The Global ANAHATA (Heart) Chakra Working:

The 13th-TRIBE WEAVING

THE 13th TRIBE WEAVING
GLOBAL ANAHATA CHAKRA WORKING
GLASTONBURY TOR, UK.
SUMMER SOLSTICE JUNE 21st 2oo3

Gathering and Preparations for The 13-TRIBE WEAVING - The wyrd path of signs, synchronicities and omens leading into the 13th-Tribe Weaving itself was as amazing as the working. How likely is it that an Australian would be able to find representatives of all the source cultures of humanity, willing to be ritually woven together in England? And most of these representatives were located/revealed in the fortnight just before the actual working! - read HERE of the strange flow of synchronicities in the process which confirmed that this ritual was, 'Meant to Be'.
This page includes a new drawing by Orryelle, 'The Spider-Queen of Space weaves the 13-star from afar...'

PART I -The PIERCING- DIVERSITY:

Before the circle-casting, we did a serpent-dance to welcome other solstice visitors to Glastonbury Tor to join in or watch our ritual if they wished, and to resonate with the dragon energies of the land.


Four altars had been set up with wooden poles forming triangular spaces, replete with various talismans from participants -with much confusion about directional-elemental correspondences due to the amount of different cultural traditions we were employing -but we worked out some kind of mutual flexible system somehow! -this was true Chaos-Order Magick, finding some kind of syncretic order/pattern from such a collection of diverse cultural traditions!

A funny altar touch was added by Sebekh, the small daughter of piercer Venom. She put her Unicorn doll on the earth altar, and insisted that my spider-doll hanging above it should ride on it's back -so there we had a concise visual demonstration of two different paradigms converged- that of the Unicorn (apparently in the original geomantic Glastonbury Zodiac before earthworks 'disguised' it as a giant dog) and the Spider as two different interpretations of the 13th sign of the lunar zodiac.


We began by all crowding into the centre of the circle the altars defined, then linking hands and slowly uncoiling as we at first tentatively began to chant freeform tones, our voices unfurling as we began to snake our way in a human chain across the landscape. We wound our way up to the top of the Tor (sacred hill) and around the Tor, gathering people as we went. Some were reticent but many people joined the lengthening human serpent, the diverse voices rising as we eventually coiled back into the parameters of the altars, forming a tight human spiral. The sound expanded as the circle contracted, while we felt the vibrations of each other's voices on the backs of our necks and the energy crescendoed into a jubilant harmonious cacophony.

Releasing hands we moved out to the edge of the circle, the Twelve Tribal Representatives sitting in pre-designated positions around the periphery. Other participants formed an outer loose circle around this.

The directional quarters were called by four representatives: of the eastern/yellow, western/white, northern/red and southern/black people, each direction by all four of these representatives according to corresponding elemental God/dess forms of these cultures.

Having never cast a circle before, the South-east Asian representative Andy -who was the Eastern candidate for the quarters- didn't realize that only one of the four Japanese elementals he was using was usually attributed to each direction. He very graciously called all of them from every direction -and that's pretty much what we got! (as will unfold...)


In the early afternoon it had been very hot, and I had worried we might all get sunstroke standing for hours in the shadeless grass 'crater' near the top of Glastonbury Tor. However soon after we began the rite proper, the sky clouded over, and continued to darken as we progressed. Cold wind came in and there were sporadic bursts of light rain.


These initiates representing the four shamanic colours moved to the centre of the circle, standing back to back. I spoke from Ra'en's tale of the Twelve Tribes:


'In the beginning, the first people lived together at the centre of the world.
One day a dream came. The people divided and went to the North or East or West or South...'

As I spoke each of the directions, the corresponding initiate began moving slowly out from the centre, sprinkling grains that were respectively red (north), yellow (east), white (west) and black (south). Thus we formed a four-coloured Crossroads Veve as the axis of the rite from the centre of the circle.
I continued:


'Each of these four nations ate from their new lands, and became a part of where they settled.
The Northern people became the colour of ice.
The Eastern people absorbed the colour of the rising sun.
The Western people were filled with the colour of blood, and the Southern people took the colour of Earth.

