CHAPTER 10

Transformation Through

Ritual and Ceremony:

Practices

The meeting had been heated and intense and when it

was over the room had that thick, cut-it-with-a-knife feel

to it. Marian's living room was spacious enough to hold

the fifteen or so people who came together each month to

debate community projects; and she had not minded the

meetings. What she had minded was the way the room

had felt afterward. Marian found that she could barely

stand going into her living room for several days after one

of these meetings. It seemed that all the debate and ten-

sion from the heated discussions remained in the room

long after the meeting itself was over. But things had

changed.

This time, after all the people left, Marian opened the

windows wide and carried in a clay bowl that she filled

with smoldering dried leaves and stems from the sage

bush. She had picked the sage herself on her vacation to

the high desert in Utah. Memories flooded in: how she

had sat with the sage bushes for a time and had asked

their permission to pick a few branches. The bushes had

been generous and enthusiastic in their response. Not

only did they offer their branches to her, but they also

gave Marian information about the specific qualities of

sage and instructions on how to use it for cleansing the

atmosphere in her house.

Marian stood in the center of the room and raised the

bowl of sage up to her eye level with her arms out-

stretched. Then, slowly turning around, she described an

imaginary medicine wheel with the bowl. Marian stopped

for a moment to invoke each of the four directions. She

raised the bowl up above her head and then lowered it to

the floor to invoke the Sky and then the Earth. Marian let

the smoke drift over her body, using her hands to guide it

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