Greenhaven: A Pagan Tradition

Today we held our Ostara sabbat.  For the feast we had corned beef hash, brussels sprout salad, a veggie tray, and flower-shaped cookies for dessert.

Next we painted rocks for a spring craft.  I had prepared some in advance, painting them either green or white, and left others natural.  We had tubes of acrylic paint, paint pens (which proved more popular than the tubes), assorted brushes, and other tools.  I also printed out tutorials for various rock painting techniques.  People made flowers, mandalas, words, and other things.  Two people did mountains, which were mentioned in a chant in the ritual -- before they had seen the chant!

In the sabbat ritual, we cast circle with a bouquet of flowers, then called quarters.  We invoked the goddesses of spring who paint the flower petals.  We blessed the stones with a chant, and then seed packets with another chant.  For cakes and ale we had a flower-shaped cookie and raspberry lemonade.

We also did our March esbat.  This one took an elemental focus.  For the first time we tried a nonverbal quarter call.  Each of us had a musical instrument -- recorder (Air), zills (Fire), sea drum (Water), doumbek (Earth), and body music for Spirit.  It sounded really good!  Everyone loved it too, so we'll definitely be doing this again.  It's a terrific approach if you have people who aren't good at reading or ad libbing quarter calls, or who don't speak, or someone has a sore throat that day.  We read the Charge of the Great Mother and we chanted "Earth My Body" too.

We held our Imbolc celebration today.  There were some challenges because only one other person was able to attend, and not everything worked as planned, but it turned out okay in the end. 

We built a fire in the woodstove, then melted wax on top of it.  We used that to make  firestarters from pinecones, and we also made small candles in various containers.  I had been planning to make rainbow candles, but we didn't have enough cans and also the colors got mixed up.  But they came out beautiful anyway!  :D  Important lesson for enjoying crafts: don't obsess over perfection.

Some other things we learned: Leaving the blower off means that the fire doesn't overheat the house nearly as much.  Adding scented wax melts to the paraffin makes it a little softer and it melts faster.  Also it smells amazing.

For the ritual, we gathered our freshly finished candles and firestarters.  We chanted and raised power to charge them.  These will get used to start bonfires for sabbats and other activities in the future.

Tonight we held an esbat preparing for the lunar eclipse tomorrow night.  We played drums and chanted to raise power.  The drumming went particularly well this time.  We directed the power into stones that will be set out during the eclipse later.  These included malachite, lapis, and moonstone.  They were held in a dish shaped like the head of a blue horse, another lunar symbol.  When the stones (and other objects near them) are set out during the eclipse, they will absorb that energy, and can later be used to access it during rituals.

This year we celebrated Yule as the longest night.  There were six of us this time.  We let the house get cold, and all the food was either cold or brought in later.  We cast the large circle around the whole yard just before sunset. 

For the Yule ritual, we lit lots of candles and built a fire in the woodstove.  We sang "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" and "Deck the Halls."  After the ritual we held the feast. 

We also did an esbat because it was the full moon.  We gave thanks for blessings from the past year and asked a blessing for the coming year.

We held a gift exchange using the giveaway box.  We played games.  We kept vigil until dawn, although not everyone was awake the whole time.

Today we celebrated Mabon with a Wizard of Oz theme.  You can read the ritual outline on the Mabon page.  First we visited Curtis Orchard, where we bought apple cider, donuts, and other goodies.  Then we went back to Fieldhaven for the feast.  We had quinoa with black beans, a salad, and ginger gold apple pie along with the donuts and apple cider.

One of our number is building a new house, so we're helping lay the wards.  Tonight we gathered around a bonfire to charge items that will be going into a witch jar.  The fire elementals really came out to play this time.  \o/

Tonight we held our Beltane ritual with a theme of "fertility."  Six people attended.  We had a feast, a bonfire, and a Maypole.  Much fun was had by all.  We used a modular design this time, and plan to write up a presentation of how to do that for the website here.

For our Yule feast we had a ham, cranberry relish, cole slaw, garlic mushrooms, bread, peppermint chocolate bark, and dark chocolate cheesecake topped with raspberries.  We had five people for the feast.  Then we did the Chocolate Ritual, for which we had four people present and another by phone.

Our Samhain ritual had three people present.  We had a feast with a ham, mashed yams, eggplant spread, and cornbread made from ancient cultivars.  We went outside for ritual.  There was a ring around the moon tonight.  We lit a bonfire.  The focus of the ritual was remembering the dead, particularly Raymond Buckland, one of the founders of modern Witchcraft.  We sang "Gimme That Old Time Religion" with a lot of Pagan verses.

This year's Litha celebration had four people.  We celebrated the joys of summer, and dogs.  We had a huge bonfire, with brush that had been piling up for months.  \o/  One of the fun things we did to capture the playful aspect of summer was cast the circle by blowing bubbles, one quarter caller at a time walking around part of the circle to the next quarter.  We also did some drumming and dancing around the bonfire.  We released the circle by walking it in reverse, with each quarter caller leading for their quarter of the circle.  That's a new technique worth remembering.