Life Transitions and Celebrations ~ Rituals and Groups

Life is constantly in flux and each of us goes through many changes and significant events – sometimes joyous and desirable, sometimes painful and not wanted, and sometimes a bit of both. Honoring and celebrating our lives, whatever happens, helps create for us fulfillment, beauty, and meaning, to appreciate each moment, and gives us strength and wisdom to accept life changes and to engage them creatively, rather than reject and resist them.

Ritual helps us to do this, according to Angeles Arrien, to “support the changes [we] are experiencing and create a way to ‘fit things together” (the root meaning of the word ritual). Barbara Bijou says that “in every ritual, we connect to something larger than ourselves, evoking a higher force to be with us. Thus we are able to bring a sacred feeling to ordinary events, transforming them into times of quiet reflection and connection.” She also says that rituals “slow us down,… keep us centered in the present,… [and] allow us to deal with the past and envision our futures in a very healthy, directed way.”

As a ritualist and celebrant, Rev. Gary helps people to fit things together and be more healthily engaged with their past, present, and future. Beginning with the creating of sacred space and clear intention, he custom-designs and leads participatory rituals that contain one or more of the following: prayer, blessings, reflection, conscious breathing, guided visualization, stories, music, movement, and many symbolic objects. These include candles, food and drink, earth, precious stones, flowers, photographs, bowls, clothing, and much more.

Here are some of the life transition events that Rev. Gary honors through ritual: