I spent yesterday afternoon conceiving and creating the altar for last night's gathering. Being in deep Winter, and feeling much of the world's anxiety, I wanted to design something that would nourish and harmonize the Water and Fire elements; what I like to think of as the Heart-Womb axis. In Chinese medicine we seek to balance the elements of Water and Fire in the body.... the very essences of Yin and Yang. To represent the Fire element I placed a deep red, heart-shaped candle in the center. I surrounded it with pieces of Dan Gui - an herb that nourishes the blood (which is related to the Fire element) and is commonly used to treat women for menstrual imbalances and general states of deficiency and depletion. I placed a circle of seashells around the perimeter to represent the Water element - the deep, dark salty waters that rise and fall across a majority of our planet and drive its rhythms; and a sprinkling of black sesame seeds in the inner circle - a natural food source that nourishes our "Yin" essence. The candles were lit in honor of each woman present, and to invoke the presence of other women whom we named in our circle with the intention of sending each one blessings and healing energies generated during our gathering.

It is the intention of the Red Tent that we ourselves will benefit from our ritual practice of self-care and self-awareness, and also that our families and communities will benefit from our devotional engagement with the nuance and complexity of our life experiences.