Today we celebrated Samhain here at Fieldhaven. Much of the ritual design was laid out during a car ride yesterday, then fleshed out this afternoon. We had a potluck feast with Egyptian leg of lamb, salad, mixed vegetables, bread rolls, and pumpkin pie. Our ritual has been added to the Samhain page, so you can read about what we did.
This ritual focused on pathfinding, to consider where we are spiritually and to help likeminded people find our coven. We built a nice bonfire in the evening and lit it just before the ritual. There were three main sections of the ritual that dealt with invoking the Ancestors, assessing our personal progress, and reaching out to potential contacts.
Some fun things happened that were not planned. The first was when one of the pieces of paper thrown into the fire was grabbed by our resident fire elemental and tossed in midair above the flames -- unburned -- for a couple of minutes before finally settling into the fire and being consumed. Another was a spontaneous rhymed chant that was improvised during the spiral dance. These are typical of the whimsy that characterizes rituals in our tradition; we are always open to the inspiration of the moment and to the cool things that happen in a magical environment.
I also noticed something on a personal level. I was calling Spirit, and we used Unicorn as an elemental representative thereof in this ritual. Now, I've always had a pretty good connection with unicorns, but they came through exceptionally strongly this time. I think part of that owes to the writing I've been doing for my poetic series Path of the Paladins, which features a poem about unicorns, "Purity." Another project I participate in is Torn World, which features enormous snow-unicorns. It was a reminder that whatever we pay attention to ... pays attention to us. The unicorns were just really enthusiastic when I called to them, and doused the circle with numinous energy.
This ritual focused on pathfinding, to consider where we are spiritually and to help likeminded people find our coven. We built a nice bonfire in the evening and lit it just before the ritual. There were three main sections of the ritual that dealt with invoking the Ancestors, assessing our personal progress, and reaching out to potential contacts.
Some fun things happened that were not planned. The first was when one of the pieces of paper thrown into the fire was grabbed by our resident fire elemental and tossed in midair above the flames -- unburned -- for a couple of minutes before finally settling into the fire and being consumed. Another was a spontaneous rhymed chant that was improvised during the spiral dance. These are typical of the whimsy that characterizes rituals in our tradition; we are always open to the inspiration of the moment and to the cool things that happen in a magical environment.
I also noticed something on a personal level. I was calling Spirit, and we used Unicorn as an elemental representative thereof in this ritual. Now, I've always had a pretty good connection with unicorns, but they came through exceptionally strongly this time. I think part of that owes to the writing I've been doing for my poetic series Path of the Paladins, which features a poem about unicorns, "Purity." Another project I participate in is Torn World, which features enormous snow-unicorns. It was a reminder that whatever we pay attention to ... pays attention to us. The unicorns were just really enthusiastic when I called to them, and doused the circle with numinous energy.