Germany

2 events: Bad Kissingen, Berlin

Bad Kissingen, Germany: report by Rita Erhardt

This year, I had planned to celebrate the SOPP with two other women. On May 18, I woke up with a terrible headache, and under normal conditions I would have cancelled all planned activities. But to cancel the SOPP—impossible! As soon as Ingrid, one of the women, phoned me to tell me her planned arrival time, my headache began to disappear, and I was able to concentrate and arrange all the things we would need for the ceremony.

After Ingrid arrived we did some meditation together before discussing the schedule for the ceremony. The meditation was so powerful that we both were deeply impressed and nearly speechless. It became very easy to set the schedule, and we could already visualize the ceremony.

The next morning there was excitement in the air. We finished the last preparations and drove to the room where our ceremony would take place. We decorated the floor with symbols of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water), flowers from our garden, and of course with a peace pole.

After our ‘guests’ (my son, my husband and a friend of ours) arrived, our ceremony started at 10 am. After a brief welcome and introduction, we started with a few minutes of practicing a special mudra to open our heart chakras. After reading a prayer called “The Universal Prayer” Ingrid recited the poem “What is Peace?” by Mother Mangalam. My son followed with a prayer for harmony between humanity and nature. Regine, Ingrid and I finished the first part of the ceremony with a wordless prayer with deep, spiritualized breathing.

Next, Regine led us to a connection with the gathering in Berlin and with Fuji Sanctuary. I felt or ‘saw’ a ray of light extending from our room to Fuji Sanctuary, and felt energy flowing in both directions. The next image I saw was of people holding hands and building a circle all around the earth.

In a state of concentration, clarity, and joy, we offered prayers for peace in every nation. All the participants put their full energy into this. As soon as the mandala of flags on the floor was finished, we started dancing to express our joy, bringing the energy into our bodies. We closed the ceremony standing in a circle, holding hands in silence and feeling gratitude in our hearts. Throughout the ceremony we felt a strong connection with the amazing energy from Fuji Sanctuary. One participant commented that there was a strong feeling of oneness and a high level of energy.

According to the weather forecast it was supposed to be rainy and chilly, but in Bad Kissingen there was sunshine and it was so warm that we all had lunch together outside on our terrace—wonderful!

Berlin, Germany: report by Katharina Brocke

For the SOPP weekend I went to Berlin to spend time with the Byakko group there, which gathers every month to link-up with the events at Fuji Sanctuary. For various reasons some members of the group were not able to participate that weekend, so we ended up being a group of five, meeting on the afternoon of May 18 in the home of one of the women in our group.

There, we prepared ourselves with a short time of prayer and then went out to continue our prayer walk along where the Berlin Wall used to stand. During our walk we were focusing on praying for peace and anchoring the qualities of love and gratitude within the landscape of Berlin, which was welcoming us with the beauty of spring bursting forth with its fresh green leaves and blossoms. We felt that deep work had been done.

On May 19, two of us, Katharina Knitsch and myself, met at a flat in the middle of Berlin for a time of deep prayer and meditation and an acknowledgement of humanity’s many different religious expressions. We were linked with everyone around the world and felt a profound connection, with very high and light-filled vibrations. Our presence felt significant, even though there were only two of us, as we happened to be in a part of Berlin which was celebrating the ‘Carnival of Cultures’. This is a series of presentations by the different ethnic groups which are represented in Berlin, and it culminated in a parade through the streets, which attracted about one million visitors.