Module 6
Mastery: Rites of Passage
Trainer Resources
The Widow as Butterfly: A Story of Renewal
Long ago, there were two Caterpillar people who loved each other
very much. But one day the Caterpillar Man died, and this broke
the heart of his widow. The Caterpillar Woman didn't want to be
around anyone; didn't want to talk to anyone--she
wrapped her sorrow around her like a shawl. She walked, and all
the time she walked she was crying.
For a whole year she walked, and because the world is a circle,
she returned to where she had started. The Creator took pity on
her, and told her, "You've suffered too long. Now's the time
to step into a new world of color, a new world of beauty."
The Creator clapped hands twice, and she burst forth as the butterfly.
And this is why for many communities, the butterfly is a symbol
of renewal--that relief
can come at the end of suffering.
--Traditional Warm Springs
story
VISUALIZATION
FIRST VOICE
One of the things I am going to suggest is that you might have
your little friend with you, the stone that you gathered. I would
suggest that you hold it while we do this exercise, so there is
a safety net with you so that when you feel that you are getting
uncomfortable you can squeeze that stone a little bit harder to
remind yourself that you are in the here and now, in a very safe
place around people who care about you very much.
START BEATING THE DRUM WITH THE SAME RHYTHM OF THE HEART
Now some of you can choose to close your eyes now . . . and some
of you might choose to close your eyes a few minutes later . .
. but whatever feels best to you.
Some people can concentrate better on the sound of somebody's
voice . . . when you close your eyes . . . choose your own time
and your own place to listen to the sound of my voice. I'm going
to ask (other facilitator) to say hello to you so you can hear
her voice right now, too. (Hello, I'm _____, I will be with you
today.) Now every time you hear _____ voice you might be surprised
to find out how soothing it is.
When you hold this stone, you might be surprised to discover some
warmth growing in the stone, as you hold it in your hand. As you
listen to the sound of my voice . . . as you wonder when______might
begin to speak again . . . you can become aware of the sounds
around you . . . people shuffling in their seat . . . the sound
of the_______(whatever sounds are in the room) . . . and you might
be surprised if you pay attention to those things . . . you learn
not to pay attention to them.
Some of you are wearing watches . . . some of you wearing rings
. . . some of you are wearing bracelets . . . some of you are
wearing glasses . . . and isn't it interesting until I mentioned
those things you don't have an awareness of them . . . but as
I mentioned your glasses . . . your necklaces . . . your rings
. . . your watches . . . that suddenly you can be aware . . .
that your body is very skillful at forgetting certain things so
you can learn to forget any kind of outside distractions . . .
noises come and noises go . . . if there are any interruptions
. . . you'd be surprised how that can help you concentrate even
more . . . from your listening skills.
One of the things that was said . . . was that when some people
picked up the stone they felt like children again. This is the
time to go back in terms of being able to remember that child
inside of yourself . . . the child that you carry with you all
the time. I'm hoping that child with us . . . during this
time that we have together . . . learns how to feel safe and to
settle back and listen to the voices that you hear . . . listen
to the stories . . . you can feel the warmth of that stone increasing.
. . feeling almost as if it is pushing against you . . . letting
you know that you're safe . . . reminding you how comfortable
you feel as you settle back in the chair . . . or on the carpet..
or into yourself. Every now and then you might smell the smell
of the sage . . . or the sweetgrass and that will help you relax
even more . . . help you feel safe . . . help you to feel comfortable
. . . as you listen to the sound of my voice.
Sometimes when people come into a safe place they do it by numbers
to help concentrate on counting . . . and as you listen to the
sound of my voice as I count . . . you might be surprised to discover
how it helps you relax . . . 10 . . . feeling safe . . . 9 . .
. feeling comfortable . . .8 . . . helping you to relax . . .
7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . and isn't it interesting that when you
were a child it was hard to count . . . and it was such a wonderful
discovery to be able to think . . . that you could learn to count
. . . to learn that you could read . . . to learn some other things
. . . like some of you learning to ride a bicycle . . .
And as you listen to the sound of my voice . . . as you listen
to (2nd voice comes in and counts for awhile and then later
goes into script. 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7. . . 6 . . . 4 .
. . 5 . . . 2 . . . 9 . . . 3 . . . 10 . . . 2 . . . 1 .
. . 9 . . . 8 . . etc. Do not count in order but count backward.)
