our Whole Grove

Winter, Spring, Winter, Spring, Winter, Spring Imbolc Approaches

2012-01-25T19:44:00.004-05:00

Our Whole Grove 2012

2012-01-16T20:49:00.001-05:00

Our Whole Protogrove, ADF
2012 Ritual Calendar

Imbolc – Sat. 2/4 Noon

Vernal Equinox Eve- Mon. 3/19 Sunset

Beltane- Sat. 5/5/12 Morning

Summer Solstice- Wed. 6/20 6pm

Lughnasa Eve- Sun. 8/5 Late Afternoon

Autumnal Equinox –Sun. 9/23 Late Morning

Samhain- Sun. 11/4 Morning

Yule- Fri. 12/21 morning

out of the darkness, light

2012-01-01T01:18:00.001-05:00

it is warm for this last day of the year. the ground is soft and the roses are leafing. Still no snow since Samhain.

Even though it is not normal weather or even environmentally good, I am ok with this false spring.

On the Midwinter Solstice I was sitting in the almost rain, totally quiet and waiting for the Sun to set. Watching and reading the fire, again made early to be strong in the rain.

it rained so hard at one point I figured we could always be inside and see the fire, but magically it eased up

plenty of free flowing water, feeling the solidness of earth, enjoying the simple gathering of friends.

the craziness of the holidays always threaten to eclipse Yule, yet somehow we manage a bit of silence and meditation.

the fire burned as night fell

a few came to worship- Kevin, Michael and the 3 of us. Everyone was so peaceful. Not chilled or cold, we marveled at the warmth. Temperatures that make you laugh. We stood or sat on or around the new deck. A whole new life, a more solid foundation, conscious stance.

We gathered with intent and settled in place, in our places comfortable on this Earth Mother.

I remember Bryan disappearing into the dark mist with the outsiders offering, and then his reappearance. I remember the flaming oils – a separate flame that rose above the fire edged with black acrid smoke. I remember the purple blue flash. I remember not having personal sacrifice other than my words. We each offered our words as prayers and thanks.

I remember the final sacrifice of armloads of dried mint- I thought it would be a large tall whoosh of fire but it was just extremely bright. Out of the darkness, light. That flame stayed in the North close to the to the edge of the fire pit next to our old old Yule tree that has stood as our vertical in these flames for many years.

Bryan cast runes on a casting cloth- I remember the Spiritual Warrior frozen in the ice; the sun and the year were hidden in the dwarves; the B and X- Birkanu- beginnings and Gibor- giving- were on the line between the Gods and our world(Asgard and Midgard). And in the time between end of ritual and taking pictures and after dinner some runes were taken by fairies or other spirits and lost to us.

Our omens from Bryan’s notes:

Tiwaz was alone in Niflheim, the land of Ice or Mist, In Muspelheim, the South or realm of Fire, was a hidden day or Daguz.

Asgard, the land of the Aesir or Gods, penetrated into the middle realm with Giving and Beginning, and had at its center face up Perth -the Chance Cup or Luck- and hidden Laguz or Lake and Mannuz, Man or Self.

Hel is the realm of instinct or habit and the other worlds of the dead and the runes that were visible there was Kenaz-the torch(which can enlighten or burn) and Ansuz or Os the voice- enlighten or burn with speech or song. There were also three hidden runes.

And the Midgard itself, our realm, was crowded: the runes were clustered in a North-center-South axis. In the north were 3 hidden runes: Fehu or Fee, Wunjo or Joy, and Isa or Ice. In the center was Odul or sacred enclosure, Hagal or Hail or Disruption or Reordering, and Elwaz the Elksedge or Attention. In the South, hidden was Nauthiz or Need and Ing. Ing is about fertility and expansion, doing and being but need is about what we need and knowing what you need.

Happy to take in those blessings, happy to say thanks to all

Happy to go inside and eat together, happy to stand in sweaters in the dark by the dying fire and look at stars

Happy 2012

We have come full circle again

2011-12-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

Though the nights are long and cold,they soon grow imperceptibly shorter as the light Returns

Come Celebrate Yule, the mid-winter Solstice

On Wednesday 12-21-11 gathering at dusk

Giving thanks for the sun, for each other, and the gifts of the season and our community

Heart to heart and hand in hand

Potluck to follow

Coming Together Brings Power- Samhain part4

2011-12-10T21:33:00.003-05:00

Our shoveling helped the earth warm enough to melt clear and green. We gathered water from the pool, our sacred well, for indoor plumbing. Dealing with the other that is power outage is a strong reinforcement of this season.

K & ZJ arrived and we talked outage and estimated how long. We all had prepared, having learned the lessons from before and there was plenty of food, plates, water, fire at least for a few days.

Sitting outside, getting ready, go

we are here to honor the Gods

I remember the flaring from our sacrifice, all our dead remembered and standing together for warmth.

our omens rattled out onto the Elder futhark map like worlds in worlds

totally magical randomness- the wyrrdness of alignment, pendulum scrying

forces that are beyond us

a hidden horse ridding on the outer edge

hail and a hidden voice in the inner bowl

A cluster of upside down guys, but right over where there is the torch there is torch-a shaping enlightening burning. And in the next one to pop up in the Gibor zone or the giving field is Perth, luck and gift and Wunjo or joy is in the Wunjo zone

and in the Hagal or need zone- a cluster of ones that are face up: Uruz or ox (strength), Laguz or lake (to draw up from), and Gibor or reciprocity and Fehu or fee

the strength of drawing up the gift and what that costs

Ancestors- Manu or man, self

Sprits – Elwaz, attention

Gods and Goddesses- Kinaz or torch

Season- Wunjo and Perth - Joy & Chance

The Ogham was Quert or Apple which has to do with the afterlife, Avalon, the choice in love and life

We drank our blessings, we gave our thanks, and all our offerings, gathered our baskets and headed inside

WHERE THE POWER HAD JUST COME ON!

we ate hot chili and drank cold beverages and had pie and real coffee.

Renew New Year

Skull–Samhain part3

2011-12-09T12:24:00.002-05:00

MIc Check- Samhain part 2

2011-12-09T12:14:00.002-05:00

I woke in the middle of the night just as the power went off. But the sun of the morning felt good and it was warm and we broke out the camp stove and make coffee outdoors and shoveled the deck.

It was good regardless.

Feeling ok, we prepared.

Power outages puts our family into camping/survival mode. It is a tentative balance of despair and joy, simply existing together. Like dumb suppers for our deceased, we feed each other as best we can given our circumstances.

Clearing the deck for Winter- gathering final garbage , last plants, making space for people and piles of snow. Dealing with large objects and children near the fire. Explaining sacred space without stating as such and gentle guidance away and towards.

Awkward space between the worlds.

The Power of Human Amplification- Samhain part1

2011-12-09T11:39:00.002-05:00

People coming together to support each other, to stand as one voice, to occupy that space that we can call ours.

We knew it would snow, we knew it would be cold, we knew we might loose power and we would need a fire. I realized the only way to have that fire for ritual on Sunday would be to start it Saturday. Because of the weather all plans for the day were cancelled and we made food and fire and prepared for Summer’s End.

The fire took flame as the first flakes fell. It quickly flared. We gathered sticks and watched with awe.

We fed that fire all day as the snow grew deeper everywhere but our circle.

The snow was almost 2 feet deep by morning; our fire had burned down but was warm enough to be rekindled again- just like the circle of the year, just like our lives, just like our spirits.

Samhain draws nigh, it is Summer’s End

2011-10-26T09:56:00.002-04:00

The nights are chilly and come early. Some trees are already bare and the oranges and reds have darkened. Harvests are stored as best we can; the garden should be fully put to bed but there are always a few more things to do.

The Wheel turns, Summer's end and a new year begins.

Interesting times we live in. Let’s gather and offer gratitude to those who have gone before and have lit the way for us.

I pulled some cards for the season and for our ritual and what really came across was honoring and being at peace with the fullness of who we are. There is only one of each of us and, like our ancestors who are remembered for who they are and what they did, it is essential for us to be who we are. To quote again from Martha Graham to Agnes B. DeMille “THERE IS A VITALITY,A LIFE FORCE, THAT IS TRANSLATED THROUGH YOU INTO ACTION. AND BECAUSE THERE IS ONLY ONE OF YOU IN ALL TIME, THIS EXPRESSION IS UNIQUE. AND IF YOU BLOCK IT,IT WILL NEVER EXIST THROUGH ANY OTHER MEDIUM AND WILL BE LOST.THE WORLD WILL NOT HAVE IT.”

As the veil between the worlds thins, it is important to let go of fear and be whole.

We spoke about this season, the Dead, and Gods or Spirits of the passing- those who act as psychopomps and those who transform. There is often the desire to pair things up- the god and goddess of the season, the king and queen, creating a balance. Maybe sometimes that is a bit forced or unnecessary, maybe we leave someone out that way. I thought about the honoring of each, side by side or individual yet related. Our actual ancestors probably did not know each other, but they are all welcome here, none more honored than the next, with no disrespect to any. My grandparents and Bryan's- so different from each other and yet they all are ancestors to our son.

We talked about the Morrighan, and the Norns, the Fates and Valkiries. The Dagda and Cernunos and Mananan and Odin. We will honor them all as best we can in this world.

We are setting out dumb suppers for those spirits already restless and passing thru like the wind. Our fire on Sunday will burn long after ritual. Bring something to honor and remember your dead kindred and your living self- a name, a song, sweet smelling sacrifice, a tasty morsel.

Come by around 4:30pm, ritual by 5, potluck to follow.

Please RSVP, and if you can't be here be with us in person, please join us in your heart.

Rebalance- part 2

2011-10-08T21:13:00.001-04:00

While we usually host grove rituals for the Solar holidays (solstices and equinoxes) on the day of the actual event, we were unable to this autumn equinox. And then trying to accommodate people and schedules it seemed like no one would be able to make it anyway. Thinking about personal needs and the Grove’s need for better scheduling, it, as always, works out perfectly.

From many to none to just a few. We spent the early part of the day at a small memorial service for a dear friend who passed exactly a year ago. Before our last autumn equinox was the last time I had seen her alive in this world and an interesting circle of closure that we meditated with her picture and spirit before this ritual.

Too hot weather, finally summer heat- unwanted if you are encased in a foam sling- we pass time until the end of the school day and pick up the boy and his friend. Going home we try to explain about the holiday and offer the option for either or both to join us or not. We always feel it is important for our son to honor the Kindred, but he had participated fully in our family ritual and we are not here to force relationship.

Making baked ziti one-armed as Katrina and ZJ arrive. Everything is new, even the bearable weather and we chat and catch up- trading flood and school stories. Gathering ourselves we discuss balance and adjustment- to new environments, friends, work, boundaries and abilities. How things and people change apparently or literally overnight and how to maintain self and space.

Boys ensconced in their game the rest of us each take a basket or pitcher and process to the 5-circle fire pit. We are here to honor the Gods, Gods who give meaning to life. Geese fly in the distance.

All the stalks and branches and wood are wet from the soaking rains we had for days; Bryan lights sage and kindles the fire.

Our directions seemed so clear and distinct- the stream loud and in the east, the birds and milkweed in the south, the setting sun defining the west, the changing leaves and winds of the north portending winter.

The smell of the grapes, the red of the flowers, the black of punk/goth style. Offering sacrifice to each of the gates, quiet prayers for healing bodies and hearts.

Our omens:

from the ancestors: Isa or ice, standing still, frozen solid, slippery or clear

from the spirits of nature & place: Uruz- the Ox, strength & growth, force

from the Gods & Goddesses: Fehu- fee, what things cost, wealth, liquid assets

for the season: Daguz or day, the vantage point of high noon, almost the whole cycle

Ogham- Idad or Yew DEATH/REBIRTH

our fire burns warm like comfort and blesses our waters.

drinking the endless water, friends helping friends, offering thanks.

We picked everything up and headed to the house, boys just done with their game, fabulous feast comes together like magic.

we laugh and eat and share school stories.

Rebalance the balance- letting go

2011-10-08T18:44:00.002-04:00

up to this equinox was a roller coaster of energy and spirit.

From the beach to hail and earthquakes and thunderstorms and family gatherings and the hurricane and flooding and devastation and loss and more rain and dissonance and growth and change; the waters flowed strong.

The month between the floods and equinox was a whirlwind of repairing and preparing. Dealing with loss and letting go and rebounding. Not quite right but trying each day to move better, with more honor and gratitude and purpose. Clearing, tearing down and fixing, all with planned intent. Processing whatever harvest we could get. Longing for the equinox.

Recovered and healing, we held our family ritual with tears on the equinox evening. Missteps and at-odds emotions entwined with deep sensitivity and spirit.

One arm immobilized and one arm working, I collected water and sage. Everyone gathers separately, each with their focus. Pouring rain keeps us in but our candle burns bright outside. The boy beats time with his native rattle and we find images of her who will be honored this season as spirit- spirit of our place, special animal companion. Confusion leads to loud words and then rebalancing as we enter sacred space, sad and angry and quiet.

We are here to honor the gods and the equinox, equal day and night, with the dark to grow until Yule. Now we enter the coming-in time, where we will be together more closely, staying warm and protected from the unrelenting weather. Good to get it out now and clear the air.

With calmness we make sacrifice and with the gates open for our prayers, he weeps long and sincere offering everything for the return of the known, our old balance. Pleeease.

We sit in the dark illuminated from outside by our sacred fire, our small candle in the rain, and from within on the other side by the glow from our warm kitchen. Electricity and phones finally back on, we have been working towards normal, longing for this ritual. No one anymore remembers the high summer, just a season past and so far gone, torn up like the trees and our hearts. Always relearning to be present, not over-doing or planning-just grateful for here and now.

our omens-

from the ancestors:Hagal or hail, disruption of the old pattern. Perhaps a new pattern.

from the spirits of nature & place: Wunjo or Joy

from the Gods & Goddesses: Uruz or the Great Ox, Strength

for the season: Eihwaz or the horse

Ogham – Nion or Ash meaning interconnectedness

We also pulled Froud’s fairy cards: the boy got the Smith, I got Bright Spark and Bryan got the Queen of Laughter

Lughnasad Rains

2011-09-03T08:30:00.001-04:00

always the prep before is as much of the ritual as the actual ceremony. Circling the Nemeton finding the cat, singing to the trees, asking questions, crying thanks.

we were pretty together in this busy time that is summer. giving thanks in the woods, the silent damp walk over the moss, listening, being aware among the ferns.

