Tea as a Medicine for life
“You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea. Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup. Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy. If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea. You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone. Life is like that. If you are not fully present, you will look around and it will be gone. You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life. It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished. Learn from it and let it go. The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless. When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment. Then you will begin to experience joy in life.”
We have forgotten where we’ve come from. Polarity prevails as humanity has been given over to the sole control of the masculine, stifled by the patriarchy for far too long. It is not inconsequential that we find ourselves in a time of deepest disconnect. The structures that society emphasizes and exalts revolve around the single, bright, conscious and external masculine, de-emphasizing and discrediting the diverse, shadowy, unconscious, and internal feminine.
When we stepped away from the old stories and myths, and the power they hold to connect us to Nature, we forgot what it meant to be enchanted by and entangled with the world in which we live.
Tea Ceremony offers an initiation of return to this power. It is a natural doorway through which we can remember our innate interconnectedness and begin to rebalance our collective consciousness. Tea helps us remember that we are each and all part of the one great and mysterious Whole.
Through Tea our hearts are opened and our eyes become brighter. She offers a deeply Sacred, Feminine Medicine - a light that shines through everything - that can only be experienced when we relate with her as an intelligent, sentient Other. We are returned, bowl after bowl, to our entanglement with the animate Earth. She reminds us that the human, the animal, the natural and the celestial are one; each and every thing intertwines and is interchangeable. In other words, we can experience the entire universe in every single bowl of Tea.
“Worship does not mean offering flowers. / It means offering your heart / To the vast / mystery / Of the universe. / It means letting your heart pulse / With the life of the / universe. / Without thought and without reservation. / It means being so in love / That you are / Willing to dissolve / And be recreated in every moment”
To me, worship means to be of service. I will meet you, as you are, and offer the entirety of my being to our time together. I will hold a quiet space, heart pulsing with the life of the universe, so that we may both become willing to dissolve and be recreated in every moment. This is my promise.
Tea is the medium in which I choose to work, or rather, the medium which chooses to work through me. She presented herself to me at a time in my life when I had lost myself to the expectations and machinations of society, and could not see the way back. She took me gently by the hand and showed me the way home. This is the magic of Tea Ceremony - the medicine works on us gently, encouraging us to remember to remember. She is the road home, the path, the way - to our bodies, to the world, to the present moment. She is soft and loving and leaves us with a sense of completion, wholeness and perfection.
The Tea Ceremony I serve is based both within the cycles and circles of nature and the ancient lineages and traditions from the birthplace of Tea herself, China. We sit in silence, and drink Tea as plant medicine, becoming more open and present as a result. I often tell people that the ceremonies themselves are like moving meditations. The ceremony breathes, there is a moving inwards and returning outwards, as the tea is poured, the bowls passed around, and collected back. As we sit together, our heartbeats slow, our jaws unclench, and our minds relax - we can begin to feel into the very moment we find ourselves in. Tea Ceremony is an opportunity to slow down, to simply be here now, and of course, to consume some beautiful plant medicine at the same time. Check below for current ways to join me with Tea.
Community Tea Ceremonies
Come join me in the Ceremony of Tea on Sunday mornings at 9am at the Wild - A Tea Room. No prior experience with Tea or Ceremony is necessary and all are welcome. This offering is a great way to get a feeling for what Tea Ceremony is all about.
NEW - Autumn 2024: There is now a VIRTUAL version of these Community Sits available for those who cannot attend in person. Click here for availability.
** a note on pricing / cost can be found here
Tea Journey™
Through a lifetime of connecting with nature, and over my years of sitting for, and serving Tea to others, I’ve learned that a ceremonial deepening of our innate connection with nature can bring about deeply moving experiences and personal transformation. I have found that people who come for Tea over and over again often experience this naturally - so, I created Tea Journey ™.
A Ceremonial practice of Tea, nature mysticism and deep connection, Tea Journey™ is a one-on-one Tea Ceremony, located either at The Wild (my tearoom in Calgary Alberta) or out in the wide world. This offering is for an intimate one-on-one Tea Ceremony only and is NOT followed by a Deep Listening Session™.
** A note on pricing / cost can be found here.
Becoming tea™
An introduction to the practice, life, and Way of Tea. This offering involves the chance to come to the Tea House as a space to practice serving Tea. This offering is open to students of other teachers looking for a consistent space to serve, or those who have attended Tea Ceremonies with me for at least one year and have begun a practice of their own that they want to develop.
This offering is available as a monthly membership starting at $50 per month, depending on frequency of use.
I am basing this new offering around having the Tea Room accessible no matter what my own daily and weekly rhythms look like. I wanted to offer the gift of giving ourselves space and stillness to simply be present however we need to be. This is the medicine we can all benefit from in our fast paced,modern world. If you’re interested in learning more, please click through the link below.
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