Rebirth (poem of the sweat-lodge)

Suspend all you thought you knew
Abandon thoughts of being prepared.
Blasted, stripped bare,
To the bone, to the soul,
Senses at once assaulted yet caressed.
Here is where you learn
No-thing is left to hang onto,
To lean on,
Just the Self,
Both humbled and carried high,
Barely able to breathe and yet
Gulping in pure Life
Whilst the ego melts in the face
Of such consciousness.
Here, in the depth
Of utter darkness
All talk of awareness
Takes true form,
Beginning to swim with the
Particles of air, of heat,
Of energy,
Solidity is useless here.
One level sees the naked,
Vulnerable, bodies,
How little they matter,
How matter is but
Illusion.
Another sees the safe, connected
Minds,
Eyes closed, eyes open,
All is one.
Layers peeled back
Until the skin, the bones,
The essence, all begin
To fall away with the
Nonsense called reality
And instead they begin to circle within the air,
Spinning in spirals,
Oh!
The utter joy...
...and the complete
Release, combine
To create exhilaration,
Carrying you through and beyond
That which the physical plane
Perceives as discomfort,
But which the spiritual plane
Perceives as pure freedom.
Falling away, ascending up,
Spinning around...
Then crawling out of the womb of
Re-birth,
Lying upon the cold, refreshing grass
Belly connecting with the
Grandmother Earth...
Blending hallucination
Of old reality
With perception
Of the new
And knowing
That 'you' will never be
The same.

By Emma Bevan June 2009