Water Ceremony

Plus an invitation to Returning to the Body, a global solstice gathering

Photo by mrjn Photography on Unsplash

Bless you, Dear Soul,

Today’s reading is of a ceremonial prayer poem I birthed and recited for a global, virtual Water ceremony gathering on May 4 with Mayan midwives who were located in Guatemala. I served as a guide for the ceremony, with this prayer poem serving to hold and seal space for the offering from the midwives. This was my great honor.

Rirhandzu,
Jaiya


WATER CEREMONY

”Welcome, every soul, to this sacred moment.

In the Indigenous way, if I may ask our revered midwives for permission to speak and serve as your guide today.

I am Baba Jaiya John. Mshkiki Odeh Inini, Medicine Heart Man....

With this first ceremony, we are cleansing the waters for the Mayan midwives to offer their medicine. We are bringing ourselves to presence, to give reverence to what comes. Purifying the moment, pausing our frantic-ness, easing into serenity, so we may see each other clearly and hear the Great Spirit whisper our holy names.

Now we are the womb.
We are remembering our placental bath, our amniotic cradle, the first waters that held us, nourished us, translated our prayers to mother and beyond. We remember our gestation waters, the lagoon in which we grew, wet and still dancing freely in the Spirit world. We are feeling the pulsing tether of our umbilical, which still is alive in us now, unseen by our human eyes, but active in connecting our energy to the energy of Creation. We are feeling the birth contractions that prepared and focused us and mother. We are feeling our birth position, our orientation as we came into this world. All of this is a ceremony of water song and dance to prepare humanity for what we are birthing next. And for what will be birthing us. We are remembering our womb waters and the ways they brought us here. We let silence speak….

Now we are these bodies.
Bodies of water. Flow nature. Rhythm of tides. Rivers of blood, marshes of marrow. Flood plains of fluidity. We are deltas joined by our ancestral oceans. We have arrived here composed of water songs. Our head is a lake of meaning, ancient sediment to be stirred and cleared. Our chests and bellies are wetlands of feeling, surging with flocks of intuition and microbial life. We are not solid, these bodies. We are sojourns weeping. Holding places for joy and agony. These bodies are the offspring of trees, the remnants of rocks, artifact of volcanoes and bees. We are remembering the water bodies we are.

Now we are these tears.
The salt we chase away because we have forgotten our water nature. False teachers shamed us for crying. We believed their harmful stories, held tight to our saltwater, which built up in us, bursting with pressure, became disease. Now we give our saltwater back to its sea of surrender. Surrender to truth and pain and grief and joyfulness. Today we release the boulders and barriers that block our flow. We stop hoarding our salt. We set it free. We remember the natural ways of healing through tears. We return our salt to the earth to fertilize the crops of our healing, to the sea that swallows the ends of things. We set free our tears. We let silence speak….

Now we are the sky.
Aloft and holding the breath of every living thing, past, present, and forever. Water is in our sky body, making it pregnant with rain. We have what we need to feed the land and raise the crops and harvest and feast. We are sky, plentiful with all the water we ever need. We have no need to hoard, to be selfish, to fight and conquer. We are sky water, more plentiful than any kingdom, sufficient for every queendom. Larger and more enduring than any violence or war. We are remembering the sky water we are. We let silence have its say….

Now we are the clouds.
The great rain ambassadors of sky. Where we go, abundance follows. Droughts end. We are clouds, rain dancers, bringers of hope and harvest. We are clouds. Like our pain and sorrow, we come and go, passing through the great quilt of collective caretaking, through the Grace our ancestors taught us, the mercy of how we weave together our healing ways. We are lightness and fleeting condition. We are remembering our cloud waters and how way survive and endure together any hard and heavy thing. We give thanks. We let silence bless us….

Now we are the rain that falls.
Can you feel our journey in your bones? Sky sent us to sing and dance with earth. To make Love with soil. To conceive endless children as trees and plants and animals. We bring minerals with us. We bring life. We are rain, miracle from above returned to its relations, to awake hope in many seeds. We have cleansing power in us. We wash away the gloom and dirt and the heaps of harm. We make the tallest mountains of oppression smaller. We erode false powers. Drop by drop, we transform what is hard into a heaven of flowers, a haven where soft things are safe. We are conditioning humanity for the rise of the feminine, which is alive in every living thing. We are remembering the rain we are. We let silence feed us…

Now we are the mist that rises.
Dew. Steam. Vapor. Haze. We go between worlds and dimensions, flowing and dancing free in our microscopic condition. We are humble like this, allowing life to pass through us. We are a curtain of fertility. A veil of metamorphosis. We are what caterpillars become as they become butterflies. We let silence blanket us….

Now we are ice.
Glacier. Frozen pond. Icicle. Looking glasses where we can see ourselves. Farmers of slow life, slow movement, invisible dancing in the stillness of things. We preserve life in our crystals. We hand over ancient life to new generations. We are code carriers. Aching alchemy of frost for the fire. We are ice. We let silence sing….

Now we are geyser.
Heat. Emotion. Eruption power. We are geyser. We let silence roar….

Now we are the waterfall.
Passion flower, whitewater, froth of jubilation. We purge earth of sediment. Make lagoons sing. We are dancers of decadent delight. We are the waterfall. We let silence laugh and cry…

Now we are the river.
Lush Love letter of water to earth. Ceremony of sweeping. We begin in the mountains and in the caverns and bellies of earth. We romance forests, keep deserts alive. We are jungle Lovers. Creeks and streams dressed up with everywhere to go. We bring life to life. We are remembering the rivers we are. We let silence seal this truth.

Now we are the lake.
Stillness. Easefulness. Calm. Serenity. Birds land on us because we are safe enough. Life gathers by our shores. We are what sky looks into and blushes. We are medicine marinating in bowls of earth. We are revival, rest, restoration. We are peace. Remembering the peace we are. We let silence seal this truth.

Now we are the ocean.
Arrival of all the waters. A ceremony of reunion. A gathering of all our medicines. We are this, right here, right now, together, tidal, sweet with memories, salted with the ache that remains from the Life we have braved. We are Mama Ocean and all her children. Mother nature and all her dreams. We are the depth of Love and the currents that always weave us home. Feel the water you are, beloved family. Feel the water we are. We are remembering. And it is good. And it is good. And it is good. And it is good. All our relations. Maltyox. Maltyox. Maltyox. Maltyox.


WATER CEREMONY
A poetic prayer
Copyright @ 2026 by Jaiya John
May 4, 2026
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