Carrie Rathwell, Ceremonialist

My blog is now on my website

2011-02-13T17:41:00.002-06:00

For new blog entries, as well as all my newest info, please visit:
www.carrierathwell.com.
Come one, come all!

Happy New Year / Website Update

2011-01-04T14:58:00.005-06:00

I wish you all a gorgeous entry into the new year of 2011!

And, FYI, no, I have not forgotten about my website!

Because I have been busy with ceremonial work, I have not been as busy with my new website work as I had originally planned. However, I am resolving to complete it this winter.

Please check out the progress thus far at www.carrierathwell.com and stay tuned for updates in the near future, as I continue to design and create my new site.

Thank you for your patience.

And drop me a line or give me a call - make 2011 the year you stepped into your life in a ceremonial way!

Six Month Check-In

2010-09-01T13:36:00.001-06:00

Dear Readers:

What I have been up to: lovely, lovely ceremonies!

The first of the photos is from one of the weddings I officiated at this summer. A happy day in the Quebec countryside, surrounded by family and friends. Et cette ceremonie etait toute en francais - vive la belle difference! Merci a tous pour cette saison de joie.

Here is some feedback from Michele, a client:
"Carrie was the ceremonialist who worked with us in the creation of, and officiated, our handfasting - I have to say, she was magical. It is a difficult task and she did it with grace, integrity, honesty and moments of hilarity. Flexible in co-creating with us she also had a focused presence and intent during the ceremony, beautifully manifesting the sacredness and playfulness of our handfasting with a grounded energy that elicited understanding from people around the importance of the ceremony. Carrie is a natural and, blended with her warm personality makes her what I would consider a charming collaborator in ceremonies calling for heart, honesty and integrity."

Website in Development

2010-03-01T12:04:00.009-06:00

There has been plenty of ceremonial activity since my last post - weddings, an adult coming-of-age ceremony, an alternative baby baptism, one-on-one ceremonial consultations, a girl's rite of passage ceremony and lots of others, some completed and some in development.

Also in development is a permanent website.

I will post more details shortly, but in the meantime, please continue to peruse this blog for all kinds of ceremonial information. All the process and contact information is up to date and I would love to hear from you if you have anything to share or ask.

It sure is an exciting time to be a Ceremonialist!

One-on-one Consultations

2009-11-13T13:28:00.000-06:00

If you are going through a particularly challenging or intense personal experience, or are preparing for one, I may be able to offer support for you.

To give an example, I was recently contacted by a woman preparing to undergo fertility treatments. She had been to a previous ceremony I had led and was inspired to seek ceremony as a way of engaging in this process.

When she called, we discussed what was going on for her – what she had done to this point, as well as where she was at now, her fears, anxieties, hopes, visions of the future, and so on.

I offered to do a Shamanic Journey on her behalf to ask: “What could she do to ritually prepare herself for the treatments ahead, so that she could become the most present and receptive for the insemination(s)?”

When we next met, I came to her home and together we set up an altar space, which would act as a focal point for her conscious engagement with the process of conceiving a baby. As well, she was offered a daily grounding exercise and a meditative process to get to know the Truths of her body as she took the fertility drugs in preparation for the insemination. She was also offered a particular grounding exercise and a particular ritual for the day of the insemination that would allow her to be present and engaged with her body and the procedures of the day.

All of this was specifically designed for her, and not only did I visit her home to set up the altar and explain the vision I was given on her behalf, but I also gave her a copy of the personal guidance, with a possibility of following up with me, if she needed to do so.

From my client:
“I want to thank you for all your input last night. I think it has really jumpstarted an important process for me.”

And, in fact, we have had further consultations about how to use ceremony and ritual to help her as she moved into her first house as well.

We can all use ceremony or ritual as a tool of personal development. From a Ceremonialist’s perspective, I see that it is not only what challenges we choose or are presented with but how we choose to approach these challenges that create a life of happiness and fulfillment.

From big physical challenges of becoming a parent or moving, to more subtle life challenges such as preparing yourself to date at mid-life or exploring your life’s purpose, ceremony can be a wonderful aid. I would be thrilled to help others use these same tools of ceremony that have been used since the dawn of civilization to rise to the challenges of a life well lived.

A Baby's First Ceremony

2009-11-08T13:35:00.000-06:00

Snapshots from a ceremony of love, family, and community.

Welcome the world, baby boy!

Becoming a Girl - Initiation into Girlhood Ceremony

2009-09-09T13:25:00.001-06:00

Leaving babyhood behind, entering into girlhood, welcomed by the women who love her - that was the essence of the ceremony that initiated this girl into her maiden years. At the end of the ceremony, she had learned about her family lineage of women, had received blessings, was offered support in growing into the unique girl that she is by other women who have been girls before, and began learning some of the ways of the sacred feminine. All that, and she had fun, too! What a special afternoon, for all of us.

"My experiences of Carrie as Ceremonialist have been wonderful. She is professional, thorough and kind in the creation process which inevitably leads to a beautiful, loving experience of ceremony." Debbie, Mom of Ceremony Girl

Why let convention define your life?

2009-08-15T13:47:00.000-06:00

Just like a snowflake, you are one-of-a-kind. You are the only one to intimately know your life, to know what is or isn’t important to you on your journey.

Convention in the West says that outside of faith communities, the only parts of life important enough to mark ceremonially are weddings and funerals. But really, why let convention define your life?

I recently co-created a ceremony for a woman who had spent many years thoroughly working through quite painful family of origin issues. In so doing, she had to sort out what did and didn’t happen for her as a child and young adult, heal the wounds that she carried, accept gifts she was given, learn what she did and did not need from then in her life now, grow into new distinctions and abilities.

This journey is one that we all must take on in order to become mature adults, no matter what our childhoods looked like.

