AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
AS BELOW, SO ABOVE

Purpose of a ceremony is to come together for celebration, healing, or empowerment. In ceremonies, we join hands in a circle for our shared connection with the great mystery of life, our Ancestors, our spirits, our loving connection with all of nature.

Ceremony brings people together with good-hearted intention and in reciprocity with Mother Earth. This ceremony celebrates global shamanic culture as we share love for our nature and for life in its most peaceful and balanced potential.

In this full moon time, we are ready to explore something, we have never done before. Our Ancestors did not know how to use computers or how virtual reality would look like. But they knew the celestial symbolism of the rainbow, its blessings, and the connection between us all. The rainbow has been as the bridge to the kingdom of gods and goddesses, bridge to the heavens.

Welcome to join a shamanic ceremony on the top of a rainbow. We will take a step towards the Unknown and explore together the potentials of Virtual Reality Space as a platform of communal activity and ritual beauty.
Rainbow is a symbol for a peaceful community, of harmonious relationships, and unity of consciousness. Rainbow brings the opposites together. It is like a pathway we can use to move from one experience to another. That pathway can be a conscious and sustainable transformation.

What you can bring to the ceremony:
During the ceremony, the participants are welcome to bring their medicine songs and poems.
No previous experience is needed. This ceremony is great for all the curious minds. It is for all who want to learn from new possibilities to create sacred spaces, and to combine the new technologies and arts with ancient techniques of prayer and rituals.
Salt Spring Island and San Francisco based Judit Navratil is the artistic creator of the universe that we enter. Judit will teach us to navigate in the VR space. Nobody is left behind. Helena is the shamanic ceremonialist from North Karelia, East Finland. Judit and Helena connect from opposite sides of Mother Earth, and they invite all of you to join the circle, wherever in the world you are.
New worlds and new spaces emerge as the Universe expands. Let’s learn together what is possible!

THE ARTISTS:
Judit Navratil, artist, Canada / USA / Hungary:
Judit's practice is multivalent, engaging performance, social practices, drawing, as well as video and VR. The relationship between the real and virtual is personally significant to Judit, as she has moved between several different countries and cultures in her lifetime, and relies on digital means to connect to people and places in an attempt to construct “home.” Her projects are as much affective mappings of what it means to continuously oscillate between analog and digital, past and present. Navratil uses her body-device to keep balance through her compass-meditation: the Long Distance Somersault career. Rolling as far as she can helps her seeking higher alternatives and to gaze in the Eye of the Hurricane.

Navratil earned an MFA in Painting at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2008 and an MFA at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2019. She has been exhibiting in Hungary, Canada, France, Korea and the Bay Area. Her work has been recognized through awards and residencies including the Cadogan Art Award, a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), the Dennis Leon and Christin Nelson Scholarship, a Presidential Scholarship for Anderson Ranch and the Parent Artist Residency Award of Kala Art Institute. She is currently an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts.

Helena Karhu, ceremonialist, Finland:
Helena Karhu is a shamanic teacher, ceremonialist, mother, and ritual artist based in North Karelia, Finland. Helena is an anthropologist doing her Ph.D. research on contemporary Nordic shamanism at the University of Eastern Finland. Helena's life project is to develop self-awareness through shamanic practices and folklore in her company House of the Bear (www.karhuntalo.com/english). In addition, Helena is a chair woman of an association promoting and developing the folk and shamanic traditions of Karelia region, Pielisen Tietäjäkeskus (www.tietajakeskus.org/english).
The Ancestors of the North and the nature spirits call her to tell more about the Northern nature, original tradition of Finnish shamanism, and to combine these archaic methods with the possibilities of contemporary culture.

HOW TO PREPARE:
1. Before the ceremony by 15th of May:
If you like, you can contribute to the mandala offering and the visual scenery of the virtual space prior to the ceremony. This is optional, but we strongly recommend to take part this way, as it can make your ceremonial experience more meaningful for you. For example, take photos of flowers, trees, pinecones, stones, feathers, or any other organic material, that you would like to put into the mandala we have together. These can also be photos that you have taken before. They can also be photos of your drawings or other pieces of artwork. Even sound files are possible.
Please send these materials by 15th of May 2021 to Judit by email: navratiljudit@gmail.com
Please send photos and materials that you have only taken yourself.
2. During the ceremony:
You are welcome to share songs, poems, or sound pieces during the ceremony. Something connecting to the rainbow?

PRACTICAL:
Space is limited to 21 active participants. As a Room Guest, you may engage in conversation with the artists after the presentations. In case the room is full, you can still watch the event from the Lobby, which is limited for viewing only. Please arrive on time in order to be our Room Guest!

LINK TO THE CEREMONY:
https://hubs.mozilla.com/Vhzn7PM/rainbow-ceremony/

Please arrive 15 minutes early (9:45am PST / 19:45pm Helsinki) if you have never been to Mozilla Hubs* before in order to learn how to navigate in this social VR space and move around comfortably during the event. Judit will be teaching navigation and offer warming up for the event.
You will need a computer or a laptop for participating (not recommended with phone nor ipad). It is good to use a mouse, if possible, but it is optional. The best browser to be used is Mozilla Firefox.

The ceremony is a free-of-charge event. We appreciate your donations, if you like to support the artistic work of Judit and Helena.

*Mozilla Hubs is accessible with or without VR headsets, simply in your browser (computer, phones, tablets etc.) - best on Firefox.
Use these keys for navigation:
Arrow keys or WS (move forward-back) // holding SHIFT makes your move faster
AD (move left-right)
cursor or QE for rotation
or find further info here: https://hubs.mozilla.com/docs/hubs-controls.html