You might be surprised how somehow it helps you to concentrate
. . . as you begin an inward journey to discover within yourself
a place of safety . . . a place of comfort . . . as some of you
bring your new friends with you . . . the stone to help you feel
safe . . . the awareness of people who care about you. . . around
. . . about the circle . . . in a healing way . . .
to help you become whole again.
One of the things that some people do because they have memories
that frighten them . . . like they take a big chunk of cement
and they cover all the memories so that the bad ones don't come
through . . . if you do that you also pour cement over all the
memories of joy . . . over all the memories of happiness . . .
and isn't it sad to lose access to those memories . . .
So that as you listen to us over the next few minutes as you become
aware of the rock that holds some of you . . . you should become
aware of the scent of the sage and the sweetgrass . . . as you
listen to the counting . . . you might be surprised how you might
discover some very nice memories taking place . . . and isn't
it interesting for you to notice which memories of joy might come
. . . which memories of feeling safe . . . memories you've had
at feeling very accomplished . . . though at the time when you
felt very proud of yourself . . . and you can feel that memory
. . . and you might let that warmth enter into that rock . . .
enter into your heart . . . to be there from now and into the
future when you need that feeling of warmth . . . when you need
that feeling of safety . . . when you need that feeling of accomplishment
. . . take it with you where you go . . .
And as a child you learned to see . . . as a child you learned
to see the world in different ways . . . a child's kind of short
. . . so sometimes the child sees things that the adult missed
. . . they're a little bit closer to the earth . . . and each
part of you carry in hand . . . part of the land . . . that you
carry with . . . some of you hold it in your hand . . . and for
some of you, your rock is still out there waiting for you . .
. as you listen to . . . as you listen to me . . . you can become
aware of the connection . . . to be aware how much protection
is around you . . . how much strength is there for you to touch
. . . now . . . and I will talk about a time, a long time ago
when you first learned to do new things . . . (2nd voice comes
in the script) and maybe you will remember a time when you
first rode a bicycle . . . when you first tried to ride a bicycle
it was very difficult . . . sometimes you felt like you would
never learn to ride that bicycle . . . and then you finally learned
how . . . and you learned to practice in different ways to keep
your balance . . . round and round the wheels would go . . . taking
you places you wanted to go . . . and isn't it interesting that
some of you remembered this bike, remembered what it looked like
. . . what it felt to hold those handle bars . . . what it felt
like to sit on that seat that took you where you want to go .
. . and that bicycle became an opportunity for you to discover
things . . . taking you further than you could go . . . and to
be able to turn . . . and those wheels that remind you of circles
. . . all the circles we have been sharing with you . . . the
circles of the drum . . . circles of the medicine wheel . . .
circles of the four directions . . . circles of the Christian
prophets . . . circles of all your lives . . . seasons that turn
in circles . . . the Fall . . . the Winter . . . Spring . . .
Summer . . . Fall . . . Spring . . . Fall . . . Fall . . . Falling
. . . falling into comfort . . . fall period . . . realizing
just as the cycles turn into circles . . . that things turning
inside of yourself that help you feel safe . . . that help you
feel brave . . . some of you touch the stone in your hand . .
. some of you touch the stone in your heart . . . to remind yourself
that you can feel safe . . . that you can learn these new skills
. . . that you are exposed to just as you once learned to ride
a bicycle . . . as you learned to count . . . as you learned to
recognize all the letters . . . and it might be interesting for
you to discover that as you remember some of these memories .
. . the memory of accomplishment . . . the memory when you felt
safe . . . the memory when you felt brave . . . discover how much
that feeling means to you . . . to be aware of it . . . and isn't
it interesting how you can feel it in your body . . . some of
you might feel it in your hands . . . some of you might feel it
in your legs . . . some of you might feel it in the tingling in
your skeleton . . . as you become aware that you can get pleasure
as you discover what your body can teach you . . . as the memory
becomes, it reminds you how brave . . . how safe you can be as
you relax . . . as you feel safe and relaxed . . . and you can
take this feeling of that memory back with you . . . sometimes
when you touch a flower . . . the pollen of that flower touches
you and stains you as it touches your skin . . . and as you touch
these memories you can take the feeling of that memory back with
you.