Lugh, O Lugh of the long arm, O shining one. This half of the year reminding us that winter will come. So in pre-rit we talked about how Bridget lets us know we will survive with the milk of the ewe and Lugh lets us know we have to work hard and to do our best to harvest our crops and cultivate our seeds so that we will survive.

we planned to go to the Nemeton and we did and we planed on the well as our main gate and it was. But we did have a wee fire in the massive rain and the beauty of the space was grounding.

I keep thinking of the green, the rains made them so clear. It rarely works out as planned and that is the trick, not being attached to plans- hard as that is- and then it all works out anyway. But still it is hard not to think, ooh I forgot that, or that sacrifice supposed to be for… Sigh, being in the moment is always the lesson.

setting up, the baskets of everything, all ready and then the rain so gentle at first we ate our lunch sitting on the deck. plan B getting the fire going in the close to the house fire pit. the rain starts really coming down as Bryan gets the fire lit.

Food cooking, all ready and then the heavy downpours start.

Susan arrives and we have our tea and cookies, out of balance, acknowledging it and laughing about it. Shavaun arrives and it is time to begin. Putting away food, more tea and pre-rit stories about Lugh and the pantheon across cultures. I go outside with the arrival of Kevin and build up the fire till it roars in the rain. More tea and cherry tomatoes and the decision to go to the Nemeton. Ok, through the woods in the rain, no cups for the waters only cupped hands and walk lightly on the moss- the processional tour of the sacred gardens Umbrellas, and coats and carrying the sun sacrifice sculpture we go through the fruit trees and grapes and not in circles around the 5 circle fire pit but straight to the woods across the bridge of iron brought up here by me. Past the growing hawthorn, and and the hazels and the witch hazels. We no longer need our umbrellas under the canopy of the trees. Dear trees, woods of strength, we are so grateful for your spirit and your shade.

Lustration from the metal bowl on the rock with no flowers and only the incense carried by Bryan and silence as we pass through the twin trees and the place of deep moss. Through the deep ferns and over the bridge of many grasses and branches and rocks, soft and strong, but making you aware of each step. Bryan set the sun on the giant forked tree at the due East entrance and we circle around and find our place.

our first offering is for our Earth Mother, all mother, who supports us all. always. We have dried herbs for her, and the directions are there as we know them but only offering my voice. Un-centered by the rain, by the wiggly boy, the forgotten sacrifice, the disconnect between the gates and the outside of the circle, I try to locate us. We call upon dear Mananan to open our gates, mixing beer with rain and words. Tossing the third wing as offering to outsiders disappearing in the tall grass sedge, and for insider Bridget the cream and rosemary. Though the rain grows stronger, the candle stays lit and while the fire doesn’t burn much Bryan keeps trying and it always has a small flame.

all our sacrifice is the right sacrifice regardless of the order or the quantity it is the action of gratitude that is the work.

Milk and cheese and apples and fermented mint tea and wet sticks. Each of us offering our prayers and gratitude and words.

Bryan didn’t fall off rocks, balancing his way trying to ignite the flames, to hallow our waters, to honor our kindred.

Our omens

the smoking gates, the plumes of smoke from the fire in the rain.

our small feast of harvest with talk about government and ways and ways out and the internet and young people and hidden stone circles.

Tea and coffee and sweets and the rain stops.

A Mid-Summer Solstice of sweets and flowers

2011-07-25T21:32:00.002-04:00

honoring the sun

oh we could have sung and chanted but we laughed

This longest day dawned as all days with the return of the sun, great giver that asks for nothing in return.

The same sun that shined upon our ancestors, on ancient times, on pre-historic times.

This same sun that has grown all of Earth’s life, that body we orbit, our center, our heart.

I am one with the infinite sun, compassion and love flow from me.

That day I went to work and Bryan got the tire from Tetta’s and wrote circles in circles of the sun and light on the blackboard wall while there were bits of rain.

there were the two fires and the walkway between them which is delineated by the garden filled with flowers

Susan called to say she couldn’t make it and then Kevin arrived and then Katrina and ZJ and Opie and thus it began. With more folks and families and children and multiple dogs with names that began with the letter “O”

magically found blessings, treats and gifts of gratitude- always the starting place

the dancing fire

small but true

smoky simmer of petals

dying down to thick smoke

suddenly come to life

scented fire

black smoke dance of the oils

gathering sticks and wood & building the fire with my 9 year old friend, each of us guiding the other simply and gently. Then joined by her 11 year old sister, my sweet quiet friend and friend to my son. We wandered the woods and broke up sticks and finally breathed life into the flame with smiles. “yay Susan” she says.

all worry for naught, everything works out exactly right.

We are here to honor the Gods, Gods who give meaning to life

processing half march half dance always the birds guide us

our hand wash of fresh rose petals

clearing, welcoming, grounding

stomping around the circle laughing until we each found our place

We offered farm milk for the Earth Mother, foamy Ommegang for our gates and gatekeeper, flaming scented oils again for the Kindreds, and so many other special and extra offerings of sacrifice to each of the gates and our Kindreds.

tea for our well and old cloth for our tree and melon in our fire and a crystal down deep to light the darkness for those on the other side

our sacrifice quiet and shy or quiet and strong or loud and clear. the fire smokes and sparks and flares.

flowers ‘o’ flowers

first harvests

giving thanks in a circle

our omens:

from the Ancestors:Eihwaz –the rune for the yew or the cosmic axis

from the Spirits of nature&place: Berkano- birch, births beginnings

from the Gods & Goddesses:Ingwaz- fertility, seed growing expansion, doing, being, active ing

for the Season:Ehwaz the horse, the relationship between horse & rider

and the Ogham was the Yew-rebirth

potluck of salads and deserts and noodles

more deserts of every kind

water and coffee and watermelon

family games and conversation

bubbles and candles

circles

everything is green, the water flows strong

2011-06-04T20:53:00.002-04:00

Now a month past Beltane, the lush green is full and as if it always has been. Roses begin to bloom, the garden wants planting and thunderstorms rock the land. The Maypole was torn out of the Earth by violent winds in a crazy storm one night just before the end of May. Sometimes the heat is already at times oppressive, the first fresh vegetables and fruits are at markets and bugs are constant. Days stretch until past bedtime, summer is now.

Some notes for the season:

Halfway from Beltane, it has rained for weeks, sometimes a deluge, sometimes just mist. The bottom of my skirt is soaked from wet grass- walking across the land and working in the garden. Finally the lilacs and the lilies of the valley have bloomed and the air is fragrant. Columbine, irises and chives show off their scarlet and purple heads. We have eaten bowls of violets, had armloads of daffodils, and the tulips are huge. The rose bushes are covered with buds, as are the lilies and the peonies. Summer flies towards us on raindrops.

But Beltane always seems to be the time of the flowering tree. Since this season was pleasantly slowed by cool weather, we had weeks of magnolias, dogwood and fruit trees blossoming. A magical world of flowers and mist.

We welcomed the season with an all day/late night celebration of Bryan with food and friends and community. Up before the dawn, waking up slow with the dew, washing my face and sleeping more.

We were up long before the day-o to welcome in the summertime to welcome in the May-o.

Young boys gathered violets and dandelions in the large wooden bowl for our purification wash. Simple food and water to share. Quiet weather matched our energy.

Setting up the maypole is always the work of both of us, male and female together, a balanced division of laboring. All the ribbons were there but were tangled-the long methodical unraveling of color and memory.

I wove daffodils of every variety from all over the land around the bicycle wheel crown of our Maypole.

I hold the pole steady while Bryan anchors it with rocks. this year did not take as many- just several large ones and an equal number of small. Then we stand back to see the ribbons sail.

Notes from the day:

Birds talk, telling each other to come or go. Redwing blackbirds, robins and blue jays and hummingbirds.

The aliveness of this earth.

Morning-after morning. Suddenly summer, where the outside hangout takes over. Lots of coffee and too many sweets. Bryan sitting with bees.

Bringing the fire to the fire, the all night burning fire re-kindled like magic with an instant giving needed warmth and embers for our sacred fire. The all night smolder to shed the winter.

Twice round the circle with crushed corn tortillas for the Earth Mother. Colored eggs for the directions, old dairy for the outsiders. Beer for the gates, Beer for Mananan, pork gravy for Bridget- sizzling and sparking.

Gently handing sacrifices one by one to Bryan. Barefoot on the earth, toes in dandelions. Feeling comfortable on the the earth, energy from the sun and earth mixing within our center. Being present in the present.

the stories of the oils:

The first for our Ancestors in the darkest blue glass was sweet almond oil. The next for the Spirits of Nature and Place in a medium blue glass was sunflower oil rich yellow and full of bubbles. The light blue glass- bright blue like the sky and very clean was for the Gods and Goddesses. Olive oil, green and rich filled the glass. For the Season -a pale green glass with a bit of each oil.

Then the essentials: for the Ancestors -sweet almond oil in a dark blue glass – VALOR, deep blue oil, strong – very slow to drop a single drop. Patience. for the Spirits of Nature and Place - sunflower oil in a medium blue glass- CLARITY- steadily dripping and fragrant. for the Gods & Goddesses- clear blue glass with green olive oil- MOTIVATION- flowing so fast it got 7 drops instead of 6. for the season – all 3 oils in the pale green glass- LAVENDER- coming out so slowly and sparsely only getting 3 drops.

flowers, flowers, thanks for the flowers- gratitude for past lives that they may come together now to support/ show present day self what it needs to know.

Past earth incarnations/selves coming together to support us with lessons.

Future earth

past and future together in flowers, petals blowing in the wind, ashes of petals blowing in the smoke.

flaming oil in the air.

chocolate, mussels, bread, smoldering baked smoke sacrifice carry our prayers and gratitude.

Bryan enveloped in the smoke asking for a sign from the spirits in our omens.

from our Ancestors- Berkanu, birch, birth and beginnings

from the Spirits of Nature & Place- Gibor, gift or sacrifice

from the Gods & Goddesses- Ingwaz, the seed, the growing and expanding

for the Season- Uruz, the ox, the wild ox, great primordial strength.

OGHAM- Straif- blackthorn meaning force.

Beginning. Giving. Seed. Strength. (life)FORCE

Our waters in the flowered jug, the blessings stopped by questions- then hallowed to transformation with the thick smoke. Abundant waters spilling on the grass. Drinking from champagne glasses.

time to shine.

the maypole dance – gentle and peaceful.

2 boys, 2 girls- naturally balanced with love.

over under, over under. Simply wound and then untangling the one ribbon, gently unwound.

the warm strength of the fire

the warm strength of the sun.

the rush of the stream, the wind blowing gently.

Camaraderie of good friends, women in the kitchen. Summer gatherings.

I gave the wilted hand wash flowers as thanks to the fire well and tree. Waiting at the well for the flowers to drift towards their journey downstream seemed like a lesson.

Last weekend there were only daffodils, no other flowers or leaves. Soon all will be fully leafed. But today, this May- I watch the buds open and the chartreuse darken to summer green.

transformation is complete and happens in an instant.

a new or different balance

2011-04-24T21:10:00.001-04:00

from Equinox to almost Beltane we have ridden the waves of Spring.

We did our ritual just after the 5th grade play and it was just our family of 3 and 4 members of a school friend’s family. It was not rainy but it was not sunny either. So much is lost from the immediate moment, only the smiles, the bird calls, the clarity of the children remain.

We gathered and the kids played a bit and we talked about ritual and the holiday.

We were going to work with the nine virtues and pick random ones.

We were looking towards balance and Spring and we talked about balancing poses.

We layered up and processed to the 5 circle fire pit.

I love the children energy at ritual even when it is difficult.

But we hold each other and settle in.

Hudson was already out there, sitting in a chair with a cane because he had earlier slipped.

Offerings set in the platter, bento-box style. Wine glasses in a basket for the waters. Small colored glass vials of oils and hulls of sunflower-heads for sacrifice. The end of the apples and indoor grasses. We had other offerings of chicken backs, fat and bread.

We had a good fire small and strong. We found our places around it.

We had it set up to wash our hands as we went into the circle but it was too cold. Instead of washing I honored the Directions and the Earth Mother tossing bird seed.

Our beautiful well, recently cleared of winter- Bryan had the Vervain Stalks and sprinkled us with water. When he honored our fine willow tree the kids went to touch it. And our magical warm sparkling fire lit all our hearts.

Oils sizzled: sparks and flashes of sacrifice.

The focus of the children framing ritual, not necessarily knowing what would happen next but open & trusting.

Our Omens for the seasons were as follows;

for the Ancestors we got Kinwaz – torch, can also be a wound or sore, can be to illuminate or to cut.

for the Spirits we got Thuriz or thorn- defense or protection, boundary

for the Gods and Goddesses- Eihwaz or the horse- the bond between the rider and the ridden

for the holiday we got Nathuz or need- the friction or the need fire, it is about knowing what you need

The Ogham we pulled was Yew – meaning the inevitable or unavoidable fate, lots of times it means death.

This was all about creating the boundaries and protection we need and our relationship between the Gods and Godesses in dealing with the inevitable.

None of this seemed foreboding however, but strengthened us though awareness. We gladly drank our fill of the refreshing waters, leaving some to spare.

When we pulled out the virtue cards. Bryan got 2 stuck together and then everyone picked 2 - one to keep, one to offer to the fire. Like poetry, the virtues filled each of us with our needs and direction.

What did you get?

Putting it all together, gathering, giving thanks, the last items burned, stirring the fire.

This ritual was held a week after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We prayed for healing for the earth.

We feasted like the family we are, brought together though our children for holiday.

Since then the weather has been strange at best- snow, ice, thunder storms, and perfect spring sun. Peepers and bugs and all sorts of birds appear. Buds and leaflets are now everywhere, daffodils bloom in profusion, the forsythia is brilliant down the mountain and just blooming here. Trees promise flowers and the grass almost needs cutting. Weeding the garden beds and creating new fences. Need to plant our seeds.

It seems of the upmost importance to be able to grow our food and to take better care of ourselves.

