Rev Alison Trower usually holds monthly ‘Onelight Gatherings’ in London – but during this time of lockdown, she has had to find other ways share connection…
I imagine that many of you can tune in with unseen energies and could also share inspiring stories of ‘remote connection’, communicating across distance without using a phone or laptop. Whether we observe ourselves doing so or not, we humans perpetually share energetic information in the “field” where there is no separation or space.
When lockdown began my intuition guided me to continue our monthly OneLight Gatherings not online, not on Zoom, but by tuning into one another from within. It seemed to take a little teething to find the right words to communicate that the gatherings were going to be shared by being in sync in our heart-spaces and listening inwardly, nowhere near a conference-call platform. I have total confidence in our intuitions, our ability to connect through the exquisite sensitivity we have as spirit-humans and I want to celebrate this. We are elegant listening creatures with an aptitude for picking up immensely subtle information, and when we trust this and invest in this we can learn to exchange more consciously in this beautiful way. There are many global meditation groups that encourage us to tune in at a specific time and OneSpirit itself does so in its daily two-minutes-tune-in at 11.58am.
As a spring-board and guideline I had drafted a “script” with poems, reflections, songs, questions, prayers and simple ritual, and we posted and emailed this to people. I invited people to bounce off and “riff” with this script, making it uniquely work for them. We had a focused ‘holding team’ of four pillars – myself, Anna West – an intuitive and yupa (sister) of the Rirratingu Clan (Yirrkala, Arnhem land), Gary Fordham – an international coach, and members of The Heart Of London Threshold Choir, all holding space from our own homes. This holding team stuck to the structure and rhythm laid out in the script. I was able to sensitively perceive some of what was occurring in the energetic conversation between us all and the unseen, and I found the collective co-creation of the gathering an exhilarating and a very emotional, truly collaborative experience.
There were a number of people overjoyed at the prospect of remote connection and the beauty of it was that during the ceremony time (7 to 8.30pm) people could improvise, follow their own timings, go inward and have a personal involvement with the theme of the circle. Minutes after the end of the ceremony I received texts and emails from people expressing what a healing experience they had had because they followed their own unique, self-inspired journey in the shared time. There was no expectation to have had an intense experience, as the invitation was for participants to take from the gathering what was going to serve them with no “right” or “wrong” way, and so while some people threw themselves headlong into energetic co-creation, some people engaged in a very light manner and all of it was perfect.
Although different people found their own way of collaborating with us all many people expressed they could really “feel” a sense of togetherness. We were joined by people in America and in parts of Europe and we gathered as a much larger ‘circle’ than usual, and it looks as if the up-coming ceremony may be an equally broad co-creation bringing in people who would otherwise never attend our gatherings.
Anna West and myself have been preparing the next gathering on May 8th at 7pm. The theme is The Family Of All Things – a ceremony on interconnectedness & reverence, with input from the Le Ciel Foundation (makers of the stunning, free film ‘The Twelve’), Revd Peter Owen Jones, and singer-songwriter Rev Natacha Ledwidge, plus our glorious Heart Of London Threshold Choir.
You are welcome to join us and you can find the script “The Family Of All Things” in our ‘Resources’ page on our website – onelightgathering.co.uk – or you can email me at contact@onelightgathering.co.uk. We will also be posting a downloadable PDF on our Facebook page.
If there is sufficient interest, I may continue to hold not-online remote ceremonies – even after lockdown! Let me know what you think!