You might be pleased to discover a feeling of energy and when
you come back into this room with it . . . and that energy can
last with you and in the days to come you are going to see a flash
of colors . . . and when you see that flash of colors . . . you
will have a memory of that sense of safety. . . and all the things
we have been talking about. . . and all the things we have been
sharing together in the last few days will come together. . .
in a new way . . . just as the circle turns . . . in the days
to come you will see a circle. . . when you see that circle you
will remember all these things you can remember. . . and the sound
of our voices will go with you. . . and the sound of our voices
will become the voices of the rain . . . become the voices of
the wind . . . and all these words that we are going to share
with you . . . all of us who are here sharing our words together.
There are too many words for your mind to hold that your heart
will hold them . . . the old people say when you build a snare
to catch the rabbit, you catch the rabbit. . . you can forget
about the snare. . . when you build a fish trap to trap fish.
. . you can forget about the trap once you caught the fish. .
. and words can exist to capture the meaning of the idea. . .
but when you have captured the meaning of the things that we have
shared together. . . you can forget about the words . . . that
your heart will remember . . . when you have need of the teaching
we have shared with you . . . those words will come to you in
the form of the wind . . . in the form of the rain . . . in the
distance of people talking . . . within the laughter . . . all
these things will come to you and now in your own time . . . taking
all the time you need inside . . . in only a moment or two of
clock time . . . you begin to come back to us . . . come back
with your body . . . and in a moment or two you can become aware
of the room around you again . . . and you can start to stretch
and feel comfortable . . . and some of you feel very relaxed .
. . and some of you might be surprised to discover that there
is a nice warm glow around you . . . feeling of comfort . . .
feeling of safety . . . and if you need to feel the feeling of
safety again, feeling of comfort, your small rock friend is with
you . . . your large rock relative is waiting with you in the
Spirit House . . . if you want that feeling again you can touch
and call on that feeling. . . (singing or chanting optional depending
upon facilitator).
VISUALIZATION
SECOND VOICE
Remember a long time ago when you were really small and you were
so exited because you were in school for the very first year.
You were so happy to have new pencils, and paper, and a book.
You could smell the newness around you too, like the chalk and
the smell of a newly sharpened pencil and even the smell of papers
when they are duplicated. Yes ... and maybe you can
remember a time when you first sat at your desk. The chair was
just right for your feet and you had a place for your pencil and
paper. Everything was new and strange for you. Like when the teacher
read from the roll call and called all these names and then called
your name. Remember how you raised your hand or said "here"
to let her know you were right where you were. And then remember
watching her write those strange things on the board and having
the teacher ask you to copy them. You didn't know anything about
reading and writing, but you knew that the shapes meant something
and you were excited about learning how to do it like the big
kids and big people. You tried to copy the shapes on your paper
not knowing what you were writing. The first letters may have
been difficult at first as your hand tried to make the letter
"b". You can remember what that was like as you formed
a long stem and made the semi-circle for the body of the letter
"b". You concentrated really hard. Sometimes it was
confusing because you were not sure if the "b" was the
same as a six, or was it really an upside down "p",
and sometimes it looked like a d.
It was confusing at times, and many times you had to think about it and concentrate really hard
so that you could form the concept in your mind. Isn't it interesting
that as you began to practice writing the "b", you slowly
began to know the difference between an "a", and a "b"
and a "d", and a six, and even a "p". Yes,
an "a" with a stem could really become a "d"
as you practiced and learned how to do this, your mind slowly
but automatically began to remember how to do it. And even now,
it is so easy to know the difference between a "d" and
"b" because you have formed mental images that have
stayed with you and can last a lifetime ... in fact
you can even take all those letters that you learned back then
and can write words, and sentences, and paragraphs, and even fill
a whole page with those letters ... you can even read
those letters that become words and do it so effortlessly. Isn't
it interesting how from a very simple act that took so much time,
you can now complete complex acts like combing words, put words
in front of words, or put words behind words so they can make
sense. You could read sentences like "Run, Jane, run."
or "Stop, Spot, stop." Yes, that's rights and later
you were able to learn more about more numbers and what numbers
can do, like take numbers and add to other numbers and take numbers
away from numbers, like five from nine becomes four and add three
and five to be an eight, and it became one step building on another
step to learning different combinations until it became an automatic
process. You still add ... and subtract ... you
still divide and multiply numbers in such an easy way. You still
read and write and can remember all those things so well and just
think with a little practice you really can do well when you put
your mind to it. It is really wonderful how easily it is to use
your mind in such interesting ways to do all the writing, reading
and adding and subtracting when you need to . Yes, just by allowing
the mind to form mental images and integrating all that knowledge,
you can without any hesitation do so many wonderful things when
you really put your mind to it.
Continue to next trainer resource.