#episcopals

As many of you who follow me and read my "Read More"s know, I have been going through a workshop that teaches the Pilgrimage partnered energy healing. What I find most interesting of this particular energy work is that it is open to all religions and it was started through the Episcopals. It is centered in the laying of hands and mixing different attributes of different energy works such as Reiki, Quantum Touch, and Qi-gong. What makes this stand out from other energy works is you invite the healee's Deity to help with concerns. I have had ranges of the Christian God to Tara to atheists (who we just sit in silence for a moment instead of praying).

Now the process is structured. It's basically choreographed until you get to the special work section, which then you break from normal routine and work on specific areas that you are drawn to until you feel that you are ready to move on.

Each table has a healee and two healers. The leader first asks "who do you pray to (if any)" and "what concerns do you have (if any)" and then begins the process with a small prayer (if a Deity is identified). The two healers join hands while holding the healee's hands. This opens up everyone to everyone's energy. While here, you are looking for a release of some kind whether it be physical or you just get a feeling to move on. Everything is done in sync with both healers.

After the prayer, the healers lay the healee's hands down, and proceed to a cranio-sacral hold. Here, you judge the connectivity of the healee which usually is insignificant, and you find a balancing point between you and the follower (if you are leader). After you find the balancing point, you rake the energy field up to five times or more if you feel it needs a good cleaning. This helps open the aura to healing and outside energies without being invasive to natural shields we put up. After the raking, you and the follower/leader take a polarity hold on ankle and hand. You hold until you both feel a connection and are ready to move on.

From there, you do another polarity hold from the kidney area to the shoulder. This opens up all three Heart Chakras and gives a sense of healing, peace, and belonging. This is about the time the healee will begin to notice color changes, moods, different presences, and the like. No session is the same so there is no telling what you will feel. Just here, there is a major change and there usually is a "something" in this stage. This helps the healee become opened to spiritual journeys or simply lets them relax deeper within themselves.

After the Three Heart hold, the healers place their hands on the shoulders. It gives a reassuring vibe and helps the healee gain confidence to do what they feel is best for them. Sometimes the healers can start to experience emotions from the healee at this time. I remember getting anxiety, depression, sadness, love, all from difference sessions. These are usually responses of the healee to the Three Heart Hold. From there, you rake the arms and the legs three times each.

Next is the body connectivity hold. From what I sense, this hold is to help the body become connected to energy being pulled in through the feet. The first position is the ankle and knee. When you feel that these are connected, you move to the knee and the kidney. I usually see the energy coming through the bottom of the feet, to the ankle, and from the ankle to the knee, and from the knee to the hip. It's just a white line connecting to each joint. Nothing too special. Sometimes you may notice that energy manifests in a specific spot and usually that's a problem area for the healee. Don't ever force the energy to go somewhere. Let it go where it is called. You don't direct the energy, you just show where the next checkpoint is.

From here, a hand is left at the kidney and the leader takes the first Chakra and the follower takes the second. Now comes into play to feel the strength of the Chakra, if it's spinning too fast or too slow, if it has debris within it (always take out debris), and any other strange sensations you may have. I have personally heard someone's Chakra vibrations, cleared out parasites and debris, and seen colors and spinning motion. It's definitely something else.

After both feel ready to move on, the hand working on the Chakra is placed on the hip for a stability hold. This helps the Chakras regain their balance after being worked on and take in the energy that they need. From here, the leader takes the second and fourth Chakra while the follower takes the third and fifth Chakra. These Chakra healing parts have no hands on touching on the physical body. The healers hold their hands above the body, feeling for the membrane of the Chakra. The hands may be at different heights, but as you clean out debris, they should gain a height balance. Some are not very sensitive to the membrane and may even push through it until they feel something in their hand. This is fine, as long as it's not the fifth Chakra as this can cause a choking sensation in the healee. A good rule of thumb it to keep at least six inches away from the body if you are not sensitive in the hands just yet. It comes with practice.

Next, the healers lay their hands on the wrist and elbow, making the same connections as they did with the legs. The only difference is that energy is encouraged through the healee's hands. Next is the elbow to the shoulder, and then a shoulder hold. This connects the arms to the torso as the torso has been worked on. From here, the Heart,Third Eye, and Crown sequence is started. The leader takes the Heart Chakra while the follower takes the Throat Chakra. From there, the leader takes the Sixth and Seventh Chakras while the follower takes over the Fourth and Fifth.

The leader takes the time to gage the presence of both of these Chakras as it is important to have them as clear as possible. From this, the leader invites the Deity to channel through them and into the healee through the Seventh Chakra. Here, there can be visions, sounds, feelings, words, a whole array of different things. I have experienced sounds, an image of a galaxy or nebula giving energy, distant mountains with a house situated in the valley, and chatter of advice from the Deity.

