Planting Seeds Ritual-Workshop

A guide for end-of-academic-year alchemy

Dear Enchantable readers,

Today - my 100th Enchantable post!!! - I would like to share the workshop plan that I offered my students these past two years at the University for Peace as an end-of-academic-year ritual called Planting Seeds. It includes two guided visualizations and lots of reflection prompts.

To plant seeds, we also need to compost. We need to release and let go of what we no longer need to carry, what may have become rotten or toxic or overripe, so that it can be transformed through alchemical processes into the soil of our lives in which new seeds can take root.

To me, rituals like this are regenerative pedagogies of interbeing. They help us remember on multiple levels - in our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits - that we are connected and that we are a part of natural cycles like breathing and growing. They help us attune and align to the wisdom and energy of these cycles. And they help us work with these cycles to bring generativity to our lives and work. They are learning and unlearning at the deepest levels.

For the past few years, I have studied ritual-making with Starhawk, the peace activist and permaculture teacher, through her course Magical Activism (which I highly recommend). My ritual-making is also influenced by Chani Nicholas, Sarah Faith Gottesteiner of the Moon Studio, and my mindfulness practice within the Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism. I draw inspiration from these teachers and many others in my formulation of rituals.

Some things about rituals that I have learned from Starhawk specifically: to use one coherent metaphor for a ritual (and not to mix metaphors, which dilutes the metaphor’s power), and to think of a ritual as a three-act play, with a beginning, middle, and end.

The following ritual was designed for my students at the end of their academic year. It is a way to process and reflect on the year, to think of who they were before they arrived, and who they are now, and to reflect on what they want to leave behind and what they want to carry forward. While it was specifically designed for students at the University for Peace, you could adapt this ritual for any transition period in your life, and some of the reflection prompts could be used at any moment. It’s the Gemini new moon, a great day for planting seeds, so you could even adapt that part of the ritual to honor today’s moon.

Please enjoy, feel free to use, adapt, and share with attribution, and let me know how it goes!

Work-in-progress: the students are leaving behind this beautiful mural they created in the student lounge (finished product photo at the end of this post!)

Planting Seeds End-of-Year Ritual

Total running time: approximately two hours (can be more or less depending on group size; give yourself time as you never want to rush a ritual)

Preparation: Prepare the space as beautifully as you can. Have chairs or blankets for sitting in a circle. Place an altar in the middle (this can be simply some rocks and flowers from surrounding nature, or you can get as elaborate as you want, or make it a co-created activity).

Supplies:

• paper, pens, markers or any other art supplies

• music + speaker

• something to take with them to imbue with their intentions (I used rocks because participants would be crossing international borders and I didn’t want to contribute to invasive species problems; you could use seeds, or even invite people to bring a talisman of their choosing to imbue with their intentions)

1. Welcome - Why we are here (5 min.)

It helps to have a clear intention and purpose for any gathering¹.

We are here to…

…honor the journey you have taken together this year, to release what you are ready to let go of, tune into what you want to carry forth, and to plant seeds your next steps: dreams, aspirations, and intentions for your lives beyond UPEACE.

…remember who you were when you arrived, and reorient yourselves to who you are now.

Feel free to adapt the purposes and intentions of your own gathering. Having a clear intention and purpose is everything :)

2. Introductions (5 min.)

In a circle round, and perhaps passing a talking object, invite all participants to share their name and why they came today, what they hope to receive during your time together, and anything else they want to share. If it is a very large group, you could adapt this by having people to it in pairs.

You may also want to create or remind the group of existing guidelines at this time (confidentiality, etc.; in our case, we have been in learning community all year and have done this many times, so it wasn’t necessary).

3. (Re)orientation Meditation (5 min.)

Invite participants to get comfortable and listen to the guided visualization. It is great to do this lying down, and taking a few deep breaths as you start to settle in and relax.

Script:

We are going to take a time traveling journey, tracing your steps to UPEACE, where you have been, up to this moment.

I would like you to imagine you see a portal, and it is a time traveling portal. You step into it, and it takes you back in time to the moment in your life right before you heard the call to come to UPEACE. What were you doing? What did it feel like to be in your life at this time?

At some point, you heard the call to come to UPEACE. Imagine where you were when you heard that call. Maybe it was a loud voice, maybe it was a whisper you heard over and over until you finally answered. But at some point, you heard a call to come here, and you responded. You submitted your application, you were accepted, and you said yes.

You said yes to this journey, to this calling. Remember what that YES felt like in your body.

You prepared to come here. For each one of you, though it may have looked different, there were many steps involved in preparing to arrive. You let go of your past life. You may not have fully realized it at the time, but you were letting go of a former version of yourself, one that no longer exists. You prepared, you let go, you said goodbye. You traveled. Put yourself back in those moments of preparation and remember what they felt like for you.

Then, you arrived.

You came to UPEACE. Imagine yourself on the first day of orientation, which may feel like yesterday and a lifetime ago. Remember what you were wearing,  how you felt, who you met. Try to touch the dreams and aspirations you felt in that moment, your hopes for this year, the dreams that brought you here.

Honor the you that arrived on that day, the you that has transformed over the course of this year.

