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.
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.