I just love putting together the “puzzle pieces” each month and designing a fulfilling Circle for the women. I know that not everyone likes the planning portion of ritual as much as I do, so I try to offer my outlines and plans on a regular basis, so you can pick what works for your community, or just follow it as-written and not need to come up with something new! This was the outline for this month’s Red Tent Circle. Enjoy!
• Group hum to “cast the circle” (rationale and process explained in this past post)
Goddesses waiting to be painted!
• Welcome and pass red cord with maternal lineage.*
• Sing Circle of Women (we’ve been substituting “women” for “mother” in our modified version of this beautiful chant originally by Nalini Blossom, since we have several childfree women in our circle).
Prompt: Do you feel needed? Too much or enough? If you were planted what would you grow?
“I am a woman, delicate
And growing
Sewing parts of myself back together.”
Prompt: what parts of you feel like they need stitching back together? How are you delicate? How are you growing?
• Sing and dance to Rise Up song and any other requests.
My own Soul Scribble. Very relevant to where I was that night and continuing to share insight with me today.
• Do Soul Scribbles (each woman closes eyes and draws a spontaneous scribble in her journal. Then, pass all scribbles to the left and each woman adds to each scribble. Keep passing to the left until each woman has added to each person’s scribble. This is really fun! The only eyes closed time is the first time, then you add what you’d like while looking. After the originals get back to their originator, she “reads” it. What does it have to tell her? What is the message? What does she see? Journal and discuss!) We learned this from Traci, a Creatively Fit Coach with Back to heART Creations.
• Paint goddesses! (I make these using plaster of paris in the pregnant goddess and spiral goddess soap molds I purchased from here.)
• Hold hands in circle and sing Woman Am I to close.
*Notes:
The red thread is a classic Red Tent element used to symbolize our maternal line as well as our connection to one another. It is the red thread of the generations, connecting us through time and space to all the women who have come before us and all the women who will come after us. It links us, womb to womb, around the world, and throughout time. When we have need of sisterhood, support, connection, and community, we can metaphorically “tug the red thread,” to reach out and connect to the women around us for support with what we’re experiencing.
I took out the “I am not a feminist” and “don’t fuck with me” lines from the Woman poem. The first because the word feminist is so often misunderstood within our society and I do not want to be a part of denigrating or rejecting it further! I AM a feminist and there’s nothing wrong with that! The second, because it doesn’t fit with my personality as a facilitator and it also felt kind of “tacked on” to the poem.