'In time, the four nations divided again each into 3 tribes. The white nation divided into the Western people-Celtic and Germanic, the Northern people- the Russian and Baltic, and the Eastern people-Greek and Roman, and Middle-Eastern peoples...'


As I spoke the name of each of these subdivisions, the tribal representative for each stood up from their positions around the periphery of the circle, joining the first who had now completed the Crossroads.


'The Eastern peoples divided into the North- Siberian and Mongolian, the East-Chinese, and the South -the mountain people of South-East Asia.

The Western people divided into the travelling people in the North (Aztec, Navajo, Kiowa, Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Inuit, and their cousins), the farming people (Cherokee, Chippewa, mohican, Mohawk, Iroquois, Hopi, Incan, Maya) in the West, and the Island people in the South (Maori, Polynesian, Hawaiian, Arawak, Caribbean).

The Southern Nation divided to the West-Pigmy and Bushmen; the South-the African; and the East-Aboriginal, New Guinean and Dravidian (India).

Each of these twelve tribes will learn to sing with the voice of their lands, and to feel the blood of the Land in their blood.
But the First people shall be lost...'


Then Venom as Spinner (the piercer who set the chakras or 'wheels' of the heart spinning), myself (Orryelle) as Weaver and Natasha as Cutter of the threads came together in the centre of the circle.
We lined up and formed an Arachnean composite, a Kali asana with our six arms waving and weaving together the energies of the Triple Goddess.
I had felt slightly strange about being a part of this feminine formation earlier -as initially my Australian friend Zya was going to take the role of the weaver/mother. And yet had I not woven together the rite into formation already, its physical completion being merely the coagulation of a long process? And having been initiated by three genetic women into Womanhood towards the end of my 9-moonth invocations of Goddess energies while taking estrogen several years ago (see My Alchymic Wedding), I was not entirely unqualified to take the role of Priestess. Certainly I felt myself to be a Mother to the whole difficult process of birthing this grand ceremony on the physical.

Our formation of The Three Fates was echoed by the local elements. While several expressed later how a brilliant zig-zag of lightning flashed behind us at this time, Evan also told how a Crow flew in, circled once around our three heads then off again. The Celtic correlative of the Three Fates are the Morrigan or Crow Goddesses, and we were on Celtic land...


The wide-ranging Diversity of cultures across this planet were exemplified by the words, songs and dances of the Twelve individual Tribal Representatives. Each in turn gave a short presentation of the essence of at least one of the sub-tribes within the basic types of people they were representing. This was also reflected visually to varying degrees, ranging from the elaborate Polish dress-pattern Christina had hand-sewn in the spaces between circles over the preceding week, to the woven bark pygmy lap-lap Bayard had brought up from London, and body-painted tribal markings (Evan, Adam, Bayard), to the grass skirt woven by Jasmine to represent the Islander peoples.

I began the calling of the twelve tribes with Kieron, representative of the Celtic-Germanic peoples -in his traditional Druidic robes he offered some Celtic blessings and invocations then adopted some appropriate rune postures (eg. Gifu/Gebo -Gift and Sacrifice) while intoning their names.

Then on to Marios as representative of the Eastern European and Middle-Eastern peoples - in traditional Greek (his own nationality) Toga with eastern belt he performed some European mantras and mudras.


I had not consciously thought about why I began with Kieron and proceeded thus around the circle, but realized even as the ritual naturally unfolded that we had begun with the peoples of the land we were upon, then moving east in a great symbolic arc across the globe as represented by the progression around our microcosmic global circle.

So Christina -representing the Baltic and Russian People- was next after Marios. She told a Polish folk tale then offered a small shot of vodka to each around the circle (very warming in the cold wind and light rain!) while presenting them with a moral indictment as a postscript to the tale. These were assigned at random, and it was quite amusing who was told what: for example, I was instructed never to poke fun at other cultures, and especially not at my own. As the representative of the 13th or syncretic global tribe, this was an oxymoron and a tall order indeed!


After each had performed their tribal representation, the twelve initiates would go over to Venom's space on the edge of the circle, to receive their ritual piercing while the next took centre-circle to dance their people.