For this woman, as she neared the end of this process, she said she could really feel like a major chapter of her life was coming to a close. For her, this degree of completion, this sense of major accomplishment and change required her to mark her arrival in the land of individuated adulthood in ceremony.

I worked with this client to prepare for a ceremony that included a variety of ritual activities designed to mark what we came to realize was an adult baptism and to enable her loved ones to support and nourish her at this time in her life.

Once through the ceremony, she said she could feel a really shift, as if the loose ends had all gotten tied up on that day and that she really felt like a different person. In fact, an acquaintance of hers even remarked to me that he wasn’t sure it was really her because she seemed so different!

So I encourage you to think outside the box and be the creator of your life, with you determining what counts as important in your experiences. Your inner life and what happens in it are at least as important as any outwardly-realized goal. It can be life-changing to give those inner experiences an expression out here in the physical world, honouring them and yourself in ceremony.

From my client:
“It means so much to me that you have created this ceremony for me and have shown such grace and skill in the process. You are truly a creator of beauty in the world.”

The Importance of Ritual

2009-06-19T13:39:00.002-06:00

"…(W)hy is ritual important? As much as our body requires food for nourishment, our souls and spirits require ritual to stay whole. It is as if without the spirit being nourished in us, the body pays for the consequences. The food of the psyche is the symbol, and it is through ritual that our spirit is fed."
~ Malidoma Patrice Somé
“The Healing Wisdom of Africa”, 1998.

Yogafest: A Festival for Healthy Living

2009-05-31T14:44:00.004-06:00

I invite you to the 2nd Annual Yogafest, held on Sunday, June 21, 2009 from 10am to 6pm at The Herb Garden (3840 Old Almonte Road, Almonte, Ontario).

In addition to having an information booth, I will be offering a workshop entitled “Ceremony and You: Marking Transitions and Rites of Passage”. Learn how you can use Ceremony to meet life transitions and rites of passage consciously and powerfully.

Come on out! I would love to see you there.

Re-Birthing Into A New Life Ceremony

2009-05-02T14:38:00.002-06:00

Continuing my last entry's theme of thresholds, I would like to share about a “Re-Birthing Into a New Life Ceremony” I created for a client recently.

Over the past 3 years, my client had faced a lot of change: the death of a parent, a change of jobs, health problems, starting a course about finding your life's purpose, the end of a relationship.

Once she was through the immediate processes of healing and grieving that which was loss and beginning that which was new, she really could see that she was at a turning point in her life. One was of being was completing and another way of being was emerging. She decided that she would hold a ceremony to mark this, inviting those people who had been supporting her in these changes.

Her “Re-Birthing into a New Life Ceremony”, consisted of three sections:
1) Releasing the Old – a ritual to consciously choose to let go of patterns, people, things, ways of being that were complete.
2) Re-Birthing – a ritual to re-enact the birthing process, so as to heal old birth trauma and emerge anew.
3) Claiming the New Self – rituals to acknowledge and own the people and parts of the old life that did work as well as rituals to claim that which makes up the new life.

My client and all of her guests engaged with the Ceremony with great heart, authenticity and integrity and the afternoon was truly a highlight of my time as Ceremonialist. And although many people didn’t know each other before the Ceremony, afterwards we all came out of the experience feeling connected to each other in a deep way.

So, not only did my client live her own conscious transition, she deepened her connections to her circle of loved ones, while connecting them to each other in community. Such is the power of Ceremony.

From my client:
“You have been a true guide in helping me understand the key elements of my transformation and have held my hand through the threshold of my new life. You made it safe for me. Thank you.”

Threshold Moments

2009-04-10T14:29:00.000-06:00

We are constantly managing the flow of change in our lives. Nothing stays the same, really, no matter how hard we try. If we have a lot of changes happen in a short span of time, it is a signal that life is really on the move and that we are being challenged to rise to the occasion. This is what John O’Donohue calls a threshold time in a life.

“A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.” – John O’Donohue, “To Bless the Space Between Us”

To cross, when it is really time to cross and as we are ready, is a powerful choice. And, like O’Donohue says, ritual is a vital way by which to mark for yourself and amongst your people, such a time.

In Ceremony, you go from being a re-actor, someone always trying to catch up to the changes, to being a creator, someone who chooses to honour and acknowledge the flow as it is and as you accept it to be. In fact, successfully done, the Ceremony itself becomes the moment of transition. Ceremony is a way to step out of the everyday movement of activity, and into time and space that is designed to meet life face-to-face, choosing to be in the flow and deciding what that means for you.

Learning to Walk the Walk of "The Mother”

2009-03-16T10:30:00.008-06:00

These are some pictures from a Mother Blessing Ceremony that was held in December of last year. (I mentioned it previously in a December 08 post.)

My client was a first-time mother, and a major focus of her Ceremony was about addressing any fears of being alone in this experience by initiating and nourishing her connection to the archetypal energy of the "Universal Mother”, She who birthed us all, and She who is there for all mothers.

This is what my client had to say after her Mother Blessing Ceremony:

“I feel calmer. I don't feel so alone, or rather, I know that despite being alone on the path to become a mother I can feel and see that this is a well trodden path that many have taken before me and many will take after me. I found hearing other women's stories to be so valuable for this. I find listening and talking to be so valuable as a way of learning and this ceremony was such a huge step towards becoming a mother.”

~ Caitlin, Mother Blessing Client and Mother-To-Be

Ceremonial Consciousness

2009-02-16T10:27:00.001-06:00

"We must never abandon ceremony but use it as a guide, and later as a friend. Ceremony provides structure for the conscious mind and body to enter a state of spiritual consciousness. Without ceremony we would never transcend the barriers of self."
~ Tom Brown, Jr.
"The Vision"

National TV Coverage

2009-01-09T15:51:00.007-06:00

As I had written previously in this blog, I have spent several months in the summer and fall of 2008 filming the process of Ceremony creation for a show called “C’est ça la vie” on French CBC-TV. The airdate for the show was Monday, January 5, 2009. For those who didn’t catch it live, here is the link to the streamlined version of the piece. Overall, I am quite happy with the coverage and am pleased to share it with you all. Enjoy!

