A Thanksgiving Eurythmy Prayer.
A Eurythmy movement to move alone or share with your loved ones.
For the dark earth that cradles the seed,
For the rain that brings forth the green leaves,
For the stars that give form to the flowers,
For the warm sun that ripens the fruit,
For all this goodness and beauty,
Father-mother God, we thank Thee.
This lovely table blessing lends itself beautifully to eurythmy, and can be done by beginners or experienced eurythmists. If you are inspired by the words, take a few moments to let the pictures come alive inside you. See the rich black soil moistened with rain, the seed hull softening until the tender roots and the first leaves unfold. Watch how the plant is held and supported in its life cycles through the cycles of nature. As you do so, practice concentrating your forces of attention and enlivening your thinking. Allow the experience of deep thanksgiving and gratitude flood your soul.
Would you like to try moving this in eurythmy? I will find it difficult to explain to you how to move this in language, but let’s give it a try.
The art and prayer of eurythmy entails letting the inner life of a poem become visible throughout your whole being--spirit, soul and body. As a eurythmist, you will easily feel that the living pictures of this prayer expand and contract throughout the entire poem. If you are only starting your eurythmy practice, you can move this with simple, breathing gestures. If you have already learned how to make the sounds of language come alive through gesture, you can weave the sound-gestures into your movements.
Because this is a poem about the gentle forces of a plant, you can allow your arms gestures to open and close, expand and contract in living, etheric fields. Begin with the first four lines like this.
1: Dark earth---open. Seed--close
2: Rain—open. Green leaves---close
3: Stars—open. Flower—close
4: Warm sun—open. Fruit—close
Now go further, and use the different zones of below, middle and above to help your expression.
1. Begin with the first line: envision the dark earth and spread your arms wide below you, then picture the seed, and bring your hands together, cupped around a seed.
2. For the second line, raise your arms and spread them wide around you as you picture the blessings of rain, and then picture green leaves and stems and bring your hands together, cupped around the unfolding plant.
3. For the third line, lift your arms high to the stars, far beyond your hands, imagining the wisdom of geometric forces weaving a web around the earth. Then cup your hands around a flower, imagining its perfect miniature star shape.
4. Now imagine the deep warmth of a summer day, and spread your arms wide, and then gather that warmth and bring it to the fruit of the plant that will bear the new seeds.
Finally, after all of these polarities, the last two lines breathe differently. Now we focus on the experience that lives in the soul instead of on nature forces. Spread your arms wide to open to goodness and beauty, and then imagine even larger universes for “Father-mother God.” This is the macrocosm! Then, in this sequence, the word “we” becomes the microcosmic, being personal and of this world, so bring your arms to your heart for “we.” And finally, lift your heart and arms to the heavens again to the universe for “thee.
Even such a simple exercise as this will be a great beginning for your eurythmy journey. You become enlivened in your mind, you feel the dynamics, and you move your body. You become quiet and attentive, and breathe more deeply.
Now you can bring the verse into movement: If you would like to go even deeper with this process, you can start to move with your whole body, and walk backwards and forwards as you expand and contract. That is to say, when you walk backwards you can feel the great mysteries behind you, and when you walk forwards you find your way into the things of this sense world. It will suffice to take only one or two steps.
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If you would like to try even more, let me show you how to experience the dynamic power of language. You will notice that we began by experiencing the nouns. Now, to bring it even more alive eurythmically, notice the dynamic of the verbs in the poem, and how they carry the activity of the nature forces to the small plant. As you move from large to small, again and again, catch the energy of each verb in your movements. How is cradling different from ripening? As you walk forwards and backwards, use different images, different speeds and different energies to connect the universe and the plant.
Create a simpleform for the movement: If you like, create spirals and star forms for the different lines as you move forwards and backwards
Beyond dance: making speech visible. Eurythmy actually unveils its true power once we start working with the sounds of language. If you are able to do a few sounds, begin with these:
For the dark earth that cradles the seed: D ā S (dark, cradles, seed) (S going down)
For the rain that brings forth the green leaves: R BF L (rain, brings forth, leaves)
For the stars that give form to the flowers: ST F L (stars, form, flowers) (S going up)
For the warm sun that ripens the fruit: S P F U (Sun, ripens, fruit) (S going up)
For all this goodness and beauty: Ah U U Ah U U (all, goodness (down), beauty (up))
Father-Mother God, we thank Thee: Ah, ee, ee (father-mother-God, we (left arm up) Thee (right arm up))
Dear readers, please accept this simple attempt to describe for you in written text how to do a poem in eurythmy in the spirit it is intended----as part of my commitment to find ways to empower everyone to weave eurythmy into their personal lives!
And if you want to go deeper, join the webinar classes I am offering, of, if possible, take part in a live class somewhere, wherever you live!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wish you the best of holidays.
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