(This originally appeared in Pagan NUUS, Vol. 2 #2, Litha/Lammas 1988, and is redistributed by permission of the author who goes by Mountainheart.)

mountainheartnhand, photo by Mllownious ogo, (cc) 2013.

Welcome to our first tribal gathering. We have come together to form a community of kindred spirits to make interconnections and to celebrate our connectedness with the Earth and all her life of which we are a part.

We gather together to help heal ourselves from the sickness of separation from Mother Earth an unnatural separation which makes her sick also. We gather to heal ourselves, our Earth.

We gather to rediscover our tribal roots and to celebrate the Dance of Life weare dancers who have perhaps forgotten the steps that we knew as children but we crave the dance in our deepest beings.

We join to feel our hearts beat to know they are part of the pulse of the Earth.

We gather together to share our breaths to breath the air that is the breath of the Earth and to create the breath of the Earth.

We gather together to share the warmth of the Fire of Life to feel the tidal rhythms of oceanic blood coursing through our veins.

We join each other to affirm the goodness the sacredness of our bodies, and to celebrate our natural, good, wildness to shed our unnatural estrangement from ourselves and wilderness.

We come together to nuture each other as we grow and flourish.

In joining together to share and celebrate, groups like this usually create a special place a sacred space or circle in which its OK to be a child. A temporary place of reconnection with Mother Earth, the Great Spirit, the Goddess, the God of the Dance, the Spirits of the mountains and rivers and rocks, the Muses, the Elements a place for the suspension of disbelief. Usually these forces, beings, feelings, aspects, spirits, archetypes, symbols are invited to join us in the circle.

We meet in a circle and look into each others faces because thats where we find God in each other, in ourselves. A circle is a magic place where we can rediscover the enchantment of childhood. A sacred and joyful space where we are free to explore our deepest feelings without fear of ridicule. Where we can express joy, sorrow, fear, and immanent strength. Where we can express the express the connectedness with each other and with all of life. Where we can play. Where we can express wonder at the great mystery of ourselves, the cosmos, the cycles of being, beginnings from endings, life and death. We express these things through song, dance, poetry, meditation, chant, symbolic ritual or any other creative means. Or by just being.

Thank you for being here. Lets celebrate our coming together, our creation of a new tribe.

Continued here:

A Meditation - Patheos (blog)