A Further Note:
One thing I would like to add about the episode is that during much of the show, they refer to me as a “Celebrant” (célébrant professionel), and I want to clarify the difference between a “Celebrant” and “Ceremonialist”. I’ll start by quoting from a previous blog entry:
I was trained as a Celebrant, first by In-Sight Books as a Funeral Celebrant, and then by the Celebrant USA Foundation and Institute, the organization mentioned in the piece, with a speciality in weddings. Because I have also had training in Ceremony in the Celtic Shamanic Tradition with Kathleen Leeson, RH, and other shamanic studies which I can bring into my work, I call myself a Ceremonialist rather than a Celebrant. However, because my orientation is in service of the client's needs, I can also do totally secular ceremonies as well.
There are other ceremonial practitioners out here who are also Ceremonialists, but there are no specific training organizations like there are for Celebrants.

If you have other questions about this, please contact me!

Looking Forward to 2009

2009-01-01T14:16:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, one and all!
I love the beginning of the new year, setting new goals and making plans for the months to come.
In ceremonial terms, this year I have been talking to clients about several different ceremonies already:
· A Naming Ceremony, with the Intention of welcoming a baby into a family, community and faith tradition, as an alternative to a Christian baptism
· Houseblessings/Apartment Blessings, with the Intention of clearing out the energies of previous inhabitants and bringing personalized blessings and life-supportive consciousnesses into a home
· A Ceremony to Reclaim Space After a Separation, with the Intention of releasing the energies of the co-created home, and to welcome in life-supportive consciousnesses and energies on behalf of the newly single resident
There really is no limit on what Ceremony can mark in a life, as I have talked about before in this blog - click here for more information on what Ceremony is, here for more information on the Purpose of Ceremony, here for what you can expect working with me on a Ceremony and here for an overview of what Ceremony Packages I offer.
I feel very fortunate to have the chance to spend another year in my calling as Ceremonialist.
I wish you all an enlivening, purposeful and abundantly loving 2009!
Ceremonially yours,
Carrie

Mother Blessing Ceremonies

2008-12-14T14:49:00.001-06:00

I am currently completing the final touches of a Mother Blessing Ceremony, to be held at the end of this month for a pregnant client of mine.
Unlike a Baby Shower, which is about the needs of the baby, a Mother Blessing Ceremony is designed to acknowledge, honour and celebrate a woman's transition from Woman-Unto-Herself to being Mother-Unto-Another.
There are a number of Intentions of a Mother Blessing Ceremony, including providing the Mother-To-Be with an opportunity to receive other women's wisdom about birthing and motherhood, creating a support network for her before and after the birth, and doing activities that help her engage with energies that she will be activitating during labour, so she is better prepared when the time comes.
The role of the Mother is so important and so often overlooked and a Mother Blessing Ceremony is a key way to allow a Mother-To-Be to become a Mother in a connected, knowledgeable and empowered way.
In the new year, I will be posting pictures, so stay tuned...

Update On Weddings

2008-11-03T18:03:00.001-06:00

Planning for the wedding high season (June – August) is already starting up. I have had the great fortune of officiating at some weddings in my work as Ceremonialist – see here for a wedding example and here for an example of a handfasting.
I have had a lot of questions about my legal qualifications as a wedding officiant, so I thought now would be a good time to update and clarify.
In the province of Quebec, I can legally perform civic marriages, both opposite sex and same sex. Just to be clear, if I am your Ceremonialist in Quebec, you will be legally married, wedding certificate and all.
In the province of Ontario, it is at the discretion of the municipalities to designate legal wedding officiants, that is to say, people who are not ordained clergy who can perform weddings. So far, the City of Ottawa, the large municipality I live near, has only given permission to city clerks. However, they are currently in the process of reviewing this policy and I am in communication with them about my position as a trained Ceremonialist.
In the meantime, if you are in Ottawa and interested in hiring me, some possibilities are:
· doing the Ceremony in Quebec – outside, inside, at a golf course, in Gatineau Park, there are lots of very special places to get married in “la belle province”
· having the legal ceremony at City Hall – the 10-minute civil ceremony in the small room with the city clerk – and then having the meaningful ceremony with all your guests at the place of your choice with me as Ceremonialist (FYI, this is how many couples in Europe plan their weddings!).
It is certainly my Intention to become a designated legal officiant by the City of Ottawa in 2009. I will keep you posted here.
And, to any interested couples, here is my posting about what to expect in working with me. Just to let you know, I am bilingual and am available to officiate in both official languages. Please contact me and I would be happy to talk to you!

Le Couronnement de la Grandmère

2008-10-01T11:23:00.003-06:00

La semaine dernière j'ai fait une cérémonie nommée "La couronnement de la Grandmère". La cérémonie était filmée par Radio-Canada pour une émission entitulée "C'est ça la vie". Je vais vous avertir quand j'ai une version "streaming"!

[In English, this ceremony is called "The Crowning of the Crone". This ceremony was filmed for CBC TV for a show called "C'est ça la vie" - "That's Life". I will post news of it here when I have a streamlined version! The translation of this in English follows at the end of the French text.]

La Grand-mère dans le sense qu'on utilise pour la cérémonie est un terme symbolique qu’on utilise pour décrire un archétype ancien dans le cycle de vie d’une femme. Traditionellement, quand les femmes et les hommes ont atteint un certain âge, ils et elles ont été accepté comme “Anciens” dans leur communauté. Alors, ils avaient la responsabilité de partager leur sagesse avec les autres. Pour les femmes, ce rôle est nommé “Grand-mère”.

