Wheel of the Year: American Style - New Years Rite
Note to new readers: The ritual write-up below refers to elements of the Core Order of Ritual within the religious organization known as Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (usually shortened to "ADF"). If you have any questions please feel free to ask. As most of my readers are ADF members I am not going to give detailed explanations of each portion but have no issue what-so-ever explaining it in more detail. Thanks for stopping by!
Tonight I performed the first rite in my Wheel of the Year experiment. For those of you who have not heard me speak of it. I have created a ritual calendar with which I intend to celebrate ritual (around twice a month) through the scope of the modern American culture.
The purpose of tonight's rite was more then just to celebrate the New Year. It was specifically designed as a rite in which to create new beginnings and to cast away those things from the last year (and all of the past I suppose) that I no longer needed.
The Beings of Occasion for tonight were the Broad One (Earth Mother) and the Shining Sky Father. I also called in the Tribe of Men-Who-Love-Men as the power of inspiration and the Burning One as the gatekeeper.
Right from the beginning I felt really connected to the ritual. I am not sure why this is to be honest. Perhaps because I had been planning it for so long or because it was very personal to me. New Years has always been really important to me and this was one of the few times I really was honoring it in ritual.
As I do with most my rites it was offered completely extemporaneously although I did put some forethought into the purpose, the Beings of Occasion, and a working that I will explain in a moment.
As I said I felt a pretty strong connection right from the beginning and that really just kept building throughout the rite. I realized at some point that I did not do an outsiders offering. This is really strange to me as I always tend to do one even at my home rites. I consider it a call for peace more then a concern about any trouble being made. As I wasn't feeling any malice or ill intent I just continued without it.
My Omens were:
Ancestors: Orange - the unexpected, warning
Nature Spirits: Black - truth, formality
Shining Ones: Yellow - care, fear
Taken together and with things going on in my life I read, keep a close eye on your life throughout this year. Accept the warnings when they are given and seek your own truth. Take care that fear does not hold you back.
As I have done for awhile now I called for the blessing by asking the Keeper of the Waters to release them to me. I really like this addition to the rite. As far as I know I am the only one doing this in ADF ritual currently. Which .. makes me a bit nervous to be honest but so far it has worked very well for me. I feel it is a much more "formal" calling, more in line with the ritual as a whole. I don't really offer to the Keeper, whose job is only to assure only those who permitted to attain the waters, I only call to him and declare my right. I wait for the settle "click" in my head that makes me feel as this has been done before asking the assembled beings to hallow them.
After the blessing I did a working. before the ritual began I scrapped out the ashes and debris from me little burner on my altar and placed them aside. Now I took them up and declared that all of those things I have been harboring which brought me pain, hurt, and loneliness would be placed within the ashes. I meditated on those things for awhile, holding them inside, and then I envisioned them moving into the ashes with each expelled breath. I could feel them leaving my body and feeling lighter and clearer with each breath. I did keep enough that I would need for lessons learned and for the experience they gave me. I just gave away that which was holding me back. Or, at least, that was my intention. After I felt I was done I casually cast ashes aside. I didn't need them anymore and treated them as such.
I closed the rite by thanking the assembled beings and offering the same prayer I always use;
This rite is at an end
May the peace and blessings remain
This night and forever more
So Be It
Tonight I performed the first rite in my Wheel of the Year experiment. For those of you who have not heard me speak of it. I have created a ritual calendar with which I intend to celebrate ritual (around twice a month) through the scope of the modern American culture.
The purpose of tonight's rite was more then just to celebrate the New Year. It was specifically designed as a rite in which to create new beginnings and to cast away those things from the last year (and all of the past I suppose) that I no longer needed.
The Beings of Occasion for tonight were the Broad One (Earth Mother) and the Shining Sky Father. I also called in the Tribe of Men-Who-Love-Men as the power of inspiration and the Burning One as the gatekeeper.
Right from the beginning I felt really connected to the ritual. I am not sure why this is to be honest. Perhaps because I had been planning it for so long or because it was very personal to me. New Years has always been really important to me and this was one of the few times I really was honoring it in ritual.
As I do with most my rites it was offered completely extemporaneously although I did put some forethought into the purpose, the Beings of Occasion, and a working that I will explain in a moment.
As I said I felt a pretty strong connection right from the beginning and that really just kept building throughout the rite. I realized at some point that I did not do an outsiders offering. This is really strange to me as I always tend to do one even at my home rites. I consider it a call for peace more then a concern about any trouble being made. As I wasn't feeling any malice or ill intent I just continued without it.
My Omens were:
Ancestors: Orange - the unexpected, warning
Nature Spirits: Black - truth, formality
Shining Ones: Yellow - care, fear
Taken together and with things going on in my life I read, keep a close eye on your life throughout this year. Accept the warnings when they are given and seek your own truth. Take care that fear does not hold you back.
As I have done for awhile now I called for the blessing by asking the Keeper of the Waters to release them to me. I really like this addition to the rite. As far as I know I am the only one doing this in ADF ritual currently. Which .. makes me a bit nervous to be honest but so far it has worked very well for me. I feel it is a much more "formal" calling, more in line with the ritual as a whole. I don't really offer to the Keeper, whose job is only to assure only those who permitted to attain the waters, I only call to him and declare my right. I wait for the settle "click" in my head that makes me feel as this has been done before asking the assembled beings to hallow them.
After the blessing I did a working. before the ritual began I scrapped out the ashes and debris from me little burner on my altar and placed them aside. Now I took them up and declared that all of those things I have been harboring which brought me pain, hurt, and loneliness would be placed within the ashes. I meditated on those things for awhile, holding them inside, and then I envisioned them moving into the ashes with each expelled breath. I could feel them leaving my body and feeling lighter and clearer with each breath. I did keep enough that I would need for lessons learned and for the experience they gave me. I just gave away that which was holding me back. Or, at least, that was my intention. After I felt I was done I casually cast ashes aside. I didn't need them anymore and treated them as such.
I closed the rite by thanking the assembled beings and offering the same prayer I always use;
This rite is at an end
May the peace and blessings remain
This night and forever more
So Be It