Taking a Vow
Welcome to the 12th installment of our
Summer Camp News Bulletin.
There are just two weeks left of summer camp! We are currently in the middle of our fourth experiment that launched two weeks ago. The full instructions will be published later in our summer camp book, but for now we can say that it involves taking a vow, tying a band of white cloth around a part of your body, and soaking in a special prayer. Scroll down for a simple version of this ritual if you’d like to participate alongside us during the next two weeks.
But first, here is a teaching we presented to the Sacred Ecstatic campers on what is involved in taking this vow of spiritual commitment.
Accepting the Invitation
The old Caribbean shakers from long ago would periodically extend an open invitation to those feeling the call to live in much closer relationship with luminous and numinous mystery. It begins with an initiatory ritual that must be completed before there is subsequent admission to the higher spiritual classrooms.
The initiation requires you to approach the main middle wobble between this world and the world of mystery. Passage through this first gate is voluntary. You consciously choose to dedicate yourself to a new life, aiming to become a person of God, a hunter of n/om, a server of seiki tea, or a follower of the eland tracks (varying ways of pointing to the same mystery way of being). This may be the first time you have seriously taken such a vow, or it might be the renewal of a former vow not yet fully realized or embodied. We are offering this initiatory invitation to you as the final experiment of the summer camp.
We caution you to not be in a hurry to make a pledge or take a vow before you carefully consider what you are asking for and declaring. A vow is not a wish-making intention or a magical incantation key that opens the door to a desired outcome, accomplishment, or title that is added to your spiritual résumé or merit badge collection. It is the dedication of your whole life (not just a part of it) to living in a different kind of room where big me is put in its proper place and little me is encouraged to be more in performance and on stage. Here you serve the Creator rather than order fast food from a small room service menu.
Let us celebrate rather than lament the invitation to replace the rights of privilege with the rites of passage. You now face the gate that leads to a new kind of vast freedom—liberation from huckster lies, small room brainwashing, and trickster candy addiction. Where do you land, dear eland? That depends on where God decides to throw you. Be assured that every part of you will be washed clean before your soul is set on fire and your former life retired.
This may be terrifying to your big shot tater-tot me, or it may be paradoxically comforting to know that you can finally stop pretending that you can have your big m-ego cake and eat your holy bread, too. More importantly, this luminous raw exposure is exciting news to little me who loves answering the higher performance call. Your big me and little me will tremble for different reasons when you take this next step.
Making a Deal with Your Trickster Tater
We have received an advisory word from on high that, given the extent to which some of you are imprisoned by a big me dictatership, you may strategically benefit from choosing to make a vow for varying lengths of duration—one day, two days, three weekends, three weeks, the rest of the year, or the rest of your life. This way the trickster part of you thinks it can later decide whether to bail, something it will likely do anyway before (hopefully) recommitting again.
Remember that even after marriage, trickster can tempt you to drift away from your marital vow and offer a spiritual affair, a separation, or divorce from First Creation. What is true with the mess of flesh is equally true for the numinous arrangements of spirit. Remember: high fidelity and surround sound differ from every kind of infidelity and trickster channel.
Here you find the different temporal lengths of your vow are analogous to agreements to go out on a date, go steady, be engaged, and finally take the marital vow. Decide whether you want to date or marry God, or anything in between.
Taking the Pledge
What is involved in making your pledge and taking your vow? Sincerely say to yourself, both internally and externally (so both little me and big me take a double vow), “I pledge my life to becoming a servant of God.” We have mentioned the other metaphors you can use for this vow above, for those of you with allergies to certain religious words. Just remember there is not one metaphorical truth separate from the wobbling truths of other metaphors.
Sacred Ecstatics resides in the big room that hosts our multiple spiritual cooking lineages—those in the present and those yet to come. It is not a singular venue that freezes a metaphor into a literal ideology where the sobriety of piety overrides the more clarifying and exhilarating intoxication of sacred ecstasy, the extreme love we seek.
Pick your preferred metaphor, make the vow, and then dive in, knowing that the crossroads will again be faced until you make the long-term commitment. Even then, you will need to renew your vows often. Perhaps every morning, every night, and several times throughout the day.
Ritual Instructions
If you’d like to join us during the next two weeks, here is a simplified version of our fourth experiment that came down the visionary pipeline:
1. Cut a piece of white cloth. This can be any cloth, from a sheet to a t-shirt. Or, you can procure a new piece of cloth. Just make sure it’s white. You will choose what part of your body you will tie this band around: your hand, a single finger, around your chest across the heart, around your waist, or the soles of your feet. How long the piece of cloth is depends on where you tie it.
2. Choose a Prayer Line: We recommend choosing a two or three-word prayer line. This will be your “prayer key” that places your vow and ritual action in the biggest, holiest room. Any of the three prayer lines from The Pinnacle Prayer Book are sound choices:
I need, Thee
Do it, Lord
Just be nice
Or simply, “Thank you,” “Do it,” or “God help us,” (which is a Bushman prayer). Keep it simple. You may experiment with more than one line and chant them in a call-and-response. Just get that little prayer wheel turning!
3. Wash, Tie, and Pray: Each night, before going to sleep, you will tie the band around your chosen body part(s). Depending on how many nights you commit to, you may trying the band in different places. Follow this protocol: Wash the part of your body you will band, and then tie the cloth around it. While doing this, you will speak or chant your prayer line. You can either do this aloud or internally. When you tie this band around your body, you are tying yourself to the Big Holy.
Know that the Sacred Ecstatics summer campers are conducting this experiment every night during the next two weeks. You can join us for the whole two weeks, for a weekend, or even for one night. Let your little me decide, and then tell your tater you will see it later on the other side.
-The Keeneys, August 16, 2020