Photo by Barbara Walsh
The Sunday morning guided meditation took the Companions back to the place where they had begun to seek answers to their own riddles. To begin the day in silent communion with a sense of something vast and sacred is no bad way to start the day.
Some of us had been out to greet the dawn privately, in spite of a late and convivial evening with incognito Foxes in the Queen Anne next door. That too is a communion with something greater than we… though for some of us, it was the deep breath before plunging back into the fray and preparing the Temple for a very special moment.
Once a year we reaffirm the bond and dedication of the triad who serve the School with a ritual. This year, three others were also the focus of an affirmation and celebration of the journey they have each undertaken within the Silent Eye and within their own being. To be part of such a moment is both joy and blessing for those who seek and those who serve.
So much so, that our Conductor…by now well-used to my inability to hold back the tears at such moments… had come equipped with a handkerchief.
Photo by Chris Hutchison
Our final ritual too was a celebration as our three-fold Gawain wedded aspects of his self and the court of King Arthur celebrated. Morgause and Mordred were brought in from the shadows and the Table Round shared the bread of life and the honeyed mead of liquid Light.
The Lord and Lady of the Hunt, who were also Merlin and the Lady of the Lake, revealed the woven threads of their hidden nature that run, Red and White, through the Green lands of Albion… the inner land of the Heart… and then the Dragons danced the points of Being.
The Knights and their Ladies danced in turn… a stately progress to the music of the Sufis…
And there was laughter, as choreography went to the winds and we all joined a spontaneous Round Dance with Gawain at its heart… to the strains of Japan’s Methods of Dance… and left the temple for the last time in laughter to carry joy out into the world.
I do not remember leaving…only that we were the last.
And then, at last, there was time to breathe. Time to sit and share a meal with our Companions… time to talk and celebrate the anniversary of the School and another year of growth and learning… and look forward to the next.
Reblogged this on stevetanham and commented:
That poignant moment when a year’s worth of effort comes to a graceful end… In the Outer, at least.
But it should be only the beginning of the real import of such a weekend 🙂
Thanks for sharing part of the experience. 🙂
I’ve shared pretty much all I can…and so have some of the others 🙂
I’ve seen bits around blog town! 🙂
I thought you might 🙂
🙂
Sue, what an enjoyable and exciting post. My life is so focused on things other than tranquility that to read your description of your friends and your spiritual life refreshes me too.
Thank you, David. A spiritual life should be a ‘real’ life too… We are all busy, working people, but there is no separartion between the facets of inner and outer life .