Mara Branscombe - Ritual as Remedy: Embodied Practices for Soul Care

I dedicate this book to my beloved daughtersmy forever teachers, Desa Rose and Phoenix.

May you bravely dance with the light and the darkness in all of lifes adventures, may your loving hearts be free, and may you trust that this precious life is yours to create. Anything is possible.

RITUAL AS REMEDY

Mara Branscombe welcomes us into ritual as a doorway to the sacred in our everyday lives and reminds us of our inherent connection to the great mother through the cycles of the earth. She sprinkles poetry amid a carefully crafted road map shaped by her years on the path of love, inviting us to dance with our shadows and awaken the mystic within each of us, guided by the elements and aligned with the moon. This is potent medicine as we rise to tend to the cries of our embodied world.

MIRABAI STARR, teacher, speaker, and author of Wild Mercy and Caravan of No Despair

A sacred alchemy of healing is found within the pages of Ritual as Remedy. Mara Branscombe weaves ancient teachings into powerful and accessible rituals that remind us that nothing is mundane and that each moment holds the possibility for renewal.

TRACEE STANLEY, founder of Empowered Life Circle and Sankalpa Shakti Yoga School, author of Radiant Rest, and creator of Empowered Life Self-Inquiry Oracle

Ritual as Remedy lays a path to rediscover the sacred in our everyday lives. It invites us to use the power of ritual to see the beauty, wonder, and vibrancy that lies before us. Each ritual weaves a way back home to true self, transforming the quality of our entire life.

MICHELE KAMBOLIS, Ph.D. (mind-body medicine), clinical counselor, and author of When Women Rise

Maras purposeful, steady instruction invites us to heal, transform, and connect to what matters most. Ritual as Remedy is an embodied, wise, and wondrous guidebook for our times.

ELENA BROWER, yoga and meditation teacher, mentor, artist, and author of Practice You, Being You, and Art of Attention

Mara is an intuitive writer with a special ability to see whats below the surface. She has a unique unederstanding of rituals and how to weave them into your life in ways that are meaningful and magical. A beautiful read for anyone seeking to grow more joy using soul care.

SAMANTHA SKELLY, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and author of Hungry for Happiness

Ritual as Remedy emanates warmth and wisdom. Mara Branscombe provides a clear and vital path to retrieve and enliven our inherent soul intelligence through nurturing rituals designed to illuminate our own inner worlds of wonder and self-healing. The prose, invitations, and rituals overflow with a heartfelt authenticity that harmonizes the reader with his or her own soul, as if a tone is ringing through the words calling each heart to open, trust, and nurture the process of unfolding. I highly recommend this book! It is a wondrous journey, offering rituals as medicine to cultivate the most true and soulful version of ourselves.

ELIZABETH E. MEACHAM, Ph.D., environmental philosopher, teacher, healer, and author ofEarth Spirit Dreaming

History reveals centuries of spiritual practices through ritual and ceremony in every culture. It is important to evolve our understanding of Earth energy and heal the collective karma. We are on the precipice of major change and this gem,Ritual as Remedy, is the ticket!

SONJA GRACE, mystic, healer, artist, and author of Spirit Traveler, Odin and the Nine Realms Oracle, and Dancing with Raven and Bear

Contents

Move through your days as a lighthouse for your own soul. Be it simple and quiet or loud and wild, trust that by being authentically you, your channel of goodness, compassion, and truth will ripple far and wide. You will touch the hearts of others so deeply, their lives and your own will alter for the better. Learn, live, and evolve into this technology of love as the ultimate source of your embodied consciousness and freedom.

INTRODUCTION

The impulse to write this book of embodied rituals, practices, prose, and formulas comes from 28 years of life experiences, trainings, academic studies, and bodymind practices that deeply shifted my life. The intuitive call to share this body of work through the medium of emotional, physical, intellectual, creative, and spiritual channels began to speak louder than anything elseI knew it was time.

As the global Covid-19 pandemic swirled its way through the world, it ushered in societal, political, and emotional life-altering change on all levels. In response to this great shift of consciousness came a potent and humble pull to share self-guided practices for inner peace, balance, and intuitive counsel.

Inside these pages you will find embodied practices, supporting tools, technologies, and earth-based resources to help you feel connected, alive, heart-centered, and ultimately empowered to live out your dreams.

Truly, the heart intention of this book is to generate your own ability to live this precious life with your highest self on board. The books essence rushed through me, loud and clear. To support the collective was the vision I received. It is an honor to go on this journey with you, to share resources and grow the body of your own inner mystic, healer, and intuitive guide within.

Personally, the deepening of the years of training in various mindbody practicesmeditation, yoga, breathing techniques, pagan moon rituals, shamanic ceremonies, various forms of dance, studying philosophical, historical, and spiritual practices of traditions around the worldcultivated a lasting imprint inside me. An embodiment that I could no longer ignore. The impulse to express it in writing was like potent alchemy. It felt as if a great-grandmother landed herself inside my studio encouraging me to express the rituals, practices, and teachings that have supported, shaped, and generated the path before me. And like a river, the words and worlds began to flowsometimes fast, sometimes slow. I have been blessed with the most generous, inspiring, and wise teacherstoo many to name hereand to each guide, family member, and kindred spirit that has graced my path, I bow in gratitude for all I have received. My background in feminist studies, cultural history, and world religions, along with my dedication to the path of yoga, meditation, art, dance, teaching, and my love of ceremony are woven into the fabric of this book.

Imagine the journey of life like a spiral. At times we are inside the center of the spiral, where we find ourselves in the gestating, visioning, planting, or new beginnings cycle. Sometimes we are more expansive, coming to the end of the spiral as we may be completing a specific chapter or cycle. Whatever stage you are currently at in your life, create space in your day-to-day living to trust your process and acknowledge the divine timings when they arrive. When we truly dwell in the present moment, set our intentions with clarity, and release our attachment to the outcome or the final product, we can witness our life as a living ritual. Not everything happens at once, and when we hold true to our personal process, live inside the current of reciprocity of equal giving to receiving, we are living inside the essence of our true potential.