Creating a Ceremony

"Love has to spring spontaneously from within; it is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; but while love cannot be forced on anyone, it can be awakened through love itself." Meher Baba

Like any creative process or any story worth telling, a wedding ceremony must have an beginning, middle and end. In ceremonial ritual and rites of passage there must be an alchemy of containment and freedom, holding the space yet allowing sacred spontaneity. This is the first time I've ever tried to put words to what happens during a wedding ceremony because like love, this phenomenon can in no way be forced nor does it ever help to become self-conscious about such things. Aware, yes, self-conscious-no.

" Love is essentially self-communicative;those who don't have it catch it from those who have it. " Meher Baba

                       (photo of Sean Lennon catching some love from Meher Baba while shopping at Blumeria )

Update on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 5:09PM by Soulful Wedding Ceremonies

Beginnings:Ten years ago, I was asked to officiate my first wedding. After talking on the phone briefly the wedding couple and the bride's father and step-mother arrived on my doorstep. I remember ushering them all out to my deck and serving them cream cheese and olive sandwiches while we talked about the upcoming wedding. As you can imagine I was a bit nervous, I hadn't really expected the parents to be there. I already knew I would love Kathy and Pete because when they called and asked about my wedding experience I said they would be my first. Then I added that for all I knew, I may officiate like Mr. Bean in the film, Four Weddings and a Funeral. They said, in that case, I would be perfect. So we ate our sandwiches, chatted and pretty soon we were having a wonderful time. Curly, Kathy's father was a hoot and Judy, the step-mom, fell in love with the Meher Baba quote that I've been quoting in this entry and decided she would open the wedding by reading the entire discourse.  Hundreds of weddings later I always open with some part of that discourse such as,

"True love is unconquerable and irrresistble. It goes on gathering power and spreading itself until it tranforms everyone it touches." 

More about beginnings soon

'Beguine' means the moment love begins