In this end-of-year episode, Kimberly and Vicki explore the deep roots and modern power of Burning Bowl ceremonies. From ancient Celtic fire traditions to Japanese temple rituals, Hawaiian Huna, and Unity Church practices, they walk through why humans have turned to flame for transformation across millennia.

You’ll hear how burning rituals support the nervous system, create psychological closure, invite somatic release, and help you step consciously across the threshold into a new year. They share stories, science, and several variations on the ritual — from the classic method, to the Two-Paper New Year version, to timeline releases and ash anointing.

If you’re ready to let go of what you won’t carry into the next year, make space for what’s coming, and understand the deeper logic behind the ritual, this episode will light the way.

Welcome to the Ember Wing Collective Podcast.

I'm Kimberly Beer.

I'm Vicki Jerica.

Hi, Vicki.

And it's the same beautiful Friday that it was an hour and something ago, and here we are talking about yet another very interesting topic.

Yes, yes.

So I won't go through the preamble of how are you today?

Because we've already been there ourselves, and, yeah, we're both doing well, and the sun is out in Missouri, so that makes me happy.

This episode will actually air right at the end of the year.

There is something that Vicki and I both participate in, which is a Burning bowl ceremony.

And we are definitely not the only ones.

This is a.

A pretty popular tradition, kind of across all different spiritual practices and mindfulness practices, and we want to talk a little deeper about that.

I think you're going to find this episode interesting because we talk a little bit about where this came from and why it works, as well as some unique perspectives that both of us share and some twists on the Burning bowl ceremony itself towards the end.

So you're going to want to stay tuned in this episode because we got some good stuff for you.

We do, we do.

Moving that ripping of the calendar page and revealing the next year definitely moves us into a different and new space with hopefully not having our hopes crushed immediately right off the bat by something, the first of the year which has happened.

But in order to set us up for the most success for that and to make the most room for what we're going to see in the future.

And Burning bowl rituals and ceremonies are a catalyst and an experience that you can have to create a.

A space for that.

So that is what we're going to be talking about today.

Yeah, and I mean, we're talking about it today, but Burning Bulls have been around forever.

If you look at our cultural history and our DNA and ancestral history all the way back, the ancient, ancient Celts used fire for purification and transformation, especially during Samhain and Imbak, you know.

Yeah.

Imbalance.

Imbak.

That's an animal, I believe, actually.

It's a beautiful little deer.

It is.

Bess, my apologies.

But yes, you know, it's considered a portal Cleanser.

And you were just talking about that.

The threshold of being at from one year to a new year, it's the same principle.

It cleared the old to make space for the new.

And so ancestral, our ancestors absolutely used fire in the same way.

Hawaiian huna tradition also includes some symbolic burning for releases, as do Japanese temples.

They have rituals where they use burning wooden prayer sticks to release suffering and to invite blessings in Christian watch night services, which is a new thing for me in my knowledge, which was kind of cool.

And it's just a Christmas Eve ceremony and they use a Burning Bull ceremony as well.

And then finally Unity Church, which we both have attended Unity Church, you more so than me, have made the Burning Bull ceremony really popular.

And that's just where you take a slip of paper and you write out the things that you wish to release and light it on fire and let it go.

And so it's a pretty cool practice.

But so it comes from all denominations.

All through our timelines, fire has just been, it's one of our oldest resets in humanity.

But it's, I mean you look outside the windows or you look into the natural world and nature does the same thing.

Nature uses that to transform matter in real time.

And for humans, watching something burn is a somatic punctuation mark.

Right.

It very clearly there's a start, a middle flame and then it's done.

And so that's very beneficial from a human brain perspective as well.

Absolutely.

And I'm going to bring in some psychology around that because there is some definite neuroscience and psychological principles that really play into this practice to support it.

But before I do that, I want to share a story about the first year I did a Burning Bull ceremony at the Unity Church.

And now I'm going to preface this by saying I've been doing burning at midnight the December 31st and.

And I actually am going to tell you about what I personally do towards the end that opens up for the next year that involves burning as well.

