Thursday, January 24, 2019

The Beauty of the Navajo Beauty Way

For almost three decades I have been practicing and using the Navajo Beauty Way as a form of magical practice. Used by the Navajo tribe when they were being moved from their native lands onto reservations, the Beauty Way (in various forms) has actually been used in tribal traditions from very ancient times. It is an incredible magical ritual that helps you connect with higher powers and beings and restore a state of inner peace and harmony. It is also a form of "magic spell work in action" that can be done without great effort but to great effect.

We have introduced the Navajo Beauty Way to many of you in articles covering Day Greetings and Day Endings, and the Walking Litany. We hear from people all the time how the effect of this 3 part ritual is truly magical. Participants have all kinds of magical interactions, and learn to see magic in many new ways. The effect has been so strong from those we've heard from, that I definitely want to introduce it to more people. Hence, this blog post!

The Beauty and Magic of This Ritual
Before I dive into the "how," I want to give you the "why" for the Beauty Way. In other words, what does the Beauty Way do for you? Here's a list to get you started.

The Navajo Beauty way is a non-denominational set of exercises from very ancient times, designed to:
  • Restore personal power through developing trust in one's wisdom gained through personal experience
  • Enhance creative flow and one's connection to the environment and nature's laws and forces
  • Help us learn new skills and use new tools for observing and maintaining harmonious and pro-active inner states
  • Develop a practical working relationship with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws
  • Create stability and choice in walking in different realities and worlds.
  • Being safe and protected without the need to build walls or hide behind masks.
  • Establish and maintain contact with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws so as to live in compliance with and gain support in our creative endeavors.
  • Maintain spiritual integrity for individuals or groups during times of high external change and stress.
  • Preserve cultural and spiritual identity beyond the efficacy of sociological myths in times of breakdown, and restructuring of communities, tribes or nations.
  • Restore the balance both internally and externally between the feminine aspect of integration and oneness, and the masculine aspect of separation and duality.
Powerful magic, isn't it?

Dive Into the Beauty Way
So history lesson aside, let's dive right into the Beauty Way. There's no sense in knowing about a magical ritual if you can't use it, right? The Beauty Way has three different forms:

1. Exit Ritual
2. Day Greetings and Endings
3. Walking Litany

We'll start with the simplest form, the Exit Ritual. The Exit Ritual helps us connect with higher powers and beings multiple times during the day. Connecting us with powers and beings is useful because they can help us get back into that feeling of peace and serenity. They exist at a higher level than we do, so it's often easier for us to ask them for help rather than trying to do it all ourselves. The Exit Ritual also realigns our chi or life force, which can become distorted from working and living in buildings with strong electromagnetic fields.

How to Do the Exit Ritual

To do the Exit Ritual, follow this procedure every time you leave an enclosed space such as a car, building or house:

1. Extend your focus up into the sky and say aloud, "Sky Above." The reason we extend our focus first is that the Exit Ritual is a form of asking favor from powers and beings so it is appropriate that we go to them rather than asking them to come to us. In ritual, when we have carefully prepared sacred space, we can invite them in and then bid them farewell.

2. While keeping your awareness above, extend your focus into the earth and say aloud, "And Earth Below."

3. Then, keeping awareness of both above and below, say aloud, "I Greet You."

4. Wait a moment and see what happens. Be alert for acknowledgement or response in one of these three ways:

- From within you, such as a realization, a change of attitude or belief, a new awareness.

- Changes in your environment, such as a sudden breeze, a change in the color of the sky, a bird or animal suddenly appearing visually or vocally, or a tree or shrub suddenly becoming vividly visible.

- A response from Sky and/or Earth: a special message for you, an answer to a question, or guidance and new directions.

5. What happens may happen in just that moment, or it may happen throughout the day. It may change the quality of your day, your awareness...whatever you notice. You may also want to use hand gestures: Arms raised in a upward facing V for "Sky Father" and arms down in a downward facing V for "Earth Mother."

Sound good? Dive right in. Have issues, questions, or comments? Post a comment to the blog. We love hearing about magic!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

1 comment:

  1. So that's why I always feel crabby in winter. As soon as it's nice enough to go outdoors, the first thing I do is step outside onto my back deck. I raise my hands above my head and say "good morning" to father sun, mother moon, the elements and then "as above, so below".

    As our weather changes and going out first thing in the morning (usually in flipflops and nightgown) becomes impossible, I miss that ritual. As winter continues, I get crabby. I know I'm missing the sunlight, but I also miss this simple morning ritual.

    However, I've just started "greeting" the sky, earth, sun, moon and elements standing in my dining room looking out my window. It does not quite give me the same feeling, but it's close.

    ReplyDelete

Have a comment, complaint, compliment, rant or rave? Tell us!