The stark endless quiet whiteness of Winter erases all memory of Spring

2011-03-13T21:51:00.001-04:00

Is it each winter that we declare the worst? Do we always say “but this winter was really brutal”? It must be a trick of springtime that we are so beaten, so numbed by winter that the sight of the earth and green things coming back fills us with confusion and wonder. Like we had never seen the earth or felt the moss or heard birds sing.

Since our Imbolc it seems that the world has turned upside down. Changes, personal and planetary have erupted shifting our balance and forcing a re-focus. It has become even more imperative to make energetic progress in the good. Taking the high road, walking with compassion and in truth and with solidarity for each other. As the days imperceptibly lengthen, so too does our energy.

We have had snow and sleet and flooding rains. The earth has alternately been mud and frozen solid. But today we followed vole trails like ley lines and suddenly robins filled the yard. Bulbs are poking through the leaf mulch and all the bare branches carry a faint cast of color.

I am looking forward to the equinox, to plant seeds and plan the garden, to let go and start fresh.

Come celebrate the balance of day and night with us. Sunday March 20th, gathering & rant at 4ish, ritual at 5ish, family style pot luck afterward.

Open the Door, Let Bridget Come In

2011-02-19T21:40:00.002-05:00

Dreaming many times of coffee, I woke up. There was a small dusting of snow and tiny flakes fell. Went to hang with the boy and cat, then suddenly “snowstorm!”

Raging large flakes pouring down and around. But by the time I got downstairs to make coffee, it had subsided to invisible dusting once again. Up like a tempest and sudden stops. Must be Bridget’s energy at work.

We looked for candles and set up lights on a Bridget idol in the center of the fire circle, on the old xmas trunk that is our tree there (now buried in the snow) and at the Bridget that lives always by the stream. The stream gurgles even where it lies under the snow and all around the birds talk and sing.

If its Imbolc you know we are either out of dry wood or out of wood altogether. Our fires struggle to temperature or even to light and though it is not that cold outside it is hard to get warm. The faintest of precipitation colored the air as we sat to eat, stumbling with the weather changes. Many cheeses and smoked salmon and fresh dill and three kinds of crackers and Irish soda bread and tea filled the table. We used Anna’s plate, left here last Imbolc, the last time we saw her alive. Somehow this holiday will always be connected with her spirit, her dynamism, and her strength

You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.

Where to make fire, where to do ritual, how to keep a fire going? Bryan shovels the deck and I make food for the boy, and for later, cooking our pumpkin- the only one that grew from our many vines last year. Rain, ice and snow everywhere- a faint fog in the woods. Talking about what has changed since last season. More daylight, more life, more sounds outside, more hours in a week above freezing temperatures- and yet the silent monotone of winter still dominates. By next holiday we will be talking gardens and sprouting.

Bryan worried about fire, and having created tinder preparation in the kitchen hearth, went outside to try to rekindle the candles and the few sticks getting wet there.

The boy suited up and was ready when things were not but we got together as family to help create sacred space and fire.

I had gathered offerings of sage and flowers and milk for Bridget. It was raining gently but steadily and all the burnables were getting wet. I remembered the stalks and sticks in Urth Arts and got those as hope. Bryan and boy were digging down into the ice and snow and unearthed our fire pit, exposing logs buried for a season.

Suddenly we are a team-getting, breaking and laying sticks and Bryan lights first one candle then then next and with Bridget as his torch he lights our fire. WE HAVE FIRE. We get more branches and vines and feed our fire, small but true. It is exciting and we get ready. I get one more armload of sticks, bigger ones still, and Bryan comes out with his headress of reeds made and danced last year this time.

We are here to honor the Gods.

We had a threshold, a passageway dug in the snow to crossover into sacred space. Above it was the silver bowl of water for lustration perched in a bank of waist high snow. The water was warm, though the boy thought it cold and was distinct in both temperature and texture of the rain now beating our faces.

Inside the carved out space not quite a circle, we held hands and arms laying heads on hearts and breathed. We felt the air around us and the ground beneath us and each other together. Breathing to the sound of your heart. Feeling our love for each other. Something very special about family only rituals.

The boys glasses fogged and we opened, returning to tend our fire. Beginning with our earth mother, sprinkling a spiral of pumpkin seeds, home grown from our earth to our earth in gratitude and prayer.

The directions with rice and the red cardinal in the south, and the sun rising slightly more east, and the west place of our neighbors and the north of this season and healing and the center where we are.

The smoke takes me away through the gates and I need to go inside to get the outsiders offering and Bryan takes it out and brings inside a big box which he wonders if it is an omen.

Offerings for insider Bridget and honoring our dear kindred with sage and last month’s flowers (“the ones that smelled so sweet”). Keeping the fire alive.

Dancing thrice through Bridget's girdle. Keeping the beat. Fire blazing at the mention of her name. Pouring Elizabeth’s mead in a circle around the fire. The rest of the dry harvested grasses flaming as final sacrifice. Full on rain filling our glasses before the waters.

Bryan pulled Ogham and Runes as omen

Ogham

from our Ancestors: Ngetal or Reed- it has to do with healing, lots of associations with bending and the life inside- related to Bridget and this holiday

from the Spirits of Nature and Place: Beith or Birch- new beginnings, birth – also related to Bridget

from the Gods & Goddesses: Huath or Hawthorne- chastity and purity, purification

for the season: Dair or Oak- the one who knows, the way, the door, also relates to Bridget

Runes

from our Ancestors: Nathuz or need, the friction fire or the drill fire- sometimes made with reeds

from the Spirits of Nature and Place: Ehwaz –the horse- the vehicle and facilitator of action, very similar to Birch

from the Gods & Goddesses: Elwaz – an elk sedge- a sharp and pointy be careful thing, it is about attention and being on guard-very similar to Hawthorne

for the season: Wunjo or joy- the joy of good company, merriment, simple joy

vortex of smoke carrying me away through the stinging tears that would not stop. I put ice on my eyes and still could not staunch the water pouring from them.

Drinking it all in we gather and hug and give thanks and process indoors, inviting Bridget in to light and alight above our kitchen hearth.

we feast and bring in our cloth frozen with the touch of Bridget and precipitation, our healing talisman for the year.

Candle burns on the hearth all night, vigil for spirit.

fog food flowers fire

Imbolc morning snow and quiet, working to get the fire going

2011-02-05T10:11:00.001-05:00

THERE IS A VITALITY,

A LIFE FORCE, THAT IS TRANSLATED

THROUGH YOU INTO ACTION.

AND BECAUSE THERE IS ONLY ONE OF YOU

IN ALL TIME, THIS EXPRESSION IS UNIQUE.

AND IF YOU BLOCK IT,

IT WILL NEVER EXSIST THROUGH ANY OTHER MEDIUM

AND WILL BE LOST.

THE WORLD WILL NOT HAVE IT.

IT IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS TO DETERMINE HOW GOOD IT IS;

NOR HOW VALUABLE IT IS;

NOR HOW IT COMPARES WITH OTHER EXPRESSIONS.

IT IS YOUR BUSINESS TO KEEP IT YOURS,

CLEARLY AND DIRECTLY,

TO KEEP THE CHANNEL OPEN.

YOU DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

OR YOUR WORK.

YOU HAVE TO KEEP OPEN AND AWARE DIRECTLY TO THE URGES

THAT MOTIVATE YOU. KEEP THE CHANNEL OPEN.

NO ARTIST IS PLEASED.

THERE IS NO SATISFACTION WHATEVER AT ANY TIME.

THERE IS ONLY A QUEER, DIVINE

DISSATISFACTION,

A BLESSED UNREST THAT KEEPS US MARCHING

AND MAKES US MORE ALIVE

THAN THE OTHERS.

Martha Graham to Agnes B. DeMille

everywhere, under the ice, branches are budding

2011-02-02T20:55:00.001-05:00

day 2 of a month of much snow and wintry weather.

day 2 of at home tending the hearth, honoring our inner fire.

Today is Bridget’s day and Chinese New Year’s Eve with the groundhog promising us an early spring after this deep winter.

Digging and digging and clearing paths, Bryan endlessly making way.

We walk in the late afternoon fog to the Bridget by the stream and even with the mounds of snow and the stillness the stream runs free and dark.

Gurgling life arises.

After carrying wood and setting dinner in the oven, I stomp knee-deep through the snow with the compost bucket. I pour the decaying scraps, which will be summer’s earth, onto the untouched snow, and the steam from their rot rises hot and dank.

Turning to go back, I see the house surrounded with mist and glowing with the lights and warmth of our home.

Suddenly, the snow does not seem so deep, I feel strengthened by activity, and am willing to allow for spring.

Celebrate Imbolc with us here Saturday Feb.5th noonish.

Solstice continued- closing the season and starting anew

2011-01-23T20:38:00.001-05:00

The moon disappeared and came back just like the long days will return. Isaac’s widow Phaedra made the analogy that the light returns even if we do not see it. The days now grow imperceptibly longer, aggregating over these next weeks to real time.

Memory and recall. Bringing it back and moving it forward. It was an intense year and it was interesting that as we came to our Winter Solstice we hadn’t really yet resolved Samhain. And while Samhain is always a bit strange, this Samhain, was particularly so, planned with very specific sacrifice and without a specific answer. There was no clear omen because of the way things worked out, the comings and goings and passing of time. Our omens were sensed from the earth and felt deep within but putting them down concretely- our record of recollection, is still as elusive as our Samhain closing.

Scryed from the earth- there was a deep rumbling in the North representing a disturbance or challenge yet to come and with the reminder not to shrink from it. Our boundaries were tested and we were told to stay true. The bird singing in the West spoke of the afterlife, sounding so joyful and pure. And we offered prayers to our dead friends, to our honored dead, asking for them to remain our allies.

But everything was vague or elusive and remained thus- not because we didn’t know but because things were not the way we usually think or think about them. It was more like how we feel or sense, deep in the earth or in the ethers. Whether the milk weed flying to the directions, the soaring embers from the dried flowers, the spirits of the great grandfathers in a single leaf, or the warmth of the fire in the cold- it came to us and left and maybe took something in its passing. It was about the connections.

And coming out of that, even though it was a cool ritual and all that, we felt strange and unfinished. But there was a definite feeling. We knew it hadn’t been closed but it was so full that we settled.

So in dealing with issues just before Solstice and reaching out to others in the organization, other kin or kindred people as opposed to the Kindred Spirits, we were able to put a lid on all that and let it go, with good faith, like the moon or the sun.

Always not yet ready we begin. We are here to honor the gods, gods who give meaning to life.

Washing our hands in the warm clear water, to purify and focus,we circle the fire in a triangle of 3, echoing the fire itself. Our family together honoring this cycle of the year.

Let this fire be a good fire.

We had all sorts of spirits as libations for the Kindred- bringing out the good stuff to ignite and inspire.

The last of the pumpkins from Samhain to the outsiders.

Letting go of, moving on from with gratitude, and moving toward with good vision, direction and more gratitude.

We are thankful to be here now, together and warm by this fire, with clear intent from our heart.

It is amazing how a small fire can burn so brightly and how its heat can surround us.

Cookies, and herbs, and oils, and liquor and prayers as sacrifice.

the brightness of the flame, allowing us to feed it, to sacrifice and give unto that we which need to let go of with gratitude. the brightness of the first star, in the East, with the promise of wishes and dreams come true. And there is always a bird calling, even in the early dark of midwinter solstice.

First the boy pulled runes:

from the Ancestors: Othala or Odul meaning sacred enclosure – think about what we treasure and protect and hold dear

from the Spirits of Nature and Place: Laguz or lake or a well or drawing up energy- what do we draw from and channel through us to bring back out

from the Gods and Goddesses: Raido or communication- wha we put out into the world and the return back

for the Holiday: Gibor or giving-the reciprocity of the gift

then I pull Ogham:

Rowan- meaning enchantment

Willow- which relates a lot to water and the moon and flexible change, intuition

Apple- which often has to do with choice and things of beauty and love, otherworldy apples

Birch- new beginnings.

All rapid growers, all joyful and appropriate to the season.

Drinking the cold waters in large wine glasses, as a gift from the Earth Mother, shared as family as the first star shone in the darkening sky.

We close with the fire burning to embers, offering the last of all our gifts with gratitude. Together we enter the warm house for dinner.

solstice, eclipse, family and light

2011-01-08T09:02:00.001-05:00

lighting fires and tying up ends and baking. The once in several lifetime lunar eclipse the morning of the solstice. Bryan had a fire going all that night and we cleared our spirit, the family sleeping together so we could wake up together to see this portent of a new focus together.

We had been having the typical mercury retrograde communication weirdness with the phone going in and out for days, strange email exchanges, coughing and illness, strange work phenomena – all coupled with the hubbub of the holidays. Changes of the season afoot.

Bryan made a small Yule eve fire outside in the close to the house fire circle to welcome the eclipse. The moon, which had for nights disrupted our sleep bathing the partially snow covered land in bright light, was to be consumed by our shadow. We woke just as it was beginning to disappear, with the boy seeing it and going back to sleep and Bryan outside and me meditating with the eclipse through the window. The first words that came to me with the eclipse were “gratitude” and “wholeness” and then also “service”, “support”, and “community”. The phone oddly rang and it was grove friend Bill from CA calling to welcome the eclipse with us. I went outside barefoot in the snow to give Bryan the phone and the phrase and action of “stretch” came.

The moon faded and became darkened and the fire outside glowed and our woodstove burned throughout the night.

Morning rose and we were filled with the magic of the night.

We prepped for us and our Kindred and gathered our offerings of sage and cookies and fine spirits. We had much to let go of and to be grateful for.

Winter is Summer’s End

2010-12-05T17:25:00.002-05:00

notes from Samhain, our weekend of trans-dimensional gathering

We had spent the weeks before in planning, thinking about pumpkins, processionals, purification, and death. We had lost 3 close friends this year, all friends of the grove and their passing has affected us deeply. We chose to focus this ritual on particularly honoring them, their journey and our connections.

We had dumb suppers out for many nights, each was completely eaten, either bit by bit or all at once.

Uncle Magoo arrived pre-dawn the day before our ritual (his birthday). And we began.

We anticipated lots of folks, though some people last minute did not arrive and everyone (except Katrina and Zara Jane) came last minute. This always throws off timing or perhaps redefines our sense of when things begin.

So timing is everything and we are always beginning.

We of course start early, the ritual of setting up, the daily rituals of walking, looking at the birds, pacing the land.

