Out on the land
How We Gather
Prayer walks through the day and prayer circles through the night.
Every day we hold takes the shape of the Four Altars. We greet the directions and pray at each altar in turn: Gratitude, Clarity, Unity, Love. What is prayed in the circle is prayed for all our relations.
Our practice
What a day with us is
We meet at first light at a trailhead, or at dusk beside a laid fire. Either way the first thing that happens is prayer, and the last thing that happens is prayer. Then the circle walks out together.
Everything in between is held by the Four Altars. The shape does not bend to the weather or to who is standing in the circle. It is the tradition itself, older than anybody in it.
Two forms
A walk and a fire
We gather in two ways. Both come out of one lineage and hold the same four prayers.
A full day
Prayer walk
We walk out to the site and hold the day there, in whatever weather it brings. We pray from the morning on, until the light goes.
A full night
Prayer circle
The fire is lit at dusk and tended without break until morning. The staff and the rattle pass around the circle, and every person in it prays aloud in their turn.
Every time
What holds it together
The shape of a day with us does not change.
- We honor the cardinal directions and pay homage to the elemental forces.
- The day unfolds around the Four Altars, each a gateway to divine understanding.
- We lift our voices in prayers of Gratitude, Clarity, Unity, and Love.
- Our songs rise with the sun; our offerings blend with the soil.
- The Spiritual Director or an authorized facilitator holds the circle from the first prayer to the last, and Ground Support stays awake for the whole of it.
Who holds it
You will be looked after
Whoever holds the space stays out of the middle of it. No story of their own goes into the circle, and everything they do inside is in service of the people who came.
Ground Support stays awake through the night, so that nobody who is praying has to think about the fire, the water or the weather. Whoever is tending the fire is doing nothing else.
What the circle is for
Everything you bring is welcome in it
People arrive frightened. People arrive angry, or grieving, or carrying something they have not said aloud to anybody. All of that is welcome, and none of it needs to be tidied up first.
Nobody is made to speak for longer than they want to, and what is said in the circle stays in it.
A person can be vulnerable in this circle and be safe at the same time. It is what most people who write to us are looking for.
What the day asks
Both ask something of the body. One is a full day on foot. The other is a night awake until dawn.
That is most of why the screening comes before the circle, for everyone. Tell us plainly what yours can do.
Next
Come and sit with us
Write to us and say what brings you.