We have had so many experiences of how a workplace—and the work—is brought to life when it is infused with ceremony. Because the people thrive. From big corporate to personal brands, regardless of credentials, knowledge, or experience, we are all humans on our personal healing journey. When we attend to our healing, we bring through our higher selves, our gifts. That can only be good for business. 
THE CEREMONY INFUSED WORKPLACE
At the heart of ceremony is intention and attention, and by holding ceremony in our workplace, we give intention and attention to our people. The living heart of the business. When we sit in a ceremonial circle, there is no hierarchy, there is no competition. We weave the space together as equals. The set and setting and the act of ceremony creates a non-ordinary state that is nurturing and safe place for us to pause…to practice presence…to courageously share…to create…to dream…to rest…to tell our truth…to deeply listen…to personally thrive…to access our own inherent wisdom…to use our gifts…and to heal.
Ceremony is a state that is out of the ordinary, and so are the results. The impact is felt in our workers, the workplace, the work itself. This reverence to people and presence in the workplace brings more creativity, its more effective, and everyone wants to serve in bigger and better ways. Higher selves making decisions. Wise leaders giving life to a shared vision. Magical things become easy because being real, being honest about what you offer, walking your talk, and telling the truth reduces the amount of effort and struggle.
A workplace practiced in ceremonial sharing are present and can hold fierce space for each other. It is a practice of vulnerability, deep listening, caring and thoughtful feedback. We become a workplace circle that honours and are in service to each other.
And we take the reverence home. It extends even further to be a positive influence in our wellbeing outside of work and can nurture and activate healing in our family and relationships…which also thrive.
Ceremony brings meaning and richness to our work life. When something created with reverence is delivered to the world, you can feel it. You can feel the contribution. It improves the air. It improves our experience, our potential. It is hopeful. People are drawn to it.
There are so many simple and positive ways to infuse ceremony and ritual into any enterprise. Here’s some of our ways.
WAYS WE HAVE INFUSED WORKPLACES WITH CEREMONY
We honour our people
The best work comes from people who shared purpose, who meld meaning from their personal mission to align with the mission of the work. A devotion to a shared cause. To get clear and to stay clear on our purpose we create ceremony around honouring our purpose where we finely tune our space and our connection, and naturally fall into a state of authentic presence. In this state we share our purpose and how it aligns with the purpose of the work, the business. This intentional ceremony honouring purpose means we take ownership of the part we play. We are engaged, motivated and we bring power and authority to our part because it is a part of us, it is on our heart.
Ceremony creates a reverend energy of truth and it is contagious. We want to be a part of this, and more easily bring our truthful and higher selves to work. We create ways to honour each other by sharing what we love, our passions, what we do in our time away from work, what we bring to the world. Our loved ones and furry ones. Our favourite things. We create ways to look after each other, to care for each other, to create energy for each other.
We have designed a tool called “The True Me”. It is a record of our individual imprint. Each person constructs their imprint over the course of a workshop. Before an event we complete the straightforward parts like skills, qualifications, credentials. Then woven into the event there are reflections completing support tribe, milestones, visions, talents, qualities, beliefs, and purpose. The power in this is when they are presented as the finale of the event. True me chart.
We honour the culture
When we work with a new workplace, we take the time to get immersed into the culture and rituals of the workplace. There is immense power in the honouring of our artefacts, the sacred objects of the workplace, the traditional stories, the ceremonies and rituals and occasions that are the often the working mechanisms. We honour the ancestors. We honour the elders and the leaders past present and emerging.
A leadership company we worked with has a beautiful ritual of putting questions into a cauldron and each weekly get together they would draw a question. We honoured this artefact by upgrading their makeshift cauldron to an actual cast iron cauldron which is now honoured for the power of the brew. At their Annual Summit which was a ceremonial workshop we incorporated this tradition and created a reflective exercise at the end of every process called “The Cauldron Asks…”
We share clear intentions
The energy we bring to our work creates a beautiful invitation to create something wonderful, or it creates resistance. The best way to bring a loving presence that influences to create positive impact is to know our purpose and to honour our purpose with clear intentions. There is a simple ever-present indicator as to whether we have it right or not—it will feel good.
What are we truly wanting to create?
What is the experience we are wanting?
Who are we in service to?
What is our part in this and what are we going to do about it?
Is our motivation clean? What do we truly desire from this effort?
What is our (r)evolution?
Clear intention powers our presence. It is the spark that fires our action. It is the catalyst that brings about results. When we share intention in a ceremonial setting, the results are multiplied, and the experience is amplified.
We create a meaningful rhythm of events
Creating a rhythm that ebbs and flows alongside nature aligning meetings with meaningful occasions like the phases of the moon and seasonal cycles of the sun will bring potency. We host ceremonial planning meetings that align with the energies of new moon great for intention setting. We conduct a closing ceremony—a process designed to look back as a group and celebrate and reflect on all that has happened over a year, hang onto that which you want to take forward and release and clear that which no longer serves you. This makes space and generates momentum for the year ahead.
Following the closing, we curate an bespoke opening ceremony designed to open the year ahead, we explore our desires, each set intentions personally and for the work, and then we conduct an incantation which energises the intention.