We made a fire and hauled wood and drank coffee, quietly walking through the sparkling frost.

We scry ice circles shining in the sun and melting in the fire.

Our ritual fire burned from sun up to sun down, from frost to dark.

Offerings and wood were frozen from the night. We brought out the rest of our sacrifice and began.

My notes are jumbled as we were tranced throughout the day and night.

No one remembers some things but we all felt everything.

I had just finished the Calieach (Kale-Leek) soup and the ones who were there had finished eating Halloween loot, when Susan and then Heather arrived. Heather brought out oils and incense for all to choose from and we flocked around the table finding our oil and redirecting our energies.

Then we gathered inside for our pre-rit.

Actually I said to Bryan that we should start and he said “ it begins now” and it did. We went on a journey, the ritual of the pre-ritual, and this time in particular we began without our knowing.

Bryan talked about the procession as the time between being dead and reborn, which is like the time after you go to sleep and before you dream.

Perhaps that is where we begin.

the Season of letting go

2010-11-20T09:59:00.001-05:00

notes from the equinox 2010

The leaves are each day falling more and more furiously even as the ones on the trees become more and more brilliant. The weather is damp and cold and in some places there has been frost.

Not spent enough time in the garden anyway this year and now the dried stalks of dead flowers need harvesting, cabbages and broccoli still thrive along with the rest of the horseradish. Still more wood to stack, the chimney to clean and our septic needs work. Tying up loose ends before Samhain.

The day of our ritual I had gone first to honor the cycles of learning and giving in balance with my teacher of many years. On a brilliant day of first fall we danced the 7 Direction Movement Meditation and meditated on goldenrod, waving delicately almost imperceptibly in the breeze. We talked about the heart and ate my harvested grapes and peaches which came to fruition so abundantly and so late in the season. Then I went to see another teacher, a dear friend, my healing goddess. She was dying, though I was unprepared for the reality of her body, so frail and transparent and battered by her disease. She was a young woman whose illness took her rapidly. I spent the afternoon at times sitting quietly with her, at times talking to the others from her life who passed through to say goodbye. I came home from this for our equinox ritual, to try to celebrate balance.

This was to be our last Our Whole Grove ritual as a whole grove, Elizabeth, who has since now moved to PA., was to attend and Susan and Amber as well, and also Heather who was at Lughnasa. But Elizabeth (who was leaving the next day) couldn’t come and Susan also became unable to attend. Again it was just to be Bryan, Heather, myself & Hudson.

Bryan had gathered bunches of the same goldenrod that earlier I had breathed with, that is a tonic for our hearts and keeps us strong throughout the winter and filled the bilé in the nematon like a giant headdress.

We had set out offerings: milk from the farm for the earth mother, some of our bounteous harvest, pork bone and the last of our portion of our whole cyser, crafted a year before. The fire was roaring in the center of the five circle fire pit before I even came home.

Autumn glowed her colors, and the light began to fade. We layered up and processed to the fire.

There are always birds, a hawk flying, some one cawing their acknowledgement.

Walking around the circle pouring milk and giving thanks for our mother and for her bounty, for feeding us and for caring for us. Our tree our finally flowing stream and well and our good and warm fire. Our fire was magic, like it was talking to us in spurts and blazes.

We had gathered

We sat and talked until almost dark

The balance comes soon; what happened to summer

2010-09-18T08:58:00.002-04:00

been negligent about this blog, been of course too busy with life, jobs, garden(much neglected), family (somewhat neglected), and more work. but also life has been in much flux. I guess that is what the omens have been saying all along.

Our dear grove member Elizabeth has been on her own whirlwind life adventure- house hunting, buying, selling at a mad dash pace- which is great for her and her family though sad for us and our grove. This equinox will be the last with her as a NYS resident. How the years have flown. I cannot say enough about our gratitude for the worship together, for her gentle words, shared food, kind spirit and focus. We would not be a grove if we had not met her. We trust she will return and we will field trip to her, but we know it won’t be as often together honoring our Kindred and marking time.

Perhaps this oncoming season is always a time of tears and joy. Of mixed blessings and wistfulness.

Our kitchen table full of harvest finally but we are closing windows and at 8pm it has long been dark. Summer seems like a dream.

This past Lughnasa we met a recently relocated ADF member, who happened to be the only other person for ritual. Many try to come, but all our lives are so full and so distant. We do our best to gather to honor the Gods, Gods who give meaning to life.

Heather doesn’t drive and her mom drove her out here to the boonies. We all live in the same county but with back woods roads and up the mountain, it is always a hike to get here. We had made food and had cleaned the house, as always for the Kindred and always just a bit more especially when people who have not been here before are expected. Our house is eclectic and artsy with uneven floors and things everywhere. We did not know this new person’s needs, and we set up to be good hosts. Bryan often talks about the hosting, hosting of other worldly guests. Hosting as sacrifice.

Our summer of too much work and growing up started with the equinox, our anniversary, RVGA’s barn dance, and a much needed staycation which was overcrowded with plans. But Bryan got to visit Isaac and we did have one day of nothing. And then the time from Solstice to Lughnasa was the summer. Camp and work and the farm tour and parties and plans and friends and visits =whirlwind.

Lack of rain, almost a drought, the stream became a quiet trickle and the hauling of 5 gallon buckets of water became a daily exercise. Looking towards the thunderstorms that usually come with Lughnasa, but there was no rain.

And Elizabeth was out of town and Susan too and everyone else was busy. So a small gathering under grey but not rainy skies. A good way to meet and make magic.

Talk and talk and talk- this holiday of boasts and bests and stories. We always tell the Lugh stories, the battles, the lore. And it’s the same with folk, we gather and share our histories, making things alive with the telling and retelling.

Lugh and Balor and Sacred Cows and Tlaitu and the first tomatoes and harvests. We wait all year for tomatoes. Hula hoops and contests and water and wine.

It seems so long ago that flowers were abundantly in bloom and we ate all our meals outside and thought about swimming, days endlessly stretching before us.

But Lugh reminds us of endings, of wrapping things up and we know autumn is coming. Sigh.

So before everything Bryan and I were sitting and talking about ritual and our grove and suddenly an eagle flew low and overhead, circling several times before flying high, riding the thermal drafts. An omen, a starter, a directional movement letting us know that it was time to begin. We then made a small fire in the close by the house fire pit before anyone showed up because we thought it might rain, as it always does on Lughnasa. Hudson taught us to get sticks that make a loud snapping sound for our tinder and he taught us a native song to gather wood by. He lit our fire and became our fire maker, our new fire maestro- perhaps young to replace Elizabeth, but also able and wise. It sprinkled as our fire caught blaze and we were set. He tended it well, until we were ready for ritual and with his handmade coal carrier he took a live log and led us to the 5 circle fire pit to light our ritual fire.

Heather came bringing well water from Ireland and wormwood which we burned as purification.

Broken eggshells ringed the circle, hot dogs for the outsiders, peppercorns for the Earth Mother, the last of our homemade cyser and bundles of grasses and flowers for our kindred. Our sacrifice of all kinds of things,the fragrant or spicy smoke quietly offering gratitude. The wail of the hawk, the silence of the grey skies, the simple fire, boy cuddled next to me these are my memories of our ritual. There was an absence without Elizabeth and a new blessed presence with Heather. Her mother arrived as we blessed our waters, mint water and we concluded with peaceful thanks. our omens were full of portent, thinking about our whole grove, the oil spill, our jobs and focus, our direction.

from the Ancestors: Kenaz a torch or a wound or a sore, pine- a resinous element, a shaper or a lighter, a transformer

from the Spirits of Nature & Place: Thuruz, thorn or boundaries, protection & defense

from the Gods & Goddesses:Othala or Odul, sacred enclosure, again rather protective

for the season: Hagal, hail or disruption, change

and we found a forgotten rune- having lain hidden by the fire until now- Uruz, the primordial ox- a growing living dynamic of strength

So thinking of all that, we gently walked back to the house, carrying our empty bowls, and wished Heather safe home, and had a simple family dinner.

summer

2010-08-21T23:11:00.001-04:00

so constant so busy never ending

from Beltane thru Solstice- Summertime chapter 2

2010-08-01T12:58:00.002-04:00

from Beltane thru Solstice- Summertime chapter 1

2010-07-05T20:55:00.011-04:00

As always this time from Beltane thru Solstice is beyond busy and has flown by.

Late frosts and early heat then a month plus of no rain. The summer pressed close, temperatures rose high and the garden had been dry, now recent rains have made everything humid.

The flowers have been plentiful and finally the vegetables grow. We are eating local harvests and staying up late with the long days.

Here's some notes from the last rituals, sorry it took a while

Lughnasa Ritual will be here on Sunday 8/1/10.

Enjoy

Beltane
from notes dated 5/2/10

up before the dawn- whirlwind house cleaning - clearing opening to the fresh air.

gathering first flowers, getting rid of dead ones.

all in time.

setting up the maypole: picked up the covering stone to an ant nest filling the hole. Making offerings from the kitchen filling the hole and then filling the hole with the pole. The ribbons were still on it, mostly, and I steadied it while Bryan brought rocks, large rocks from our walls to stabilized it. Took more of them than I thought it should but we got it steady.

Amber arrived when we were finished bringing cookies and her harp. Always lovely to see friends not seen in a while.

Then Elizabeth arrived, tired and transformed carrying coffee and pie and her banjo and wood.

I went to the fire pit and realized that with bright noon light and 90 degree summer heat

we would need to slow down.

We rested in the shade and opened cyser and ate cookies and Middle Eastern sweets.

Getting out napkins we saw a large snake in the pantry. I screamed.

We had been seeing snakes everywhere.

Then the instruments came out.

the jumping electric monkey harp, the magic banjo, the big guitar, the kazoos.
the strings and the sweets, the sadness and the joy, the muse and the music.

then Carrie and her daughter showed up, all the way up here to the boonies blowing dandelions.

the boy was hot and bored in the hammock.

the sounds of the instruments and those from the basket and Carrie gently reading.

Staying on schedule off schedule.

the fires in the heat with small amounts of fuel.

Children and focus.

talking about ritual order and feeding the kids.

do we have sacrifice other than ourselves?

5 minute break.

Braya and Tasha and Dylan arrive. like magic. like clockwork.

on schedule off schedule.

happy birthday on the kazoos and then hats and water and an instrument and begin

on time off time.

The youngest banging the gong 3 times to begin - so soft and gentle

We are here to honor the Gods, Gods that give meaning to life.

the pomp of procession, joyous noise to the circle

finding Elizabeth quietly playing the banjo by the entrance.

We marched around the fire circles to the banjo tune, several times round stopping in the east.

Calling the directions, Elizabeth lights each fire

then as we light the center Michael & his son arrive. Each in its own time.

our meditation stopping at our arms our hands and our hearts and not going into our heads

walking around into and through the directional fires to get rid of winter as Carrie lead us in song.

Honor the inner fire.

the Gates, the Well, the Tree, the Fire

Let all our fires be good fires.

Almost the fires were out, just smoldering

Mama Mama Mama Mama!

The outsiders' cheese moved me around the circle closer to the offerings and sacrifices.

For our Kindred something that burns- a cauldron of sticks and handful of sage

the fire from nothing for our seasonal offerings- flowering dogwood, old herbs and flowers, scrambled grasses for each in time - even the littlest had her turn.

staying hydrated and cool in the headyness of the summer.

the pulling of omens is hard to explain what it really means

4 children, 4 omens to pull even if they didn't understand their role or why.

the 13 year old pulled the rune for the Honored Dead: Nathuz- the need fire, what we need

the 4 year old pulled the rune for the spirits of nature & place, the fairys, our animals: Uruz-

the primordial ox, taurus, here and now

the 9 1/2 year old best friend pulls the rune for the Gods & Godesses:Tir- the spiritual warrior, the direction up, balance & truth

the 9 1/2 year old boy pulls the rune for the season: Ingwaz, active life principle, doing, being, loving

A final omen of the Ogham, Bryan pulls the Furze- the East & Bees & maybe the wheel.

the fumbling of the waters, the blessing and taking in of that blessing- no longer iced or enough but good and refreshing.

Nicci and her family just in time for that blessing, the sharing of the waters.

in time out of time.

thanks and noise and not enough grounding but all is good.

12 minutes or 22 minutes and eating or not but the maypole finally.

We all dance our own way

deep green in the mist

2010-06-13T22:56:00.003-04:00

The days reach their longest, trees are full and deep.

Celebrate the Solstice with us on Monday June 21st

after work and before dark.

RSVP please

Well

2010-04-11T20:05:00.005-04:00

Balance has a new feel, having been thrown off balance by the passing of our dear friend Anna. She has attended some rituals and been a really powerful presence. May her spirit shine on as honored dead.
So this equinox started with us going to NYC and Bryan attending the ritual of NYC So druids. Dropping him off on the Upper East Side and him walking cross-town in the Spring of the City wearing his bear claw necklace and with a honey bear to celebrate ritual without leading it. And then him coming to meet us at 5 walking all the way downtown fast paced just after receiving the waters for us to go to Hoboken to witness the 122^nd annual ritual of the swearing in of officers at the secret room of the Elks Lodge with our friend becoming the new Exalted Ruler. Then driving through the night to get home to celebrate our equinox in the morning.

Cleaning and clearing, balancing our egg on the hearth, and setting up snacks and cushions for outside and oh yes making the turkey, an extra from Thanksgiving. Wondering who and how many and (with a fire burn ban) making the fire small but strong.

Thinking back to spring equinoxes past, so much letting go- or acknowledging the release already made. Letting go of winter and of what we move on from.

Sitting around the table with tea and snacks and talking about groves and groups and worship and grounding and how we can come together better. We spoke about Bryan putting out all the energy leading ritual and were there parts that others wanted to take. Everyone agreed how valuable it is for Bryan to lead us but that the pulling of the omen was something each of us could participate in.

Ok let's go, time moves on, some of us need to leave early.

Flowers and sticks and oils, waters and small simple fire: our sacrifice quiet and unencumbered. We are here to honor the Gods, Gods who give meaning to life.
I got to offer welcome to the directions, understated gratitude leaving much unsaid but in my heart. Due east -where the sun rises; and the south- the trust that we lay out, our lessons of heart and environment; the west –place of the setting sun, our neighbors and their barn, the brown bear and that introspective time; and the Great North- place of winter winds and uphill, healing and renewal. The up and down and the center.

