Mountain Moving Day — Senga Senga

"The day the mountains move has come.
I speak, but no one believes me.
For a time the mountains have been asleep.
But long ago they all danced with fire.
It doesn't matter if you don't believe this,
my friends, as long as you believe:
All the sleeping women
are now awake and moving."

-Yosano Akiko, 1911

A CEREMONY OF SELF-DETERMINATION

An ongoing performance project started by Senga Nengudi in 2002, “Mountain Moving Day” is a ritual celebration for Women’s History Month. The Mountain Moving Day Ceremony is to take place on every third Sunday in March, any time, any location, it's for you to do. The ceremony may be performed with any number of women of all ages (pre-birth on) in a group, as a group, as a communion with a community of women. It may also be a Solo event (ceremony) in a garden, living room, bathroom etc. even a closet if personal safety is a factor (i.e. if one is in a restrictive relationship).

Mountain Moving Day may be done whenever needed, even daily.

Drawing: Harriet Chin

Individual Ceremony

Gather sand or rocks-symbolic of dismantling your seemingly immovable mountain. Place the sand/rocks in a new location and new configuration of your own making. Configuration may be made a sacred setup, changing in form when a shift in thought and action needs to take place.
If the use of rocks and sand is not possible in your area or situation, move mountains with your words. Declare the mountains you wish to move. Find a special or safe place. Write or draw on paper, cloth, napkins or any surface you so choose. Use free writing, poetry, lyrics, short stories or illustrations to recognize the obstacles you wish to overcome or to unleash pent up emotions. By tearing, crumpling, or cutting the paper (etc) , rearrange the words/drawings to create new narratives or to make something visually appealing to you. Optionally, keep the paper(s) hidden in a safe place, tied around a single rock if possible, or buried at a symbolic location to reflect upon next year.
Spoken and recorded word is also another fantastic way.
For those with time constraints, find one or even multiple rocks in your area and write or mark on its surface with any tool (sharpies, paints, mud and fingers, etc). On the way to work or school, place the rock(s) in a new location and reflect. This also works as a communal ceremony for a small group of friends or co-workers at location of your own choosing.

Communal Ceremony

Find a symbolic location
Have any form of music, self-made( singing/flute/drums/clapping) or recorded
Share dreams/writing/poetry
Share declaration of mountain (obstacle) to be moved
Each participant brings a handful of sand or rock symbolic of their personal mountain. That mountain that is now deemed movable.Participants work together to create a new configuration of their own design with the rocks/sand. Water is used to clean the hands of each woman after creating the new configuration. Water is poured a second time into the cupped hands of each participant. This time to drink, a symbolic statement of being one with nature, being as clear as water in our thinking, action and sight and allowing our chi to flow unencumbered.
At the end of the ceremony, participants with music (song), dance and movement retrieve a bit of rock/sand to take home and put in a special place to remember that a wakefulness has occurred and a mountain moved.
The above are merely suggestions. The event may be exceedingly simple or outrageously elaborate. The importance of the ceremony is to have an awakening in your life & to recognize that the impossible is possible. And to let our bodies and beings come into alignment with our souls & purpose.