Forms of Blessing

October seems to be a paradoxical month: the 4th marks the blessing of the animals, the 17th is the Hunter full (super!) moon, and the 31st celebrates both scary ghosts and saintly souls. How do we reconcile these seemingly opposed actions and what is our role in it? One way is to cognitively dismiss some/all, but I would like to offer a somatic mini-practice of being a blessing and receiving a blessing with the natural world. First a bit of background: Traditionally the Celts marked the transition from harvest to winter on October 31 by creating big bonfires to protect citizens from the risen spirits who created havoc and who facilitated the telling of the future by Druid priests. They also celebrated Pomona, the goddess of fruits and trees (have you ever bobbed for apples?) In the 7th Century, Christians transformed the Celtic festival by celebrating the martyrs and saints of the church on all-hallowed eve. October’s full moon is the Hunter moon: a time when indigenous peoples respectfully hunted fattened deer and other animals for both food and clothing for the winter. Francis of Assisi (12th century) left a life of luxury to care for poor people. He also viewed and cared for animals as his ‘brothers and sisters’.Francis, patron saint of animals, is celebrated by people bringing their pets/agricultural animals to be blessed. The 7 Sacred Teachings of the indigenous peoples come from a framework of humility and respect for nature, viewing it as their relations and from whom we are encouraged to learn. It is from these latter two perspectives that I invite you into a blessing practice. Let’s explore:

• Find a comfortable place outside in nature, or at home with your pet, or in the coop with your chicken. Spend a few moments, breathing deeply, connecting into self. Tune into a sense of your body mass and release your weight into gravity, feeling the earth supporting you. (3-5 minutes)
  
  
• Keeping shoulders relaxed, rub your hands together briskly, allowing the fingers of your right hand to interdigitate with fingers of your left hand. (1-2 minutes)

• Gently pull your hands apart, moving them slightly away and then closer to each other, sensing the bio-magnetic energy between your hands. Then use one hand to hover slightly over your forearm until you sense that same bio-magnetic energy between your hand and the outer layer of your skin (the epidermis is the outer protective layer of skin that ‘looks outward toward the world’). Try to feel this sensation throughout the whole of your body.

• Ever so gently allow your hand to touch your forearm, and allow your awareness to touch the second deeper layer of your skin (the dermis is the inner layer of your skin that ‘looks inward into your body’ and contains hair follicles, sensory nerves, oil and sweat glands). Again try to feel this throughout your whole body.

• Deepen your conscious awareness again to the connective tissue layer underneath your skin (the subcutaneous layer contains a loose fascial gel-sol matrix with collagen, elastin, additional nerve cells, blood and lymphatic vessels, and fat cells). Once again, allow this sensation to spread thru your whole body.

• Staying with this ‘all-over’ awareness (your ‘spidey senses’), stand or sit near a living being (tree, plant, pet…). Allow a fair bit of time to sense the other being thru this layer of awareness. Close your eyes and slowly move closer and further away from the other being. When do you feel you are ‘touching without touching’? Try to stay in ‘sensing’ thru your ‘spidey senses’ rather than a cognitive knowing. We are seeking to develop a deep level of sensing. As you come into relationship, ask the Creator to bless (the tree or pet or chicken or insect….etc) and open yourself to learning from this relative of yours.(15-20 minutes)

• As you bring your exploration to a close, allow yourself time to gradually transition thru these same layers (this time in reverse order: subcutaneous layer to dermis to epidermis). Return to your sense of weight and breath. What epiphanies did you have?

*Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering®, articulately describes this an embodiment of the superficial nervous system network.