And honoring the Earth Mother standing firmly upon her filling the fire circle with old soy flour. It was as if the pale yellow of the flour became our fire so bright and strong and solid it shone.

Our small fire, barely a blaze; our well/cauldron that the cats drink from; and our tree- an old Yule tree not yet burnt through though it has been in the center of many fires. How good to have these gates, and to allow them to be open.

Letting the outsiders offering go, really go, past the house- take it farther.

Jumping right to the Kindreds- coming back to our patron Bridget only later- the Kindreds demanding our offerings first, now- feed me. Each consumed in our small flame.

And the birds, always singing their praise, participating at rituals in turn, listening for their chance to call the spirits.

Standing barefoot on the earth, the new spring green under my toes, rocks cold but welcome. I offered gratitude for Bridget-by the stream in line with my right side, for getting thru the winter, that February, the unsettledness of spirit, hoping to move forward. Susan gave flowers as did Elizabeth.

Women burning flowers.

We each pulled a rune- me, Susan, Elizabeth & Hudson.

From the Ancestors: Jera or Year- a completed growth and harvest cycle

From the Gods & Goddesses: Hagalaz or Hail – a disruption of pattern and reassertion of a new one

From the Spirits: Gibor or Gift- giver of sacrifice and also reciprocity and agreement

For the Season: Tir or Tiwaz, Spiritual Warrior -the whole truth and justice and balance and direction- the Pole Star for sure – and it is Spring it is pointing up we are all on the balance of UP.

We used wine glasses for the waters, our simple grove, Our Whole Grove drinking in the blessings together.

We blessed our seeds and the seeds within us and our tools and the tools to shape and grow and craft.

We said our thanks.

We pulled out our equinox cyser, brewed in the autumn and ready to drink now and decanted a jar to toast ourselves.

Balance the Egg, Feel the Mud

2010-03-16T22:22:00.004-04:00

my girlfriend just had a baby this week and the wind has finally eased and the sun was out and my neighbor cut back the raspberries and the earth gives way to my feet as I walk in my slippers to the raging stream. Newness is all around and the cycles of birth and rebirth stretch our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits.
Come break out of your shell, Spring is here and you better get busy. But first take a moment to balance yourself on the Earth Mother, when the day and night are equal and breathe.

We gather for Equinox Ritual and PotLuck Celebration

Sunday 3/21/10 at 1:32 pm

As the Solstices are about the Sun, we tend to look at the Equinox’s as about the Earth

and also in this beginning time to reflect on the East and the Mothers.

It is a time to rejoice in the returning green.
Bring any seeds that you want blessed and some food to share for an early Sunday supper.

Our cyser that we made in the fall is now ready!! We will be decanting it and tasting!

Imbolc which now after February is finally over seems so long ago

2010-03-13T19:58:00.007-05:00

So much life has happened, it is a distant memory when the days were still very short

and we had not yet tasted spring.

Getting ready with many eggs and cheese and milk for quiches to honor this time when the sap begins to flow, when traditionally the ewes would lactate and the ice breaks and we would know that the Earth Mother would be renewed.

Figuring out roles so that all works. Who will make and tend the fire, which must be big enough for a group of people and strong enough to keep them warm? Who will prepare the offerings of sacrifice? Who will talk and what shall be said?

So Adhi would make the fire, hauling standing dead trees from the woods and making a loud constant whirr of chain saw while he worked the embers. But it was Bryan that tended the fire and I swept around it, a path in the snow that later would show the earth, mud and grass.
The sweeping of snow, sweeping the land; a never ending job that you feel in your whole body- arms, legs, gut, lungs.

Salad and quiche (even the bad crusted one) and sweets and peaches from the summer and coffee and cyser.
Who all was here- Eizabeth, Ron & Linda, and Judith and Anna and Jasper and us and Ahdi. Missing was Amber and Susan & Gwen and Katrina & family and Unca Magoo and Aunt Lisa. But we had a full table and a lot of laughing and lots more talk.

I had put together offerings and Bryan had too, each brought to the fire circle waiting.

Grains and chips and herbs - spring cleaning of the cupboards.

Bryan offered his rant for the season- stories of Bridget, her lineage, her gifts,

and how we honor her and the order of ritual.

The kids were- as always- restless and sometimes us too. It is hard with groups of people to interact, prepare for ritual, learn what to do, eat and focus on a time. But we do always seem to focus well on the spirits.
Bryan brought Bridget from the shrine and donned his wicker headdress and we processed to the circle; boys stomping and dancing across the threshold; each person finding their place around the fire. There was a bird that flew overhead while we walked and they always seem to speak as we gather, when we settle down or when we listen.

Nice hot flame and warm sun and rushing stream and bright snow. The directions of the sun and the gates of our spring, willow and fire. Let this fire be a good fire.
Glowing embers like the sun and my eyes. Standing centered on the earth- men and women and boys. Crystalline the sun blinded me so that I could only see the fire and smoke.
Blazing greens letting go of the past and of the winter.
Our offerings, our omens, our blessing.

From the Ancestors: Sowelo or the sun
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Kinaz or the torch
From the Gods & Goddesses: Wunjo or joy
From Bridget and the Season: Jera – year or harvest
(All lovely and appropriate for good fortune, perhaps it is what has kept us as together as we have been through this transition time.)

The waters always so refreshing and enough for all.

Each of us helping each other through Bridget's girdle, ever expanding for all of our sizes. Even for the cat next door. So much light and orange and personalities.

Each of us chose a shimmering crystal, as a remembrance of this frozen time of almost spring.

We quieted down, back in our places around the fire to offer thanks and grounding. We gathered up our things- our empty bowls, cups and leftover offerings and took each other home.
We invited Bridget onto our hearth, in our kitchen overflowing with people and food and glasses and light.

So the after effects were immediate, with more eating and conversations, intense at times, and time flying and groups of people coming and going. Sometimes it is all like a dream, blurred like the smoke.

At the end of the day, with the vast darkness lit by a candle at Bridget’s shrine, I went outside alone to put out the light.

IMBOLC

2010-01-10T19:19:00.002-05:00

Sunday January 31st , 2010 – Gathering for Brunch & Ritual
In honor of the GODDESS BRIDGET

11am
greeting & gathering & pre-ritual briefing & first brunch & toasting
NOON
Ritual preparation (get ready for ritual, layer up, do what you’ve got to do)

Ritual begins
Process to Bridget's Well
Lustration of our Hands or face
Then Cozy up back at the fire

Sacred space & time
Offerings to the Earth Mother
A Guided Meditation
Directions
Center
Offerings to Manannan/fire–well-tree/Opening of the Gates
Offering to outsiders
Offering for insider Bridget
Sacrifice for our Kindred Spirits
Our Honored dead
Our spirit Allies
Our Gods & Goddesses
Special Praise offerings for Bridget as the Herald of the Coming Spring-Bring on the Beat
Prayer of sacrifice
Seeking and reading omens
Hallowing and sharing of The Waters
Special Magicwerking –Blessing of our Tools and Passing through Bridget’s Belt
Oh Yay Bridget! Thanks
Thank you Gods! Thanks Spirits! Thank you Honored Dead!
Give Thanks again Bridget
Thanks Manannan/Close the Gates
Thank you Earth Mother
Invite and Welcome Bridget into the hearth & home

The ritual is over and 2nd Brunch begins!

THE LONGEST NIGHT

2010-01-03T19:23:00.007-05:00

The day before we prepared for the blizzard that wasn’t- hauling wood, sticks, clearing the deck- battening down the hatches.
Figuring that maybe the only way we’d have the fire pit in the morning was if we started the fire before the snow came, Bryan gathered dry wood and set to burn through the packed ice. It looked like it might only be us- me, Bryan and Hudson- so formalities and cleaning were dropped for more wood gathering, cooking and dancing.
The late afternoon air was crisp and the quality of light was exquisite but the fire smoldered with little flame. Smoldering pine needles and pine cones. I went inside to get paper to burn and came out to the magic of the fire in full flame. The sun was beginning to go down, shining straight through the house. We waited for snow and worked at staying warm.

Feeding the fires. Cooking in the oven. Feeling family.

After dinner and before bed Bryan rolled a massive Yule log into the cache of hot embers. It caught and smoldered and the wind roared and kept the fire alive. All night I got up and saw the flames. Blown by the fiercest winds but not out of control, the giant Yule log burned steady.

So the next day we had had only a dusting of snow and the fire was still there. The logs ringing the fire were crowned with white circles, 24 in the half ring, 4 more as gates and 4 more that bridge to the rocks that frame the fire.

We gathered more wood and offerings and cleaned and rested. Though we didn’t start at exactly 3:33, we layered up and were outside by 4ish, the sun was still up and the sky was luminous, pinks, golds and whites.

Everything was quiet. The deep quiet of snow, the quiet of just family, the quiet hiss of the fire burning for a whole day- the shortest day, longest night. Things I remember from ritual are circles and sounds. Pouring cider for the Earth Mother half way around the circle and then wine around the other half because she is not our mother for only half the year but always. Our good fire, our well, our very old Yule tree. Dear Mananan and Bridget, whose altars form the edges of a triangle with our fire, were welcomed with gratitude. Each praise accepted with a sizzle and flame burst, and each of us in turn asking for acceptance of our sacrifice. Bryan began to speak about the outsiders and to open our pickle jar offering when suddenly a bird, perhaps a wren, sang its song- loud and clear and long. We laughed; it was easy to feel the presence of our Kindred.

Wine and pine cones and our kitchen cauldron of dried flowers and grasses for consumable sacrifice.

The round orange halves of a tangerine full of seeds, full of juice, full of light. Cold juice for each of us and for the spirits as well, visions of summer shining.

Hudson placed on the fire his gingerbread house as thanks for and wishes for creating spiral flame.

The final seasonal sacrifice of a large basket- long used as detritus storage collecting dust by my bed, now used for renewal. Bryan placed the basket right side up on the fire, which was sort of precarious and sort of balancing. It seemed to momentarily smother the flames until, imperceptibly, the smoke caught to fire and then a vortex of flame roared to life. We all quickly stepped back behind the ring of logs and still the fire grew. We were howling and Hudson yelled that it was the awesomest thing ever and really it was. The flame was alive, rolling and circling and strong. It went on and on and grew and was bright for a long time.

I am still enveloped in the circle of that fire, may its strength keep us strong, warm and safe all winter.

Bryan brought out the runes and Hudson went forward to pick them-

From the Ancestors: Daguz- day or vantage point- like high noon and sometimes it is a paradox -like you see things from a much different vantage point, sometimes like seeing things from both sides

From the Spirits of Nature and Place: Othala or Odul- sacred enclosure or inheritance, kind of like what you protect and treasure and keep safe

From the Gods & Goddesses: Fehu- the fee what things cost- and fe fi fo fum and fa lalala

For the Season:Sowelu or the Sun.

Well done.

We draw these same runes in different combinations often- they seem sometimes like grove runes.

Silently, I had been hoping to draw an omen, though Hudson did a great job and I was satisfied with the blessings. But just as I had stepped one foot over the logs and halfway back into the circle Bryan asked if I would pull an Ogham, it was Gort -generally thought of as ivy, but translated it means a cultivated garden or a plowed field. Ivy is a grass that is suitable for the herd when the grasses fail, in the winter icy can still feed the livestock. Lovely. And then we hallowed and took in those icy waters, crisp, snowy and a bit sooty too. Drinking in crystals and light and spirit and flame, my eyes poured tears from smoke from the fire. It seems that at each ritual these days my eyes cry buckets and in that smoke and water I am taken away and transformed and brought back cleared.

Joyful and refreshed we offered all our thanks. Then with darkness approaching, the snow blue and the first stars coming out we returned to our warm house for dinner. The fire burned well into the night.

Winter Solstice

2009-12-14T22:47:00.003-05:00

Sunday 12/20/09

3:33pm

bring pies, puddings, cookies -savory or sweet

fill the air with warmth and glad tidings

the light returns- welcome the Oak King!

my new favorite poem - please take to heart:

in these dark days of December

we are nearer to Spring

than we were in September

please RSVP to susan@urtharts.com

Stillness of Winter

2009-12-14T21:02:00.005-05:00

Day After: The sun shines brightly on the frost and the only sounds are the rush of the stream, the dropping of leaves from the forsythia – still green but now frost worn- and one or two birds. The silence is heavy like a blanket of snow and a harbinger of the total silence of deep snows and dark days. Everything is different today.

2 weeks after: The sun was out today- rising flaming red close to due south. The peach tree still holds her leaves and the willow is reluctantly turning yellow. The land was full of turkeys today – more than 2 dozen, perhaps attracted by Elizabeth’s acorns. A warm day is now in the 40’s° and morning frost is a given. There is still kale but the garden has been put to bed and it is dark by 5.

As always the Samhain season is wyrrd and long. We spent a week before Halloween putting out dumb suppers and lighting candles in carved pumpkins. Then there was the hoopla of Halloween proper with warm rain and hard gentle winds and leaves and zombies and candy and parties missed with time bending to the moon.

So by the time we got to our ritual preparations the leaves were mostly down from a week of strange winds and we were ready to put the season to bed. I had wanted a journey -thinking of Samhains past transforming as you passed thru the veil to the underworlds and out the other side. After the Johnny Appleseed journey of transformation and picking so many apples and the darkness and the need to move beyond it seemed natural. Hudson was a bit under the weather the Friday of our ritual and so he and Bryan stayed home making schedules easy and allowing Bryan to spend the day setting up places. We had talked about where and how we would walk about and knew we needed to be led by light. We had decided to start at the small house fire circle and process perhaps to Mananan, perhaps to Bridget and then to the 5 circle fire pit for ritual before closing again at the home fire.

By the time I came home from work, worn but happy, the boy was resting and Bryan and I got to walk the path he laid out. From the home fire to the hollow tree, seasonal altar previously with a Belanos sun image now replaced with a purple candle. Then to the may pole hole, uncovered and filled with Uncle Magoo’s hurricane lamp with the red candle. Then to Mananan lit with 3 candles and then across the whole field past the garden to Bridget surrounded by votives and a hurricane candle glowing in front of her. The central fire was smoking and with a small breath came to life.