But the first time I did Unity's, I was, I think.

I was just.

I had a lot.

I had a lot I wanted to let go.

And when you walk in the door at a unity ceremony.

And by the way, I, anyone who is listening to this before December 3rd, find your local unity church.

Everyone is welco welcome.

This is the church where everybody is welcome.

Literally anyone is welcome.

You do not have to be a member to attend this ceremony.

As a matter of fact, they will welcome you with open arms and happily bring you into the fold for this ceremony.

And if you never come back, no one is going to hold it against you.

So it is not a lifetime commitment.

If you walk through the doors of a unity church and.

And make sure you pick unity, not Unitarian.

They are not the same thing.

But.

And.

And a lot of other denominational Christian churches will also incorpor practice because unity is not necessarily a religion.

It's a movement amongst churches about connection, wholeness, metaphysics.

I mean, it's prayer, affirmation.

And there's a third principle that is escaping me at the moment.

I should know this.

It's okay.

Meditation, prayer, affirmation and meditation.

Yeah, I may have butchered that up.

Don't shoot me unity people if I did.

Anyway, I'm on a different topic at any rate.

So I walk through the door and they give me the piece of paper and I proceeded to fill that pie piece of paper up in little tiny letters.

I mean, it was basically, I covered this thing with ink because I was squeezing it in at the end, like all of the things that I wanted to get rid of.

And you walk up to this candle that has this beautiful bowl around it so that it catches the, like, ashes from everybody's stuff that they drop in there.

And you are very mindful about it.

And as you're walking up and I put my paper up there to let it catch on fire, and the fire, like, grabbed it out of my hand and it went whoosh.

And it just exploded.

I think partially it was more combustible because the amount of ink that was.

On the thing does.

How.

How flammable is ink?

You know, I think ink is pretty flammable, or at least the one that I was using.

But when you said something about it being this somatic punctuation mark, man, that was a somatic punctuation mark for me.

I felt it from my toes to my br.

And everywhere in between and in all of the ether around me.

And I swear it echoed back up my generational line, as in, you go, girl, you let that stuff out.

So it was pretty amazing.

But this, this practice, you know, it has some really deep logical psychology behind it and even neuroscience behind it.

So it isn't just spiritual pageantry.

There is some gorgeous science baked into all of it.

So first of externalization really works when you write down something that is that you want to let go of, your brain moves it from being this sort of abstract thing into a language center where it's more mapped out and solid and more tangible.

And that alone both reduces the intensity.

Intensity.

And then it also focuses in the intention, physical destruction also signals to your neurological system closure.

So your amygdala loves symbols.

And flame is a symbol of transformation.

Fire is a symbol of transformation from a substance into ash.

And it can.

Your neurological system and your nervous system can both read the moment as complete.

When you're watching that paper burn, or in my case explode.

Flash.

Flash burn.

They do call it flash paper.

Yes.

They don't definitely don't want anybody's not burning because we don't want to leave people.

Yeah, that would be more fun way unfinished business.

So they give you things that are really flammable.

Yes.

But this definitely indicates to your nervous system that this moment is done and it's closed and it's complete and it closes that loop for you also.

Just the same what we were just talking about.

Fire does capture your intention fully.

Your survival instincts.

And your nervous system is really keenly aware that fire can be very damaging.

So it's really difficult to sort of space out when there's a flame near you.

Especially if a lot of other people are causing combustible fire in front of you.

Does induce a trance like state.

But it also keeps you super aware of everything that is going on.

And.

And most of us do not spend enough time in the present moment.

We tend to wander into the past or the future.

And the present moment is where the real transformation is often really solidified.

As gestaltists, we are very keenly aware of that.

Also.

This being a ritual is absolutely key.

And if you've never done a burning bowl before the first time you do it is a lot of.

It's.

It's a lot.

It is.

There is something really great about it.

But as you repeat the experience year after year after year.

I've been doing this since the 90s.

Like this has been something that I've done for well over 30 years.

And the ritual of coming to this time of year, like right now we're recording this at the first part of December.

Absolutely.

I've been thinking about what I want to put on that piece of paper.