After this, the healers smooth the energy over the healee three times and the leader proceeds into a head triangle while the follower takes the feet. The head triangle is a hand gesture that directs the Deity's energy into the Third Eye and to wash their presence and energy over the body. The follower feels for the energy coming out of the foot Chakras and helps pull out any debris that may be blocking flow. From here, the last Cranial-Sacral hold is performed. When ready, the leader and follower acknowledge the aura with an encompassing arm gesture and a Namaste bow at both the head and feet, and again at the sides. The healers then take the healee's hands and the follower closes the session with a closing prayer. The healee is then instructed to come back to their body, wiggle their toes and fingers, open their eyes when ready, and to sit up. The healers then give a small massage to the legs and back to stimulate the body to wake up.

Healees are told to wait at least fifteen minutes before performing anything that can be dangerous, such as driving. Most sessions end with a feeling of being woken from REM sleep. Healees are offered discussions with what they have processed while being on the table and healers give insight of what they have experienced. Discussion is not obligatory, but it is not frowned upon either.

As someone who has been on the table, each process is different. I'm usually aware and near my body or digging deeper to help loosen debris. After today's Reiki group I have discovered that my Aura needs to be raked before being performed on, otherwise I backlash at people with my own energy (this instance being someone felt pins and needles when working on me). I can usually feel when people become present in my aura and I gage their moods and energy levels. This is a naturally occurring thing that I do as it helps me get familiar with those around me. I am partially face blind, I have found, but everyone's energy signature is what makes me remember them, especially those who are strong.

I have seen colors while being worked on and the main thing I really remember is seeing white when they invited the Divine in. The only colors I usually experience is red or black while my eyes are closed. I have seen green, red, blue, black, purple, and white. The last thing I experienced is when they acknowledged the personal aura. This basically gives the aura a defined shape again and I remember that it felt like I was put in a box. It wasn't suffocating, but it was warm and I could feel the edges. Very interesting.

Anyways, if you made it this far, a big thanks for reading. I really needed to get this out of my system for a while.

Episcopalians approved a churchwide ceremony Tuesday to bless same-sex couples, the latest decisive step toward accepting homosexuality by a denomination that nine years ago elected the first openly gay bishop.

At the Episcopal General Convention, which is divided into two voting bodies, about 80 percent of the House of Deputies voted to authorize a provisional rite for same-sex unions for the next three years. A day earlier, the House of Bishops approved the rites 111-41 with three abstentions during the church meeting in Indianapolis.

Supporters of the same-sex blessings insisted it was not a marriage ceremony despite any similarities. Called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant," the ceremony includes prayers and an exchange of vows and rings. Same-sex couples must complete counseling before having their unions or civil marriages blessed by the church.

Other mainline Protestant churches have struck down barriers to gay ordination in recent years or allowed individual congregations to celebrate gay or lesbian unions. However, only one major U.S. Protestant group, the United Church of Christ, has endorsed same-sex marriage outright.

As the Washington State Senate voted in favor of marriage equality on Wednesday, it had the vocal support of a senior member of the Episcopal clergy.

Earlier this week, the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, VIII Bishop of Olympia, posted the following to his blog:

It is expected that our Washington state legislators will very soon, perhaps even tomorrow begin floor deliberations on HB2516 & SB6239 with the Senate to begin.  Passage of these bills or a version of them would make same sex marriage law in our state.   Our Episcopal Church, after a long discussion about this over the years is poised to do roughly the same this summer at our General Convention.

While I am careful about wading into our legislator’s business, I would say this is the church’s business too.  I have a asked by many about my feelings on it, and I have decided to share them.  The ideas are not new,  I have shared them openly in the walk-abouts before becoming your bishop and in many venues before and since.

Christianity has held, when considering relationships of all sorts, but especially in relation to two people in marriage, fidelity to be our value.   Fidelity is the value in most all our sacraments and also in our life as Christians.

It seems to me we have held our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in a “catch-22″.  We say they cannot live up to our value because they cannot be married, or even blessed in their union.  While many of them have begged for this, it is still not possible.    What they ask of us, the church and the government, is to put boundaries around their relationship, to hold them in the same regard and with the same respect, which would also mean that we expect the same from them.  They are not asking for special treatment.  They are asking for equal treatment.   They are asking to be accountable, as a couple, in community.  To me, this is a conservative proposal.  I am for it, and I hope we will finally make way for this to happen, not only in our society, but also in our church.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Gregory H. Rickel

As SeattlePi points out, allowing gay clergy to serve and straight clergy give voice to such opinions has cost the Episcopals buildings, lands, membership and money in the last decade. And it's still costing them -- one irate commentator on the Bishop's blog promises to ditch the church if marriage equality is enshrined in Washington law, as now looks likely.

As Andy reported, many Washington clerics are already plotting to reverse equality, should equality come. It's good to know the Rt. Rev.'s around to balance the scale.