The group takes a break and you are all asked to go out on the Land and pray or do ceremony during the break. Or you are asked to read something, or to have a specific type of experience and see what happens when you do. Or overnight between sessions you have a dream that seems related to the topic at hand. Or you see something outside your window at breakfast that somehow seems related to something we talk about later the same day.
But you don’t do the things you were asked to do, or you don’t share your dream or your experience — because it makes you feel awkward or silly. BUT This is where the Knowledge comes from! And if it comes at this time, it is being given to you for the precise purpose of bringing to the group.
So please do what we ask you to do. Talk about the thing that should be shared in the group. Do the ceremony on the Land we ask you to do. The sense of shame and/or fear you feel, that stops you, is how Western culture edits important Knowledge out of human experience, and limits what we can do together. So even if you feel self-conscious or awkward or silly at first, participate fully.
If you need some help or guidance, ask. No one will judge you for it. If you feel awkward, say so. We will understand and offer you support. We are all used to being judged by people in the dominant culture, and we know that happens to you sometimes too. It happens to absolutely everyone. But we won’t judge you for sharing these things, or doing these things, because we are in a different landscape. So while we are not asking you to run outside in a lightning storm (bad idea), once the lightning passes we might be asking you not to stay indoors just because the ground is wet or you feel too self-conscious to talk to the Land as if it can hear and understand you. (Note: It can.)
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