Yuletide Greetings & Best Wishes of the New Year- part 1

  

On the Eve of this New Year
full of wonder and chocolate
 and gratitude
and good food and friends,
we pray daily for peace.

Let there be clean water for all beings.
Let there be safety and security
in the adventures of life.
Let there be joy and laughter
among the difficulties
and may the comfort of community
be nourishing.

Let this season
renew our body/mind/spirit
and focus our love, 
as the daylight slowly increases
-almost imperceptibly-
first seconds now minutes more.

 What is your deepest longing?
What is your intention?
What is your prayer?

the Gods & the not-Gods: Lughnasad Ritual

much work and schedule and timing and stuff and energy

So I get home in time to just start and unwind a bit
from the day, the week, the season
and then he arrives and Bryan is making coffee
and we put out all the snacks as food
and she arrives
though by the good fortune of the spirits of awareness
leaves soon after
and we gather and eat and catch up and then she arrives
and we talk more.

Teenager opting out and relaxing in our room with the cats after two weeks of work and obligation.

Stories of life and family and then of Lugh and his family
the interconnections of us all and the retelling of stories and stories of stories.

We are as always days before engaged 
in conscious and unconscious ritual and ritual prep,
the thoughts of the holiday as worship,
the planning of time as rite and ceremony.

Sometimes one forgets, especially in the hubbub
and the daily grind and the electronic devices
and the commitments,
the need for organized special reverence and gratitude.

But the body and spirit don’t forget.

beer offering through the woods for the woods
very centered meditation
feeling in the body, the earth, the water, the air

lumpy milk Earth Mother offering
Bryan welcoming the directions and I see
ripening elderberries in the West
and call out healing to go alongside conflict in the North.

the last of our cherries for Bridget,
a whole loaf of bread flung in slices for the outdwellers.
Smoldering sweetgrass.

beer for the gates and for Mananan
small flickering flame then steady and strong
but not scary

  our apples for our Kindred
a glowing cauldron soup of fruit and broth and prayers
and gratitude

all kinds of gratitude for gifts of harvest
prayers for good harvest
honoring family

giving all our sacrifice,
chocolates, beer, sage, flowers, fruit
even our thank you offerings-
when honoring gratitude for harvest 
put everything in there was a single glowing cloud overhead

Bryan shuffled the omens 

 So first Bryan drew virtue cards and then runes.

From the Ancestors: the virtue card was Hospitality and the rune was Isa or ice. Made me think of a hostess offering a chilled beverage on a hot day.

From the Spirits of Nature & Place: the virtue card was Vision and the rune was the one for horse or the relationship between horse or vehicle & rider. Like what you see when you are in tune with yourself and nature or like if you were up on a horse how you could see a bit farther.  

From the Gods & Goddesses: the virtue card was Perseverance and the rune was Wunjo or JOY!


For the Season: the virtue card was Wisdom and the rune was Ansuz or the voice.

So yeah it’s all good.

offering thanks with our blessed waters.
so grateful and moved.
released by the closing meditation into our bodies.
bird calls throughout.

finding our way back
through the disorienting less wooded woods
making dinner out of side dishes and snacks
and talking long into the dark.

Mid Summer Solstice past

this season started full and fruitful and on schedule
and then everything changed.
we participated in the greening, the summer, early dawns, the endless cycle of blooming and tending
with no time to write about ritual
being so much in the present of each day.
And then everything changed.

Not everything-just us, our lives, our daily rituals,
replaced with the ritual of hospital trips,
the checking of vital signs,
coordination and advocacy and endless fruitless tests.

At one point I dreamed we were walking
and the leaves were turning and it was so beautiful,
but I wondered where summer had gone.
And now we can walk together once again
on our gentle Earth Mother,
we can walk together to offer prayers and gratitude
to our dear Bridget,
we can sit together like normal
in the new normal.
Notes from our solstice ritual:

everything on schedule, setting up and eating and cleaning.
as always people cancel and others show up
4 full families holding ritual
and additional ones before and after.
Kids and babies and snacks and water.
 

my often disaffected teenager tells me:
”I just know this is going to be a great ritual”

So much color and light.

Discussion of the nemeton before ritual,
the Order of Ritual especially shared for those folks who have never been here,
detailing the sacred space,
and detailed discussion after ritual
of the lore of the sacred center.

processing as family
across the land into the woods, over the moss to our center.





more than enough offerings
never enough gratitude
birds, crickets, stream & a plane. 
Listen.

standing on the Earth grounded
& then
standing on the Earth letting go.

gratitude of yogurt, then birch tea, then water
and more clean water.
 
endless handfuls of flower petals
rose petals heart shaped
love.
 
pinnacle and what is not the pinnacle
remove the false pinnacle.

flaming ball of chocolate.
siren call at some important time
dollar bill sacrifice.
”hear and answer us-give us a sign”
flame extinguished immediately
and then just as quickly re-alived.

our omens:

from our Ancestors: need
from the Spirits: Ing
from the Gods & Goddesses:year
for the Season: fee
Need-Ing the Yearly Fee-what we need, what we do, our annual harvesting, and what things cost

women by the fire at night
summer vacation begins

summer time hey hey hey hey
laughing in the summer time
loving in the summer time.