What We Faeries Learned About Ritual From The Dance For All People: ‘Structure Is Not a Dirty Word Any More’ Kwai Lam

What We Faeries Learned About Ritual From The Dance For All People: ‘Structure Is Not a Dirty Word Any More’ by Kwai Lam

The Dance for All People, aka Naraya, has been danced at Wolf Creek since 1999. I’ve danced since 2000, as have a number of other Faeries. When invited to look at the question faery/naraya, long time faery Wolfie/Fang/Little Green Muffin, myself and Clyde Hall, the initiator of this Naraya and dance chief had a little chat. Here are the juicy bits.

Whoa, Structure? Nooo...but.

For myself and many others the Naraya is by far the most structured ritual we take part in. So much more structured than Faerie rituals. As many of us walk paths outside of, around and oft forbidden by the structures we grew up with this can be an interesting journey and quite an education.

I’ve done Radical Faery rituals for nigh of forty years. We can and often do raise a lot of power. But then what? So bear with us while we humbly offer some possibilities:

Imagine a Gathering where everyone present is there to participate fully in the ritual from beginning to end. Imagine a gathering where it’s all about ritual.

The ritual lasts for three to four days. Imagine that each person arrives with clear intent, what they want to celebrate/move/ release with the ritual. Imagine that each person prays for themselves and supports each other in their prayer. Imagine that setting the ritual circle and altars is done with the care and patience of baking a scratch cake, the process taking five hours or so. Imagine singing songs that have been sung for hundreds to thousands of years. Imagine feeling the previous circles of people who have sung a song in times past. Imagine signing each song till “it’s done;” which might be twenty minutes or might be two hours. Imagine elders watching over the circle, seen and unseen. Imagine ‘first timers’ welcomed in with special care and delight. And each chooses a ‘buddy’. Imagine people caring for those ‘out of their mind’ in spirit. Keeping them safe. Helping them home. Imagine a group gathering in one heart. Imagine elders who bring decades of experience, rooted in their traditions, to leading this ceremony. Listening, listening, always listening to what spirit has to say.

If you can imagine this, then you can imagine some of the Naraya structure.

The Naraya is open and welcoming to everyone: that is a key part of Clyde Hall’s vision. We come together from many places and in many colors: we are “guests in Clyde’s house.” Clyde graciously shares ancient songs and other parts of northern great basin native traditions with us.

We are asked to behave, as good guests do, with respect to the rules of the house. The house and its rules have evolved over the course of three decades. Always with reason, always to keep people safe and make the ceremony stronger. The songs that we sing—are ancient, most of them, are songs of the great basin tribal people and some from the Tribes of the Great Plains. They are ancient and sung with permission, respect and joy.

Lesson One: structure can help focus and direct magic. (And this structure starts with intent, even before people ‘arrive’ to the ritual, and after they ‘leave’).

Lesson Two: structure can and should be dedicated to keeping the ceremony and its participants safe.

Lesson Three: incorporate a place for “the will of spirit” in your structure. Lesson four: structure can respect the different paths that participants walk, while still creating a cohesive whole.

Lesson five: when you raise power, use it!

Lesson five: when done, close the structure and invite guests to leave.

Lesson one is pretty old hat, but easy to un

derestimate in impact. The common intention of participants makes the outermost layer of the structure. Are they all fully involved, are some there as spectators? Is someone there just to disrupt? Think of the difference—and challenge—of public ritual, say in a park with people coming and going, and private ritual, particularly with a group who have worked together before. Naraya walks a middle path: everyone is welcome, but must ‘pass through the gate’ by having a conversation with a gatekeeper first. This conversation makes sure that intentions are clear as are expectations for participation.

Safety (and spiritual cleanliness) is the point of lesson two. The circle is cast with care, making a strong boundary. Folks entering the circle are smudged to come in clean. And sometimes further cleanup is required: the boundary is inadvertently crossed, or other need for further cleanup is needed. So we sweep again. Some folks are dedicated to this as their service.

Let’s talk about lesson three for a moment. Have you ever been at a ritual where it felt like things were just beginning to cook, the energy building beautifully with a song or chant and then it ended? Did you feel left ‘high and dry’ or that ‘if we’d only sung the song another couple of times...’ it would have been really powerful?

Oft this comes from an idea of ritual as set: ‘we’re going to sing xxx four times’. While it’s great to have a framework, the lesson of Naraya (and indigeonous rituals in general) is to keep listening: to the energy of the people, and to the other beings around. Are they done yet? Is someone still out on a journey? If the second, let’s bring them back before ending the song. In Naraya the call of when to end a song is made by the Dance Chief(s), after checking to make sure that it’s time to end. (Sometimes we think it is but then realize we must keep going to help someone back). Don’t drive by rote: listen!

“That’s the magic of all of that,” says Clyde. He continues:

“One of things people don’t realize about Native American structure and traditions there is always that room for spontaneity. You take that into the web of things. Nothing is ever done by rote. We call it the will of Spirit. Spirit is going to take your ceremony, and although there is a structure to it, it’s going to move in its own way. No ceremony is ever the same. Indians always incorporate the capriciousness of the will of spirit into their ceremonies. There is a very deep and very old framework, but it’s not something that’s unchangeable.”

My favorite example of lesson four happens during the formal procession at the beginning. Most of the time we move clockwise, or sunwise in the circle. It’s the tradition for Clyde’s people, and also tends to help keep the energy spinning in that way, and also harmoniously so. But some of the other Elders at the Naraya have other traditions, where they move counter-clockwise. So in this formal procession some move clockwise, some counter-clockwise. Very deliberately, very consciously. A way of respecting both traditions, rather than forcing into a ‘this is how we must do it here’ mold.

Using the power: at Naraya we use the energy that flows, to pray. (And often reminded to do so!) Clyde notes that at many Faerie rituals he has attended: “they raised lots of power, but never did anything with it! They wouldn’t direct or channel it to any specified purpose. I went around and gathered it up and sent it to someplace where it could do some good.”

Closing things down, lesson six, is obvious but also oft forgot. You can probably remember at least a couple of rituals which were never closed (at least not publicly). Just do it!

In conclusion: So Naraya to Faerie: structure begets focus, but don’t be dogmatic: listen. As Wolfie says: “What Naraya really showed the Faeries: when you have a thorough structure, then the power can get amplified. The Naraya is the first time that many Faeries saw the benefit in having everything be structured.”

What do Faeries bring to the Dance? Innovation.

The Two Spirit dances (Wolf Creek and Tennessee) are more free to experiment with rituals than the other dances. ‘Two Spirit people are the innovators; they can change traditions, that’s one of their roles,’ says Clyde.

In fact, this innovative role was one of the deciding factors in Clyde’s approval for Light Eagle’s request to bring the dance to Wolf Creek in the first place. “I wondered how this would work’ recollects Clyde. “[The Faeries] are in essence Two Spirit people, although they don’t call themselves that, having knowledge of the Old European people ritualists. The magic is the same, the power of medicine is the same, regardless of whether it’s Indians or non-Indians who carry that.”

Wolfie notes that “when self-identified straight people come to Wolf Creek they notice something different.”