Ceremonial ceremonies

 

The first time we went to a cultural ceremony in Brazil it was Candomblé in Salvador, Bahia. The guy told us, in Portuguese, what to wear. It was very important to not dress in black. We should not dress in black. He said "dress" and "black" a lot and we knew those words and that's what we did. It was awkward for everybody, two white people dressed in black in a roomful of Black people dressed in white. We didn't understand a word of the ceremony, but we did throw popcorn, and Carol got spun into a trance. So we were able to participate, but it wasn't pretty.  

The most recent ceremony was a cacao ceremony over the weekend. We followed the instructions and made it to the fire more-or-less on time, with food to share, dressed appropriately, and with most of the right things, although we did forget the cups for the cacao. While we were there we meditated, set intentions, drank the medicine from borrowed paper cups, listened to prayers, and participated in the music. There are benchmarks along the way and things are improving.