[Dialogue] Process for a self-help group

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

Perhaps this will be helpful for this discussion.  I hope so.  I meet with a 
group of women on the new moon, and Fred and a few other men join us for the 
full moon.  (Five women, 3 men.)  

A Navajo friend, who miraculously came into Suzanne's life in the Tenderloin 
of San Francisco, befriended her, and eventually was helpful in getting her to 
move back near home where she would have the help and support she needed, 
taught us this principle:  On the new moon, begin new projects and endeavers. Do 
not begin new activities after the full moon, but finish up what you began on 
the new moon.

So in our women's group, we share our events, hopes and dreams of the last 
moon, and project what we'd like to accomplish during the coming moon.  We 
smudge with sage smoke, light a candle on the altar, and usually do some kind of 
divination to give us direction for the future, such as pulling a tarot card, an 
animal card, an angel card, opening the Bible to a random passage, etc.  
These images, of course, are fundamental archetypes and always carry wisdom for 
what we're working on in our lives and consciousness.

The full moon group meets for a potluck meal, talk about "what's coming to 
light in my life" this moon.  Sometimes we share dreams.  We talk about politics 
and local events, and, to close, pray in a circle for the issues that have 
arisen.  Anyone can bring anything they wish to these conversations.

In both of these groups, we give time for each person to talk or not as they 
wish.  Sometimes I suggest a conversation structure, but usually, we just 
allow the conversation to flow, and ask at the end if anyone has something else 
they want to say that hasn't been touched on.  Sometimes one or more of us will 
go over the same issues we've been through with that person so many times, but 
I believe we all grow by speaking and listening to those.  ("Grace strikes 
when year after year, the longed-for life does not appear.")  And we do see 
growth, in an organic, spiraling manner.

Fred and I are the only ones in these circles who go to church.  This fills a 
need in all our lives for spirituality relating to the cycles of the cosmos.  
One of the members conducts sweat lodges on the equinox and solstice dates, 
and the mid-points between them.  (People who know Fred and me well in our 
Presbyterian congregation know we're somewhat heretical, but accept us anyway.)  
These people have been in our lives for ten to twelve years now, and have been 
a tremendous blessing.

Blessings to the Dialogue,
Jann McGuire