7 day Love Ceremony

Imagine being such a treasured and important part of society, that the whole of the community stopped everything to celebrate you for 7 days straight. Everything during that time was completely centered around you. This type of life is hard to conceptualize, because personal worth in our societies is categorized and ranked.

How deep is your love?

There is an order to a person's importance. Our mates and our children have a special place in our hearts. Our extended family and friends comes next, and where they fit into our lives depends on our relationship with them. Then comes community and country. Sometimes there is a deep commitment to our sports teams that competes with all those things. But those who we depend on for our livelihood are often placed above all, even if they are not as near or dear to us.

We also rank spirituality, giving it a certain priority in our heart’s hierarchy. Where that belief system gets placed often depends on our religion, our culture, our social circle and sometimes even our government. It doesn't always makes sense and it becomes muddied in the mind. That is because it is placed outside the self, rather than seen as an integral part of who we are.

Too much love?

We have to fight for our place in this world, so that experience of unconditional love feels foreign. So yes, of course it's hard to imagine that we can be of such importance that the whole community would stop for 7 days to celebrate us. Also, as lovely as it sounds the reality of it can be uncomfortable. It takes an enormous amount of self love to be able to sit in that position of being seen so completely.

I had a taste of an altruistic life through a meditation experience with Palo Santo. These ancient and very sacred tree people exude unconditional love. They showed me what it is like to be bathed in it.

Love Dance

Palo Santo took me to an ancient village in Peru. There was a clearing near the woods where everyone gathered for a sacred ceremony. It was a wedding ceremony. It was a wedding unlike I had every experienced or even imagined. Every single person there was there for one single purpose. They were fully present in that purpose. Each one felt so much love for the bridge and groom.

This ceremony lasted for 7 days. They danced the dance of love, taught through the generations over centuries. Everyone in the village brought the bride and groom all that they needed, including all their meals. They did nothing but dance. They danced into an altered state. They were out of their bodies. It was an experience of pure ecstasy. They were truly united.

At the end of the ceremony the couple said goodbye to each member of the village. It was part of the rite of passage from being single to becoming one with their mate. Even saying goodbye was like a dance—holding hands and twirling.

There's Hope and there's Crystals

Though this experience sounds like fantasy, it felt like a a past life memory rather than a meditative journey. It filled me with hope to know that humans could live this way.

This experience of unconditional love is held in our collective memory. That means it is something that we can tap into when we are feeling disconnected from a true sense of community. You can access the records of this altruistic society through Palo Santo, like I did or guided by a stone being. The crystal community can take us there because they live there.