And I'm also thinking about what needs to get cleared away to make space for the things that are coming in.

And your, your neurological system and your nervous system both love repetition.

That that gives it something to hold onto.

And also it creates this trust balance relationship between your subconscious and your conscious mind so they can go both get on the same page.

And in hypnother That's a lot of my desire when I work with clients is to kind of get their conscious mind and their subconscious to agree with each other on a plan.

And ritual is that it creates it over time.

And even though this is only an annual ritual over time you're.

And then you get into that preparation state.

And I know Vicki is going to give us a little wisdom when we get into our little rapid fire perspectives area about mindfulness and kind of preparing for that.

It helps the release be more, more powerful, even that.

And then also there is this concept of you can't fill a cup that's already full.

So if you have your cup completely full of stale thoughts and things that are not serving you, it becomes really difficult to add those new things you want to bring in the new year.

So this process of releasing kind of empties out some space for you to invite those new things in.

And that's another really important psychological concept as well as for your nervous system and your subconscious and conscious minds to sort of create that space for what you want to bring in in the new year.

And again, it's very important in our culture.

I mean, it is.

Is critical on this time of year, whether you really, whether you say you're going to opt out of it or not.

The collective energy has opted into this.

And you are my friend, I hate to say opted into it.

By default.

You can claim all you want.

You don't want to participate, but the energy is participating and it's a little hard to fight that particular.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you ready for our rapid fire perspective part of the show?

So Vicki and I, Vicki and I come from some common perspectives, which are hypnosis and gestalt.

Those are something.

The trainings that we share and we actually share mentors in that particular area.

And we both went to hypnosis school together, which was a lot of fun.

It was.

We'll tell you about hypnosis school.

I don't know if you remember this, but it felt like we went into a time warp.

Remember that feeling of like, not being able to attach to time?

Yeah.

I swear in somewhere in the hypno training, when you take the train, the trainer course, they teach you how to bend time.

Yes, they do.

They must.

They must.

I'm excited.

Take that hypnosis training so I can train the trainer and.

Wow.

I. I'm very excited to learn how to bend time, which I had to open up some space.

But we share those perspectives.

But then Vicki has Some exploration that she's done into mindfulness that is very deep and profound.

And it's a, it's a subject that I struggle with.

And then from the other side of that, I have done these deep dives into very ancestral magic kind of things and going back a long ways and spending some time in some spiritual practices that lean more into ancient systems.

So we're going to bring kind of a rapid fire perspective for you guys on things you should think about while you're doing the Burning Bull ceremony this year.

And I'm going to start out with one.

Vicki has already hinted at and that fire is a nervous system reset.

It is a trance object and pulls your mind into focus and it helps you drop into a state that you may not feel as comfortable accessing without that flame being present.

And the fact that you're asking your, your subconscious to be really present and your conscious to be really present, it helps focus that in, which makes that release easier.

Right.

And Absolutely.

And flowing right into that is it.

Fire brings you into the present moment.

Right.

Present moment awareness and the act of naming what is being released.

It anchors you even more deeply into what is happening right now and where the change is going to happen.

Absolutely.

And in gestalt, one of the things that we talk about a lot is contact.

So contact is where you actually make contact with something, with a thing or a energy or sometimes even a person or an event or an experience that has happened to you.

In this case, any of those things could be on your little piece of paper.

And by the going through the process of getting into contact with that, by naming it, acknowledging it and then watching it transform becomes that experiential.

And from a mindfulness perspective, it really.

Mindfulness really is the pre burn step.

Because when you're bringing your attention to what is no longer serving you, you're already acknowledging it and naming it.

Right.

You've already given, you've.

You've had some kind of contact or some kind of relationship with whatever it is that you're releasing.

And by doing that you actually take away some of that emotional charge.

So you're actually kind of stepping back already from that thing that you're releasing.

And that, that can be very helpful if there's certain things that you want to release that you feel are really heavy or really big.

By having that pre contact and relationship and then pulling back in because you're stepping back from it.

Yeah.

It sort of softens the shock.

It does.

