Dust seems to have an innate quality to expand if you don’t clean it away regularly. In December while we were at the Paracelsus Center in Einsiedeln for Winter Solstice celebration, we noticed that a thorough clean-house was necessary. So we met there again last Friday and Saturday for a spring-clean and for celebrating Aries full moon. I was reminded of the ancient monastic rule of “Ora et labora”, to live a balance of prayer and of work.
Mathilda and I started driving to Einsiedeln very early in the morning. Ice was on the car windows and frost immediately covered them again after scratching. The highway was partly covered with dense fog but we had a beautiful drive listening to the CDs of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi” which a friend had borrowed me. In Biberbrugg we picked up Erika and Irmgard. A few kilometers before Einsiedeln the sun came out, and while we were driving the way down to the Paracelsus Center over a partly ice-covered road there was a magic light around the mist-covered hills. And there I noticed that I had left my camera at home… We later used Erika’s iPhone for some digital memories.
Unpacking the cleaning material, a short meditative aligment, then discussing the plan for the day… Erika had very well planned all the work to be accomplished: windows, curtains, kitchen and carpets – and the furniture and pictures… I started cleaning the pictures of the Masters, and discovered they had a layer of soot, from previous fire rituals… In one of the corners, there was a cuckoo clock which after cleaning and some moving started running again, after a few years of pause.
After 6 hours of work the center was shining again – and when we sat down for evening meditation we felt tired but happy.
We spent the night in a nearby hotel on the Etzel pass and went again down to the center in the dark of early morning rain. The Aries full moon celebration started with the morning meditation at the end of which we did an inner fire ritual with the outer “help” of some tea lights. Later after breakfast I picked up a friend at Einsiedeln station.
We later joined again with a small candle ceremony and singing a RAM mantram, RAM being a mantram linked to fire and Aries. I then guided the group through the “Meditative Journey through Life” about which I blogged last week, again a profound experience. At noon we met with another friend in Einsiedeln for lunch and a small rain-walk around the famous monastery.
The afternoon quickly went by with a visualisation exercise and exchange. Meinrad joined us for evening meditation plus water ritual. Before we left again we stood on the Devil’s Bridge next to the Paracelsus Center and threw some flowers and twigs into the roaring Sihl river putting some good thoughts into the river of life.
