Deborah Redman, Sidney

“Rituals carry us into the belly of the change process, encouraging us to embrace the change rather than become distracted or run away.”

“Rituals carry us into the belly of the change process, encouraging us to embrace the change rather than become distracted or run away.”
– Kathleen Wall and Gary Ferguson in Lights of Passage

“Would you exorcise my house?” she asked me.

As a Protestant minister, the idea of an exorcism was a foreign concept.  However she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, she and her husband had bought a new business, and this young family had just recently moved into a new house.

Since the move, she believed and felt a lot of negative energy permeating the house. She was at the end of her tether, and she had come to me asking for help, and so I rather hesitatingly responded by saying I would try to do something.

I sought out whatever liturgical resources I had about exorcism and of course, found none. So I decided I would instead do a “cleansing” and a “blessing” of the new house.

I borrowed some smudge, the family invited all their immediate extended family, and we walked throughout the house, carrying the smoking smudge, blessing each room and allowing the scent to seal in those blessings.

Afterwards we had tea and cake.  About a month later, I met again with the young Mom. She was healing nicely after her surgery, and she felt no more negative energy in the house.

There was really nothing extraordinary or supernatural about what we did. There was just an intention to partake in something concrete, using words and symbols, that would include the whole family, and to set aside time and create sacred space. For this family, the ritual that they performed, brought about healing and well being.

Throughout history, humankind finds meaning, healing, and ways to express grief and joy by  bringing us closer to the divine through significant events in our lives. From weddings to funerals, from fasting to dancing, from vigils to blessings, we bring ourselves into alignment with the natural flow and rhythm of life through various rituals and ceremonies.

It is important for us to pay attention to significant life events through ceremonies as they remind us of how intimately we are connected with each other, with the Divine/Universe/Holy and with nature. They also help us to be at peace with the inevitable changes that life brings to us.

A ceremony may be intended for a specific healing, such as relieving someone or a community of its emotional, physical, and spiritual suffering. Or we may want a  ritual to repair a relationship. Other ceremonies are targeted for transitions and celebrations.

What better way to celebrate a marriage or the birth of a baby, or an anniversary, or a move, than to join with your friends and family, your community, in those joyous and sacred times. Our Earth’s rhythms, such as the change of seasons, can be cause for celebration as well.

In the hectic, chaotic and driven pace that is part of our modern lives it is even more critical that we are able to access the spiritual realm.  Ceremonies and rituals can create that bridge between our spirit, our minds and hearts and they should be part of our daily life, no matter what religious creed one follows or spiritual belief one holds.

In Western society, we give over spiritual authority to the religious institutions. However much of society now has no religious connections, and yet there is a profound hunger for authentic spiritual expression that speaks to people's heart.

I have personally discovered in my twenty-two years of being an ordained minister, that there is a real need for people to participate in ceremonies that are more personal, meaningful, relevant and spiritual, without resorting to traditional religious language or customs that have little meaning.

So it has become my personal vocation to offer these ceremonies to the wider community, particularly to those who describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.”  When I work with people to help create rituals or ceremonies, my goal is to allow the experience to come from the heart, and to reaffirm our connection with the powerful and mysterious forces of Life.

Deborah Redman
Officiant, Celebrant
250-655-1134

Deborah Redman is available for a complimentary consultation. You can visit her Just Rite website www.ceremoniesbydeborah.com.