Every day as I begin my spiritual practice, I start with greeting and honoring Gaia, then follow that with honoring the 4 directions. For me, this is very grounding and energizing. It goes something like this:
Facing the EAST. With gratitude and joy, I greet and honor the spirit keepers of the EAST. I give thanks for the gifts of the EAST – for the sacred element of FIRE and our SPIRITS, for new beginnings, for morning and sunrise and new moon and spring, for infancy and childhood and learning, for babies and birth and eggs and seeds and spores and rhisomes, for inspiration, commitment and HOPE.
(then bend down hands and gather from the earth, then raise hands and gather from the sky – push this to the east with left hand, then draw through with the right hand toward the west to bring yourself facing south)
Facing the SOUTH. With gratitude and joy, I greet and honor the spirit keepers of the SOUTH. I give thanks for the gifts of the SOUTH – for the sacred element of WATER and our EMOTIONS, for the fullness of things, for adulthood and the work we do, for midday and full moon and summer, for the planet teeming with life, for gardens and flowers and abundance, for creativity and LOVE.
(then bend down hands and gather from the earth, then raise hands and gather from the sky – push this to the south with left hand, then draw through with the right hand toward the north to bring yourself facing west)
Facing the WEST. With gratitude and joy, I greet and honor the spirit keepers of the WEST. I give thanks for the gifts of the WEST – for the sacred element of EARTH and our BODIES, for cycles and endings, for old age and wisdom, for evening and sunset and waning moon and autumn, for manifestation, mystery and transformation, for impermanence, decomposition, and death.
(then bend down hands and gather from the earth, then raise hands and gather from the sky – push this to the west with left hand, then draw through with the right hand toward the east to bring yourself facing north)
Facing the NORTH. With gratitude and joy, I greet and honor the spirit keepers of the NORTH. I give thanks for the gifts of the NORTH – for the sacred element of AIR and our MINDS, for CONSCIOUSNESS and ideas, for rest, for nighttime and dark moon and winter, for the field and the void.
(then bend down hands and gather from the earth, then raise hands and gather from the sky – push this to the north with left hand, then draw through with the right hand toward the south to bring yourself facing east again)
This is the end of the exercise, which I usually follow with connecting with first Gaia, then spirit, then building my energy and sending love to all humans and nature and all of the planet.
11/15/2023 - Sylvia Reed