It softens the shock.

It's an airbag, it's an airbag for your release so you can, you can go through that system gently.

Probably.

Airbags probably aren't a very mindful thing.

Probably not.

But I think what's important here is to just acknowledge that some things that we release are really, really big.

And it can feel very scary sometimes to let go of what is familiar, even, you know.

So having that contact, having that taking that moment from the gestalt lens or the mindfulness lens of acknowledging it and naming it allows us to mentally maybe and emotionally step back from it as we let it go.

Absolutely, yeah.

You know, another part of this process in from a hypnosis perspective is that symbolic transformation is.

Is very much candy to your subconscious.

Like, it's the thing that gets your subconscious to sort of tune into all of this.

And when your subconscious understands that the story is done, it's easier for it to let that go.

And then it's easier for your.

It doesn't push on it and resist as much.

And then your conscious brine can get a little bit more on the same page, which is super helpful.

Super helpful.

Right.

Fire also acts as a really good focal point for breath work.

So you can focus on the flame and maybe less on your breath.

If for some people just listening to themselves breathe can be kind of triggering or uncomfortable, where you can instead focus on the actual flame itself and watching that dance occur with the burn, that allows for your.

Your mind to focus on that so that the release is more gentle as well.

Absolutely.

Now, one other part of the.

The letting go piece of like, choosing what you're going to let go is an act of sovereignty.

So this is you making that choice.

It is not an external situation that is saying, you need to let this go or you have to let this go, or I'm severing this connection.

It is not that.

It's you making a sovereign act to determine what you're going to continue to associate with and what you are going to release and say, I am not going to carry any longer.

And that in itself is incredibly powerful because you are the boss of what gets allowed into your energy field.

And if there's something in there that doesn't need to be in there, astrally astral, asking it to leave and removing it is you claiming your own power.

It's also very compassionate.

Right.

It's of letting go of something that is no longer serving you or has caused you distress in some way is an incredible act of compassion to yourself.

And it becomes a kindness.

This ceremony is done with respect.

And so there's there's really no place for punishment or correction in the process of a burning bulk.

It's.

It's with gratitude and respect and self compassion that you're letting these things go so that different things can come in.

Absolutely.

And also plays into that is the psychological alchemy of this where when you burn something, it takes something that is heavy and it returns it into its elements which are frequently a lot lighter.

And again, your subconscious loves these metaphorical transformations.

It basically it mirrors that process internally of lightening your load.

So that really helps your thought process connect better to the release of whatever you don't want to carry around any longer.

Absolutely.

And I think it's also grounded psychology.

Right.

You're externalizing the reduce and reduction of the mental load.

If you have something that you need to release and it's just bouncing around inside of you because you haven't done that yet.

It takes up so much internal space.

And by releasing it out, putting it on a piece of paper like we started, you put it on the piece of paper, take it out of your brain and onto the paper.

It's the final stage of that externalization that you first talked about at the beginning of this process.

Right.

And it really does create, lighten how you feel inside of you.

It absolutely does.

And also playing upon that same principle, watching the paper, I love how these build on each other.

They really.

Watching that paper turn to ash signals something irreversible has happened.

So to your brain, you know, you cannot put that piece of paper back together.

You are never, even if you don't, you go into the next day and.

And I've seen people do this all the time.

They pick up again what they wanted to release.

There are times I've done it too.

Don't feel bad.

We've all tried to, we've.

Sometimes that thing has to end up on these burning papers more than once.

But what's important is that it has changed irreversibly.

It.

It is going to come back in a different context if it comes back at all.

So the act of watching it really signals to your neurological system and your nervous system that something irreversible has happened.

And it can't come back in the same form because it simply cannot.

And your body then is more likely to cooperate with the process of releasing whatever is on the piece of paper.

Right.

It becomes a somatic settling, doesn't it?

Watching that burn and disintegrate, it invites the body to soften, to unclench and to open.

Because you see the destruction of the Paper and know that there's no way to put it back.

It is gone.

You don't have to carry it anymore.

And the whole body just goes and relaxes a little bit.

Absolutely.

