearts to understand;

Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give;

never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed;

Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty;

never to take from her what we cannot use.

Give us hearts to understand

That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion;

that to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;

That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench;

that as we care for her she will care for us.

We have forgotten who we are.

We have sought only our own security.

We have exploited simply for our own ends.

We have distorted our knowledge.

We have abused our power.

Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst,

Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.

Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,

help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,

help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.

Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed,

help us to find a way to replenish them.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,

help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,

whose breath gives life to the world, hear me;

I need your strength and wisdom.

May I walk in Beauty.

Call in the divine of your understanding to create sacred space for the ceremony. I formally call in the cardinal directions. You can do this using the prayer below.

"Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding"

Great Spirit Grandfather,

I send these words to you,

Hear my prayer.

For these are my words,

To Father Sun,

To Grandmother Moon,

To Mother Earth

To all my relations,

That have been Created as I.

To the Four Winds,

That bring us the

Seasons of Life.

To the East

Where Father Sun rises

Bringing to us a new day

A new meaning of life,

A light in which to see

The path before us.

To the South

Where the warm air comes to us

Bringing heat and warmth,

The seasons of spring

And summer.

To the West

Where Father Sun goes

To bring to us darkness,

So as we may see the universe

And search for the questions

Of our life.

To the North

Where the cold winds come from

Bringing to us the seasons

Of fall and winter.

Oh Great Spirit

Hear my words

For to you I offer

My heart and soul

You made me

What I am

And I am Indian

America's Prisoners of War

I pray for my people of the past

Whose blood covers this our Mother Earth

I pray now as an Indian

Blood of my Ancestors.

Great Spirit Grandfather,

Look down upon

Your people,

For we are humble

Before you.

We seek your guidance,

So that we your people

May walk forever

In a proud manner

Before you.

Great Spirit Grandfather,

You gave your people

The breath of life,

So that we may live

With dignity and pride,

To always know

And understand

That life was meant for us

Your most humble

Traditional people,

And all that

Was Created

And given

The breath of life.

Great Spirit Grandfather,

Let my heart

Soul and mind

Be always strong with

Wisdom, knowledge

And Understanding.

Great Spirit Grandfather

Hear my words

For wisdom

So that I may open

My eyes and

See all that

Is good around me.

Great Spirit Grandfather

Hear my words

For wisdom

So that I may open my ears

And hear all that is good

Around me.

For I am humble

Before you.

I seek the strength

To continue on this path

That I travel on before you

In a most Sacred manner.

Great Spirit Grandfather

Hear my words

For they are words

That come from the

Heart, soul and mind,

And are filled with

Wisdom, knowledge and

Understanding.

Great Spirit Grandfather

My words are for you

To know and understand

That in a most Sacred manner

I honor and respect

The life you have put before me,

I seek the strength

To forever continue

Upon this Sacred path.

Great Spirit Grandfather

Upon the four winds

Are my words for strength

For they come from the

Heart, soul and mind

Words I send to you

In a Sacred manner.

Great Spirit Grandfather

Let all

The wisdom, knowledge and understanding

Be my strength

To continue on this path

That I travel on before you

Now and forever.

This part of ceremony was written by:
By Laureen Rama
November 2002

Now it is time for meditation
Sit or quietly around mandala or medicine wheel and focus on your breathing as you relax.

In order to start from a place of love, start with loving yourself. "From your heart or from your belly, invite feelings or images of kindness and love to radiate until they fill your whole being. Allow yourself to be cradled by your own awareness as if you were as deserving of loving kindness as any child. Let your awareness embody both benevolent mother and benevolent father energy, making available for you in this moment a recognition and an honouring of your being, and a kindness you perhaps did not receive enough of as a child. Let yourself bask in this energy of loving kindness, breathing it in and breathing it out, as if it were a lifeline, long in disrepair but finally passing along a nourishment you were starving for."

You may say things to yourself but simply use the words to evoke the feelings of loving kindness.

Once you have basked in that loving kindness for a few moments and fully experience it, pay attention to your breathing. Feel yourself breathing in unison with all those in your family. After a few breaths of truly feeling that unison, switch to feeling yourself breathing in unison with all your friends. After you feel that, extend to breathe in unison with all your acquaintances, friends and family.

Continue this process, feeling yourself breathing in unison in turn with:
# all the people in your town or city
# all the people in your province or state
# all the people in your country
# all the people on your continent
# all the animals and birds on the planet
# all the insects on the planet
# all the underwater creatures
# all the plants: the grasses, flowers, trees
# all the mineral kingdon - the rocks and mountains
# the entire planet
# the entire solar system
# the entire Milky Way Galaxy
# the entire universe

From the entire universe bring yourself back in to breathing in unison with the entire planet.

