Lughnassadh Ritual
I did a very belated Lughnassadh ritual with David and Barbara - it was David's first ritual, poor dear. :P
We did the ritual at the fire circle out behind the First UU Church of Ann Arbor at, oh, 1 am. G'damn, we are persistent. (Barbara had just moved into her apartment today.) The ritual was roughly Celtic and was ADF-style. We even had the Core Order writ down, and Barbara had to keep crouching by her lantern to read it.
The three of us each took a part of the purification - David land, I sea, Barbara sky. Then I initiated the rite by playing a lil tune on my recorder. We honored the Earth mother by sort of saying hi awkwardly, since we hadn't really brought anything for her. Then we had a bowl be the well, a particularly stand-out stalk of grass be the tree, and three tealights be the fire. We called on Cernunnos as the gate-keeper.
I invited the ancestors (of blood and spirit), invoking particularly our late founder Isaac Bonewits, and gave an offering of applejack. David invited the land spirits and gave an offering of sugar. Barbara invited the Shining Ones and gave an offering of rum.
The main Being of the Occasion was Lugh, whom we honored by performing a couple of fights to represent his triumph over Balor & the Fomorians. The main offering was a bracelet, representing/in honor of the wedding between Lugh and Ana (the Huron River goddess, whom we call upon as Earth Mother). I spoke 25 Fnords in honor of my patron Eris. Then we promised to throw the bracelet in the Huron later.
The omen turned up three runes, which Barbara said represented joy, the cycle of the year, and strength, which we decided was probably a good omen. Then we asked for the blessings to be placed in the rum and each had a bit. Then we thanked the beings, closed the gates, thanked the Earth Mother, and I closed the rite by playing a few notes on my recorder.
It was a pretty awkward and very amateurish rite, but we're pretty sure the spirits were okay with that. All in all, pretty cool.
We did the ritual at the fire circle out behind the First UU Church of Ann Arbor at, oh, 1 am. G'damn, we are persistent. (Barbara had just moved into her apartment today.) The ritual was roughly Celtic and was ADF-style. We even had the Core Order writ down, and Barbara had to keep crouching by her lantern to read it.
The three of us each took a part of the purification - David land, I sea, Barbara sky. Then I initiated the rite by playing a lil tune on my recorder. We honored the Earth mother by sort of saying hi awkwardly, since we hadn't really brought anything for her. Then we had a bowl be the well, a particularly stand-out stalk of grass be the tree, and three tealights be the fire. We called on Cernunnos as the gate-keeper.
I invited the ancestors (of blood and spirit), invoking particularly our late founder Isaac Bonewits, and gave an offering of applejack. David invited the land spirits and gave an offering of sugar. Barbara invited the Shining Ones and gave an offering of rum.
The main Being of the Occasion was Lugh, whom we honored by performing a couple of fights to represent his triumph over Balor & the Fomorians. The main offering was a bracelet, representing/in honor of the wedding between Lugh and Ana (the Huron River goddess, whom we call upon as Earth Mother). I spoke 25 Fnords in honor of my patron Eris. Then we promised to throw the bracelet in the Huron later.
The omen turned up three runes, which Barbara said represented joy, the cycle of the year, and strength, which we decided was probably a good omen. Then we asked for the blessings to be placed in the rum and each had a bit. Then we thanked the beings, closed the gates, thanked the Earth Mother, and I closed the rite by playing a few notes on my recorder.
It was a pretty awkward and very amateurish rite, but we're pretty sure the spirits were okay with that. All in all, pretty cool.