From: rbowman@reed.edu (Rory Bowman) Date: 28 Jan 1995 17:34:17 GMT Newsgroups: alt.pagan Subject: Re: Rituals to go on with life. In article <065307Z28011995@anon.penet.fi>, wrote: > So, what is everyone's favorite ritual to go on with life after a > reall great romantic, passionate, supportive and promissing > relationship ends because ending it is the right thing to do? I > guess I'm looking for something contemplative. I want to hear what > everyone else does. Surely I'm not the only lonely loon on the > lake. Not by a long shot. Having had relationships break up with ritual and without ritual, I strongly recommend some sort of ceremonial closure. The simplest one I've done involved sitting down in a beautiful place with a blank piece of paper and two pens with differently colored inks. Starting at opposite corners of the paper, each person drew a line and then we made a pattern in the center of the paper, the lines crossing and mixing like our lives. After doing this for a short while, we each disengaged the lines from the mix and went to our respective, remaining corners of the paper. Next came the scissors and we cut the paper into three pieces, those parts with single-colored lines (our individual lives, before and after), then the center, mingled section. We each took our respective parts and split the shared portion evenly between us, rising quietly to walk away. A second, more involved "unfasting" I once heard of involved the couple meeting again at the place where they'd first met, talking for a long while with words of appreciation, followed by stepping backwards back over their handfasting broom and untying their marriage cord. From there they each went on their separate ways. (I assume one took the broom and the other the cord.) This is the ceremony I think I would use, were I to choose again. Hope this helps, and best wishes for strength. -- - Rory ****** rbowman@reed.edu *******************************************