How to hold a talking feather circle, wisdom circle, heartsong circle...

1. Opening the circle with an OM:

Join hands standing. Take a long, deep, relaxing breath together, then tone OMMMM at least 3 times taking a good breath in between...each person at their own pace and using full lung capacity letting each OM last as long as you can...so that if the circle is big enough someone may always be toning....when you're done listen and wait for the  tone of the last person to fall silent...then raise your hands up over your head,first as a circle, then letting go of one another's hands each person reaching for the sky feeling a full stretch with ones fingers spread wide apart...as though then offering oneself  to the universe in what's called the KA position as if you were a human vessel for the universe to fill up with manna, chi, light, or "spiritual "water...then bring your hands together in the prayer position and slowly lower them down from over your head to first pause at your forehead or third eye chakra, then your heart chakra, then solar plexus ...then kneel with both knees on the ground and place your forehead and open palms on the ground  in what is called Child pose...rest, relax, and breath...when you are ready, sit up...

The purpose of all of this is to open and align each person physically and energetically...the Om sound is the vibration by which the universe is created...when one tones Om it can open and align ones chakra system...Sound engineers have determined that when one Om's it create a circular energetic structure of vibration ...as a circle of people tone Om together an invisible energetic structure is created  in the form of a shaft of "light " that goes infinitely up into the sky and infinitely down through the Earth...when we stand and raise our hands above our heads we increase our personal electrical charge and when we get close to the ground we decrease or discharge our electrical charge into the Earth...so the idea is to hold the silence after the Om to first offer it up to universe as we all amass our highest electrical charge and then bringing our hands together into the most powerful mudra or hand reflexology position with all the nerve endings in the palms of each hand completing the electrical circuit with the corresponding palm...lowing the prayerful hands to the third eye and pausing then the heart chakra then pausing then the solar plexus and pausing provides us with a natural moment of reverence and focusing intention and appreciation...then when we kneel we are placing the knee chakras on the Earth which facilitates the electrical and energetic discharge as we place our forehead and open palms on the Earth and relax, breath, and release...the discharge of the accumulated electrical charge is complete as we are nearly as close to the Earth as we can get...and importantly the energetic structure of the infinite shaft of light created by the Oming of the circle has been grounded and shall remain in that place forever...this is a method of consecrating ground, and created sacred space... The tone of OM creates a vibration in resonance with the ambient vibration of the universe, the ever present sound of silence, the high pitched hum hiss sound that you hear when there is no sound, the divine vibration, the vibration by which all is in the physical universe is made, maintained, and perpetuated...

2. Passing the feather:

After the OM we sit in the circle and we can pass the feather, or a blade of grass, or just respect in a clockwise direction without cross talk...If the circle chooses to pass a  the feather it is important to be very mindful of what kind of feather is passed as the character of the circle will have a tendency to reflect the qualities of the spirit of the bird that provides the feather...that is why certain Native American traditions would use the Eagle feather...as this is the bird that flies the highest, it was said it would carry our prayers to the most high...Hawk is the messenger of change...Owl has to do with death transformation and rebirth, dispelling illusion and wisdom...Mostly birds of prey would be used and not the feathers of birds that eat carrion...If you use a Parrot feather expect a very talkative circle...A blade of grass or small stone can be very grounding...If the circle chooses not to use a feather but merely respect the focus of the circle as it passes from right to left without interrupting the speaker, this can be a very high experience for all...