Dans ce sens symbolique, le rôle de “Grand-mère” se déroule vers la fin d’une vie. Traditionellement, le cycle de vie d’une femme est représenté par trois phases ou aspects: premièrement, la vierge, deuxièmement, la mère et troisièmement la Grand-mère.

La vierge symbolique est l’aspect jeune de la féminité. Ici, on commence sa vie, on développe sa sexualité et on apprend à développer un certain pouvoir. La mère symbolique est la phase active de la féminité d’une adulte. La sexualité de la femme crée et donne naissance. Il faut prendre soin, par exemple de ses enfants ou encore de ses divers projets créatifs.

A l’arrivée de la ménopause, la femme a l’occasion d’écouter son corps ce qui la guide à laisser aller un certain niveau d’activités. Maintenant, elle peut réclamer et reconnaître son âge, sa maturité, sa sagesse et son pouvoir; Elle peut choisir de le partager à l’ensemble de la communauté.

Dans les temps anciens, la « Grand-mère » était vénérée comme une femme intègre qui, après avoir bien vécu une vie remplie, a maintenant le droit de partager ses expériences sur les cycles de la vie, de la mort et de la renaissance avec les vierges et les mères pour qu’elles puissent vivre ces cycles de vie à leur façon et en bonne santé.

Les femmes des temps modernes ont droit au même processus soit de sortir de cette phase de mère de la façon dont elle l’on vécu et de choisir de partager leur sagesse profonde selon leurs propres points de vue. Ce sont ces traditions que l’on cherche à réclamer avec la cérémonie de "La couronnement de la Grandmère".

In English, now:
The "Crone" as referred to in this ceremony is a symbolic term used to describe an ancient archetype in the lifespan of a woman. Traditionally, the life cycle of a woman is seen in a triple aspect: the maiden, the mother and the crone.

The maiden is the young feminine aspect, beginning her life, coming into her sexuality and power. The mother is the active adult time of life, when a woman births and tends her children or other projects in the world.

At the time of menopause, following her body’s cues, a woman has the opportunity to let go of this time of high activity, to claim and acknowledge her age, deep maturity, wisdom and power and to share this in her community on behalf of the whole.

In ancient times, the Crone was revered as a woman of wholeness who, by living her life fully, had earned the right to share her knowledge about the cycles of death and rebirth.

Women of modern times have a right to the same processes, to emerge from motherhood in whatever form that has taken in their lives, to claim their life experience and to use their wisdom powerfully in service as they see fit. These are the traditions that we seek to reclaim in the ceremony of the "Crowning of the Crone".

In Honour of John O'Donohue

2008-09-21T11:18:00.001-06:00

“A threshold is a significant frontier where experience banks up; there is intense concrescence. It is a place of great transformation. Some of the most powerful thresholds divide worlds from each other: life in the womb from birth, childhood from adolescence, adulthood from middle age, old age from death. And on each side there is a different geography of feeling, thinking and being. The crossing of a threshold is in effect a rite of passage.

Our culture has little to offer us for our crossings. Never was there such talk of communication or such technology to facilitate it. Yet at the heart of our newfound wealth and progress there is a gaping emptiness, and we are haunted by loneliness. While we seem to have progressed to become experts in so many things – multiplying and acquiring stuff we neither need nor truly want – we have unlearned the grace of presence and belonging. With the demise of religion, many people are left stranded in a chasm of emptiness and doubt; without rituals to recognize, celebrate, or negotiate the vital thresholds of people’s lives, the key crossings pass by, undistinguished from the mundane, everyday rituals of life. This is where we need to retrieve and reawaken our capacity for blessing. If we approach our decisive thresholds with reverence and attention, the crossing will bring us more than we could ever have hoped for. This is where blessing invokes and awakens every gift the crossing has to offer. In our present ritual poverty, the Celtic tradition has much to offer us.”

~ John O’Donohue, “To Bless the Space Between Us”, New York: Doubleday, 2008;
p 193-4

healingtree.ca

2008-08-30T14:20:00.007-06:00

I just signed on as a member of the website, Healing Tree, a really great site for one-stop perusing of what is up in the alternative health and wellness community in the Ottawa area. Come see who's who and what we are all up to!

Birthday Ceremony

2008-07-26T18:43:00.005-06:00

I just officiated at a ceremony of a dear friend’s 50th birthday party. For most of the evening, it was a simple regular birthday evening – dinner out, cards, wine, laughter. The ceremonial piece was focused around a necklace the group of us had pooled to give her, in honour of her 50th birthday. One of our group, an artist who does one-of-a-kind vision-guided jewelry, designed our friend a beautiful necklace and matching bracelet and earrings (to contact the artist, Carol Goodman, email moonlodgedesigns@yahoo.ca). We began by showing the birthday woman the jewelry and the artist described her process of creation and why she designed it the way she did. Then, I led the group in a ceremony that infused the jewelry with loving praise and blessings for our friend, so that when we finally put it on her, it was radiating with love and will do so wherever she wears it in the world. We had the birthday woman in tears at various points, and as she herself said as she thanked us, “I will never forget this night”. Birthday dinners can come and go, but ceremony creates loving memories that live on.

Summer Solstice

2008-06-23T16:39:00.000-06:00

The 2nd Annual Women’s Summer Solstice Gathering has now come and gone. It was a wondrous 2 days of ceremony, taking time out from our daily lives to offer back to the Earth. In our usual ways, we are in the process of taking materials, resources, energy for our own use, and so to take conscious time out to give of ourselves is a key element of living in balance. We worked ceremonially with the energies of the personal and transpersonal, as they related to each of the elements: air, fire, water, earth and how these elements in turn related to their further correspondences of Father Sky, Grandfather Sun, Grandmother Moon and Mother Earth. Our ceremonial activities included dance, breath, fire building, fire smudging, prayers, water lustrations, flower essence creating and more. As a group, we really came together beautifully, and in offering, we received much of our own healing in return. If anyone is interested in finding out more, please contact me at crathwell2@yahoo.com and I would be happy to put you on our mailing list for the Gathering.

