The Alchemical Table
Invoking Our Sacred Humanity
There are many famous tables. the Lord’s Table, the Boardroom Table, the Thanksgiving Table (just around the corner for many), King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, the Wedding Table, the Turning of the Table, the Negotiating Table.
How could it be that the table is so powerful? Is it just the sweet and sacred geometry – similar to the circle but different?
After all, what other animal sits at the table?
For me, when I arrive at the meeting table, the cafe table, the lunch table, and especially the BreakBread table; I sit, I sink, I settle, I see, I slow down. If I come to the table with intention, these feelings are strong. If I come to the table mindlessly rushed and distracted, these feelings are just below the surface, subtle, hardly noticed.
Malidoma Some, a medicine man and diviner of the Dagara culture with both feet in the West and Africa, writes in his book Ritual, about how the dominance of machine-time in the West distances us from our spirit because we are always rushing and running toward something that’s not actually running away. Why are we running? In my own experience, I often toss and turn and tumble through life searching for more time, thinking about how much time something will take, as if “time” is a thing. I find myself aghast with overwhelm and to-do lists.
Inside this frantic modern rhythm, I long for what I call the “alchemical” table, for those moments where I can slow down, and slip into a wave of connection, filled with deliberate listening and nourishment. A little like the BreakBread table….
This table is inhabited by ritual – to which clear intention and carefully held structure is brought to invite us to cross a threshold into something more deeply meaningful and aligned with the soul.
This is the table that, like an alchemic tree, roots us to the very invisible palpable mycelial nature of life and thus to our vulnerable, interdependent humanity. It can be a wedge in the engine of life, holding the door open for time to expand and for our humanity to splay itself openly in the center.
In our modern lives, the meal-time table is the daily opportunity to sit heart to heart to sink into our messy, rich entanglement and to be nourished both physically and spiritually. Yet, with the release of smartphones comes silent mindless scrolling while scarfing down pasta. With the prevalence of busy workdays comes eating alone at our desk (at least in America). With the lack of communication skills come silent tables, violent tables, tables riddled with landmines and conflict. With a culture rooted in domination come tables ruled by narrowness and fear. And maybe there’s no table at all – because the table just doesn’t feel good anymore.
Certainly, not every meal needs to be laced with the sacred connection but the table itself is a powerful leverage point for togetherness – even if it’s just game night, arts and crafts day, or a meeting. The table has even more power when it’s invoked with intention and structure.
Consider the Boardroom Table weighted by goals, actions, outcomes and responsibility. This table literally focuses members while the power dynamics direct the cadence of who speaks and who is listened to. Of course, now we have the added distraction of phones and what happens when the table is taken away and replaced by the virtual meeting? Usually efficiency is gained at the cost of connection, which ironically frays the very connection needed to get things done. Could it be that the virtual table hasn’t been properly invoked?
On the other hand, there is the slow and delicious alchemical table, invoked by intention and structure (like the boardroom) but is also sparked by the presence of the heart, the deep respect for our shared and sacred humanity and listening that moves beyond the narrow (story swapping, status jockeying, righteousness) and into a gentle expansion into the outer realms of connection. Try it, it’s contagious.
As you sit for Thanksgiving this year, perhaps take time to sense that alchemic tree holding up your plates, knives, forks and food; sense the nourishment of body, mind and heart.
Honor the spatial, organizing, focusing quality of the table. Notice where you feel enlivened or stuck. Maybe even invoke a powerful direction for the table by making it a place of ritual, where together you declare your communion and identity. Or maybe make a centerpiece, or go around and share gratitudes, or invite everyone to cook and tell the story about their dish. Or maybe you could share the “introduction of gifts” or intentionally slow down with a prayer or meditation as we do in BreakBread – setting the conditions for meaningful conversation to deepen and nourish your bonds.
Whatever you decide, we invite you to consider the power of the table to shape your life and community.