I oversaw the moment of penetration in most cases, reminding people to draw up and feel all their fear and pain, and to release it when the piercing-rod went through their chest. Most of the twelve had not had piercings before, so there was a good deal of fear and apprehension, which actually aided this process.
It is a wonderful feeling of release when the needle sinks through the flesh, and any anxiety and tension about the act is dissolved in release and relief -this experience was expressed by several of the initiates.

Because we were operating as a microcosm within our ritual circle, I urged the tribal representatives to each feel and then release the fears and pains of their peoples also, especially those that they had with other peoples or cultures due to history's appalling inter-racial and inter-cultural wars and genocides.

When the piercing-rod had been pulled back through with their ring and sealed with a small steel ball, I presented each of the initiates with a feather, confirming that their heart was now as light as this feather, as in the Egyptian mythos where the Goddess Maat (the Neter or Principle of Truth) weighs the hearts of the deceased against the feather (her hieroglyphic symbol) in Judgement of their spirits.


These were accepted with varying degrees of gratitude and relief, as some admitted later that they were not sure if they would pass this test of Judgement!

An amusing aspect of this was the presence of Venom's daughter Sebekh, named after the Egyptian crocodile God/dess who in some streams of tradition is the deity to whom the souls of those whose hearts weigh too heavy are fed to.
I had mentioned this to most of the initiates, describing Venom's daughter Sebekh -whom I had not seen for several years- as being a strange pointy-toothed fairy-eating feral child; but to my amusement she now ironically appeared- and I don't know if Venom dressed her up that day deliberately due to the mythic resonances- as the sweetest looking angelic little girl, all in pink with little bows in her golden hair...


The feathers presented to the newly-pierced initiates were particularly appropriate, for they were goose feathers from David's land, so not only did they represent Maat, Egyptian Goddess of Truth and Justice whose hieroglyph is the Feather which the Hearts of the deceased were weighed against, but also the Egyptian Earth-God Geb (represented by the Goose). Thus the Goose Feather symbolized not only Truth, but Truth Earthed, made Manifest within the physical World, which is what the ritual entire was all about! -the Ma-nifestat-ion of the Ma(at)-I(ae)on.

In the 13th-Tribe Weaving, Maat was acknowledged after each piercing with Her mudra (symbolic hand gesture), fingertips of one hand vertical intersecting the palm of the other hand horizontal in a gesture of Her Scales of Balance over the Heart. Venom and I performed this in conclusion of each ritual piercing, and most of the tribal representatives echoed the gesture spontaneously.

Venom as piercer, spinner of Fates Three and Priestess of Maat did a wonderful job, gently telling each initiate how to breathe with the piercing and waiting until they were settled and ready. Ironically she had just found a job that very day as a professional piercer, so what a wonderful way to sanctify this work, to provide these 13 piercings in full ritual context as prelude.
Her name seemed relevant to our rite, as the Venom of the Spider (she being one of the Three) is in the vodou tradition the purifying poison (often symbolic of some sacrament) or ordeal which allows the initiate to enter trance for the ritual proper.

Thus each cultural representative was purged and purified for the weaving ceremony which was to follow...

To represent Japan and South-East Asia, Andy (above) laid down a silk cloth, sat upon it in lotus with a small Buddha figurine before him, and simply asked everyone to join him in silent meditation for a few minutes.
This was a welcome calm within the surrounding storm and the tumult of emotions being brought to the surface in our rite.



Representing China, Ben (below) unwrapped from Chinese-character-adorned paper an I Ching coin and a mandarin fruit, which he gracefully offered a segment of to each of the other tribal representatives. This gift-giving performed by several of the initiates seemed an integral part of the cultural exchange, though unplanned.

Imagios/Bennu represented the Siberian and Mongolian peoples by talking of their fly-agaric-imbibing reindeer shamans, in both English and Czech languages.

Representing the Farming Peoples of the South Americas, Simon(left and above) affirmed our Kinship by acknowledging the Galactic Source, Hunab Ku, and with the Mayan greeting, 'InLakesh', meaning, 'I am another Yourself.' He then performed a graceful Cherokee harvest dance.

Adam (right) did a more severe dance to represent the Hunting Peoples of the North.


Placing a dog skull in the circle, he crouched low in warrior eye- paint, swayed and prowled about in ecstatic trance, howling in an improvised shamanic Death Dance which was very evocative.