Ceremony in the News

2008-06-11T18:27:00.001-06:00

Today Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed Parliament apologizing on behalf of the federal government to the former students of the Indian residential school program. His statement was followed in the House of Commons by speeches from aboriginal leaders and the day was marked by ceremonies in communities across the country.

From my place as Ceremonialist, I am interested in seeing how does this taking responsibility by the government on one hand, and the receiving of this admission come into form? On the part of the government, the protocols and procedures of the House of Commons are observed as per normal though on this day, other Parliamentary business was cancelled and aboriginal leaders were invited to respond immediately after Stephen Harper’s statement. I would say that there are regularly some ritual elements, steeped in traditions long documented, that govern the day-to-day business of the Canadian government. How “alive” this is, is actually up to the particular people involved and if they authentically embody the “spirit”, if you will, of the rituals and of their words. My wish here is that today’s words were authentic and that they will come into concrete form, in the ways that are best as determined by the people affected.

From the point of view of the aboriginal communities, it is quite a different thing to receive than to deliver, and from what I could find out in the news (most of it focused on Harper’s speech and not the aboriginal ceremonies), the ceremonies included: a sunrise ceremony at Parliament Hill to honour former residential school students who had died; a smudging ceremony inside Parliament Hill (I bet the place could do with a real cleaning!); a “letting go” ceremony in Nova Scotia; and other events across the country. My firm wish here is that such ceremonies were not “staged” by the government for their positive PR effects, but rather that they were the powerful, living, organic ceremonies that would best serve the people affected by today’s statement. Ceremonies don’t fix the legacy of problems left by the residential school system, but they can be tools of healing, letting go and moving forward from a new place.

And one final observation: there is no way to have marked this day without ceremony. Think about it – how would that communication have gone out and been received if not with a formal space and time apart, carefully chosen words spoken on behalf of many, symbolic gestures and actions of giving and receiving. Societally and culturally, ceremony is the tool we use to mark the big changes. As long as there have been civilizations, there have been ceremonies. One of our upper needs on the hierarchy of needs, but one we cannot let go. The challenge always is to have the ceremonies be meaningful and reflective of authentic change. May this be so today.

Cosmic Pathways Healing Fair

2008-06-08T17:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I may have seen some of you at the Cosmic Pathways Healing Fair – an event that provides a great opportunity to find out what is going on in the alternative health communities in the Ottawa area. Holistic practitioners from all kinds of traditions and with all kinds of services are invited to have booths at the fair. People pay a small entrance fee and then they can buy “tickets” for $10, which they can use to buy mini-sessions with anyone in the room (all the money goes to charity). What a great environment to meet people of all kinds and to get a sense of who they are and what they offer. And the people it draws – I tell you I had so many really engaged, enthusiastic and fascinating conversations with such a variety of people. And the questions were so great, I thought I’d answer a couple of them in this blog for everyone.
Q. I have a garden that I would like to have “cleaned” on the energetic level – can you do anything for me?
A. Yes, I can do what is called a “Land Clearing Ceremony”. Like a House Blessing Ceremony, I ceremonially clear out the old energies and welcome in the new on your behalf. My processes are the same, the only difference is that it is outdoors instead of indoors.
Q. I would like to have a daily spiritual practice of some kind, but I am having problems being regular about it. Can you help?
A. Yes. There are several possibilities, and the one that came to mind with this person was that I could come to their place and set up a personal altar space for them. An altar is entirely unique person to person, and the overall intent is to have some physical space with physical objects that help you see your life in a symbolic sense, thereby connecting you to a “Higher Self”, however that lives for you. You would see the beauty of this space every day and change the objects on it occasionally, as your life moves and changes. An altar can reflect your ancestors; the seasons and how your life connects to the patterns of nature; important processes or events in your life (ie. a significant birthday, the process of forgiving a particular person that you are trying to complete, a loss of a loved one); or anything that clues you in to your life from a spiritual perspective. In my role as Ceremonialist, I would act as a consultant, giving you ideas, helping you set up different altar objects and I would also energetically set up the altar space in your home so that it becomes a dedicated ceremonial space.
If anyone has any other questions, please email me at crathwell2@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you!

Fire

2008-05-26T15:33:00.002-06:00

I have been learning from the Element of Fire as of late, and how to work with the transformative energy in ceremony to its full creative potential. And today I include a teaching from the Persian poet, Rumi, which talks about the Loving nature of Fire, not in distortion, but in Truth:

Hear from the heart wordless mysteries!
Understand what cannot be understood!
In man's stone-dark heart there burns a fire
That burns all veils to their root and foundation.
When the veils are burned away, the heart will understand completely...
Ancient Love will unfold ever-fresh forms
In the heart of the Spirit, in the core of the heart.
~Rumi

Eco-Stewardship Fair

2008-04-20T16:37:00.001-06:00

Welcome, visitors I met at the Eco-Stewardship Fair! What a great turnout for the day. For those who weren’t there, the Eco-Stewardship Fair is an Ottawa-based event held to bring together and share information amongst people, products and services that support living a sustainable and balanced life here on the Earth. It is so heartening to see people of all walks of life coming together to explore our common Green Intent. I am excited by the possibilities of what we can create, each serving as we are called, together in Service to the environment that surrounds us and gives us so much. I am honoured to be able to offer my part in my work as Ceremonialist, to bring heightened Consciousness to our human experiences, and from that deeper awareness, to offer back to our Earth Home. It will be a pleasure to hear from all of you who wish to bring Ceremony more into their life – drop me a line! And, please, for those new to my blog, I invite you to look deeper into the vault, back to last year’s entries, to find out more about me and what I do.

