In my one-on-one Spiritual Counseling Practice, I bring together what has been considered spiritual work (transcendent experiences of oneness, no-self, emptiness, awakened awareness, god, the sacred) with what has been considered soul work (dreams, creativity, ceremony, ritual, embodied imagination, visionary experience, premonition). I feel this is an approach that is integrative of the whole human process.

A ritual act can be as simple as placing your hands palm to palm, kissing the earth or looking up at the Sun. A ritual can last as long as an exhale, the strike of a match, the time it takes to proclaim the syllable AH! And then there are more elaborate rituals, like a daily meditation practice, or making bows and prayers at a particular time of the day. With mindfulness and attention preparing a meal can become a ritual, eating a meal can be too! So can going for a walk, having sex, commuting and doing chores around the house.

Ceremonies are ways of marking great life transitions, seasonal changes, hallmarks in a life, beginnings, endings, grief and loss as well as transformations. Each ending in our life, is also a beginning. Each fresh start, also marks an end. Life is full of these transitions. Ceremonies help us keep a hand on the sacred thread, help us remember that we are part of a process, that our Earth is also in cycles of transition and that we will also be held in its movements.