Ritual Behaviour

Hello my fellow travellers

It has been quite a while since my last blog, in fact it has been a exactly a month, I thank you all for staying with me but what with having to change my provider and stuff it has been a bit of a task.  So, without further ado……………………………

I have been thinking about where I should go with this one, I wanted to add another piece in before I start on the second part of our journey around the Wheel of the Year.  I was thinking long and hard about this as I wanted it to be relevant to what is going on next.  This led me to think about my Rituals, I thought that a good thing to do about this would be to describe how I prepare and conduct my Rituals and the tools I use for them.  I noticed whilst transferring my website over, I have a section for them but I just put down what I have done and nothing really much about how I go about getting ready for them.  I hope you find this interesting and possibly useful.

 

I divide my Rituals I guess into three groups

1. My main Ceremonies, these are the four main ones Winter Solstice (Alban Arthan), Spring Equinox (Alban Eiler), Summer Solstice (Alban Hefen), and Autumn Equinox (Alban Elfed)
2. My Cross Quarter Ceremonies, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasadh, and Samhain
3. Daily Rituals and other Ceremonies.

All of these are a very important part of my journey its just the different ways I go about them I guess.  The Main Rituals and Cross Quarter Rituals all form part of the Wheel of the Year, I divide them into two groups, not because of any higher significance but purely a personal thing to me.

 

I look at the main four as a physical sign dividing my year. The Winter Solstice, Alban Arthan, Yule, this is signified to me by the period of darkness, the long drawn out cold nights, the low winter sun and the frost forming on the ground, a period of rest and hibernation

We move onto The Spring Equinox, Alban Eiler, this is the first time of equal light and darkness, the nights start to get a little lighter, things are starting to happen, shoots coming out of the ground all the animal people starting to mate ready to bring new life into the world.

We continue round to Summer Solstice, Alban Hefin, a period of long sunny days and short nights, a time of being out enjoying the warmth that our father sun provides for us.

Then finally round to the Autumn Equinox, Alban Elfed, this is the second time in the wheel that the light and dark are of equal proportions leading us into the dark times.  A time of preparation for the dark months ahead.

 

The four Cross quarter Ceremonies Are to me not signified by a physical change like the movement of the Sun and moon as are the four main ones but are important dates in the Wheel.  Each has its own special place and its own special meaning.  Which I will talk more about as we work the Wheel.

How Do I Prepare for these

I pretty much prepare for these eight festivals in the same way, from sun up the day before I start my Ritual process, this for me involves the beginning of my fasting time.  I generally fast from sun up to sun up as a way to cleanse my physical body as well as my mind.  As with my daily ritual I begin by going out into my garden giving my thanks to Moon and Sun for their presence.  I also have a short meditation session for this.  Longer in the warmer months for obvious reasons, (I am getting older).  My day is then spent doing what ever needs to be done in my daily life but making sure that I get out in nature as much as I can.

I spend some time in the day preparing the Rite, I have usually been working on this over the days prior to the ceremony so it is usually just final tweaks and additions.

 

My Tools 

These are pretty standard to me throughout all of my ceremonies with just a few little changes, as I will show below

My Robes – this is the cause of many a discussion amongst various Druid Groups, should we, shouldn’t we, what colour, what style.  I try and keep my own practise to my own style as it should be, each one of us has our own individual path so therefore it makes sense that we have our own individual style.  For my main ceremonies I tend to wear my White/off white robes, no particular reason other than I want to have a difference between these and my Cross-Quarter ceremonies.  Moving on to my Cross Quarter ceremonies, for these I tend to wear a more earthy shade of robe, again my personal preference, for my daily rituals I don’t tend to wear robes as this is just a solitary practice in the confines of my garden.  Other ceremonies I will dress according to what is happening, for example a wassail I would wear my earthy colour robes, a handfasting I would wear my white robes as it is a day of significance to the couple involved.

My Staff – I have this with me for all of my ceremonies with the exception of my daily rituals.  I will talk more of my staff in the Druid Tools section of my website.

My Altar – This will have my basic requirements that can be easily transported to conduct my rituals.  The main items I would have are

1. My Altar Cloth
2. Incense – this is one of the items that I will change to suit the ceremony
3. Candles
4. My Stone
5. My Moon Water, I make this and refresh it at each full moon, using where possible all the gifts from Mother Nature, rain water, seasonal herbs and flowers, blessed overnight by the powers of the moon.
6. My Wand (This is a small Alder branch, it is my birth tree so important for me)

This is my basic set up, I will also include seasonal items to add to my Altar to represent the time and the feeling of the year.

My Altar is laid out in line with the four quarters and their respective elements,

East – Air, I use incense in this quarter

South – Fire, I use a candle in this quarter

West – Water, I use a small bowl in which I place my moon water

North – Earth, I have a small piece of Bluestone from the Preseli Hills in Wales.

I would also carry additional incense sticks that I give to the people who attend any of my ceremonies as a connection for them to the ancestors, I always have a section of the ceremony where we pay our respects to our ancestors.

I would always conduct my ceremonies at sun up if possible, after which time I would break my fast with something to eat and drink.  Lately I have been asked to conduct more public ceremonies for a small group of interested people these then are done later in the evening, on these days I usually have two ceremonies, my one at sun up and a larger gathering later in the day.

I hope you found this interesting, if you want to know more about what I do let me know and I will share with you either on here as another blog or via the Facebook group related to this website.

As always I will finish with one of my poems, this was written around Samhain but was too late to put on my blog so now seems as good a time as any, believe it or not it’s called Samhain.

 SAMHAIN

 

As the third and final harvest ends

And fruits are gathered in

To safely store for winter

As the cold times now begin

 

The hearths in all the houses

Slowly fade and die

To mark the ending of the year

As autumn says goodbye

 

A Druid to the village comes

He’s journeyed many days

To bring the fires of Samhain

And to share the older ways

 

He’s greeted by the villagers

With fresh baked bread and mead

They tell him of the harvests passed

And how they store their seed

 

He regales them with stories

And songs of times gone by

He speaks of things forgotten

And of things that made them cry

 

Then with the turning of the wheel

The sunlight slowly fades

He lights the Samhain fire

That for the villagers he’d made

 

He gives a blessing to the land

And to the sun and moon

With the ancestors remembered

who will come and join him soon

 

As on this time of Samhain

With the veil now so thin

The ancestors for just one night

Will feast amongst their kin

 

Then from the sacred Samhain fire

The villagers take a light

The hearths they will rekindle

To warm their homes this night

 

They feast with all their family

From the present and the past

And though its only for one night

The memories will last

 

Then as the sun begins to rise

To start a brand-new day

The villagers all still asleep

The Druid slips away

 

He will return to see them

As the solstice time draws near

But for now, he’s on his way

To start another year.   

 

I hope you liked that, well that’s probably enough for now, I have taken up more of your time, I will be adding to this blog more often now as I am finally set up with a format I like, thank you again for sharing my journey with me.

Take care my friends

Blessed Be /|\