This was then counter-pointed with The Dance of Life (animation and stills below), a Native American dance and song shown to the group by Kieron. As most of us had practiced this with him during the preceding week's circles, we all joined in with the rotating swoop and gathering motion of this, weaving a web of intent into and out from our circle.











Because we were representing source-races rather than more recent sub-divisions, some of the cultural archetypes seemed grouped strangely -for example Evan (left) representing both Australian (where he has lived for most of his life) and Dravidian peoples (interestingly he came to the UK via India, a trip planned before his role in the ritual had solidified). So I painted the traditional Shivaite trident markings on his forehead in combination with the Aboriginal designs he had adorned his body with, and he performed a dance with story-telling which combined the Rainbow Serpent land mythology of the Australian Aboriginals with the kundalini serpents of the Dravidians. This also seemed apt for the whole concept behind the Global Chakra Workings, that of resonating the microcosms of our personal kundalini with that of the Earth.
Being also from Australia, I danced around the periphery of the circle clicking clapsticks while Evan spoke and danced his dreamtime tale, and Jasmine also accompanied on didgeridoo. This kind of hybrid representation brought us back to the whole multi-cultural cross-pollination the idea of the 13th Tribe represents, reminding us that we began all as one people and the layers of diversification only leads back to our origins as One People.

In fact the whole difficult process of finding the twelve initiates for the working had constantly reminded me of this -so far have we gone into cultural blending in the modern world that it would be nigh-impossible to find people to represent these ancient source races in any kind of pure way. Instead it was to do with resonances, reMembrances, and who did what reflected this global hybrid reality of the 13th Tribe as already very present.

For example, Jasmine (right and above) is half Scottish and half Negro, yet chose to represent the Islander people because this is the people whose culture she feels most resonance with.

She danced in grass skirt and flowers, but decided against singing the Hawaiian Pele (Volcano Goddess) invocation she had prepared, because the elements were already so intense at that point, with rain and cold winds gusting through the circle.
Personally I think some earth-fire could have warmed us right up at that point, but given the immediate effectiveness of everything else we were doing, perhaps she chose wisely!

Houngan Richard (left), though of white skin and celtic blood, knows the African traditions well as passed down into Haiti, where he was initiated as a Voudon Priest several years ago. Shaking Abdi -a shell-adorned gourd consecrated as sacred rattle- he evoked the Loa and primal energies of Ayida and Damballah Wedo, the Rainbow Serpent of the African Peoples. Like the Australian Almudj or Central American Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl, this great Earth serpent can be seen as the kundalini of the Earth itself, coruscating through the rainbow spectrum of her chakras or sacred sites.

Bayard was the last to perform an individual rite, and spoke of the importance of drums and rhythm to the pygmies.
Several others began to beat drums in time to his words, and the rain intensified. Lightning flashed dramatically and booming thunder echoed the earthly beats. He spoke of the affiliation of drums and rain, and said that rain is a great blessing for the end of a ceremony.
Without wanting to disrupt his flow too much, I felt urged to whisper rather urgently that the ritual was only actually about halfway through -because Bayard had been unable to attend the circles and preparations all week he seemed unaware of this. The last thing we really needed was more rain to be called!

Too late it seemed as the thunder crashed and the sky darkened further. Bayard received his token piercing (he does not mark his body in any way), the ring being attached to the panther fang he wore over his chest.

Under a blackening and pregnant sky, I went to circle's edge to receive my own -and the final- piercing, as Venom had to leave soon to begin her new piercing job (she had not expected the ceremony to be so lengthy) that very day.



As I prepared myself -breathing deep in an attempt to still the tingling fire which was by now coursing through my nervous system- I stated aloud my intent to feel and release the accumulated fears and pains of all peoples and cultures, having suddenly realized this was my role as the representative of the global 13th Tribe of collective humanity. As Venom asked where I wanted it (each initiate had specified the depth and location of their individual piercing within the heart chakra area), I suddenly realized I should go for the left nipple rather than a mere surface piercing in the central chest, considering what I was taking on symbolically.