Okay, so here's something interesting.

I took this.

This whole course on stress management.

So.

And it was interesting.

The course was not what I expected.

I expected to learn how to de stress people.

And basically what the course taught me was how to do stress better.

And I have to say I'm very, very keen on this perspective now.

You can't get away from stress.

Stress is going to happen in your life.

It is an external force.

It is not something you put on yourself.

However, anxiety is something that.

It is how you internalize that stress.

And then that is something you can own.

The anxiety is something you can own.

The interesting thing about anxiety, though, is it echoes.

So when you're in a room with other people, what you.

Your anxiety will echo out to other beings.

And what's interesting is when you come here to the farm and you stand next to a horse, or in Vicki's case, she works with a lot of dogs.

It's interesting that they echo tranquility.

So horses in particular echo this really Zen tranquility most of the time.

I have been around some horses that are echoing anxiety, but in general, that is a human induced anxiety.

The human echoed the anxiety, then the horse picked up on it.

Most of the time they are the opposite.

They're echoing tranquility back to us.

So the act of burning to bring this back to the burning bowl, the act of burning disrupts that echo.

It disrupts the echo of the anxiety.

And that's our goal, right, is to disrupt the echo, to do stress better.

So this is part of that particular practice.

It cuts cords to old patterns, and it interrupts that habitual narrative that you say over and over again.

That creates the echo that you send out into the rest of the beings in the room.

Sure, absolutely.

And dogs will actually do the echo with you?

Yeah, they will.

You come at them anxious, they will.

Their anxiety will rise too, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I think all animals, if they're in the prey relationship, they certainly come at it.

They will echo it back to you.

Horses will too.

That being said, as soon as you do your burning ceremony and you settle down, everyone around you responds to that energy shift.

It's really cool.

But burnings also, they allow you the opportunity to get very curious.

Mindfulness is about curiosity.

Why am I feeling what I'm feeling?

Why am I thinking what I'm thinking?

Why do I need to release what I need to release.

And sitting with that openly and it becomes an act.

Setting up for this burning bull ceremony or ritual really becomes an act of curiosity and self exploration about noticing what needs to be released and what you're wanting to bring into you.

And it's a learning thing.

It's not a shaming thing, like, oh, I gotta get rid of this, I gotta do this and that.

You know, it's very much a gentle releasing thing and you can do it without any drama.

You know, it's just a gentle, well, okay, maybe with the flash paper, there might be a little drama there.

That's okay.

A little drama is the experience.

Right, right.

But, but that's a somatic reaction too.

If you have flash paper and you've written your, your stuff that you're releasing and then the paper goes whoosh and you go, that is another form of your body going, it's gone, you know, so it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing.

But you don't have to have flash paper.

You don't have to have any drama with a burning.

It is just simply the acknowledgement that there's something that has to be released.

You're no longer going to carry it anywhere within you and you let it go.

Exactly.

And I will also add this.

We've talked a lot about the destruction of burning.

And if that feels uncomfortable for you in the process of doing a burning bowl, to say, I'm going to destroy this.

Because for so many of us, some of the things that we're going to write on that paper were important life lessons for us.

They are things that we carry forward.

And I will tell you, the burning bull is not going to erase the experience.

It just isn't.

So maybe instead of, if it's too harsh for you to think of it as a destruction, reframe that into believing in its liberation.

So the fire doesn't erase it, it simply frees it and it frees it from you.

If that's something that will help your mindset.

So we've talked a lot about, like, our perspectives and some history.

So how do you set this thing up?

So, Vicki, would you lead us through a simple, classic burning bowl ritual?

Sure, absolutely.

I, I really like burning bowls rituals.

I do them, I do them more often than just once a year.

I gotta tell you, there'll be experiences or situations that come up and I'm like, I'm not carrying that, you know, and I do a fire release and it.

So for the listeners out there, don't think that the only time you can do this is at the end of December, because it is not.

You can do it throughout the year and it'll be very beneficial.

You'll notice the psychological, the emotional, the somatic changes immediately.

But here's what you're going to do.