Now allow yourself to visualize fully (touch, taste, smell, see, hear) the elements of this planet that you love, loving it as it is AND as it would be if it were healed and at its full potential. Take as long as you wish. You will probably jump from image to image and this is fine; do it in a way that feels comfortable for you. The main thing is really feeling the love you have for the element you are visualizing and holding that for at least 20 seconds for each element.

Move to your own life and visualize what you love in your own life as it is now and then visualize it as it would be if your life were at its full potential. Again, take as long as you like.

As you are feeling ready to come out of the visualization, ask your authentic self or the divine of your understanding what action you can do in the next two weeks to support the healing of the earth OR simply what is most important for you to know now.

Please note that taking action will help ground your vision and it is best if it is something that you will be able to do fairly readily so you will actually do it!

As you come out of this, do whatever closure is appropriate for you. Thanking the divine of your understanding for the experience is one I love.

If you are with someone else doing this ceremony, I suggest you sit in silence for a few moments and when ready share your experiences. Take turns with one person completely listening without interrupting as the other talks and then switch. I find a nice way to mark the beginning and ending of this is for each person to start by saying "this is my story..." and ending with "that is my medicine" recognizing and honouring the healing of the experience and its telling. (I learned this from my teacher Armand Huet DeGrenier)

You can do a mini-version of this ceremony anytime. In fact I often go through my day, taking 30 seconds every once in a while to visualize something I love about the earth and sending that love.

Here is some added info you may want to think about or incorporate into your ceremony:

Heart Songs, Prayers and Earth Acupuncture
When you vibrate a heart song or prayer of intention to give an offering back to the ancestors and Mother Earth you open dimensional portals and send your prayer, your energy to connect through the communication lines. With this heart song, prayer or offering, look within and connect to the source. Let this magnificent elemental energy flow though your body and feel it activate within and around you. Now send this energy back to the sacred site with an affirmation of your highest intent and highest good.

Visualizing at this point in time, that the place you are praying is now connecting to all other sacred sites on the Mother Earth to the Elders and all of those gathering in Northern Arizona. Ask the assistance of the elementals to come bring balance and stabilization in the highest good to our Mother Earth to all beings. The understanding will come, the energy will be received. That is Earth Acupuncture, and it heals you as well as the Earth.

Earth Acupuncture creates a way for all humanity to consciously connect with the light grids on the planet. By going to one of thousands of cross points or vortexes on the Earth grid like Egypt, Sedona, Peru, Hawaii, or Australia, visualizing the highest vibratory light coming into your body, illuminating your spirit, and connecting to mother Earth and Father sky. From here we take the steps forward to ignite our internal flame of Love and light, pressing firmly on the Earth and creating our personal spark of energy into the specific point we are standing on.

The Earth as "source"
Connecting with the Earth was an essential part of spirituality in many ancient and Indigenous cultures. The separation of science and spirituality in our Western culture has estranged most of us from our soul connection to the Earth. The Earth has become an object that is there to use. We no longer consider her to be a living entity. We have forgotten that she is truly a "mother" who provides us with everything we need, nurturing every level of our human existence.

What does Mother Earth provide us with? The Earth provides us with every atom in our body - either directly or indirectly - making us inseparable from the Earth itself.

The Earth provides the electromagnetic environment we need to optimally function. It helps us to connect with the more subtle energies of the Earth. These subtle energies resonate and interact with our meridians, chakras energy bodies. On Earth we find those energies in lines, grids and vortexes.

Vortexes, lines and grids
Vortexes exist everywhere; they are found where energy lines exist. Because almost all vortexes are found in connections with lines. We define a vortex as a place where energy goes in/or out of a system. That system can be the Earth (vortexes), our body (the chakras and acupuncture points) or the Universe (galaxies, black holes and white holes). According to science, whenever energy moves it will move in a spiraling way, hence the name vortex (vertere (Latin) = spiraling).

There are many different types of vortexes. To a varying degree, they all have an effect on us; some with subtle effects and greater awareness with others. There are vortexes that resonate with our meridians. Others resonate with our chakras or with our energy bodies. There are grid systems with vortexes that hold our consciousness.

Communication lines
Communication lines are induced through human consciousness during certain activities. These lines appear between churches. They appear when we handle (charge) stones and place them in the landscape. They also exist between rocks with petroglyphs (a carving or inscription on a rock).

The message from the elementals is to come back to these sites and vibrate a song of prayer or intention, reconnecting the lay lines and meridian systems that have been damaged.

These elements are speaking to us, asking us to please stop what we are doing; the utter destruction of the Natural world. The elemental kingdom is in great need of our help at this time, to come together once again and work in harmony with one another, learning to balance both the material and spiritual in these times. Join us to celebrate life, unity and our Earth Mother.

Thank you for participating. All my love to you,
Deb