GREAT MORNING BELOVED!!!

The Burning Bowl Ceremony

Welcome to our end of the year Burning Bowl Ceremony. The Burning Bowl service is a sacred ritual that allows a quiet time of reflection, surrender, and release.

It is a fire ceremony that helps us release old, unwanted conditions or events in our lives.
We name and let go of the old that no longer serves us—and make way for new beginnings

Lao Tsu, wrote in the Tao Te Ching: “In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.”

By now you probably went through your closets and bureau drawers to make a place for the gifts that you received from family and friends. This is the analogy we use for the ‘house cleaning’ we wish to do in our hearts and minds. We wish to let go of those thoughts, habits, situations and people that no longer serve our highest and best good.

The Christmas Season has reminded us of the Christ within us. We know and are aware of that Presence. And as we continue to work towards a better connection with that inner Christ Presence, our authentic self, we now have an opportunity to release those things that have presented themselves to us over this past year that taught the lesson provided, hopefully, and we can now let them go.
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We can forgive ourselves for things said and done and forgive others for the same. We can release those habits that do not fit our idea of what and who we wish to be in this coming new year.

And we can let go of those words that have kept us back from our full potential. Words like can’t and try. We know that Yoda loves to say: “Do or don’t do, there is no try.”

“Trying” prevents us from ever achieving our goal. “Try” is a word that signals commitment avoidance, lack of confidence, and it undermines our success.

Another word to release: “need”, as in “I need to do X.” Use “choose” instead, because “choose” takes the activity from the realm of mandatory into the realm of choice, where it belongs.

”Want” is another word to release. Remember in the book, “Conversations with God,” it is made clear that we cannot have what we “want”! As long as we want, we acknowledge lack. So, instead of saying “I want X,” say “I choose X.”
Maybe you have a habit of saying “It’s always something” or other phrases that we say without thinking…. “This is just like pulling teeth”, “I don’t believe it”, “It’s too good to be true.”

It’s time to think before we say things out of habit.

Eliminate the words “ought,” & “should.” Use ‘choose’ in their place.

Release what Caroline Myss calls wound-ology — the sense of being permanently warped by your past; the sense of being a victim in life. Release willfulness, discontent, resistance, depression, being against rather than for, the need to know before you can move forward; let go of being a truth seeker in favor of being a truth finder; release the idea that you are stuck.

 Give up the idea that your life (or marriage, or this church, or your job, or body, your income, etc.) Is already as good as it can be. Release the current limits of your imagination. Release the idea that you can’t be who you are, that it is not safe to be fully yourself. Release the idea that what you don’t release today will never be released, release the idea that it will soon be too late to do what you have to do, that you are unlucky, that you are destined to failure, that you inherit limitations in health or appearance or opportunities.
 Let go of “poor me” thinking; release drama queen histrionics and chicken little panics.

Did I remind you of something that you need to release? We ALL have things that have been ingrained in us, mostly from the domestication brought about by family, school, religion, government and so many other influencers.
Let them go so you can accept who and what you truly are. SO you are open to the blessings of this new day and new year.

I’ll stop with the reminders and go onto the meditation. You should all have a piece of tracing paper, a writing utencil and a magazine or something to help you balance while you are writing.

Let’s get comfortable, take some cleansing breaths. Now as you connect with your higher self, your Christ Consciousness, let that higher-self bring to mind those things, people, thoughts, habits, whatever that no longer serve you.
Jot down a word or phrase to represent that thought. Continue as you are guided by that connection within….

Please don’t use this as an opportunity to beat yourself up for your perceived defects — that’s a major old pattern to release, if you still have such a tendency!

The focus this morning is on what we no longer need. It is not to give you feelings of imperfection. We are all perfect just as we are. And if there is something we choose to change we have the new year to do so!

When you have written down your items to release, center yourself again and review it to confirm your conscious choice to release these items that no longer serve.

Bless them for what they have taught you about yourself, for they have helped you clarify your values and priorities — and have helped you to better know who you really are and what you are becoming.

And so, with a grateful heart, let us all now release that which no longer serves us well, and that which has outgrown its usefulness — and watch the symbols for these ideas which you have outgrown go up in smoke.

When you are ready to burn what you have written. Please don’t fold or crumple your paper — it doesn’t burn efficiently that way. Bless your list as you see it dissolve back into the field of pure energy, and let yourself feel gratitude for the part it has played in bringing you to the point today where you are prepared to experience expanded good in your life. You couldn’t have gotten here any other way.

Please quietly and carefully, place the paper in the flame and watch that energy being released into the ethers. Everything is energy, and we are changing one energy to another.

Maybe you wish to repeat “I remove obstacles from my path that block the light.

When you return to your seat, please be respectful of others who may still be going through the process.

Prayer: Let us be thankful for this opportunity to release and prepare for the new year. We are blessed by the guidance of our Higher Self, that connection to the Christ of our Being. May this be the start of a beautiful and conscious New Year.