We have created seasonal social calendars for business that give meaning to their quarterly get togethers. The Summer Soiree which is the celebration, Autumn Leaves where we harvest and tend to our crop, Winter is Coming where we bring all of our yield together and The Spring Carnival where we show off our creations.
Even giving unusual and meaningful times to meetings will bring meaning to the meeting. Creating sacred daily practices for the business, like stand up meetings, the cutting of fruit, the lunch bell. There is no end to the creation of practices and processes that align with the work and the place of work.
We practice presence
We can find and create ways and cues to create an understory of presence. These cues bring an awareness to a practice of presence. Using a natural rhythm by nature is presence. Smudges – if you can’t use smoke, use gum leaves. Sounds at the beginnings of meetings, images, storytelling. Gratitude sound baths using Koshi chimes and rattles. Shamanic drumming in a creative meeting can take everyone on an amazing journey into the imaginal.
We use guided meditations and mindfulness exercises in our corporate workshops and creative sessions to gently bring us into the present and set the intention for a productive day. An example is “Planting the Seeds” which is an embodiment meditation we have created that infuses the group with the energetic of potential for the future.
We use movement. One of our favourites is Wayapa Wuurrk a practice to reconnect to your natural environment, to energise it and in return, it will energise and sustain us. This practice can be physical or simply observed. We have created a mudra incantation called “UNFURLING” which is a symbolic expression of our true selves and the true growth we are committing to.
We have even worked Active Dreaming exercises into corporate events where the group practice awareness in their dreaming which bring awareness to their work. It also brings the gift of dreaming and the imaginal bringing great potential to our work.
We invite truth
It is in the sacred power of ceremony that we find pathways to a deeper connection with truth.
We invite a safe place in circle, where all views are accepted and courageous conversations are encouraged – as well as courageous silences. We ask all stay connected to the circle, and to trust that everything you have lived and experienced has lead you to this exact place and moment. You have everything you need within you, trust yourself and go easy on yourself as you explore.
What is the impact we are having on each other? Do we count on each other? How can we show up now in a way that aligns with our truth? How can we invest in each other’s visions? We follow this up with a call to action that one thing you are going to do every day – no matter how small.
We play
All of us have super powers! We have created a workshop Unleash your superpowers. It starts by exploring who inspires you, and then recognising your own heroic qualities and amping them up to be superpowers. You create the costume and elements that your superself looks like. Find your activation words.
We play with active imagination, manifestation and timelines doing what we call a vision incantation. What can you ‘see’ for the year ahead? How will you manifest your gift to the world? “..with a brilliant optimism and appropriate ambition…” Yaima
We get the leaders on the floor and we sit in circle around a fire. One of our setting signatures is our fire built from rocks and sticks and battery powered fairy lights. Its quite amazing how it changes the vibe. It is a yarning circle that is an optimised energetic weave. We use a talking stick, sacred scribes and always a mix of solo individual work, pair and share, and team exercises.
We have created processes for a workgroup to explore the core energetic centres of their being. Each of these centres focusses on a specific service to your conscious, and unconscious, make-up. For example, the first one is called the base, the ground control, the root system for the tree that is you – in construction terms, it is the foundation, the footings, everything else is supported by this infrastructure. We go through a incantation process with each energy centre that embodies its power.
We play the favourite game. What is your favourite movie?
We tend to our set and setting
We see the space we share during a corporate event representative of a special world. For Annual Summit style events, we curate and design collaboratively with the people in the workplace. We develop ceremonial ways that suit that workplace where all are engaged and given an equal opportunity for the event. We ask the participants what is the experience they desire for the event, what will it mean to them and their team, to the greater community and how they measure success. We frame up all aspects and the ceremonial style of the summit.
They arrive to a sacred space that is cleared using ancient practices that activate and fill even boardrooms with a sense of harmony and meaning. We use the elements – air, fire, water and earth. We create an altar as the sacred centre of the space filled with treasured objects giving substance to our intentions. The altar marks the beginning and end of the ceremony (meeting).
When they arrive, we take them from their comfort zone and venture out into the unknown. We construct a threshold where they pause, consider intentions and willingly cross over to enter this special world. Throughout events we use music, sacred silence, breath, and intention. We honour the elements, directions, creators, creations and connections.
We open each circle invoking the intention for the gathering. At the core for most of the businesses we have worked with is the intention to really dig into our individual perspectives, into what the truth is for each of us and how that fuels what we feel, think and do as individuals and as a team. We close each circle in gratitude.
Energetic Workspace = Energetic Work
We consider our workspace. Is it a living, breathing space?
It is your vehicle for creating impact in the world. Nurturing our energy from
the inside out has a huge affect on our ability to inspire, create influence
and impact through our work. Changing the energy of where and how you work
changes you! Energise this and you energise your work. We take people through a
process of decluttering, organising, functioning, conscious arrangement and visible
mission.
We love to create bespoke ceremonial corporate events that deepen intentions for a workplace. We work on annual summits, magic meetings and special occasions created as custom one-off experiences.
In loving service 
