Holy Week is coming up! The week just before Easter Sunday. Even though I am no longer resonating so much with the traditional Church, it’s one of the times of year that calls my heart and soul to keep sacred. Come and join us for a Cacao and Fire Ceremony to mark what has been known as Good Friday in a non-traditional way. The particulars of the event, you can find here, But first, a story...a little bit of Christmas as we ease on into Spring...
You may remember my Magic Closet Ride (click here to read) adventure from some months ago. My grand cleanse. A fantastic purging! Among the items to be released was a nativity scene from my childhood. Approximately 60 years old!
It was passed on to me many years ago. A rustic barn made of bark, rough wood, and straw. Mary. Joseph. Sheep and cows. The angel hanging from the eves. And, of course, Baby Jesus. Each year I would also include my various other animals – the jade frog, the silver horse, the ceramic horse – to pay homage to the Christ child. Often I would position the Magi – the wise men from the East – en route to the main event.
I’ve been ready to let this item go for several years now and have attempted to bequeath it to my nephew or nieces, to no avail.
In the meantime, I’ve been on my own journey of uncovering the impact that white supremacy has had on our culture, on the religion of Christianity, and on my own life. The perspectives shared by Black authors including Christena Cleveland in God is a Black Woman and Resmaa Menakem in My Grandmother's Hands, have been invaluable for me! Often through the stories and dreams of clients and friends, I’ve had opportunities to recognize the “white jesus” who has infiltrated our Western world. Not the Arabic, brown, Jewish, mystic, who most surely bore the name, the consciousness, and the legend that we have come to know as Jesus. Jeshua, some call him.
As the transforming fires burned in the fire pit in my back yard at the end of 2023, alchemizing so many memories, experiences, and parts of myself (found in the Magic Closet!), it felt apt to go ahead and include the shell of a nativity scene among the fodder.
But burn up the baby Jesus??
In the way that often happens, I finally saw the thing I had been looking at for 30 years as it actually IS! Baby Jesus was not only plastic, but white! This had escaped me as relevant for all this time!
Now the burning ritual took on a whole new level of significance. This is not only for me and what I’m shifting personally – this is for the dismantling of white supremacy. In myself, in my spiritual tradition, and in this culture that I’m a part of! As well as the hold it has had on the teachings, life, and consciousness of Jesus, the Christ.
With Randy, my partner, and Alison, our neighbor, as witnesses, I threw the rustic nativity, including the white plastic baby jesus and mary, into the fires of transmutation on Christmas Day.
Participating in and devotion to the sacraments, prayers, and scripture of the Church was an integral part of my spirituality, the way I connected with the Divine for about ¾ of this life I’ve lived. The last 14 years have brought much expansion beyond that, but I continue to treasure the stories and rituals that we have about the life of Jesus. As I mentioned in the beginning of this piece, Holy Week holds many of those stories, as well as the rituals to bring them to life.
In my conversations with people, a frequent topic is how folks have been harmed by religion, especially particular versions of Christian theology and practice. It is my desire to provide a safe space to process these experiences and the ways they have impacted our lives. At the Cacao and Fire ceremony on Good Friday, March 29, from 2-7pm, we will also highlight practices and attitudes that facilitate justice and love, states of Being that cost Jesus his life.
Come and partake of sustainably and equitably sourced - and delicious - cacao by the fire with reflective music by Randy Langford. Participate in heartfelt conversation to any degree you desire. Connect with others. Enjoy the green grass of spring, the attention of Booker, our dog, and hearty soup with cornbread to close out the day. Expect to be nourished in your heart, mind, and body!
In this way we will walk along the edge – the place where mystics seem to trod - of Holy Week. The edges of our own stories and painful experiences, of the stories and spirituality of Jesus, and of the tradition that has hurt so many of us. We'll find the sacred within all of that, as well as in nature, plants and animals, and the elements. We intend to create opportunities for community, connection, and healing where justice and love abound!