by Yvonne Taylor

[Ed. Note: this dates from May 14 in Cape Town, South Africa.]

I thought I'd share with you the lovely ceremony we had today at our weekly meeting with Marie. She had no ideas as to how to celebrate the heavenly traffic jam and asked me for input. Between us we designed a most pleasing layout.

I suggested we re-create on the floor what was happening in the skies. By good fortune, the timing of our meeting coincided with an Ascendant of Cancer in Cape Town, so the Moon was emphasised. Marie laid out a silvery silk cloth on top of a bluish silk one, to create the Moon/ocean effect. In the centre of this was a small glass bowl containing sea-water in which was placed another smaller container of sand and shells, on top of which was a small tea-light candle.

On one side of this watery design we laid out a semi-circle of symbols of the planets - a Moonstone for the Moon, aquamarine (Mercury), copper (Venus), jasper (Mars), amethyst (Jupiter) and obsidian (Saturn). Outside this was another semi-circle of feathers to symbolise Gemini/Air.

On the other side of the sea-water bowl we had a tall red candle, with four small red tea-lights under-neath it, and in front was a huge chunk of black tourmaline to represent Pluto. The idea behind this layout was for powerful Pluto to channel the Sagittarian energy across to the other planets/stones and hopefully to transform our thought processes and all forms of communication.

Nearby was another silk cloth of pink, green and blue, it always figures in our ceremonies because of the beautiful pastel colours. In the centre of this was a small model of blue Planet Earth, with a chunk of amethyst in front and ajoite at the back. On this cloth those present could lay down a personal item such as necklace, or watch etc.

With beautiful gentle music in the background Marie smudged each one of us, not with the usual sage, but with a feather dipped in sea-water. We then went into meditation mode to release any negative emotions we're still holding onto, and also to adjust our ways of thinking to something positive.

It was a warm, gentle energy in the room, probably quite emotional for some, but there was also a feeling of lightness and happiness. Afterwards I was quite surprised how many people expressed thanks for learning more about the planets and what they mean in our lives; everyone went home with a good feeling of optimism and hope.

And I hope you enjoyed reading this little story. Wish you could all have been here.

Love and Light,
Yvonne