Get a piece of paper, a regular piece of paper.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy.

It could be a sticky note, it could be, you know, a full spiral notebook that you completely fill.

It could be flash paper, whatever.

But you get your paper and then you write down what it is that you want to release.

And I guarantee you that there's been some thought floating around your head.

This is not a new thought that you are going to release.

You've been working up to this.

It's the pattern, the beliefs, the memories, situations might be people or experiences or exchanges with between two beings that you want to release.

And you just write them all out.

You write it all out until you completely it feels complete.

And then you read it out loud once and acknowledge its service to you.

And then you simply can tear it into pieces and put it into your fire safe bowl.

You can roll it up and light your, you know, I use a lighter, so use a lighter to set your paper on fire that way.

Or you can fold it however you want to put it into the bowl, but put it into your fire safe bowl and simply set it on fire.

And while it burns, you can go ahead and just say, I return this to the universe.

Transform.

And I think that's a good way to look at it too.

If you're worried about, quote, the destruction of fire and what you're, you know, putting on that paper, you're transforming it.

You're transforming how you engage with that experience and that shifts the energy around it so it may not hold the charge that it had before you burnt.

You did the burning ceremony.

I think that's important to remember.

But simply stand before it.

You can cup your hands over the fire if you want to and say, I return this to the universe transformed.

Finish with a deep exhale.

If you're into journaling, you can journal what the experience was like because additional wisdom may appear after the ceremony or after the ritual.

And then you simply close it out.

That's nice.

I do say, be careful with the fire.

Do this in a way that you're not going to set your house on fire.

Make sure you have fire safe.

And by the way, I don't know if there is any plastic that is fire safe, just FYI.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I don't know.

Make sure you use something fire safe.

If you're worried about it, do it in your oven or go outside.

As long as the outdoors is not combustible in that moment.

Yes.

So remember this time of year, grass is dead, so it catches on fire super easily.

So make sure if you're doing it outside that you do it somewhere where it's safe to do it out there as well, because fire can spread really easily, and you definitely don't want to have to put that on your paper for the next year.

So.

All right, so I want to tell you a little twist on this classic burning bowl ceremony where you just do the release part.

And this one is called the two paper method.

And I didn't know it was called that.

I did a little research for this episode, but I've actually done this multiple times.

And it is.

I don't know what I called it.

I've gotten so over the time period of all of the education that I've had and all of the different mentors that I've explored this kind of stuff with over the years.

I remember this actually came the first time I did it.

I was in my 20s, because I remember exactly where I did it, and I was out partying.

And I remember because it was New Year's Eve.

And back in my late teens, early 20s, New Year's Eve is definitely a time that you are out with people.

And because it had to have this very specific timing, there's the two papers.

You do one before midnight and then one after midnight.

So the two papers, the first paper you're gonna write what you're releasing, and you're gonna basically do the same ceremony Vicki did.

I was in my 20s.

There wasn't a lot of mindfulness to it.

I basically.

I was out driving because I remember I pulled over and burned the first piece of paper.

And then I got closer to wherever I was going and did the second one.

So just before midnight, you're gonna burn that paper that you are releasing and do that particular burning bowl ceremony.

But on the second paper, you're gonna invite what you want to come in to to fill that space.

If anything, by the way, from someone who knows, it is okay if you don't want something to fill that space.

If your cup has runneth over and you don't want anything to come in to fill that space, it is totally okay to say, I want to fill that space with peace and quiet.

You are.

That is allowed.

Your permission slip is signed, but you want to write down what you want to invite in.

And then just shortly after the tick of the clock, the peel of the calendar page, then you are going to burn that paper and you're going to release that in a different way to say, this is what I am sending into the universe that I would like to come back to me.

Some people do not do the burning of the second piece of the paper.

They keep that and then they hold it for the.

For the year.

I don't.

I let it go because to me, fire is also a messenger to carry that on to into the ether where it can be absorbed and that energy can come back to me.

So, yeah.

So before midnight, burn the one.

And then after midnight, burn in what you're inviting.

Beautiful.

Very beautiful.