Ceremony: the Art of Living Well

2008-02-15T14:06:00.001-06:00

“Living well is an art which can be developed.”
~ Maya Angelou (1993), as quoted on pg 147 of a new book about her entitled Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration (New York: 2008, Doubleday)
Loving Maya Angelou, as always!

Conscious Wedding Ceremonies

2008-01-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

Here in the colds of winter, the plans for the summer weddings have begun in earnest. Clients have been sharing with me their plans for not only the Ceremony, but also the rest of the day’s celebrations – the photo shoot, the reception, the dance. Not to mention all the details of the wedding ceremony itself – colour schemes, decorations, wedding party plans, flowers, etc.
I often hear a lot of overwhelm – and how could you not feel this way, given the way weddings are often done? I understand how much energy it takes to throw a good party and provide for a group of people over the course of a whole day. However, I am finding that the actual Ceremony itself, as the reason the rest of the plans exist, can get lost in the shuffle.
I see it as the difference between the essence – the Conscious Commitment to Marriage through vows and rituals – and the accoutrements that surround it. The ceremonial participants and space need to look beautiful, no question, and a good wedding party is an great way to honour how important the presence of your guests are to you. However, when the content of the Ceremony itself and your preparations for being fully present at that Ceremony take a backseat, the balance is off.
The wedding industry is largely focused on the products that can be sold en masse to couples getting married. There is no way to mass market a Ceremony, no way to brand it and mass reproduce it for maximum profit. And yet it is that very organic quality, that focus of “in the moment”, that living being-ness of what goes on in Ceremony that is what in fact defines it as Ceremony, as Sacred, and not something to go through on the way to the party.
So, for any couples out there, I encourage you to really examine what it is that you want to create for yourselves on your wedding day. If you are seeking to commit consciously to Marriage, make the Ceremony enacting that your focal point, with the other elements of the day lovingly serving the Beauty of being present to those Sacred Vows to each other.

Right Place, Right Time

2007-12-03T17:34:00.000-06:00

I’ve been a bit behind on my blog this fall, but nothing like getting asked to be on Paulo Coelho’s blog to get me back to it (check it out!) What an amazing gift! Here I am, starting out this year, trying to get the word out about who I am and what I do as Ceremonialist. To be offered this kind of connection by someone I admire so much is totally heartening, amazingly supportive and just what I need.

So I got to thinking about who has helped me get to this point where I can be in the right place at the right time in this way. There have been many guides in my life to whom I owe a great deal, and one of the most inspiring to me has been my teacher for the past 7 years, Kathleen Leeson, RH.

Kathleen is a Shamanic Healer and Clinical Herbalist who works in Ottawa. I started seeing her in one-on-one appointments years ago when I was sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As I began recovering, I started taking herbal courses with her to learn about the incredible plants that were aiding me in transforming my health. The Wisdom Of Plants Herbal Apprenticeship Program taught about both the physical and spiritual healing of Nature's green beings. After several years, Kathleen created a 4-year Intensive Program about finding your Life’s Purpose and learning how to fulfill upon it. I am graduating this year, having accepted my Soul Contract as Ceremonialist and having spent this time learning not only about Ceremony but also about how to engage with my own energies especially discerning when I am in the flow of co-creative energies or coming from destructive energies. In this way I have become adept at my own Conscious Process and come through where I need to be on my own behalf and in service to the Whole.

I believe that teachers and guides appear to us when we are truly seeking them. Looking back over my time as Kathleen’s student and seeing how transformed my life is from where I started, I know that Kathleen has been exactly the right Teacher for me. Kathleen is so real, so committed to Wholeness, Healing and Transformation that no matter what challenges I have faced, she has lovingly held me in the Truth until I learned how to do it for myself. That, my friends, is a Teacher. May we all be so fortunate and may we all come to embody and share our lessons, for the benefit of the Whole and the next seven generations.

Why I do what I do!

2007-09-30T20:36:00.000-06:00

I have been reading “The Witch of Portobello” by Paulo Coelho (2007) and I came across this perfect quote, which sums up why I feel so strongly about the work I do as Ceremonialist:
“Our time on this earth is sacred, and we should celebrate every moment. The importance of this has been completely forgotten: even religious holidays have been transformed into opportunities to go to the beach or the park or skiing. There are no more rituals. Ordinary actions can no longer be transformed into manifestations of the sacred.” (pg 11)
With my work, I am choosing to be a part of reviving the lost and forgotten opportunities and making them available again as manifestation of the sacred. I feel very blessed to do so and look forward to meeting those who want these ways in their lives.

And Now, a Pagan Handfasting!

2007-08-13T19:35:00.001-06:00

Another day, another one-of-a-kind ceremony. Yesterday was the Pagan Handfasting Ceremony for a couple who had gotten legally married the year before in another part of the country and who wanted to do it up in style in their hometown on their one-year anniversary.
The bride is very practiced in the ways of ceremony – a veritable mistress/master. So for her day, she selected a smorgasbord of rituals – everything from her guests calling in the directions (a standard Pagan ritual), to a six-cord handfasting (for those of you who are unfamiliar, the couple is – temporarily – bound together with cords, as the origin of the phrase “tying the knot”), to personalized vows for the exchange of rings, to drinking out of a chalice as part of the wedding ceremony.
Because the couple was so grounded in their beliefs and true to themselves, it was remarkable for me to be with them in the intimate space of the inner circle (the outer circle was about 75 guests) as they recited their vows. What love and honesty. And again, they did it their own way, which is the only way to do it, in my way of thinking. Not a guest among them will forget the day, which also later included Sacred Circle Dancing and Fire Pit Jumping, followed by an al fresco meal in the nearby apple orchard. A day to remember!