Whatever is used the idea is to create an environment conducive for the spirit to speak through the circle...you will notice that as the focus of the circle moves from one person to the next in the circle without any interruption the energy builds such that you can feel it the closer and closer the feather gets to you and as the feather moves away from you and you hear someone say something that you would love to respond to you may notice someone else will bring it up before the feather gets back to you and if not then it is for you to share this insight...If the person holding the feather or focus so chooses they may respond to people who have their hands raised...this is entirely at the discretion of the person holding the focus/feather...and can be terminated at any time without need of explanation...in other worlds just because someone has their hand up to speak it is entirely up to the discretion of  the person holding the focus/feather as to whether they will allow the interruption of the flow of the focus of the circle...You will quickly notice the difference between a circle that maintains the discipline of no cross talk and those that don't...be mindful that when people in a circle feel they're being disrespected by the person holding the feather/focus they have a tendency to be disrespectful...and the energy of the circle suffers accordingly...The one time when it is generally acceptable to raise your hand to speak out of turn is when as a member of the circle you feel compelled to raise a point of order for the sake of clarification of some germane information regarding facts or procedures the circle has previously agreed upon...so for example someone who has joined the circle after it was formed upon receiving the feather goes to pass it on in the wrong direction...it would then be appropriate to raise a point of order and express the fact and the agreement of the circle for the circle...  

When the feather/focus comes to you, you may speak on anything you feel moved to share...trusting that someone in the circle may benefit...It is best not to cuss, swear, attack, or direct your discourse at any one person in the circle as this can drop the energy of the circle below the level of integrity...You do not have to speak, but it is very advantageous to at least acknowledge for the rest of the circle via some respectful gesture the receipt and passing of the focus and /or feather...This becomes even more important when circling without a feather with a lot of people as it may seem to someone just arriving that people just seem to start talking whenever they want...Also when the circle is using a feather or other object, even if you don't wish to speak when it comes to you, at least taking hold of the object and passing it on puts your touch, your respect, your physical energy into the object to be carried around the circle...and when it has been all the way around once, you can feel the energy and intention of everyone in the circle attached now to the object...As you speak it is best to be mindful of those listening, how many people in the circle that may be patiently waiting to speak...For example if there are 60 people in a circle and everyone speaks for just 2 minutes that will take 2 hours for the circle to pass the feather once...

If it happens that there are so many people in the circle that there is no way for everyone to get a chance to speak, one solution would be for there to be an inner circle of 4 positions, one for each of the 4 directions, and when someone feels they have something to share they go stand or sit at one of these 4 positions and wait for whoever is speaking with the talking feather to finish...as these 4 inner positions fill up so that there are 4 people waiting to speak in this inner circle, as the speaker finishes, they pass the feather to the person in the next position to their right in the inner circle, then they return to their original seat in the outer circle...and as an empty space opens in the inner circle anyone else in the outer circle that wishes to speak takes the 4th vacated position in the inner circle and waits for the feather to come around to them...It's been suggested that when circling in the southern hemisphere it is best to move the circle dynamics in the opposite direction...as this would be in accordance with how energy naturally moves in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere...

Upon arriving late, having missed the opening of the circle it is courtesy to the circle and those that have been waiting to speak to take a seat to the right of the one speaking...so that the feather will take one whole turn around the circle before coming to you...this also gives you time to really tune into the energy of the circle...In addition, to maintain of the spirit of the circle, it is best if once you've spoken  you wait until the feather/focus makes it all the way around the circle before you speak again...Another refinement of the circle is that once the circle is opened and the feather/focus begins to be passed around, that any new people that come can begin a second circle around the outside of the original, so that all the original folks speak first and the subsequent folks speak in turn at the end in the order in which they'd arrived...this works for medium to large circles when it is important to keep the size of the circle the certain closeness so that everyone can hear when the person 180 degrees across the circle from them is speaking...And conversely, when you are the speaker, please be mindful to speak loud enough for those 180 degrees across the circle from you to hear your every word...because if they cannot they may feel frustrated and the longer you speak the more disrespected they will feel and tend to respond in kind...

3. Closing the circle:

One way of closing the circle is to pass the feather until no one has anything to say and the feather makes one complete circuit in silence...then everyone stands up, joins hands and OM's at least 3 times as in the beginning...then holding the silence after the Om and bringing it back down to the Earth...there is something very wonderfully melodic in OMing together in this way especially when folks are in no hurry to end the OM...

...You can tell it's a circle when, standing shoulder to shoulder, everyone can see everyone's eyes......