The land felt good and things seemed set though still in that time bending Samhain way. Not even thinking really of if we had offerings; I had seen Bryan come downstairs with his runes and magics and not really thought about much. I gathered the last of the flowers, a last rose, and some herbs. Everything green and damp. Not yet dark but no longer day. Elizabeth came with baskets of flowers and libations as always and filled the house with her spirit- like fire and water together. We snacked on the chicken soup to be dinner later and opened her cyser, creating warmth. We toasted each other and our Whole grove and the season and moved from the kitchen to the fire. Susan and Gwen came -more glasses and celebration. Then Judith arrived, the kitchen filled with food and people and we all toasted once more. Finally Bill and Nina came with even more food and we finished the cyser and began. Hudson needed to sleep and I carried his spirit with me thru ritual, always looking up to the bright house where he rested.

Bryan led with the flashing red light through the dark to the portals of fire glowing in the dark.
We journeyed through from the house fire pit -spirits and shooting star; to the altar for the season in the trunk of the hollow tree; to the red candle burning like a heart deep in the center of the field in the hole; to the Mananan altar with 3 lights like the circling legs; all the way across the land past the garden to Brigit, shrouded in dark lit by a stream of lights; and onto the 5-circle fire pit in our center.

We gathered and separated to regroup, find our offerings, get warm, get light and begin again.

Coming together we found our way in the black dark to our spaces by the fire.
We were centering, trying to bring the fire to life, stepping all over each other, pushing back and making space. Bryan opened the gates and speaks to the outsiders. Our friend Anna and her son arrive- black figures through the smoke back lit by the motion activated light- like shadows appearing, strangely glowing – her smile beaming as they drew near the fire, the smoke of their breath mixing with that of our fire.
As always the glow and the smoke. All the offerings, had we gathered them- was it a dream- did we actually have anything to offer? The dried grasses fed already for warmth and brightness, but we had flowers, what I know now were the last of the flowers. Our dead, our dear dead, so many again this year. Long breath, a sigh, waiting for the New Year to begin. Spiraling into the smoke, almost hard to breathe, tears of smoke pouring out of my eyes; it was like passing into other realms. Bryan changes everything as he takes out a crystal ball for scrying and the world of that shimmered and came alive and disappeared and was huge and small at the same time. Getting lost in spheres and smoke and flames and prayers.
Our omens for the season-
For the ancestors: Ehwaz- the horse, how we travel -the partnership between horse and rider
From the Spirits: Jera or year or harvest or the cycle of a year
From the Gods & Goddesses: Daguz- day or vantage point
For the Season: Thurisaz- Thorn
We have gotten many of these omen before, we need to pay attention.
I look up at all the smiling faces lit by the fire now alive with our sacrifice. So much thanks. The house lit up brightly calls us into its warmth.

5 weeks after: The snow has been on the ground solid for more than a week. The frosts have gone and only the patches of land where water bubbles still have green. Winter is here and we won’t see the ground again really until spring. The days grow rapidly dark. The sun rises slowly, due south and bright red.

The color of autumn- our equinox

2009-10-17T11:19:00.014-04:00

It is always in the preparation that ritual begins. Shopping lists and gathering of flower petals and standing on the earth contemplating balance.

This day we were to celebrate at Elizabeth’s house, which though it means travel (a challenge especially to my home-body son), it means less cleaning and clearing. But of course getting out of the house is harder, one more bunch of flowers, one more packet of dried grasses, one more offering.
Driving down the roads of this beautiful place that we live I was struck by this particular light of September. Before the leaves become ablaze with color they have a tint, a hue of brown –yellow or orange-gold and with the angle of the equinox sun path there is a cast of light that is only in September. It is the back to school light, the new notebooks light, the light of the side yard from the memory of the month when the boy was newborn and we sat in bed and watched that autumn light – brilliant but not hot, cool but not icy. The sky is so blue and clear but deep with the knowledge of the oncoming winter. By October everything is reds and oranges and bright yellows and deep browns, and by November the color is windswept and barren and brown and grey, but now it is deep golden like the taste of an apple.

So we arrive at Elizabeth’s, down crazy winding roads (we are always amazed by the variety of neighborhoods all over this county), dogs a-barking, hugs and acorns. Lots of acorns, to roll up with the cool acorn sweeper- a whole tub full in no time at all. Bryan and Ted talk chain saw and fire wood while the neighbor cuts down a tree. We talk harvest (or lack thereof). Amber arrives with cookies which we need to sample with real good tea and magic talk- the interconnecting circles of what makes this magic- unity and awareness and personal knowledge and more. But noon passes and let’s get it together, the present is here and the future of other commitments comes too swiftly. We are here to honor the Gods who give meaning to this life.

Processing down the stone steps and wood staircase leading to the fire by the pond with the koi and the flat lands backed by the rock cliffs of Elizabeth & Ted’s lower property. Hudson always loves the hand pump, kids have to pump the water – it is like a magnet every time we are there. Birds are always singing there. The sun shines brightly and it is hot, yes noon is direct and socks and sweaters come off.

Elizabeth builds a fire and Bryan lights sweet grass from our garden and goes around the circle with the smoke clearing and creating space. I offer petals from every type of the many flowers growing in my garden to the Earth Mother, starting in the east and walking around the circle -2 whole times around before the petals are all used. It has been a good flower year.
We all settle down- feeling comfortable on our Mother, feeling her solid supporting us, letting us balance our weight comfortably on her- Elizabeth and Ted in the East, Bryan in the South, Amber in the West, me in the North and Hudson in the shade.
We feel the darkness of the earth below and the brightness of the sky above. We look up to the sky-shining blue with blinding sun streaming into us and touch the solid deepness of the dark cool earth below us rising up into us and feel these energies mix within us. Breathing in and out and feeling this hot shining sun and this cool dark earth; the fire is small but it is in the center and it is a gate. Calling upon Mannanan Mac Lier, walker of the ways between the worlds, gatekeeper; offering magic potion of syrup from a bottle corked with a branch and strands of sweet grass; and opening the gates. Though there were trees and a large pond we focused on only this one gate- this central fire.

I was struck by the silence of this ritual, only Bryan talked (except for our individual praise offerings); no one offered responses (“let the gates be open” etc.)only birds replied to all his words. This has happened at rituals here before, the birds – many different ones- talk at different times and participate.
Making offerings to the outsiders, just past Hudson in the hedgerow- boundaries defined by potion. Bryan called upon Bridget, grove matron and Goddess of eloquence: asking for our words to be true, our thoughts communicated and our voices heard. More magic syrup and the rest of the sweet grass. Elizabeth’s fire always burns.
Most Honored Dead, our teachers and families and friends- it seems there has been lots of passings lately (a reminder of the coming of Samhain)-so many people to honor- the burning of rose petals, so quickly consumed and faintly fragrant and just a bit of syrup. All these respected people- remembered because of what they have left behind, what they have shared with us, what we carry of them inside us today.
The Spirits of Nature, of this place, where we are now, this land we live on, the insects and birds, all the creatures and the rocks, the grasses and trees- sacrifice of rose petals and barely a drop of the potion falls.
Gods and Goddesses, all of them –who are yours- the eclectic pantheon of the modern age- Kaun Yin and the Celtic River Gods from Elizabeth’s bathroom wall, the Green man with his autumn face, the Moon Grandmother, Mercury, and the grey bearded old man of my grandmother’s God. Everyone appreciates rose petals.
This season of Fall, the harvest and this balance of equinox, silence and presence- lots of magic syrup suddenly pours out with the rest of the roses.
Elizabeth offers gratitude for the easing of the rain, purple asters and small pumpkin and tomatoes – especially rare in this season of scant harvest. She offers a story of her dog Grace waiting for her in the driveway, out of the fence for who knows how long, with dog tags pulled but not choked, safely escaped- and in doggie gratitude burns old dog toys. And finally a basket that has seen many harvests, many gathering of beans and more, catching circular fire and burning through holes.
I offer sage for this year of many things and a full sunflower head, not yet eaten by birds, intact with its mesmerizing helix of seeds in deep gratitude for the many flowers, and, looking forward to new seeds for next year and for next year’s harvest to come. I offer a new pink rose for the deep beauty all around us. And I place a dollar to burn in the fire in gratitude for having a roof over our heads and for the bills to once again be paid and for the balance and sustainability without fear of money in our lives.

And as Elizabeth says: The amphibians joined us for ritual! Before I built the fire, a wee Leopard Frog hopped across the fire pit. The tiny Red Eft was a nice guest, isn't there some association between fire and Salamanders? I was thinking the ritual fire smoke was beguiling. The wind kept changing directions and it kept spiralling, slowly, counter clockwise, and it swirled around Bryan because it was happy to find him there. It wreathed around Bryan and smudged us all, and never stopped changing direction. Lively! The offerings were sweet and generous. There is a Birch clump very close to the fire pit, and one of the omens was for the Birch. That is Bridget's tree and also my birth month tree..a tree I hang offerings on.That spot near the little footbridge is where I have long thought that the Sidhe/Shee hang out

Once again we are silent and Bryan places the good corn all around the edges of the fire. He slowly builds the fire up as our offerings burn and then he pulls our omens.
From the Ancestors – Daguz- day, vantage point, noon
From the Spirits – Wunjo – Joy
From the Gods & Goddesses – Berkana – beginning
And for the season- Kinwaz- the torch

He also, for the first time in our ritual, pulls an Ogham (a stick from the Celtic tree oracle) and it is Oak. – well of course- it is the druid tree and a symbol of standing up straight and also associated with royalty- but let’s not forget all those acorns.

Are we ready to take in those waters of life? What is it that we know of the continuum of life – the waters of life and from whence do they come? Elizabeth & I look at each other and say together- from the bosom of the Earth Mother! The ever changing all mother. She brings out this incredible round blue glass pitcher which sparkles with the sun and Bryan holds it up –it looks bigger than him, like a big shining blue sun. Bless these waters; give us comfort, Knowledge & blessing.

The water is usually cold but this was sun-temperature and autumn flavored. I drank deeply, it seemed like there was an abundance of water.

Ah, giving thanks. There was more food, bits from our whole feast to be, given in gratitude. And then a container of Elizabeth’s cyser, that seemed never ending, as thanks to all of the Kindred and seasonal gods and Bridget and Mananan and the Earth Mother. The birds sang. We processed back to the house.

We feasted and filled Elizabeth's house with flavors. We brewed our equinox cyser of fresh pressed apple cider and pounds of honey and yeast. We did it rite, like Bryan said. You should see the bucket of Cyser! This morning I took off the lid to stir it and it had a layer of foamy suds on top that looked like a bubble bath. It is happy and churning away, and smells so delicious. It is definitely ALIVE! Wow!

September has such an autumn feel

2009-09-07T08:48:00.002-04:00

Leaves are starting, losing first their deep green and some already brilliant with red or orange. What a strange summer.

The garden hardly except for the flowers and tall grasses and slugs.

Some food to process if only there was the time.

Cool sunny days, finally our first whole week with no rain. The few tomatoes begin to ripen.

The equinox fast approaches. Soon it will be the last mowing and the time of piling leaves.

Autumn Equinox Celebration: Sunday September 20 Noontime

in Esopus at Elizabeth's house.

We honor the harvest, the balance, the coming season of short days, and the brewing process of life.

We will be offering a Cyser brewing workshop as part of our Equinox Ritual Celebration. Cyser is a bit like mead but made with (local) apple cider and the fermentation only takes 6 months as opposed to 2-3 years. Any of you who have been to rituals have probably tasted Elizabeth's delicious and potent brews; she has offered to share this magic with us. Depending on how many people sign up, you will get either get a full or a half gallon at the Spring Equinox (yes Spring will come again and that Cyser will, like ourselves, be ready to go because of the long winter ferment.) There will be a $10 charge for the workshop to cover materials (all local!), and the workshop will start around 2:30pm.

You can come to the ritual and stay for the workshop or come to either. Please RSVP to susan@urtharts.com .

Rain, Tired of Rain and Tired

2009-08-09T16:22:00.009-04:00

Coming up the road
this rainy morning, a shaft
of smoke curls upward.

Making fire in the steady rain, Bryan coming in soaked, drying his shirt by the kitchen fire.

The constant rain forcing one to submit to a gentleness, a simple movement and the sense of being present. What else can you do, it is raining again.

The Art of making Sacred Space, creating a devotional focus.

How constant was the rain and also the curl of smoke from the central fire, burning and waiting.

Gathering herbs for tea, I noticed that it was barely raining.

Mint, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Dill: some were to be hot some cooled.

The sky lightened and clouds almost lifted.

The center fire pit had a double mown ring with bands of wild wildflowers and weeds, and at the center the 5 circle firepit with smoldering logs and embers deep below. Gates are cut though the flower bands so you can pass through the concentric rings of grass. Needed more wood, more dry combustibles. I found a stick and bark and egg cartons in the studio. Bark curls and sticks burn and egg cartons flame. Having brought out more nice dry firewood, we built a spiraling tower of logs, some hand cut and some just carried.

Drinking tea and marveling at the weather we gathered.
Elizabeth, Hudson, Bryan, me and then Susan sitting inside with cherries and cookies.

The axis of Imbolc and Lughnasa, Bridget and Lugh and the light spot in the dark and the dark spot in the light.

The blinded eye and lightening and here comes the Thunder. Harvesting and preparing for winter.
Lugh and his foster mother Tliatu. Lugh like Mercury, Odin like Mercury for the Romans, and Epona and the fairs and clearing the land and horses and the County Fair and taking a chance.

Pie contests and harvest festivals and fruit and rain.
Are we ready and is it time?
Is it going to rain?

Gathering the waters, the offerings, cups and corn. Gathering ourselves.
Hudson falling on the slick deck. Awkward fussiness. Who’s on first and rushing towards where?

Being in the present and what happens when we are elsewhere in our minds.

Gonging out the broken skull, gonging silently and then finally to honor the gods who give meaning to life.

Processing to the circle, Elizabeth playing banjo.
Finding space. Where are we supposed to be?

Bryan scattering to the Earth all around the circle and to the center.
Feeling the earth. Energy rising from the earth through my feet, legs, hips, belly, heart, head and also from the sky down. Squatting like a frog on the earth, wiggly boy at my side, cracking ice and fidgeting.

