Radiant Touch Weddings... hand-fastingA very popular Celtic tradition being incorporated into many weddings, is the Hand Fasting Ceremony. It is a beautiful, symbolic ceremony that can fit into any style of wedding. A true Hand Fasting is then followed up with a ceremony in A Year and a Day to finalize the commitment. Another Reiki based ceremony is the Burning Bowl, for releasing the past before starting a new future together.
HAND FASTING CEREMONY (contemporary version)
Bride & Groom, know now before you go further, that since your lives have crossed in this life, you have formed eternal and sacred bonds.
As you seek to enter this state of matrimony you should strive to make real the ideals that to you, give meaning to this ceremony and to the institution of marriage.
With full awareness,you are not only declaring your intent to be handfasted before your friends and family,
but you speak that intent also to your creative higher powers.
The promises made today and the ties that are bound here greatly strengthen your union and will cross the years and lives of each soul's growth.
Do you still seek to enter this ceremony?
Yes.
Groom & Bride, I bid you look into each others eyes.
Will you honor and respect one another, and seek to never break that honor?
We will [the first cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the first binding is made.
Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?
We will [Second cord is draped over the hands]
And so the binding is made
Will you share the burdens of each so that your spirits may grow in this union?
We will [third cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the binding is made.
Will you share each other's laughter, and look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?
We will. [forth cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the binding is made.
[Tie cords together]
Groom & Bride, as your hands are bound together now, so your lives and spirits are joined in a union of love and trust.
Above you is the sun and below you is the earth. Like the sun, your love should be a constant source of light, and like the earth, a firm foundation from which to grow.
(from this point the ceremony can move on to traditional vows and/or the traditional ring exchange)
A Year & A Day After a Handfasting Ceremony :
Officiant:(Please open with a short prayer to bless these proceedings and follow by a minute of silence to bring peace).
(Please open with a short prayer to bless these proceedings and follow by a minute of silence to bring peace).Our dear Heavenly Father. We come before you this day to consummate the marriage promises and commitment made by ______________. We give thanks to you for the many blessings you have bestowed on us. Thank you for bringing their paths together so that they may find and know true love.
Today we ask for blessing upon this ceremony and this marriage. We ask that you give ___________, words boths kind and loving, hearts always ready to ask forgiveness as well as to forgive, and spirits filled with well-being and light. May the love that brought them together grow and mature with each passing year. Bring them ever closer to You through their love for each other. May their love grow to perfection.
Amen
Officiant:A full year has now passed, plus a day. As required, we now meet to declare before God your decision to remain wed. Bride, as required by tradition, I will now ask you both to share three things that you love about each other that you have learned this past year.
A full year has now passed, plus a day. As required, we now meet to declare before God your decision to remain wed. Bride, as required by tradition, I will now ask you both to share three things that you love about each other that you have learned this past year. Bride: (names three things you love about Groom)
Officiant: Now, as tradition demands, are there three negative things about Groom that you have learned about this past year?
Bride: (Speaks three negative things about Groom)
Officiant: Thank you Bride. Groom, will you reveal three negative things you learned about Bride this past year?
Groom: (Names three things)
Officiant: Thank you. Now three things that you love about Bride.
Groom: (speaks three things that he loves about Bride)
Officiant: Thank you. Do you both declare your intent to be wed?
BOTH: Yes we do.
Officiant: Let's gather under the oak trees to declare your dedication.
(Walk to stand by alter under the oak tree)
Officiant: To symbolize the joining of two individuals as one please light the candle with your own and extinguish your candle to show your intent to sublimate your individual needs to the greater needs of your union. (Wait until candles are lit, then say) God bless this union.
Groom, repeat after me: Ye are blood of my blood, and bone of my bone.
I give ye my body, that we two might be one
I give ye my spirit, that our lives shall be done.
Officiant: To celebrate your first drink as a married couple, and to signify you coming together as one, please drink to the love you have shared in the past.
BOTH: (Bride drinks first, then Groom)
Officiant: Drink to your love in the present, on this your wedding day.
BOTH: (Bride drinks first, then Groom)
Officiant: And now drink to your love in the future and forever more.
BOTH: (Bride drinks first, then Groom, then they kiss)
Officiant: Please repeat after me in unison.
You cannot possess me for I belong to myself.
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give.
You cannot command me, for I am a free person.
I pledge to you that it will be your eyes into which I smile every morning.
I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care.
I shall be a shield for your back, and you for mine.
I shall not slander you, nor you me.
I shall honor you above all others, and when we quarrel,
We shall do so in private and tell no strangers our grievances.
This is my wedding vow to you, this is the marriage of equals.
By stepping over this sword and broom you sweep away remnants of the past, and protect each other's hearts with your own.
Now putting the past behind you and remembering always that the power to create the future ahead of you is your own, step together into your common future.
BOTH: (Bride and Groom step over the broom and sword and kiss)
Officiant: (Officiant slips the cords over their hands and ties the red cord with a single knot around all)
(Then as officiant reads the following, circle Bride and Groom three times clockwise)
As this knot is tied, so are your lives now bound. Woven into this cord, into its very fibers, are the hopes of your friends and family, and of yourselves, for your new life together. May this cord draw your hands together in love, never to be used in anger. May the vows you have spoken, never grow bitter in your mouths.
Two souls entwined in love, bound by commitment and fear, sadness and joy, hardship and victory, all of which brings strength to this union. Hold tight to one another, through good times and bad, and watch as your strength grows. Remember, it is not this physical cord, but what it represents, that keeps you together.
What your two hearts have declared, and what your two souls can make real, I joyfully observe that you have declared yourselves to be married.
You may kiss your wife.
STEPPING OVER BROOM
By stepping over this broom you sweep away remnants of the past, and protect each other's hearts with your own.
Now putting the past behind you and remembering always that the power to create the future ahead of you is your own, step together into your common future.
BOTH: (Bride and Groom step over the broom And kiss)
BURNING BOWL CEREMONY
The Burning Bowl Ceremony is a time for releasing the past. It is a time for forgiving ourselves and others, so that the new journey can begin.
Releasing the past does not require us to change our feelings, necessarily, only to see ourselves in a new way. In this process it is not our essential beingness that we are releasing, only our pain. The process requires that we must see clearly that which we choose to leave behind, before we can accept the peace that comes from the release and begin the process of renewal and moving on..
This Burning Bowl Ceremony is also about accepting the greatness of who we truly are. Until we can do that, we will never know the beauty of peace of mind, heart, or soul. Without peace in our hearts, there can be no healing of body, mind, or spirit. With peace in our hearts, there can be Love.
The bride and Groom have placed on these pieces of paper the things they most wish to release and leave behind so that they can start their journey together, only bringing with them the knowledge and lessons learned from their past without any of the pain or negative energy associated with it. Neither knows what is written on the others paper. It is only what each wants most to leave behind so that this marriage will have a fresh beginning to grow , learn and experience life TOGETHER.
Each will hold the paper over the burning flame and release it into the Universal Energy to be lifted and cleansed. The ashes will later be spread on the earth to become fertile soil for new life.
(The bowl used is a metal vessel. It is mounted on a wrought iron stand. The flame is provided by a pillar candle. The papers can be held over the flame with tongs.)
I would suggest following the Burning Bowl with the saying of the Cherokee Prayer
"God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honour all you created as these two pledge their hearts and lives together.
We honour mother-earth - and ask for this marriage to be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honour fire - and ask that this union be warm and glowing with love in their hearts;
We honour wind - and ask they sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honour water - to cleanse and soothe this relationship - that it may never thirsts for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as they forever grow young together. Amen."
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