THE DEDICATION RITUAL

This article describes an exercise I have used in Life Purpose Intensives and some of the experiences people have had. The full exercise can be found in my book Inner Journeys.

            First there is a guided meditation to help people get in touch with the deepest level of their life purpose, to get in touch with a larger ideal or mission that they would like to dedicate themselves to.  In the meditation, they imagine going deep underground and finding a room in which they discover something related to their life purpose.

Then the group performs a ritual in which each person has a chance to make that dedication. Everyone goes outside and finds a bit of nature that represents for them the source of their dedication.  It might be a twig, a leaf, a flower, a stone, or something unique that they find.  Then people walk slowly in a procession to ritual music until they reach a sacred circle of stones. There each person in turn places their object in the center, saying aloud, "I dedicate myself to --------."  

            People are sometimes wary of this ritual, because of the serious nature of making such a dedication, and perhaps because of discomfort with rituals in general.  However, they invariably enter into it and are quite moved.

Stories

            Sandra had explored her sense of life direction over the months in an ongoing group, and she found herself more and more drawn to artistic endeavors.  However, she kept feeling that she was not talented enough or worthy enough to pursue art as a life purpose.  In the guided meditation, when she entered her room, she was deeply moved to find it full of art materials.  As she spent time exploring the room and reflecting on its meaning, she felt a profound sense of self-acceptance and permission to follow her artistic inclination. 

            Another woman chose a stone and a leaf for her objects.  She identified with the stone, because "while stones can seem dull, when you put them under water, interesting lines and colors are revealed."  She feels that she came from a potentially dull background but has consistently allowed waves of change to wash over her to bring out her essence.  The leaf was important for her because its colors represent fall, which is an introspective time when she can see all the changes she has gone through in the year.  She dedicated herself to helping other people through their important periods of change.

The Children of the World

Bill was especially concerned about the nuclear threat (this was the early 80’s).  When he entered his source room, he found a group of children who were frightened of nuclear war, who felt that they would never grow up.  Even though he had known what his dedication  would be before doing the guided meditation, it was very important for him to spend some time in the room with the children.  He listened to them and comforted them, and he told them that he would dedicate his life to protecting them.  At that time he had no children of his own but wanted one very much.  He felt that he was speaking to his own unborn child as well.

            He decided that the object which best expressed his dedication was not outside in nature but in the home where we were meeting.  He was drawn to a little porcelain figure of a child, which he placed in the circle to represent his love of children.  He dedicated himself to ending the threat of nuclear war to the children of the world, so that they might grow up without fear to lead full lives. 

            When Bill placed his object in the circle and made the dedication, he spontaneously bowed to the ground.  This act expressed and confirmed how much the dedication meant to him; it "sealed" the dedication for him.  He was also moved by witnessing other people's dedications.  This gave him a sense of "everyone being a product of the earth and drawing power from her, and having a drive toward healing her."

            He came away from the exercise with a strong determination to get to work on his goal.  By this time Bill had also done significant work on overcoming his difficulties with confidence and follow through.  Soon afterwards he threw himself fully into the peace movement.  This was during the early Reagan years and he felt caught up in an emergency situation that demanded his full commitment.  He got intensely involved in his local nuclear freeze organization and devoted countless hours to that work over the next year and a half.  It was a time of high excitement, sustained effort, and great satisfaction.