Small offerings to the fire, our center- glow within us; the well, deep and full and strong- flow within us; and the tree, larger than it used to be- grow within us.

And then Mananan opening the gates and where were all our offerings? Bryan using what was at hand, corn silk or small grasses-do we have enough? My bundles of bark and sage carefully prepared could be used for welcome or thanks but not both; were we ready?

Outsiders offering offered and I remembered special outsiders offerings still in the fridge,

would they accept what we had here?

Suddenly time to honor the ancestors.

Yesterday we had spoken at great length as to who are our ancestors- not just deceased relatives-our grandparents and great grandparents- but any person who was alive and is now dead and who influenced us especially. Kissing the boy’s head, I thought about great artists and writers and those who I have studied and wished I could have known and also those of our line who have gone before.

Bryan made offerings to the Spirits of Nature- thinking about the grasses and turtles and rocks and pets and all those animals and plants and fungi thriving in this dampness, the dampness itself.

Then to the gods and goddesses (like Thor I say to Hudson) and thinking about Mercury and Lugh and Bridget and KwanYin and Odin and Zeus and Thunder and Rain.

And then the season, this season of county fairs and chance and horses and harvest and storms and being here.

The rushing stream was louder than us all, louder than all the sacrifices, than all the words, than all the thoughts, louder than the boy being silly or disinterested, louder than us.

Offering Gratitude for just being here for being present in this place now, letting go of toxicity and of what I don’t need, letting go of the past and future and racing in between both.
Flowers in flames as our sacrifices were swallowed by the fire and by the water.
Final sacrifice of last year’s dried vervain, strait like a slender tree.

All the while the stream roaring.

Our omens:
From the Ancestors: Thuriz or thorn or hammer- protection or stance of defense-either being protected by or protecting our ancestors.
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Daguz or day, High Noon, the vantage point, seeing it all and as if from a new angle.
From the Gods & Goddesses: Uruz or the primordial ox, the urge to create, the unstoppable movement forward
For the Season: Eihwaz or the horse- the relationship or partnership between horse and rider, the County Fair!

The waters of life in the green jug hallowed with only the voice and the damp air and poured into blue cups. Were we ready for these waters?
Almost sweet tasting, the waters are always needed and always good. We had full glasses and the boy did his fake gulping. Sigh.

Thanks to all, the individual silks and husks from the corn, some for each of the season’s spirits.

All the offerings used and the rite over. Already said the boy? Let the feasting begin.

And before I could parade and dance to Elizabeth’s banjo out of the circle and back home, Bryan already had a chicken leg in his hand. The sun was almost out. The boy was sweet again like the waters.

We were here now.

Solstice 2009

2009-07-26T13:42:00.007-04:00

Not enough coffee and too much rain.

Went to bed full of friendships and woke up to more friends.

Friends at the table and walking across the lawn. Friends coming and going. Old friends and new.

Changing groups of many.

Finally just the druids gathered for the sun which for so many days- seemingly weeks -had not shined.

Bryan, in his top hat and camouflage short coveralls, ranted about the horse and the sun and moving on and the faith in the return of the sun each day.

We put away snacks and gathered our flowers and offerings and processed behind Bryan now in full druid robes white over white through the wet grass through the woods past the red eft and the soft green moss and the giant ferns into the Nematon with a path weed whacked clear.

Focusing and centering, sitting down on the earth is always good, breathing.

The sun rises over there and sets there passing through the south and the north on the way.

Our center our well, that deep bottomless frog pit. Damp grasses and thoughtfulness.

The warmth of the sun. Fire and flowers.

Coming thru the weeds and off time, then clearing and letting go.

Shattering the horse, ten years later, releasing old wishes and joy.

Letting in new vision.

Like the hawk spiraling near the sun, glinting in the light, smiling in the centered quiet, grounded on the earth.

Omens for the season

From the Ancestors: Ingwaz- the growing seed

From the Spirits of Nature and Place: Naudhiz- Need

From the Gods and Godesses: Odul- Sacred Enclosure

For the Season: Perth- luck, the chance cup

Food and friends and more friends gathering on the longest day long into the night.

Solstice is coming

2009-06-12T21:02:00.005-04:00

The flowers are full

and so brilliant but only
for the briefest time.

Celebrate the Summer Solstice

the longest day, the shortest night,

the pinacle of the sun as it begins to swing back toward the darkness.

Sunday June 21 noon.

Beltane Banjos And Soft Rain And Maypole Ribbons

2009-06-12T20:09:00.005-04:00

It's all about the prep- the preparing for the season – cleaning the house and bringing plants outside. Dusting, opening windows, letting prosperity in.

Waiting for it all to begin.
A real good group - follow the leader. Hudson blowing the dandelion seed head.
Bowl of dandelions to wash to our hands and leap over the dandelion ringed fire washing away the winter yuk.
Marching dance around the fire circle.
Fun fun

Feeling really centered on the earth.
Feeling the Earth supporting my feet and legs and hips and spine and really feeling the Earth.
The wet earth, the rain, the sound of the stream.

The well, the tree and the fire.

The invisible fire very present in the light rain The radiance of the sun.
Distractions and getting it together.
People and spirits coming into the circle: well what do you know?
Remembering to let it go, to offer gratitude for the winter, challenges, things we are not necessarily comfortable with.
The drizzle of fire- do we always have birds answer us in ritual?
I can only really remember the dampness all around and a stillness among all the activity.

Time speeding up and slowing down.

Our Omens:
From the Ancestors: Thuruz- thorn or defensive or protective stance- be on guard.
From the Spirits of Nature and place: Odul- sacred enclosure, protective enclosure, the gates to hold it in.
From the Gods: Isa- ice- get things together, pulling it in.
For the Season: Fehu or fee, what does something cost?
Feeling rather oddly reversed- instead of it being an expanding and mixing it up Beltane omen it seemed a lot more of contracting and clarifying.

Drinking the cool refreshing waters.

Pulling it all together and feeling solid on the wet earth.
Coming bustling back and the hubbub.

Eating lots of salads and food. No dessert until after we dance the maypole.
Many children young and old-dancing and undancing the maypole.
Laughing and laughing and twisting up in knots.

Swinging and banjo playing.

Funny day

Thoif.

Nature's flowers - the season of blossom & bloom

2009-04-25T09:06:00.005-04:00

Beltane Celebration!

Sunday May 3rd

afternoon ritual

Dance the Maypole!

Musical merriment!

Pot Luck Supper!

see you, let us know

A VERY EARTH AND GROUND CENTERED RITUAL

2009-03-29T14:12:00.007-04:00

We are so alive. Breathing and standing erect, I walk on the Earth, our blessed blossoming mother.
I can feel my center, my hands and feet drawing strength from the ground.
I remembered to consciously let go when washing my hands and also with the outsiders offering. Letting it go back to the earth, releasing to compost.

What a great holiday, fine ritual, full day and belly! How many spirits passed through?! Today is grey and feels colder but the earth is not frozen and before we gather again the trees will flower.

First Elizabeth, then Amber, then Lisa, then Katrina, Eric & ZaraJane & the dog, then White Feather and Teresa, then all our Kindreds, then Nitya and Michael & Ivy, then Dylanna, then Nicci, David, Ari & Sophie.

The sap is still flowing and the stream is strong.
It’s hard to begin at the beginning.

The day Before- True Equinox
Balancing an egg on the kitchen hearth in the morning on the equinox, cooking and cleaning that night.
The Early Morning
Making chicken soup first thing the morning of ritual is some kind of ritual.
Planting potato eyes, feeling the sun & giving thanks for the lack of wind and listening to the birds sing. Candles in nests, tea in the pot, Bryan’s spring tonic of sap and bark and just dug roasted roots on the woodstove and offerings set up outside.

Pre- Ritual Grove Meeting
Elizabeth came with her basket of flowers and seeds and quiche. We gathered for our grove meeting and stayed in the kitchen, which Bryan is now taking as an omen of the season- the overcrowded kitchen. May we always be so blessed.
We set times for a mead/cyser workshop at autumn equinox (when all the ingredients can be harvested) & Yule (when the product has fermented) and a brew workshop the following spring equinox, a year from now. This past year has been transformative and we talked about last Vernal Equinox and how far we have come since then.
People Arrive and Bring Goodies
We started to talk about the people who were to attend ritual, many of them new to our group. Amber arrived just as I began to speak of her. She brought chocolate chip cookies- especially welcome as we had no sweet for our feast. It always works out just right.
Then (Aunt) Lisa came with sesame noodles and soup ingredients. Elizabeth went to do the fire and Bryan began his rant. Katrina & Eric & Zara Jane showed up with their sweet dog and salad and the kitchen was crowded. White Feather and Teresa came in with a HUGE jar of sap (some of which then went for our waters) and White Feather’s new book (and Teresa’s small horse carried in her arms).
How we did not all just devour those cookies right then, I do not know. The dog helped bring everyone outside where there were almost enough seats. Most of us had tea or muffins and the sun felt warming.
I got Hudson to come downstairs with a chocolate milk bribe and he listened to the rant from inside, shy from all the people.
Lovely Children
Kids and ritual. A whole nother topic, but I have to mention the energy of the now that children always bring. They do not plan or frame like adults and are therefore very present and direct. You have to stay on point with kids and dogs for that matter. They always know where the bones are.
Ready, Set
OK, time to get ready, bathroom break, where is the druid robe, zip up, a glass of water, Gong.
GO
We are here to honor the Gods.
Walking on the soft earth, feeling the squish, not hard nor too soft. Green and growing Earth Mother. A line and not a line, not pushing or strolling, gentle line dance.
Lustration in the cold spring water, solarized with a rose quartz. Washing away the winter. Circling up and finding space. Bryan scattered oats around the circle as offering to the Earth Mother and we got comfortable on her, feeling her foundation.
Meditation on the Earth

Feeling ourselves comfortable with no tension in our feet or legs or hands or neck and shoulders or the heavy head.
Drawing the energy of the earth into our feet, feeling that energy with our hands; hearing the stream and feeling the sun streaming into the top of our heads.
Feeling our seat, our base, our bottom, the cauldron of sustenance, that which supports us & feeds us. Breathing 3 times into this cauldron, igniting the fire, seeing it glow, feeling how we have, as support, all that we need. In our center, there is the cauldron of vocation. Sun shining on my chest, warming my heart & belly- the strength and flames from the cauldron of sustenance supporting my vocation. doing what supports me and reflects my center as I breathe 3 times into this center- knowing my true work is within and expands out. And above our heads, like the sunlight is the third cauldron- the cauldron of knowledge. Breathing into this cauldron and igniting the flame of knowledge.

The directions and the gates
The dog and the chicken bones
Offerings to our Kindreds, each one being accepted with a sign: a bird song or bell chime or flash of fire.
Offering for the season, and then all our offerings. first Hudson and also Katrina, oats and then an egg, and then I burned the old and gave thanks for the new and for supportive friends that help balance and transit. Elizabeth offered flowers and Irish words for the season, this season of change and for our beautiful Earth mother, and White Feather offered all gratitude to those who have passed and gone before and also to the seven generations who will come after. The sweet and stinging smoke, the sunlight shimmering in the heat, feeling my feet on the earth, balancing my body and spirit with the slope of the land.
As final sacrifice we scattered old seeds. Bent forward, focusing on the earth, we walked around the circle. I visualized the plants that the seeds would have become, birds that might eat the seeds and the Giant Bean Stalk. Bryan said that it seemed as though so many of them were viney ground creepers. We all seemed to laugh. It was nice to walk and cast out.
Our Omens for the Season
From the Ancestors: Uruz – the primal ox, that total growth, a wild expansive energy
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Ehwaz – horse or transportation, the vehicle and the partnership, the partnership between horse & rider, the ability to get, to empower, to make things happen
From the Gods & Goddesses: Fehu or fee, which, this time, was seen as mobile wealth (woohoo cash from the Gods!)
For the Season: Wunjo or joy.
Taking in the Blessings
Facing the well we asked our Kindred to Hallow the waters ,and then, drank in their Sun Warmed Blessings. Integrating and internalizing the blessing within us.
The seed blessing is like the fallout from that – that growth and growing expanding thing.
So much gratitude, centering down and even blowing away.
The glowing fire, the glowing sun, the glowing circle grounding down.
Processing back in the sun and feasting.

Unfreezing the Earth

2009-03-13T13:46:00.007-04:00

Ok, so now it is more than a month since Imbolc and the pace has quickened significantly. Spring forwarded last weekend and 1 week until Equinox. The sun rises so much farther to the east that it comes into the door before the windows.

I walked on the mud yesterday and today.
But back then there was still a lot of snow and we were grateful for the warmth of the sun.

Bryan had the fire pit dug out and ringed with snow blocks. We had a well of melted snow for a purification hand wash. Elizabeth was our fire mistress. We had dried herbs and 2 Yule wreaths and turkey fat for offerings. Bridget’s cloak had been in a tree overnight, and we barely needed a coat that day. We had brought our various tools (garden, office, art) to be blessed.

Susan and Elizabeth and Lovisa and her man Chris and Hudson and Bryan and I gathered at the gong and Amy joined us as we processed behind the cars and the VW bus to our Bridget by the stream. One by one we lit our candles and offered our prayers to her. I noticed the buds on the trees, the rushing of the stream, and the brightness of the light. You had to laugh, because Spring was coming.

Marching back to the ice cold water that served as our passage, we washed our hands and got comfortable on the snowy earth. You could sense the energy just underneath the surface. The fire glowed and was strong and warm. The big orange cat from next door joined us, birds sang, faces smiled and squinted at the sun.

I really love how our rituals unfold so naturally. We have grown well together as a group.

The Earth Mother, the Kindreds and Bridget- Bridget as special Grove Matron on her holiday. Can we offer enough? We have no Bard but our spirits sang. We all made our offerings and then there were the wreaths. Dry circles of pine placed on the smoldering embers turned suddenly into a giant blaze. (I gently pulled Hudson back, the cat left.) Bridget loves a good fire.