A Beautiful Wedding

2007-08-05T16:34:00.002-06:00

The wedding I officiated yesterday was AMAZING. The ceremony consisted only of the couple, the blended family of their 5 children and 2 witnesses, all on a gorgeous summer morning overlooking their rolling farmland in the Gatineau Hills. Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting in which to get married.
It was a simple ceremony, incorporating her Earth-Honouring spirituality, his Chinese background and their new family unit. We had music they chose, one of the older kids helped me with the opening and when it was time, the couple read vows they had hand-picked and had me edit to fit their beliefs. It was so intimate and so special. After the couple’s vows, each of them then took vows for each of their new step-children and gave them a necklace as a token of their new parenthood. The ceremony ended with them dancing as a family to a song they all loved and then going off to a family picnic.
The best thing for me was that the whole ceremony was exactly true to who they are – all the words, all the actions, the setting, everything fitted the very fibre of the participants. Nothing contrived and everything authentic and wonderous. How fun this is!

Funeral Rites

2007-07-10T19:33:00.000-06:00

I have just had the privilege of officiating at my first funeral. Some friends have wondered if they should ask “Did it go well?” Well, yes, thank you, it went beautifully. I don’t know about you, but I have been to some BAD funerals – ones where barely anything is revealed about the person who died and you feel like this funeral was exactly the same as the one that took place 30 minutes previous except the name is different.
It is essential to mark a death well. The person well grieved is the person well loved. I mean it really is a privilege to meet a family and have them share their stories about the person they loved so much. It is an honour for me to hold space for them heal and grieve together and then to take their sharings and craft a funeral with personally meaningful rituals and a eulogy that honours a life.
I believe that it is a calling and a gift well offered when the family members told me that they thought the service was beautiful and exactly what they wanted. His death marks the beginning of their new life without him and it is key for them to have beauty with them in that time of transition.

Happy Summer Solstice!

2007-06-22T19:30:00.000-06:00

Happy Summer Solstice! As part of a Council of Women, I co-organized the First Annual Women’s Summer Solstice Gathering, held this year near Low, Quebec. A whole day preparing for and then offering a Healing Ceremony to the Earth and the Web of Life. The Ceremony was originally taught to our Ceremonialist for the day, my teacher Kathleen Leeson, by Brooke Medicine Eagle, a Native American Elder.
12 of us gathered for the day, to touch the Earth with love. We began with some introductions and then chose ballots which split us into one of four groups, one for each of the elements and its corresponding direction: East/Air, South/Fire, West/Water, North/Earth. We then danced a Dance of the Sacred Feminine, a dance I had a dream about 8 months earlier, and one that I brought into form with my Sacred Circle Dance teacher, Linnea Rowlatt.
After bringing our energy together in such a way, we began our group work of getting to know more about the element and direction we were working with on this day. I led the group of the Element of Earth and the Direction of the North. Our group was working with the correspondences of winter, the elder age, feminine energies, groundedness, the physical and the spiritual. I then led a Healing Ceremony with the Earth for the group. Following that, we met to learn the group songs and to choose our group’s way of entering the collective healing dance of the evening’s collective Healing Ceremony.
That evening, on the longest night of the year, as the sun was drawing down in the West, all of the groups came together, offering gifts and expressions of each direction and element, and together we amassed healing energy and offered it to the Earth. We danced and feasted and laughed and most importantly offered healing in service to the Earth – what a glorious day!

The Invitation

2007-05-02T09:53:00.000-06:00

Whether in ceremonies or in everyday life, we all need inspiration. A great place to find this is in books. One of my favourite inspirational Canadian writers is Oriah Mountain Dreamer. This is a quote from her bestselling book The Invitation about celebration:
"We are having a special meal to celebrate the end of my sons' school term. You can tell it is special because we are eating in the dining room. The table has been set with the Blue Willow china - not really "good" china, but a different pattern and less chipped than what is used daily. I am in the last-minute frenzy of trying to get everything from the kitchen to the table while it is stil hot...Suddenly Taras is on his feet, grinning and moving toward me from the opposite end of the table. "God, you look beautiful!" he says...His unexpected exuberance makes me believe him. He starts singing the wordless melody of the Blue Danube waltz and dancing around the table pulling me with him as I halfheartedly protest that the food will get cold...Joy finds us and lifts us in ordinary moments like this, if we let it." (The Invitation, pages 48-49)

Celebrants in the News

2007-05-02T09:42:00.003-06:00

I was trained as a Celebrant, first by In-Sight Books as a Funeral Celebrant, and then by the Celebrant USA Foundation and Institute, the organization mentioned in the article, with a speciality in weddings. Because I have also had training in Ceremony in the Celtic shamanic tradition with Kathleen Leeson, RH, and other shamanic studies which I can bring into my work, I call myself a Ceremonialist rather than a Celebrant. However, because my orientation is in service of the client's needs, I can also do totally secular ceremonies as well and therefore can act as a Celebrant. The following article is a great illustration of how Ceremony can be a part of anyone's life and how Celebrants particularly work to create a vast number of personalized ceremonies.

Click on the photo to enlarge it and read the article.

February's Imbolc Altar & Ceremony

2007-02-28T13:51:00.000-06:00

This is my personal Imbolc altar.

Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, is the Celtic celebration that took place this year on February 2. The Imbolc time of year is about looking at what “seeds” you are planting in your Life. It is the time of inceiving and conceiving of what you want to create in your year ahead with the Intention of nurturing and sustaining these plans in the garden of your own life. This celebration is also about the returning rays of the Sun and that now is the time to nourish and give fuel to the unique light that you are in the world.

This was also the first ceremony of my practicum this year and with the snowstorm going on outside, we had a cozy group of 6 participants! In part of the ceremony, we did a ritual where we literally planted seeds in the pot of Earth in the center of the altar, speaking aloud that which we are Intending to sustain as commitments in our lives this year. The pot and the candles surrounding it were all in white, like the snowy outdoors. I had a picture of the ceremonial altar, but the photo didn’t turn out!

