Dancing in the Shadows by Laura Bryannan

Opening Ritual

• Close your eyes.
• Stretch your arms over your head, tense and then relax.
• Stretch out your legs, tense and then relax.
• Take a deep breath, filling your lower belly first, then slowly expanding your upper lungs. Repeat twice more.
• Find your consciousness. (If you're not sure where it is, pay attention to your left big toe. What's going on there? That's your consciousness in your big toe, telling you how it feels. Now tune into your left knee. What's going on there? Now tune into your stomach, your throat...)
• Move your consciousness up over your head and out into space. See if you can feel what's going on out there.
• Identify the direction North. North represents the energy of earth, for grounding, stability and persistence.
• Call into the room friends, fictional characters, goddesses, angels, or any beings that epitomize the qualities of earth for you. Ask them to be present in the space to support, guide and protect the group during this meeting.
• Identify the direction West. West represents the energy of water, for purification, nurturance and intuition.
• Call into the room friends, fictional characters, goddesses, angels, or any beings that epitomize the qualities of water for you. Ask them to be present in the space to support, guide and protect the group during this meeting.
• Identify the direction South. South represents the energy of fire, for initiative, anger and creativity.
• Call into the room friends, fictional characters, goddesses, angels, or any beings that epitomize the qualities of fire for you. Ask them to be present in the space to support, guide and protect the group during this meeting.
• Identify the direction East. East represents the energy of air, for a clear mind, communication and adaptability.
• Call into the room friends, fictional characters, goddesses, angels, or any beings that epitomize the qualities of air for you. Ask them to be present in the space to support, guide and protect the group during this meeting.
• Come back down into the body.
• When ready, open eyes.

Creating an Altar

Groups with a solid spiritual bent may decide to bring items to each session with which to create an altar. An altar can provide a place of focus in meditation. It can also be an acknowledgement of the inherent spirituality of the healing process and the greater power that guides ourselves and the universe. An altar can be viewed as a gateway for Spirit to enter the room. At the least, it is a tangible representation of the great archetypal energies present in our world.

The basic altar has items representing each of the four elements: earth, water, fire and air. Most often, altars contain crystals, dirt or salt to represent earth, or physical energy; a chalice with water or wine to represent water, or emotional energy; a burning candle to represent fire, or creative energy; and incense or feathers to represent air, or mental energy. Each element is placed on the altar in its proper direction: earth, north; water, west; fire, south; air, east.

Women may decide to bring items that represent the elements they are most in touch with (for example, students work with the mental energies of air; an artist is probably in touch with the inspirational energies of water and the creative energies of fire). It can also be useful to bring items that represent energy one needs more of (for example, are you a spiritual woman who can't get it together to pay her bills? You need earth energy to ground you in the world). Other personal or meaningful items can round out the display, such as baby pictures, totems, favorite ritual belongings, etc.

If you decide to do this, you'll find that your altar will change every session. It could even be part of your group's process every week to have each woman explain what she brought and why it was meaningful for her to bring to that session.

CAVEAT: Whether or not to create an altar is something each group should decide together. Some women were victimized by priests, ministers or nuns and have a serious problem with anything that smacks of "church." Although an altar such as I've described belongs more in the metaphysical or Quabbalic tradition than Christian, please honor the possibility that someone in your group may be very uncomfortable with this and discuss before deciding whether to do it or not.

Ending the Session

After your group's work together is done for that session you should do something to officially end the meeting before socializing. If you began the session with a ritual, you should end it by "breaking the circle," returning everyone to the mundane world. Here's an example of such an ending:

• Have everyone stand and hold hands in a circle.
• Formally thank and release any otherworld beings you may have called in for support and guidance.
• You may want to say a few words about the meeting, or state some hopes or goals for the coming week.
• Squeeze the hand of the woman next to you, then she squeezes the hand of the woman next to her, passing the squeeze around the circle until it returns to the facilitator.
• When the squeeze has returned, the facilitator says, "The circle is broken," and releases the hands of the women on either side, officially ending the meeting.
• The group is now free to leave, chat, etc.

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