For yours with the.

Well, it'd be for both of us because we're going to have ashes afterwards.

Right.

I was thinking for yours it'd be a little different because you're driving technically.

No, you're not.

I do not recommend you do this while driving.

I didn't do it in the car, by the way.

I did get out and did it safely on pavement, but that was only because I was out at a party.

I don't recommend that.

I am almost 60 years old at this point and I would definitely do it in a much different way now, actually, I'm in bed usually by midnight on New Year's Eve.

I won't say that I'm not partying either, but I have.

I have been 20 before and, you know, done some crazy things, but.

So when you do collect the ash, if you are in a bowl now, sometimes you can release over a lake.

Right.

We're not saying the bowl has to be.

It's the only way to do it.

Would be a great place.

Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing?

It's just.

Yeah.

So.

However.

But if you can catch the ash, if you wanted to add another step to it or a different layer kind of flavor to this, to this ritual is you can do an ash anointing process.

And that is simply once the ash has cooled, you dip your finger in and you actually, on your wrist, you can draw a symbol that.

That just further solidifies the releasing the burning of this, you know, whatever it is that you're burning.

And it can be a circle, which would be a completion.

You could do the line, which is forward momentum.

You could put a little arrow which says, I am definitely stepping forward into new energy without this stuff that I've just burned.

Or you could do a spiral, which is expansion.

So there's a lot of ways, it's just a little fun, kind of witchy, additive to the.

To the process.

But it.

For some people, it'll really speak to them and it will deepen the entire process, the entire experience.

And with that, as always, there might be new things that come up for you, Additional wisdom or learning that you learned from this experience of this ritual.

Absolutely, 100%.

I may try that this year because it sounds like a lot of fun.

Actually, there's another one of these burning kind of situations, sort of a burning ritual that you can do.

This one is called a timeline release.

And it's where you take, take, go back and look over your year and think about the moments that felt really heavy.

Because remember back in that psychological part where I was talking about the logic and the psychology behind this practice fire makes things light, lighter, so it transforms it into something different, and it's lighter.

Ash does not weigh as much as the paper.

So write the moments of the year.

And I would do this on each.

On its own individual piece of paper.

If you've had more than one moment that is heavy.

Often heavy moments come with lessons.

That's the reason they become heavy.

Right.

Is there something that we learned or gained or experienced in that that has put an indelible mark on the slate of who we are?

So what we want to do is acknowledge that.

And what we're going to do is lighten the heaviness by allowing that to burn.

And as each one burns, slowly and intentionally acknowledge that lesson.

You're not burning it to get rid of it, but what you're burning is you are burning to acknowledge and.

And create some focus around that.

And if it feels right, gratitude might be a place to step in here.

Honoring is another thing.

Thankfulness.

Sometimes there's things that happen to us, probably a lot of the times, actually things that happen to us that may not feel so great in the moment, but later on, we can be very thankful for that experience because it did create part of who we are moving forward.

So it wrote on who we are.

So I think this is a nice way of honoring those lessons that maybe we aren't going to release, but that we want to hold as we move into the new year in a different way without bringing that heaviness across the threshold.

I think the timeline release is beautiful also because while living in the present moment is key, right.

We talk about here.

It is the most important moment.

We are so quick to get through some of those heavier moments where we're like, yeah, see ya survived that moving on.

Yeah.

And this.

This process really slows you down and takes you back and.

And does give you that perspective now that there's some distance there.

Right.

And also the chance to put in some gratitude that maybe you weren't feeling in the moment or the wisdom to really embrace the wisdom from that experience that has emerged.

So it's a beautiful, beautiful piece.

Burning ritual to include on the way to do it.

It's just.

I think that's how I'm gonna do my year this year.

And also, just as a reminder, like Vicki said, you don't have to do this only at the end of the year.

This would be a place where, if you're ready to close out a heavy experience, no matter what time of year it is, that you could definitely close experience out and honor it.

Even good and bad.

Anything that's, like, major would be a good way to do that.

So.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for hanging out with us today at the Emberwing Collective podcast, and we will see you on the next show.