VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON POETRY CEREMONIES

TESTIMONIALS

“Dr. Jaiya John is such a gift to the world, and I am so grateful for his poetry ceremony offerings. I did not realize how much tension I had been carrying in my body over the last few weeks and as soon as I joined the ceremony, I could feel that start to melt, and my heart opening.

There was so much care and love placed into the preparation, holding, and closing of the ceremony. I appreciated the email I received preparing me for the ceremony, and guidelines for how to show up. I have not experienced a libation ceremony before, or been so warmly welcomed to name my Loved ones and ancestors who have changed to light. Having that space to do so helped me feel and process the years of grief carried in my body that I did not realize was there. I was held in a safe space to cry, and encouraged to do so. The ceremony also helped me unlearn colonial ways of being, and although there were a number of us attending, Dr. Jaiya made me feel so seen and heard. Even though I was shy to speak up, I could feel that my presence was appreciated. Everyone that attended brought such beautiful vulnerability, including in the form of shared song and poetry.

I left the ceremony feeling so nourished, inspired, and overflowing with Love. Thank you, Dr. Jaiya John for your medicine words - your written words have been a soothing balm on my healing journey over the last few years, and I am so grateful to have received them verbally at the ceremony. What a blessing. Am looking forward to many more.

— Cara Leung (she/her)

 “I first encountered your work while I was still living in South Africa, through Daughter Drink This Water. Your words found me in a season when I was thirsty in ways I did not yet have language for. They met me gently but unmistakably and have stayed with me ever since. Living in America has been a profound journey, yet being away from my motherland has brought a quiet disconnection from soil, from lineage, and from parts of myself I am still learning to hold onto. Attending the Stirring the Freedom Waters ceremony was unexpectedly revealing. It reminded me that staying connected to my roots is an active, sacred practice. It also stirred in me a deep sense of responsibility, that the work I create must be honest, liberatory, and revolutionary in its own way.

To experience the ceremony and to speak with you directly after engaging with your work for so long felt like a crossing. Your humility and the fatherly tenderness you extend to young people like myself is something I do not take lightly. When you called me your spiritual daughter, it awakened in me a profound sense of guidance and reassurance. I felt that God is everywhere and cares for me, that I am on the right path, and that I must continue the work inside of me for the betterment of myself and others.

The Stirring the Freedom Waters ceremony was not a performance; it was a living space of remembrance. I left feeling nourished, seen, and more anchored in who I am becoming.”

With deep gratitude,
Refentse

“Dear Baba,

The ceremony was truly transformative for me. The care, presence, and sacred leadership you embody created a space that allowed me to open, soften, and grow. I carry that nourishment with me, and I continue to witness its unfolding in my life. I am deeply honored to be regarded as family. Thank you for extending your hand and your heart beyond the ceremony space. I will certainly stay in touch, and I welcome the opportunity to continue learning from and being uplifted by your guidance. Your faith in me means more than you know. I receive it with reverence and responsibility.”

With gratitude and love,
Refentse

“Aloha Dr. Jaiya John,

Thank you so much for hosting yesterday's poetry ceremony, Stirring the Freedom Waters. It was just that. It stirred the waters of love, creativity, light, soul nourishment, and freedom in me. I am beginning to write again with endless inspiration. My intention for this new year is to find and be in my creative flow, and listening to your words and those of the others who shared, was inspiring and nourishing for my soul. Thank you so much for sharing your words with the world.

I am forever grateful to have come across your book, Daughter Drink This Water. I have shared it with so many of my sisters, knowing just how potent it is. I feel that you would have been someone that my Tita, my grandmother, Dr. Inés Talamantez would have invited to speak to one of her classes before she turned to light. I found your writings very soon after that. She was an Apache woman who created the field of Native

American Religious Studies in the United States. She was a professor at Harvard and UC Santa Barbara (just to name a couple), and I just know that she was the one who placed your writings in my path. She was so much more than the last two sentences can convey. A mother, a grandmother, a teacher, a healer, a dancer, a friend, and my Strawberry Grandma. I want to do my best to follow in the path that she forged, in my own way. I am so grateful to have had her as my grandmother, because she truly led the way for me to seek to understand my own spirituality and how to stay connected to our Creator, our Soul collective. And she was a poet too. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this beautiful experience of inspiration, poetry, and soul nourishment.”

Much aloha,
Annalise Inez

“Dearest Baba Jaiya,

Words are insufficient to describe the magic of your ceremonies, but I'll try...

What an auspicious way to start this Fire Horse year! As I said during our gathering, you're weaving the kind of culture I want to live in, and

what a joy it is to be in that magic pot, seasoned by soulful, spontaneous poetry, the sacred, the humor, the grief tears, and the sweetness of all the magnificent hearts who gather around your fire.

