cbogs_dedicant

Rite Recap: Solitary Autumn Equinox Rite, 9/23/07
Location: Home Shrine

I was out of town for Spiral Spirit's rite; I was camping, which seems like the ideal location for a druid to celebrate a ritual.  I was seated in front of my campfire with a cup of water, an oak tree and some sacrifices, and I'd just gotten halfway through doing the Two Powers meditation when I was re-joined by one of my (Jewish, not druish) camping companions, who wanted company.  So in the end I just waited until I got home and could rely on the privacy of my home shrine to observe the Equinox.

The ritual I used was the Simple Rite of Offering from the DP handbook, augmented with particular recognitions of the Festival.  I poured an offering of whisky to the Outdwellers out the living room window before I went in to my shrine.  For the Earth Mother invocation, I followed the form we'd used at Spiral Spirit's midsummer rite and offered old-world oats and new-world cornmeal with the RDNA Earth Mother prayer.  Silver was given to the well, oil to the fire, and I asperged and smudged myself and the shrine before offering to Cernunnos as Gatekeeper.  I opened the gates and began the offerings.

I used Talisker whisky, most of the last of the bottle that was given to us at our wedding (we don't drink whisky much; I'll need to buy another bottle of whisky just for my rites -- it adds an extra-punchy dimension of feeling to the words "the blessing flows and shines in me" after you swallow it at the blessing!)  I offered to Belenos and Damona as primary patrons of the rite; as they are a solar/lunar pair it seemed fitting at the Equinox.

The omen was as follows:

Ancestors:  hagalaz
Spirits:  elhaz
Gods:   wunjo

Hagalaz and elhaz are both protection runes; wunjo is harmony, joy and fellowship.  Hagalaz and elhaz also share a certain aspect of harmony; hagalaz symbolizes harmony within oneself, and elhaz harmony with the Kindreds. With wunjo as harmony with one's fellow humans, this is a bright and welcome omen.

I made a final offering and sent as much gratitude and love through the gate as I could along with the offering, and then accepted the return flow and drank the whisky.  It burned within me, all right.  I then said my thanks to the Kindreds and the Gatekeeper, and closed the gates with his help.  I thanked the Mother again and ended the rite.        

I would like to find ways to make my solitary Festival rites more representative of the Festivals themselves; while I am hoping to more regularly be able to attend Grove rites there will doubtless be occasions when I have to observe them alone and it would be beneficial to be prepared with more ways to differentiate these rites from my standard devotions.   

Let a man hold the cup,
yet of the mead drink moderately,
speak sensibly or be silent.
As of a fault
no man will admonish thee,
if thou goest betimes to sleep.

–Hávamál 19

Hospitality as an act of reciprocal giving is at the root of the sacrificial traditions of Our Druidry, making contemplation and an attempt to achieve a thorough understanding of this virtue essential to effective Druidic practice.  Hospitality as practiced between ourselves and the Kindreds mirrors the hospitality we are probably more familiar with in our this-worldly lives.

Hosting a guest in your home is a disruption no matter how willing you are to have them stay.  The fact that “host” and “guest” both come from the IE root *ghosti, with its encompassing meaning of “stranger,” points to a fact of hospitality: being a host or being hosted is a very intimate experience as we partake in aspects of each other’s lives that we ordinarily do not.  For some of us this sort of intimacy can be quite uncomfortable.  I admit that often, even when I agree that we can host someone, I do not manifest this virtue wholeheartedly but out of a sense of duty.  Regardless of the degree to which I am feeling welcome, however,  I try to strike that artful balance between solicitousness and a laissez-faire “leave them alone” approach.  When staying at someone else’s home, it is likewise important to me to be a considerate and appreciative guest as at least partial repayment for that inconvenience.  We have had many guests who were well-behaved, as well as a few who were disastrous enough to make me want never to put a friend through that!

The concept of reciprocity in these interactions is important: when our generosity is met with disrespect then the likelihood that a guest will be welcome to stay again is very low, and we can expect that if we’re not good guests we won’t be invited back.  Not only this, but if a guest is being a mooch or otherwise not holding up his end of the *ghosti transaction we are less likely to give as generously of our goods and time as we would otherwise.  Likewise with the Kindreds: we cannot expect their assistance and alliance if we do not hold up our end of the bargain at least as well as they do.

One aspect of most religions nowadays is the concept of charity; Christians and Muslims among many others are enjoined to practice charity of some sort by their faiths.  In my experience Pagans do not often talk about charity as a religious duty; I believe part of this is the result of Paganism being the reconstitution of faiths from days when charity was not seen as a virtue separate from that of hospitality.  In many of the cultures we look to, one would ideally not drop coins in the cup of a vagrant or transient—one would take him into one’s house and feed him and give him shelter as best as one could: charity and hospitality were one and the same.  The realities of modern life prevent this from being a prudent course of action, but some do manifest this form of hospitality in other ways.  I think particularly of two ladies from the Christian church I attended: Lee Ann Draud and her adopted teenage daughter Nikki.  These women’s ministry took the form of organizing and running the University City Hospitality Coalition (there’s that word again) which Lee Ann has done since 1990, and which Nikki has done all her life.  UCHC feeds the hungry at no charge—and with no religious obligations attached—six nights a week in the West Philadelphia area in various church halls, and the vast bulk of the work falls to these two women.  This taking in of hungry people and maintaining them by feeding them well is a deep form of hospitality; for those of us who cannot do this sort of work, donating to similar worthy causes can be a way to increase hospitality towards the needy.

Lugunassatis (Gaulish), or Lughnassadh (Irish), is one of the four greater festivals in the pagan year and one of the four great fire festivals of the Celtic year.  Falling around the first of August in the commonest modern reckoning, this festival celebrates the first fruits of the harvest.  Named for the god Lugos / Lugh, this festival is an excellent time to thank the Kindreds for the burgeoning crops and to give offerings to request that the later-ripening crops not be damaged by storms, blight, or any other ill.

Lugunassatis is also a traditional time for the ingathering of the Tribes.  Because the myths hold that after Lugh’s foster-mother Tailtiu was killed in battle with the Fomorians, he began to hold annual games in honor of her, some modern Pagans hold races, challenges and games among the gathered people as part of their celebrations.

Courage: The ability to manifest right action despite fear, uncertainty or difficulties.