Bali - Melukat

I really was nervous. Having watched everyone else go through their first Melakut ceremony, only Karen and I were left. It was my turn next. I had just a few minutes earlier received my diagnosis. During it I was told that in a previous life I had been a Gladiator that I had received mortal wounds but had survived. He had asked to look at my back, where he confirmed he could see the scars from these old wounds carried forward into this life.  In fact not only did I survive but I was able to return to the ring and continue, ruthless and unbeatable. In this present life he had told me that I had a mind full of ideas, which constantly distracted me from my course, which I had to agree with.  Slightly alarmingly he could also feel the detritus of the cancer in my right ring finger.  He told me that my upper Chakra’s had closed, which didn’t surprise me in the least, in fact I was aware that they had shut down during the course of Chemotherapy I had endured only months before.  It made sense to me that only my two lower Chakra’s were fully open as they represent survival and grounding, the only things I had really concentrated on. He told me he would remove the busy-ness of my mind and remove any remains of the cancer and reopen my closed Chakra’s during the various Melukat’s we would be having over the next two weeks.  I was hooked, this was after all what I had come to Bali for. 

And now it was my turn, with a quick last glance at Karen who had to endure one further session watching mine, I walked over to my Melukat.  This Melukat was a large terracotta urn full of water and the most beautiful flowers of Bali. We each had our own individual prescription and as I was a ‘nine’ that was the number of different flower combinations in my urn. The Ceremony started by my holding a combination of flowers and a lighted josh stick in the ends of my fingers. My hands where held above my head in a prayer position and I was given a moment in which to pray. My prayer was obvious, as would be all the prayers and affirmations that followed. Simply, to be healthy.  Then as I handed the Josh stick over to his wife who was assisting, I was instructed to lay my hands palms up, in the position of acceptance. He said a prayer, blessed the Melukat and placed crystals inside. Then it started. Prior to the session we had been advised by one of the other girls who had been here before to time our breathing. To breathe in when he filled the huge ladle and to breathe out through the mouth as the water flowed over our heads.  Seemed like a good plan. However when the first ladle hit I was suddenly thrust into a blind panic. It’s a totally sensory experience. Firstly of the fragrantly laced cold water and then suddenly a deprivation of sight, oxygen and body heat as he continuously ladle’s the water over your head, chanting all the time.  I was completely on my own, isolated from the world, deprived of breath, aware only of the water endlessly pouring and the flowers falling into my lap.  Then from somewhere deep inside me a sound started to rise up. I wanted to stop it but I could not as this powerful sound came from my soul, primal, mystical, and animal.  A long deep guttural wail I was unable to control, it was part of me but an old part, not of this lifetime.  Centuries of old hurt, pain and suffering.  Rushing up from the depths, coming up to the surface, to freedom and release.  The water poured on and the wail, as loud as ever continued.  I have no idea how my body took in Oxygen, I was only aware of the power of the release and the sound.

 And then it was over and sobs racked my body, just a couple, which I think were my own. Shock and acceptance of what had just left me. He held my head very gently and blew into my crown Chakra and gave me a blessing.   I sat there while his wife poured the contents of a golden coconut over my head and a blessing of rice was placed on my forehead and shoulders, and I was given the opportunity to pray some more. I thanked the Universe for what had just taken place, although it would be some time before I was able to fully process in any depth the magnitude of it, I knew that it was all for the good. My body felt so light, my hands where tingling, all my nerve endings felt alive, invigorated.  I rested there, with the heat of the Bali sun warming and drying my body and felt truly reconnected and at peace.