Instead, I offer you a look at my own. I use my personal altar to align to looking at my life symbolically. In this case, the eight candles around the center symbolize the eight turns of the Celtic Year Wheel at the same time as each of the directions (North, South, East, West) and the cardinal points in between. I already have committed to co-creating ceremonies at each of these times in the year. The candle in the center is a symbol of me. The “altar jewelry” is for the seeds of Intention and the fun to be had, and the artwork on the upper part is about the Cycle of Life. (It is also a photo of the quilting extravaganza of a local fabric artist and teacher, Liane Thiry-Smith.) Isn’t it beautiful?

Welcome Winterluders!

2007-02-10T09:30:00.000-06:00

If I met you today at my Winterlude Booth, welcome! It was nice talking to you and I'm glad you came to check out my site. Come by in a couple weeks when I'll have photos up of ceremonies that I've officiated, the seasonal changes I make to my altar, and more thoughts on ceremonies and how you can help make ritual an important part of your life either with my help or on your own initiative.

What is Ceremony?

2007-02-10T09:00:00.000-06:00

Ceremony is a time and space consciously intended to be apart from ordinary life, in which we create connection, to ourselves and to the cycle of Life. Every culture in the world has ceremonies that acknowledge and incorporate the major life events of those within the community, whether it be wedding vows, funeral rites, coming-of-age rituals, or anything else they culturally value and consider important to mark collectively.

What is the Purpose of Ceremony?

2007-02-10T08:37:00.000-06:00

Traditionally, there are 3 main reasons for having ceremonies.
1) For Community Building – cultivating and deepening relationships
between people to create more harmonious and sustainable communities.
2) For Earth-Honouring – consciously experiencing our lives as part of the cycle of Life in order to create connection with our place in the natural world.
3) For Healing – coming together with a specific Intention to create more Well-Being and Wholeness.
Any of these Intentions may be
incorporated into the ceremony you would envision. Traditionally, the Shamans in the community Journey for the appropriate Intent and form of ceremony that is best-for-the-whole. Journeying in this way is my specialty and experience, which you are invited to include for your unique ceremony.

Weddings: What can I expect from working with you as a Ceremonialist?

2007-02-10T08:22:00.000-06:00

Initially, I meet with the parties involved to find out who you are and what you envision. What happens next depends on the kind of ceremony you are looking to create.

For weddings, I would meet with you for a free no-obligation 45-minute consultation. At this point, we would look at your ideas and discuss various possibilities that I can contribute based on my expertise. At the first consultation I give you an estimate of the time involved to create your personalized ceremony and provide you with a quote of my fee based on my rate of $50/hour.

If you decide to hire me, I would leave you with a questionnaire to learn more about you and based on what you share I would begin drafting a ceremony. You can expect about 3 drafts for you to review and edit, but we can do more if required. I can do a rehearsal and I can also co-ordinate with the other members of the day, ie. photographers, musicians, etc. I would also give you a written copy of your unique ceremony as a keepsake.

Funerals and Other Ceremonies: What can I expect from working with you as a Ceremonialist?

2007-02-10T08:02:00.000-06:00

Initially, I meet with the parties involved to find out who you are and what you envision. What happens next depends on the kind of ceremony you are looking to create.

For funerals, I would give you a quote over the phone based on your needs and we would hold a family meeting to share about your loved one. From your stories, we would create an appropriate form of tribute. I would also then officiate at the funeral, and conduct a graveside service or internment if needed.

For other types of ceremonies, I can offer any or all of the following: I would be responsible for hosting the ritual, guiding people’s experiences and assisting anyone who is participating. I would bring you ideas about structure and content, and I would give you a quote based on those services contracted. In all cases, I create ceremonies based on extensive consultation with you, until we arrive at a ceremony which reflects your experience of your life.

Ceremony Packages

2007-02-10T07:58:00.001-06:00

Here are the different kinds of ceremony packages I offer:

1) Personalized Ceremonial Consultation - I act as a constultant to craft a unique ceremony that you participate in without me as an officiant.
2) Personalized Officiated Ceremony — I act as a consultant and create a ceremony that reflects your vision and at which I officiate.
3) Ceremony for the Benefit of the Whole — I do a shamanic journey for a ceremony on your behalf.
4) Officiating of a pre-determined ceremony — I preside over at a ceremony you have already created, ie. a wedding or a funeral/memorial.

Carrie's Bio and Qualifications

2007-02-09T16:20:00.000-06:00

To tell you a little more about me, here is the official bio that I use:

Carrie Rathwell has a passion for celebration that brings all of her life experiences together as Ceremonialist.

Growing up on a farm, she was deeply connected to nature and her rural community. She graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1995 and then lived for 7 months in Burkina Faso, West Africa and got first-hand experience of a culture rich with ceremonial traditions.

In 1999, she began studying intensively with Kathleen Leeson, R.H., Clinical Herbalist and Shamanic Healer. While completing the 3 years of the Wisdom of the Plants Apprenticeship and by participating in a Women’s Circle, she began to regularly gather in ceremony. Carrie felt at home in this practice of healing, connection and grace.

She spent the next years getting further involved. She graduated in 2006 from the Traditional Healer Internship offered by Kathleen Leeson, took courses in 2005-6 with Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and in 2006 became a Certified Funeral Celebrant with In-Sight Books, taught by Doug Manning, a leader in the field.

Carrie became a Certified Celebrant in April 2007 by graduating from an 8-month course offered by the Celebrant Foundation and Institute. She has been also spending this year acquiring practical experience creating and leading various ceremonies. She feels it is an honour and a joy to offer her services as Ceremonialist in the Ottawa area.