I have posted our 2015 Beltane ritual on the Beltane page. This year we did it as a fire festival.
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We wrote a ritual for Lughnassadh but plans fell through and we were unable to perform it. We have posted the text on our Lammas page in case anyone else wants to use it. The theme is drought and harvest.
So as a fallback we shifted to an esbat, because the moon is full tonight, and we kept the drought theme. You can see that on our main Esbats page, since it follows our "ordinary" and seemed like a useful example to share. There is a new article in the "Writing" section, "Sword Without a Hilt: Concepts of Evil." Read it and explore ideas about wickedness from Paganism and other traditions.
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. There is a new article posted, "Guides for the Urban Pagan." It features plant and animal totems for suburban and city environments.
The "Essays & Articles" section has a new article, "Magical Safety & Skill Development." This offers a basic introduction to protection and purification magic.
There have also been minor revisions to the "Home" tab and some of its subpages. The "About Us" menu has been reorganized for more convenient browsing, and the page revised. A couple of items have been renamed: "Points of Interest" (the bullet list piece) is now "Highlights: Greenhaven in Brief" and "Greenhaven Tradition" (the big description) is now "Floodlights: Greenhaven in Depth."
There is also a new item in the "Essays & Articles" section, "Magic in Animated Movies." There is a new entry on the "Recommended Reading Lists" page, dealing with "Empathy in Fiction."
There is a new essay up in the "Our Voices" section, titled "Janet's Wild Ride: First Esbat."
I've added a "Crafts" entry on the "Activities" topic page, which links to the "Crafts" section page. The "Sitemap" has been updated with recent additions. There is a new "Classes" section under "Activities." It includes pages on a "PVC Drum-making Workshop" and our "Year-and-a-Day Class."
The "Essays & Articles" section now includes material through 1999. Some other pages have been touched up too. |
AuthorElizabeth Barrette lives in central Illinois. She belongs to the Fieldhaven coven. Her first book is Composing Magic: How to Create Magical Spells, Rituals, Blessings, Chants, and Prayers. Archives
June 2019
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