October 29, 2016    
 
DAY OF THE DEAD CEREMONY IS CANCELLED  FOR SUNDAY October 30th.
 
THE LODGE ON NOV 5th is still moving forward and we welcome your attendance and help with set-up/clean-up.
 
With much love love and appreciation for you, our ancestors, the path with heart, this good green planet and all the love we can muster and share to help us to grow, evolve and live in harmony. Whatever you admired about your ancestors bring it forward into the world through your words and actions. We need you and their well healed medicine to keep healing our world,
 
With heart,
 Miriam/Firebird
 
Dear Community,
 
What a dazzling day today, cool with clear blue skies. Here in the Piedmont it is barely noticeable that we just had a hurricane pass through but the coast is still feeling the effects of waters rising, with flood damage and loss of life. Times are tough for so many. We are all, it would seem, a bit shell shocked by the barrage of unpleasantness in our news cycles.  I have not felt such bitter polarization and mean spirited words and deeds being directed at whomever one considers to be "the other" since the race riots of my teen years in North Carolina around desegregation.  I feel deep sadness at the state of our emotional and spiritual well-being in this country with such polarization and violent rhetoric.  I know many who are having a hard time maintaining a sense of equilibrium and balance in these times. Let us remember what is important, the value of human life, everyone of us. Look into one another's eyes with kindness and connection.  Let us treat one another with the kind of respect and courtesy that we would like to receive whether we agree with one another or not.   As my teacher Will Rockingbear used to say: "Speak your cold hard truth with soft round words." 
 
We are offering a few ways to heal in community with one another in the weeks ahead: 

Saturday October 29th 10:00-3:00 we will have a Rattle Making Ceremony so if you would like to make a rattle for yourself for use in ceremony and healing come join us.   The cost for this is $80.00 which includes most of the supplies needed and lunch. See below for more information. 
 
Oct 30th  at 4:30 we will have the annual Day of The Dead Fire Ceremony to honor our ancestors, always a lovely and inspiring evening with a large community altar for your photos, favorite foods, flowers, chocolates, candles and such to honor those who have come before us and have taken the spirit road. 
 
We have had a request for a sweat lodge which is scheduled for November 6th (Sunday) with a workday on Saturday the 5th from 10:00 -1:00 .  We also welcome help at other times if Saturday does not work for you. Just give Miriam a call and we can find a time for you to help out.    This lodge will be just days before the election and we can send out prayers of healing for our community, country and world.  We will need them regardless of the outcome. Once you rsvp to me I will send you some instructions on how to prepare if this ceremony is new to you.  Please call me so I can give you information, answer your questions, and hav ea sense of your prior experience. Newcomers are welcome, just wnat to help orient you to the ceremony.
 
I hope to see you here, there or somewhere.  May you find your own way to make a difference in these troubling times, one that brings people together rather than tearing them down and creating more distance. Let love guide our way and bring light into the places that need it.  
 
In peace,
Miriam/Firebird
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fire Ceremonies 2016
Day of the Dead         Sunday       October 30           4:30 pm
Winter Solstice          Sunday        December 18        4:30 pm
 
 
Come bring your inspiration or find some here for yourself.  The fire is where we lay down our fears and excuses and take responsibility for what we are willing and able to do to make this world a better place right now!   Take strength, courage, love, light, growth, resilience, clarity, innocence, playfulness, and joy away with you.  You will have the opportunity to release beliefs, grief, feelings, thoughts, relationships or anything else that is hampering your ability to be fully and completely who you are by offering them to the fire. We will witness each other as we make new agreements with spirit and dream our lives into being. We will feed the holies and ask their assistance in co-creating ourselves, our thoughts and our lives as we wish them to be.  If your health and circumstance permit you to stay for the entire ceremony we appreciate that greatly and it is always ok to take care of yourself or your children so please plan accordingly. This is not about rules or permission, it is about respecting ourselves and others,witnessing and being witnessed in sacred community.  The choice is always yours!
 
Bring a chair, flashlight, drum, rattle, closed water bottle and dress for outdoors (if super cold or heavy rain we'll be indoors by the woodstove). Feel free to bring some healthy food to share if you are so moved. If you are drawn to be here please call or email Miriam at (919) 304-5754 or melieber@mebtel.net so I’ll know how many people to expect and give you directions if needed. Come prepared for both indoor and outdoor conditions weather depending.   I invite all women to wear a skirt or sarong over pants to honor our sacred grandmothers and the circle of life.  There is never a fee for ceremony but Gifting is appropriate and appreciated to support the life and work of the elders who dedicate their lives to keeping the old ways available and for wood and supplies needed for ceremony and the upkeep of the land.
 
 
NEW SHAMANIC HEALING CIRCLE
 
 
This circle is currently full but there is a wait list for anyone interested should shifting occur.
Do let me know of your interest. If enough people are interested perhaps a second group could form.
Spirit has been whispering in my ear for a bit now to start another circle that meets on a regular basis (bi-weekly for starters) to deepen our relationship with our guides and helpers, to heal ourselves , to dream to the sacred beat of the drum, to share wisdom teachings and step out of the frenetic pace of life, to be authentic clear channels for spirit. I am proposing some dates (alternate Monday evenings beginning on All Souls Day). Once a group is formed we can decide together if these dates and times will work or need to be changed. I will be sharing teachings from the elders I have had the privilege to sit with, from my fifteen years of annual pilgrimage to vision quest in sacred community (as quester and supporter) and as one whose life purpose it is to serve and feed the people on this path with heart.  I invite you to bring your wisdom teachings, healing gifts and spirit of love. The drums are calling to be played and for their medicine to be shared in the service of humanity.
 
