The Oldest American Thanksgiving Ceremony, which is a remembrance of the abundance that Great Spirit has provided, and an opportunity to stretch your own boundaries.    The Gathering of the Spruce Ceremony prepares us for the culmination of the year, a time to listen to the Whisperings of the Infinite through the branches of the Sacred Spruce Tree. The ceremony guides us into the change that Winter Solstice brings with its longest night. For the people of the Sadhana Society, the last lunar month of the year is very special. This is the time of the Soyal Season. The Season begins with the November new moon called Kelmuya by the Hopi. Towards the end of November, there is a Thanksgiving celebration whose roots are with the ancient people of the North American continent. Then with the approach of the Winter Solstice, we celebrate the Gathering of the Spruce. A third ceremony is celebrated near the Summer Solstice. This is the Time of Great Change - a ceremony unique to the present time.

How do you prepare for a ceremony?
You begin with what the Ancient Ones called "The Time of Questioning". You question the reasons and goals of your actions in the previous year.

What are these questions?
They deal with our relationship to the world and society. But they also focus on our community, our friends, and finally with our relationship to ourselves and Infinite Expression.

How is a spiritual question different from scientific inquiry?
In spiritual practices, the term question is different than the way we use it in every day language. In every day language, to question, is to tear apart or dissect an idea. In spiritual practice, questioning involves removing the limitations to allow the idea to be more expressive. It includes the creative path of, "How can I do more? How can I be more expressive?"

What happens next?
One week before the Thanksgiving Ceremony, is the time of "Silence and Separation." During this time we quietly reflect within ourselves, refraining from social activities. There are no activities at the Temple.

Sounds like there is a lot of detailed inward preparation before a ceremony. What happens at the Temple Ceremonial site?
Each year, the main altar is transformed right before the Thanksgiving ceremony. As you enter you are confronted with prayer feathers, Kachinas, and many items similar to those found in Ancient American altar areas - known as Kivas. The ceremony is not only an expression of thankfulness for the abundance of this year, it is also a remembrance of what Humanity has experienced from the beginning of time.

Shankara, what is the focus of the Thanksgiving Ceremony?
The ceremony recalls the actions and activities of the four worlds of the Hopi legends, and recognizes the potential of the Fifth World - the Infinite Potential of Humanity. The ceremony is an affirmation of the communion between Great Spirit and each Human Being. The stories told in the ceremony tell of how over the vastness of time, during four great cycles; Great Spirit has listened when those with pure hearts have spoken. The legends show that the essence of Great Spirit is within each of us, waiting to awaken and become manifest. The act of remembrance in this Thanksgiving Ceremony puts us in touch with this inner essence of Great Spirit. It brings about the realization that it is only for us to make the effort, to manifest this inner essence. Following the ceremony, the Sadhana Society celebrates the abundant gifts from Mother Earth with a feast for all.

It seems that nature plays a big part in these ceremonies. Is there a ceremony for the shortest day of the year?
Around the time of the Winter Solstice, another ceremony is performed as part of the Annual Cycle of Life. This is the Gathering of the Spruce Ceremony. Evergreen is the ancient herb of purification. As an extension of the remembrance and discovery experienced in the Thanksgiving ceremony; during the Gathering of the Spruce, we discover that the purity we seek is within our ability to manifest. We must begin at the base of the spruce tree and climb to its peak, eliminating our confused, fragmented focus, and directly experiencing Great Spirit as our only true focus. It is the time to plant the seeds for our Realizations in the coming year. It is a time to cleanse and purify ourselves in the Oneness of Humanity. The richness of the dark and quiet winter nights gives us the opportunity of inner preparation for the coming Spring. By reaching into the deep and fertile wisdom within, we can nurture the seeds of our Humanity.
 

What about the Summer Solstice?
The Time of Great Change Ceremony is unique to the Sadhana Society. It evolved from a vision that Swami Ramananda had during a Native American Initiation ceremony. Later in 1973, this vision became a fact, as the stars in the night sky formed into the outline of the images of the Swami's vision. As told to Ramananda at the end of his initiation, another would stand with him as he watched the universe align as part of the Time of Great Change.

Shankara, were you the "other" person who witnessed this complete event?
Yes.

How did this influence you?
Twenty years later I sought a vision in a cave on Sadhana Mountain. A message came with this vision. A ceremony should be held at the beginning of the Summer Solstice that uses the images shown in the stars that night in 1973.

Talk about this ceremony.
The ceremony opens a doorway to Infinite Potential for all who attend. A mandala of colored corn meal is drawn in the center of the temple. Participants are encouraged to place their corn meal symbol within the great circle of the mandala. As the ceremony progresses, the mandala is empowered, rises up and becomes three-dimensional. The circle spins and an opening to the greater reality appears. Each has the choice whether to enter the opening, or perhaps just to know that it is there. The ceremony ends with the dissolution of the mandala, and an introduction to the Wholeness of all Humanity.