Your freedom is seriously contagious! Your love liberates mine to flow even more courageously. Your unabashed clarity that prayer and libations for our ancestors belong everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, is cracking open a shell I developed to survive the overculture, and it feels gooood. Fresh breezes of possibility are flowing through my inner life. The radiance of your smile and the ginormous heart it emerges from are luminous beyond measure. What a celebration! What a powerful fertilisation and deep hydration of the indigenous soul seeds in all of us who were lucky enough to be there!

Like bathing in a shower of blessings and beauty. Unlike anything I experience elsewhere in my life. I am so grateful there are more of these gatherings to look forward to! Seriously, I feel like one of the luckiest humans on earth to sit with you as you pour forth. I love the way you never bypass the grief and the horrors of these times, and neither do you ever bypass the peace, beauty, joy, and possibility that are right here, and worth claiming and stepping into fully. I am beyond grateful.

Carl tells me he's gifted me a session with you. I'm so looking forward to it. I feel both super excited and a little hesitant, like wow, if the vibe I've been humming with since our gathering is any indication, I'm going to be different afterwards. I trust it completely!

Love you so much, dear Baba, dear baobab, dear fount of soul waters, dear beautiful man.”

— Erin



“Connecting in community is more important now than ever. Baba Jaiya holds a ceremonial space full of safety, beautiful words of grace and the natural worlds and alchemy, and the open handed invitation to be heard and held in community with others across the world. This was by far the best online ceremony I’ve been to in years, and I’m so grateful to have joined the community. I will be back for the next one, no doubt.”

Kind Regards,
Lisa Ostrander

“Jaiya's Stirring the Freedom Waters Poetry Ceremony stirred something so big in me that I have thought of it every day since. I can only describe my experience as a soul shaking and awakening that I had been subconsciously yearning for. Jaiya's gift is capturing what is deeply felt yet unnamed -- the poignancy of his words cracked my soul open as they poured from his heart. Thank you, Jaiya, for reminding us of our humanity in these times and giving life to the beautiful swirlings of creativity, love and wonder in all of us. I left feeling so nourished and inspired. Your words were like fireflies lighting up the dark shadows in my soul.”

With gratitude,
Janey Chang

“Dear Jaiya, Baba, all the divine labels,

I refer to you as a divine frequency node to friends and family. I recognized your spirit a few years ago, although today was the first time I had the gift of your presence.

Your ceremony was a collective breath. A cry. Hope. Joy. All at the same time. Thank you for sharing your embodied prayer. I felt all of our ancestors. I also invited my mother, Alicia Lobo, to attend, as I felt she would resonate. She has been ill, with deep grief being held in her lungs. Thank you for holding space for her release.”

— Niza

“Dear Jaiya,

Every ceremony with you is remembering. Every word you speak stirs ancestral memories, medicine and wisdom I was not aware of. Muchisimas gracias, you are a true guide. A selfless, noble guiding light that sings poetry to us, the hungry. I loved the community experience. What a beautiful gathering and so many lineages and ancestors attended. May we honor them well as we become the living elders.”

Abrazos,
Maria Herminia

“Dear Dr. Jaiya John,

Bless you. Thank you for the ceremony today. I have been hesitant over the last half-year about stepping into my healership role. I completed a three-year energy healing program last June and a grief educator course last month, and have felt the "not enough" and weight of "accreditation" with a "regulated" institution strongly, even though I felt in my heart that both programs were infused with spirit.

Today's ceremony helped me see that I am ready, enough, and it is time to start my healership. That I have medicine to offer beyond my imagination. Thank you from my heart for your medicine words. They have been a healing balm in my life.”

Love and blessings,
Cara

"Stirring The Freedom Waters is such potent ceremony for the freedom waters in me that have needed proper stirring. They are looser now, seeking canyons rather than crammed creeks. Much has flowed through creatively since my first joining and I am happily awaiting the next. I bid us all so many blessings in these endeavors to dust ourselves thoroughly and locate embers.”

— Otak

“Stirring the waters came to visit me in my dreams before the event. I felt depths that i usually feel alone, and we shared it together with kindred souls. Dr Jaiya's sacred work is not mere poetry from the mind. Every word seems to flow from God as a waterfall. Sometimes my brain could not follow the rhythm of the words but i could feel it all. And it felt safe. I will remember this specific moment in time as a very important event, deeply connected from different lands, cultures, backgrounds and a similar ancestry of poets, artists. Follow the call if you hear it.”
— Chloé Cosmos