If you too feel this call, please  let me know your intentions, needs, desires and willingness to commit to holding sacred space together. I can be reached at 919 304-5754 or 919 618-4919. 
 
A suggested donation for the holding of the space and facilitation of the circle: $20.00-25.00.
As always the amount of your gift is between you and spirit. 
 
 
Arapaho Little Boys and Girls Sweat Lodge
  ( Available by request unless specific dates are listed herein and/or in addtion to dates listed.)
 
Sunday November 6th
with workday Saturday November 5th
 
Workday to rebuild the lodge for the New Year Friday Decmber 30th
 
Saturday December 31 Lodge to Ring in the New year
 
  The lodge is poured by Miriam / Firebird  in the tradition passed down to me by my beloved Elder Sharon Mitchell.  This is a beautiful teaching lodge that has the strength and heat for those with experience and the gentleness and ease for those who will join us for the first time (which is how it came to be known as the Little Boys and Girls Lodge).  It is not a lodge specifically for children as some have asked, but supervised children are welcome to attend ceremonies here unless otherwise specified.  Please notify me if spirit is calling you to join us, so I can let you know how to prepare and know how many people are coming.  Please know that we need at least 8 people to pour a lodge due to all the preparations involved so let us know if you would like to join us in ceremony.  
 
People always ask me "how long does a lodge take?" My first thought is how much we need these ceremonies to take us back to soul time where it is the experience, the prayers, the being together in community, the work as worship that really matter and not the construct of time that we are forced to run our lives by.  I have learned for myself to not schedule anything else on lodge days as I step outside of "time" to be present to what is, the stones, the fire, the people and their prayers, the feast and then basking in the richness afterwards.  Please take care of yourselves however you need to with "time". You are welcome to join us for the time you can be with us and if you need to leave due to other commitments that is yours to keep track of.  My wish for you is that you can be timeless with us and sink into the ceremony as it unfolds organically.  If for some reason you need to leave during the lodge please be sure to let me and/or the firekeeper know so we can assist you.  
 
We usually light the fire around 9 am and close the ceremony with a feast in the afternoon after cleaning up the ceremonial grounds.  It is tradition to leave a place better than you found it.   Please bring a dish to share for the feast following the lodge.  
 
Workdays : I'm looking forward to hearing from those of you who want to build this community, be you newcomers, or those who have been here often to share in the love of lodge from beginning to end.  
 We can always use help with gathering or purchasing, and splitting and moving wood, raking, moving blankets, etc.  We are in need of  stone people if you can bring some stones that have not been in an active creek bed (cantalope size) If you have a truck and/or chain saw and want to help gather some wood between lodges please let me know so we can find times to work together, it is an ongoing need.  The preparations are part of the ceremony and are a labor of love and communion with the land, the tall standing ones, the stone people, mother earth, the water and help deepen one’s experience of the ceremony as we joyfully prepare the grounds together. 
 
 
Contact Miriam/Firebird at 919 304-5754 or melieber@mebtel.net  if you are called to attend.  Please RSVP  with contact info if you would like to join us.  I will let you know what to bring, how to find us and how to best prepare once I know you are coming.  Feel free to call with any questions as well.    Checking in the day before lodge to verify last minute information or changes due to weather, illness or attendance is strongly encouraged as we have to have a certain number of people to hold this particular ceremony.
 
         
  
Rattle Making Ceremony
Saturday October 29th  10:00-3:00
Cost $80.00 includes most supplies and lunch
 
Rattles have been used for millenia for dowsing,  healing and in ceremony to deepen our connection with spirit and our own guides and helpers.  We will journey into the dreamtime to make contact with the energy of the rattle you will be making.  You will bring it into form and charge it up with your own energy.   We will use rawhide, seeds, sand, wood, and other offerings from the mother earth to bring these beings into creation.  With them we will find our own sacred songs.
 
Please Bring: a can or box to take your rattle head home in to dry, something large enough to fill with sand to hold it. bring little seas shells, sea salt, seeds, beads, small round stones (size of corn seeds), ribbons, personal scissors, awls, cutting boards, sharp pocket knifes or box cutters, 
 
Registration: by Wednesday October 26 with $40.00 deposit to hold your place or payment of $80.00 in full  so I  can make sure we have enough people and for me to gather supplies. Please call me at 919 304-5754 and mail payment to Miriam Lieberman  1920 Western Trail  Chapel Hill, NC 27516
 
 
 
Thanks for reading!  Remember who you are, what you came here to do and have fun sharing your gifts with us all ! Shine your light brightly with love and gratitude.
  
Drumsong Sanctuary for the Soul
Miriam Lieberman
(919) 304-5754 or melieber@mebtel.net
1920 Western Trail
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
www.drumsongsanctuary.com 
 
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