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.
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I have posted our 2015 Beltane ritual on the Beltane page. This year we did it as a fire festival.
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. Yesterday's psychic fair went tolerably well. We made enough to cover our gas and food expenses for the day, with a little profit left over, and we got some books and magazines out of the house.
Today's Mabon ritual was designed around the theme of protection. We called the quarters, cast circle, and read the Charge of the Star Goddess. Then we raised and directed power using two different chants. We also lit incense. (Watching resin incense boil on charcoal is fun, and even a small nugget releases a visible cloud of smoke.) Finally we released the quarters and opened the circle. The quarter calls and releases were composed this afternoon, and have been posted at the bottom of the "Mabon" page. This website has seen a huge spike in activity this month as people searched for Mabon foods, rituals, and other supporting materials. As of today, we've had 504 hits on our "Mabon Recipes" page and 169 on our "Mabon" page where the rituals are. Folks are clearly beginning to prepare for Samhain, too, as we've already got 25 hits on "Samhain Recipes" this month. I suspect that Pagans in the southern hemisphere are responsible for the 30 hits on "Ostara Recipes." It's good to see the interest; I hope some of the visitors browse around other parts of the site. We've got hits on other pages too, so I think it's working. There is a new article posted, "Guides for the Urban Pagan." It features plant and animal totems for suburban and city environments.
The topic page for "Cooking Feasts" has been revised. "How to Plan a Potluck Feast" has been moved to its own subpage.
Today I revised the "Activities" page. I also moved "PVC Drum-making Workshop" to the "Crafts" section.
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. |
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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