Our Omens were:
From the Ancestors: Fehu or fee or what things cost. The ancestors are talking to us about a price.
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Uruz or Ox. This primal strength, it’s a natural growing urge, picking up momentum and getting bigger.
From the Gods & Goddesses: Odul or sacred enclosure. Also what we hold precious, and try to keep safe.
And From Bridget & the Season: Raido or communication. Traveling in a circuit, a progress: right action
The Blessing and passing of waters is getting smoother, and we all got to drink, even the cat.
And then the magic working began.
Bryan pulled out an ever expanding hempen rope as Bridget’s girdle. 9 ropes knotted in 8 intersections forming a huge circle. We each passed through this, passing it around the circle thrice. Climbing or jumping through or wriggling like an emerging worm or fish or unentangling arms and legs like an inside out shirt. Each time a new passage, closer to spring, closer to Bridget.
We asked the Kindreds and Bridget to then bless our tools, the tools of our skills and crafts, the tools of our trade.
Grounding down to the earth, to the potential within, eyes tearing from smoke, we thanked everyone and thanked again and then brought the Bridget idol and her cloak, outside from before the dawn, into the house to grace our hearth.

Crowding around a small table, toasting and eating, creating sacred milk magic, many warm faces.

Snow and Wind: Spring Approaches

2009-02-19T21:11:00.005-05:00

A whole month since I last wrote! Time quickens, days lengthen. Thoughts turn toward seeds.

Open the Door and let Bridget in

2009-01-19T13:38:00.003-05:00

She hangs her cloak upon the sun.
Goddess of introductions, of uplifting optimism.
Bard, smith, poet-well-spoken, strong and kind.
Goddess of the barn and the livestock.
Mysteries of the condition of water:
The breaking of the ice, the waters beginning to flow.
The internal preparation- the ready of ready, steady, go

More Snow

2009-01-11T14:47:00.006-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

I am heartened by this sunny day, by the fact that at 5pm it is not absolutely pitch dark, and by the joys of staying home with the family. Even this cold snow is beautiful (if you don’t have to be outside shoveling it!) Stay warm, keep the faith and remember that Imbolc is the harbinger of Spring. Soon shoots will be shooting and the earth awakening even if we don’t see it yet.

Get ready.

our fairy mound

Bryan is giving his Druid 101 lecture at Mirabai of Woodstock Sat. 1/31/09 @ 2pm
see http://www.mirabai.com/ to register or for more info.

We will celebrate Imbolc and the Goddess Bridget on Sunday 2/1/9 mid morn.
Be there or be square.

Winter Solstice - Dark and Snowy

2008-12-21T11:39:00.006-05:00

Where to begin? Before the first shoveling or all the way back to the ice storm?

Fire in the snow.

Hudson made the first tunnel to the fire circle which had been sort of protected by a sun umbrella from the full blast of the snow. The fire pit was like the Nematon because it was a well inside a mound of snow. Bryan carved the mound and dug a passage to the center.

[First it seemed that, despite the snow, many folk might show up and then, in the end, it was just us Perrins. We missed you but it felt good, simple, and somehow seasonal having a family ritual - a single cup for the waters, our only timeline: the sun.]

Think about the cold and the snow and the darkness. The blue quietude of dusk. Stretching to the North, listening to the stream, singing to the stars.

We are here to honor the gods.

Feel yourself on this earth not yet fully frozen, still, in parts, malleable. Wine on the earth mother like blood, spiced tea on the earth mother like mud. Center and smile.

Breathe in like you are sucking a peppermint, feel the cold filling your lungs, feel the coolness as you exhale, feel the roof of your mouth. Feel a small star shining just above your head, breath in and feel the light from that star coming down into you and breathe out and feel the warmth from deep in the Earth rising up. Feel these energies mixing in your belly.

Our well of ice, like a scrying crystal- the hot cider pooling across the surface in these transdimensional cloud shapes. Our tree- the old Yule tree that still hasn’t burnt through lo these many fires and our fire a mere flame- a cauldron of burning bark and dried herbs and a candle for light. Manannan, opens the gates and the fire is alive, we stand straighter as the tree grows within us and the well is dark and light at the same time.

The flame, almost a memory for the ancestors sacrifice, catches the sage for the spirits of nature and there was some far off howling at the same time- what’s up with that? And then just as suddenly the bowl of fire appears to go out and the only flame is the candle, perhaps like your candle at home. It was not much past 5 o’clock.

Trying to light dried sunflower heads- almost putting out the candle, a sudden flame a bunch of sparks in the snow, the burning flower dropping and staying alight in the snow- what’s up with that? A bunch of dried lemon balm for the Gods and Goddesses flaring up and then all the flame and the candle suddenly smothered and then there was only the dark brightened by the snow.
But the center cauldron still had a glow of embers and Bryan blew the embers to spark. Showers of sparks, fountains of smoke, orange like a volcano. His breath alone wasn’t enough. Hudson called us to blow altogether on the fire. Our combined breath, became one -the smoke billowed - one more breath and then the flame came back full and bright. Big fire in a small bowl. Our collective breath as the final sacrifice for the season.
I had to howl.

I am now thinking about that birthing that final moment before the sunrise before the turning of the year.
The time of the mothers.
Interesting to think of that the deep darkness of gestation that is winter and all around us is this deep white of quiet that is winter and all around us.

Our omens shaken out from the turtle shell in darkness, Bryan using his breath to give flame to the embers long enough to read each one.
From the Ancestors: Raido- communication, the circuit that makes the connection that makes things go.
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Ehwaz – horse or the partnership between horse and rider, the working together
From the Gods & Goddesses: Birkana- birch or birth or new beginnings
For the Season: Fehu – fee (or falalalalalala or fee fi fo fum or ho ho ho), what things cost, or just plain money.

Our fire was exhausted and I relit our candle from the one inside the house, lit in silence and brought to all the dark corners of our home (as you did in yours), and now which illuminated our otherwise unlit house. I walked with gratitude back outside and found that with the candle I couldn’t see, so bright was its flame. I had to hold it away from me to light my way.

And the waters were blessed and extra cold and we each drank thrice and the Earth Mother had some as well.

Feeling the blessings, rekindling the fire, burning the flowers and seeds of this past year, breathing in and blowing out.

As special thanks to Manannan, Hudson offered a roller skating gingerbread man for always opening and closing the gates for us and being there for us – protector, guide, gate keeper, god, companion, friend.

And thanks to the Gods and Goddesses, the spirits and honored dead and the spirits of this season- fat jolly elves, reindeer and sprites. The mothers, the dark and the light. Bridget, and our Earth Mother.

Breathe in the cold, go inside and get warm.

And then also (when I had gone to rekindle our flame) Bryan had pulled Ogham (Celtic Tree Alphabet) sticks as oracle. Those omens also so very appropriate-
From the Ancestors: Hazel or wisdom
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: the Elder or Regeneration
From the Gods & Goddesses: the Grove
For the Season: the Sea or the tides coming and going, which is Manannan

Glad Tidings!

Full Moon, Samhain Memories and the Sun Rising

2008-12-20T16:01:00.006-05:00

The other night I walked outside and the glow from the moon behind the clouds was stark white, whiter than white, white as ice. This weather of bitter cold, alternating with warm rain and then winds and then the freezing sleet that took down many power lines is maybe a last trick of the season as we head into deep winter.
Our Samhain gathering was beautiful and cold. Bryan had created a huge pyre at the 5 circle fire and surrounded it with the last apples from our trees. As I look at the pictures now I am struck by the vibrant color- the yellows and oranges, a bit of green and many shades of brown or brown/orange. I am moved by the dance of the dead limbs and leaves. Now there is grey and brown/grey and no leaves at all.

We ringed the big circle with candles, there were candles in the 3 parts of the Nematon, Bryan carved amazing pumpkins for sacrifice, and I gathered things that would burn -leftovers from the garden, fully harvested by this holiday’s end.

The moon was a sliver. We’d of course been leaving out dumb suppers for days. The spirits were about. And the cold and wind were so deep; we decided to do ritual at the small fire circle-we struggled to make a fire in the pit near the house, and Elizabeth showed up and brought the fire to life. We toasted our new (Our Whole) Protogrove and us as a group and toasted ourselves and the year.

Aunt Lisa came and Susan called and we just stayed warm and ate Elizabeth’s food and waited until dark. And then Gwen and Susan arrived and we got it together and bundled up and started.

I remember we talked a lot before the holiday of the exhalation and our meditations reflected this- the sigh, the cackle, the wind.

We didn’t offer votes, just truth, and flame and sacrifice and prayers.

And gratitude as the flames leapt from and through and around the pumpkin. Consuming our harvest, ending the year, clearing the way for the empty dark- this time of going within, renewal and preparation.

Our Omens for the season were:
From the Ancestors: Oss/Ansuz or Voice-
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Perth or the Chance, the Lottery Cup the dice cup
From the Gods & Goddesses: Mannuz- the self
For the Season: Sowilo or the Sun

So there you have it. Was it all true?
I know I have needed to breathe and especially exhale these last weeks. Sometimes it seems hard to catch my breath, not like I am out of breath but that there has been so much to breathe in.

A blanket of white covers everything. It is cold. Suddenly complete winter. But the light soon returns.

where has the time gone

2008-12-07T08:17:00.004-05:00

with the snow on the ground now it looks like winter. I can hardly remember Samhain now, so greatly am I anticipating the coming of Yule.

Samhain ritual & potluck

2008-10-25T08:12:00.003-04:00

As a reminder, we are celebrating Samhain next Sunday 11/2/8 at just dark.

Gathering after 4:30 -Ritual around 6 - Potluck dinner after that.

Don't forget to breathe, bring something you've let go of.

RSVP

Offically ADF- Protogrove Staus- Woohoo

2008-10-24T16:29:00.004-04:00

the leaves are falling in droves and we've had 2 nights of frost. I know it's cold but seeing the sun in a million crystals on the trees and grass sure is pretty.
Samhain aproaches with it's usual upheavals forcing summer to end and the winter to hold fast.

But on this day, October 24 2008, Our Whole Protogrove is born

or founded or recognized.

Autumn Equinox was this pivotal point of balance.

2008-10-19T20:19:00.002-04:00

Juggling schedules, opportunities and events, we came together. Earlier than originally planned and then a bit later, accommodating all that we had to do and remember. This harvest time of plenty. Concord grapes, berries and tomatoes and the many roots- golden and burgundy beets and pale turnips and orange carrots of all sizes (even the miniscule).
Beautiful weather and friends. Uncle Magoo came up from NC with newly carved runes, Lovisa and Tolin came with pizza and juice (kid food deluxe), Aunt Lisa came from Woodstock with lentil soup and of course Elizabeth, radiant in her smoke-free body, came with the ever present chicken! Thanks everyone for adjusting to my sudden need to rebalance our timing.
I had been thinking a lot about renewal, rejoicing, rebounding, recording, reviving – all the “re” words as we were approaching a mercury retrograde at this time and the usual need to revamp and revisit our choices. With that in mind, we kept our offerings simple, our fire small and ourselves relaxed.
After feeding the kids and putting our food to warm in the oven we gently and silently processed to the central fire, the bird flying and swooping overhead, and found our places on the earth around the circle. The sun shining made everything feel like summer again if only for a brief moment.
Us and the bird and the Kindreds bathed in the brilliant light of a blazing autumn afternoon and ethereal fire. Leaves beginning to change, us beginning to change, realizing the coming end of summer and acknowledging with deep gratitude the bounty of our harvest. Our silent-ish offerings, always appropriate and rarely, it seems, like what we plan. The children pulled Magoo’s new runes for divination which phonetically spelled his last name. The bird coming through again for the final sacrifice- our bean pods, our corn husks, our dried grasses. Offering all the flowers, all the tomatoes, all the libations, all our prayers and thanks.

Our runes were as follows:
From the Ancestors: Berkana- Birch or beginnings, birth
From the Spirits of Nature & Place: Odul or Othila- sacred enclosure
From the Gods & Godesses: Manuz- self
For the Season: Nauthiz – need

So it felt like we never wanted to leave the circle or like we were enveloped in this glow of the end of summer and we did not need to move on. The infinite point that is balance.
I don’t remember recessing back to the deck, though I remember our feasting.

And now it is 2 weeks until Samhain. Already many leaves are down- we walk ankle deep across the lawn crunching them in the brisk air. Each day there is noticeably less daylight. We clear out the garden and make the last of the sauces, pile pumpkins, dig out roots, harvest seeds, and dream of next year’s sowing.

becoming real or what's in a name or the spiritual art of paperwork

2008-10-13T19:44:00.005-04:00

While the belated autumn equinox entry brews, I thought I would put out that we have submitted our ADF paperwork registration and have started the process to become an officially recognized (proto)Grove. What does that mean? Well, many things- mainly organizational. As Bryan is already a fully ordained Priest, we don't have to jump through that hoop (though others would now be able to join us and then persue the dedicant path if they so choose.) But now we will get to be listed on lists, and Bryan (as clergy) will have a home grove, and we will be able to go out into the world as a group with a name and who know where that leads one.

Druid Harvest Celebration

2008-09-13T15:37:00.001-04:00

Devotion to the Earth is a natural practice born of common wisdom. Harvest festivals are in the tradition of coming together and sharing our bounty at the end of the growing season. Druid Priest Bryan Perrin marks this balance of day and night with an experiential workshop, “The Autumnal Equinox: Reaping the Harvest” at Mirabai of Woodstock on Sunday 9/21 from 2-4pm.
Perrin’s lecture focuses on the concepts of reward, nourishment, the Celtic Wheel of the Year, and the process of change and exchange that is life. He will then lead a ritual honoring the Earth Mother as provider in a modern interpretation of the Ancient agricultural custom of bringing the harvest home. With gratitude we seek the aid of our kindred spirits- Ancestors, Spirits of Nature and Place, Gods and Goddesses- to secure our fair share. Traditional ritual format involves opening of the Gates between the Worlds, offerings to the Kindreds, and the blessing and sharing of the waters of life.
Bryan Perrin has been a practicing Neopagan Druid for over 20 years. In 2002 he was made fully Ordained Druid Clergy of Ár nDraíocht Féin, an international Druid organization. He is the leader of Our Whole ProtoGroup, a family friendly collective celebrating the holidays in the Hudson Valley. An artist and teacher, Perrin crafts Pagan Products such as Idolatry, ritual vestments and ceremonial accoutrements. He designs and creates sacred landscapes for gardens, ritual space for homes and seasonal altars for spirits.
To register for this workshop, contact Mirabai at 679-2100 or go to their website at www.mirabai.com or for more information please send an email to info@bryanperrinstudio.com .