Sure enough this was very painful, as my nipples -already super-sensitive from my estrogen intake years ago (a sensitivity deliberately magickally retained) - were particularly sensitised lately from some of the kundalini yogas and massage techniques I had been employing recently to help bring my energy to the heart chakra area (what with the associations of the nipples with nurturing also).
Tears ran down my face and I was immediately swept into a sensation of ecstatic release. Many of the personal anxieties and tensions I had inadvertently accumulated in the difficult process of birthing this ritual were let go of, and I surrendered to the simplicity of Love and Truth.




With my own final ritual piercing the first half of the ceremony was complete, that of individual cultural expressions and purifications. Now it was time to proceed to the Weaving, the bringing together of these diverse strands in a Great Web of Unity.

As if testing on cue how much we really wanted to do this, the heavens split wide and cold rain now poured rather than trickled down. Shivering and reaching for cloaks and blankets, we huddled together around the circle. Those less involved in the rite fled for the scant shelter of the Tower a few hundred metres away, flattening themselves against its scaffolding-enfolded bulk in an attempt to escape the elemental onslaught. As hail now joined the water (Kieron later quipped that the spirits had taken his circle-casting cries of, 'Hail and welcome' too literally!), knuckle-sized pellets of Ice pummelling us, I saw several faces crossed with the thought of fleeing. But none of us dispersed, instead we came together at this point of ordeal, and joined hands. I was being rather explicitly reminded that in the Mayan 13-moon calendar which we were distinctly resonating with in our ritual (see later) it was Storm day! I had noticed this a week or so prior and wondered if this would be a problem weatherwise, then thought, 'Nah, I shouldn't take it so literally, it probably just means there will be lots of intense 'stormy' energy raised...' Well there was, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that the physical elements reflected this also, considering the very earthed nature of our ritual...

Another aspect I later contemplated in relation to this freak summer solstice storm was that of Odin and the Twelve Gods of Asgard, one of the many multi-cultural mythic resonances (Arthur and Twelve Knights, Zeus and Twelve Greek Gods...) of the 12 and 13 point mandalas we were creating with our rite. Odin -one of the main deities I have been invoking lately in ritual theatre while in Europe- is also Woden, ancient God of Storms...


I hit the sacred chime -which now quite wet had not quite the full resonance we had become used to at David's sanctuary- and announced the Muladhara (Base) Chakra and its colour red. Its attributes of survival and instinct hardly needed vocalization at that point!


As we began the now-familiar chant of the bass Muladhara 'Ohh' tone, its resonance united us and began to stave off the elemental onslaught. A creeping warmth emanated from the collective vibration as we resonated it thirteen times. The sacrament bearer of Earth proceeded around the circle, reaching under cloaks to anoint the base of each initiate's spine with sacred silken mud from beneath the Tor (the acquisition of this is another story...). Earthed, we stood in solidarity.

The hail had stopped by the time we reached the second chakra, nevertheless it was still raining hard and I wondered fleetingly whether to skip the wheel of water as we seemed to have more than enough of it already!

However, I did proceed with the Svadisthana, 'Oooh' tone and John -the sacrament-bearer of Water, daubed each initiate's already-slippery spine at the navel level with the sacred water from a Thousand Springs around the World as we collectively shifted up to this second tone (chanted 13 times) and the colour Orange. The resonant vibrations continued to charge and warm our quivering forms.

By the time we were a few breaths into the Manipura (solar plexus) chakra's powerful and radiant, 'Ahhh' tone and Anna -the sacrament bearer of Fire- was smudging our spines at this new (golden) level with sage and copal, the rain had ceased.

Everyone was quite deep in trance now, eyes closed or turned downwards. I'm not sure why I looked up, but once I did I was so astounded that I stopped chanting long enough to draw everyone else's attention to the sky:



Although the rest of the sky as far as we could see (which was a considerable distance from high up on the Tor) was full of dark and brooding storm-clouds, there was now a hole of clear light right above our circle, as if the resonance of our chanting and energy had parted the very heavens above us...!

The serpent-fire now successfully raised to the chakra of Manipura, I wiped the chime dry and let it's fourth tone resound, announcing our collective arrival at full focus on the Anahata/Heart Chakra.

On to PART II -THE WEAVING -UNITY

Back to the GATHERING of the 13