Trace the contours of the year. You endured tests and challenges. You were stretched. You grew. Expanded. Sense the pain and struggles, and joys, laugher, and blessings you have encountered over these nine months. Sense the vast web of relationships that have now grown, expanded, deepened, and what a gift they are. Make space for all of it. Notice what stands out, what memories and feelings surface.

Now you prepare to go back through the portal, taking any insights with you from this visualization journey. With the sound of the bell, you return to this moment, right here.

4. Solo reflection time (Freewrite/Draw; 5-10 min.)

After the visualization, invite participants to engage in solo silent reflection time and freewrite or draw anything that came up for them during the visualization. It can be nice to have some soft instrumental music playing in the background. You can find my a few of my favorites on this playlist.

5. Open sentences (10 min.)

This is a pair sharing and active listening activity that can be done a number of ways. With a larger group, I like to play music and have people mill about the room, then stop the music and find a partner to share with, then repeat for each prompt. In a smaller group, you could have people do more than one prompt together. You can give the pairs about two minutes per prompt, but also feel free to feel into the energy of the room to see if more or less time is needed.

Prompts:

• One way I have grown this year is…

• One of my biggest challenges this year was…

• A disappointment I encountered this year was…

• Something from this year that I am most grateful for is…

• Something I am ready to leave behind is…
  With the final prompt, have partners sit together and pass out paper to everyone.

6. Releasing (5-10 min.)

With the response to the final pair-share prompt, write down anything and everything you are ready to leave behind on a piece of paper. For example: fears, limiting beliefs. Be specific when possible.

Have people tear up their papers. If they want they can announce what they are releasing (this is optional). Or yell, or scream or howl - let it be cathartic and embodied!

If you are in a safe place to burn the paper, you can do that. otherwise, just collect the torn paper and plan to burn it safely for participants at a later time.

After ripping up and releasing, invite participants to shake off the energy. This could be done through actual shaking (I love Starhawk’s chop, brush, fluff method), or even dancing. Somatically shaking off this energy is powerful and necessary!

Releasing ashes back to the earth

7. Celebration circle (10 min.)

Prompt: something I want to celebrate from this year that I am proud of is…
Invite participants to share popcorn-style as they feel inspired to share things they are proud of and want to celebrate from this year. You could also include a mini-dance party as a part of this :)

8. Reading of adrienne maree brown’s radical gratitude spell (5 min.)

You could either just read this aloud to the whole group, or have people find a partner, look at each other or with eyes closed, and listen to the spell. Afterwards, you could invite participants to add to the spell by adding their own lines for their partner.

9. Planting seeds visualization (5 min.) 

For this part, hand out whatever object you are using for infusing with intentions, and invite participants to hold the object during the visualization to imbue the object with the intentions and seeds they are planting.

Script:

Nine months, August until now. Almost exactly nine months. The time it takes to gestate a new human life. The time it has taken for a new you to be born. 

Now it is time to honor the you that is being born as you complete your time here. A new version of yourself that has grown from the old, which still retains their essential core, but which has gathered gifts and teachings and new dreams that you are ready to share with the world. Gifts and teachings from this journey that you were so blessed and fortunate to be able to take. It is now your sacred duty to take these gifts and share them with the world.

Now I would like you to imagine you are standing in a field which holds your life beyond UPEACE, your next steps. 

Imagine you have fertilized this field with what you released, that what you let go of has been composted to make the soil rich and ready to receive.

What does the field look like? What do you want to plant in this field? What do you want to grow? What is your next YES? 

You can plant anything. Just allow what thoughts, images, words, ideas arrive when you ask: What seeds do I want to plant for the next stage of my journey? You can imagine yourself planting these seeds. 

It is time for you to come back, bringing any insights with you. You find yourself back in this moment, in the bamboo hut, in your body, in this circle and community. On this beautiful campus land that has held you this year. With gratitude, you return.

10. Closing circle

Invite everyone to share one word (or a few) about their seeds, or how they are feeling at the end of the process, or what they are taking with them. Close with three breaths, healing howls, a group hug, a dance party, or all of the above! Close in a way that feels appropriate to the energy of the moment and what the group needs.

The finished mural - what a memory, what a gift! Each panel represents a program. The far right panel is peace ed :)

As I prepare to send this out, I have just returned from burning and releasing the ashes in the peace park, in the same spot where the ashes from last year’s cohort’s ritual were left, at the base of the pedestal altar. The forest will help us alchemize and turn them into fertile soil. It is graduation eve, and a bittersweetness permeates the air around campus, a celebration of all this year has been, and a sadness for the end of this chapter and the departures. I look at the mural, which so beautifully captures the seeds that were planted this year, and all the beauty and complexity and richness of our time together. On the Gemini new moon, the cosmic energies lend their support for planting seeds and carrying new dreams forward, for all of us.

If you use any of this ritual for yourself or the spaces you are in, let me know how it goes!

Wishing you happy releasing and seed planting :)

With love and care,

Stephanie

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post on our graduation learning altar!

1. I recommend Priya Parker’s wonderful book The Art of Gathering for more on this subject.