Ritual Needs:
Small bowl of water
Small bowl of earth
Stick incense (2)
Offering bowl
Recelsfæt & Coal
Cauldron/Well
Eormensyl (either a real tree, or a suitable image)
Mead horn
Mead
Silver for the well
Artemisia
Rosemary
Stór
Oats
Basket of eggs, hard boiled
Drum for knelling
Pre-ritual briefing.
RITE BEGINS: NINE KNELLS
OPENING STATEMENT:
We cumaþ tó gebréman þa hálig wihtes!
SONG: “Come Follow Me”
CONSECRATION OF SPACE
Water: May the waters around us bless and hold you.
Earth: May the land below us bless and hold you.
Incense: May the sky above us bless and hold you.
WARDING (Carry lantern around perimeter of ritual area):
Fyr ic bere ymbe friðgearde,
Ond béode gehwilc útlendan fleogan aweg!
(Offers mead)
Þunor, accept this offering and ward this holy place.
MEAD OF INSPIRATION (Hold up mead horn):
Behold the mead of inspiration,
Dwarf-brew, Ettins’ hoard.
May it touch our lips and strengthen our hearts.
May our songs be sweet and strong.
May our words be wrought with Wyrd.
With mortal voices from Middle Earth we call to highest heaven!
Let the song-mead inspire us.
Grant us this blessing! Grant us this grace!
HONORING THE EARTH MOTHER:
Earth, Divine Goddess, Mother Nature,
Who generates all things
And brings forth anew the Sun, which you have given to the nations,
Guardian of sky and sea, of all Gods and powers;
Through your power all Nature falls silent and then sinks into sleep.
And again you bring back the light, and chase away the night,
And you cover us yet most securely with your shadows.
You contain chaos infinite, yes, and wind and showers and storms.
You send them out when you will and cause the sea to roar;
You chase away the Sun and arouse the storm.
Again, when you will, you send forth the joyous day
And give the nourishment of Life with your eternal surety.
And when the soul departs, to you we return.
You are duly called the Great Mother of the Gods; you conquer by your divine name.
You are the source of the strength of nations and of gods.
Without you nothing can be brought to perfection or be born;
You are great, Queen of the Gods.
Goddess, I adore you as divine; I call upon your name
And give thanks to you, with due faith.
GROVE ATTUNEMENT:
Close your eyes and breathe deeply…breathe in from your belly…in…and out…and with each breath, allow your body to relax…let your breath carry away tension from your flesh…relaxing your feet and legs…your belly and chest and shoulders…relaxing your arms and hands…relaxing your face and mouth and eyes…
Now, with your body still and calm, imagine a mist around you…feel yourself move through the mist to a place between land and water…a shoreline…listen to the sounds around you…hear the water lapping against the shore…feel the water swirl around your feet…let the water rise up within you, into your legs…rising…into your loins, pooling into a cauldron of primal power there…you breathe and the water moves upward…rising through your loins, through your spine to fill the cauldron of your heart with healing energy…rising further up your spine and into your head where it pools into a cauldron of wisdom and vision behind your eyes…
Now imagine the sky overhead…the sun and moon and, far beyond them, the stars…imagine a single star at the center of the sky, shining directly over your head…see a flash of light shining down from that star…streaming down until it touches your head, filling and illuminating the cauldron there…starlight over the still water, shining from above…flowing down into your heart…warming the cauldron of healing…shining downward to reach your loins…the light awakens the power there with renewed awareness…
Feel yourself shining and flowing with the chaos of potential and the light of world order…these powers are balanced within you…yours to shape and use, always…but for now allow the powers to recede…allow the waters to return to the primal sea, the light to return to the heavens…breathe deep…and allow your awareness to return…as you open your eyes.
RECREATING THE COSMOS:
(offer silver into the waters)
We leave this offering within the Well of Wyrd, deep within the earth.
May the dwarves bear witness to our sacrifice.
(offer incense)
We leave this offering to the Sunlight Realm above. May the smoke carry our devotion upward.
May the elves bear witness to our sacrifice.
(cense and aspurge the Eormensyl)
The roots of the Eormensyl are nourished in the waters of Wyrd.
Its infinite limbs reach to the Sunlight Realm and beyond.
Woden’s steed, greatest of trees, spanning the worlds of Gods and men.
Between the light above and the waters below, we gather at the Sacred Tree.
THE CREATION MYTH:
Before time and space and order, there was only fire and ice,
And between these a gaping void.
From out of the north poured endless frost,
To meet with endless flame raging from the south.
Coming together, spiraling and swirling, until within the void a Middle Earth formed.
Neither cold nor hot, neither dark nor light, but covered in twilight.
And in this twilight the earth produced Tuisto, the first of all things.
Male and female was he, and from him all Gods and Powers emerged.
A war then raged among the Mighty Ones,
Until there was a peace between the Oses and Wanes.
The Wanes then built mighty halls in the world that lies beyond the western sea;
The Oses took the highest heavens as their home and set a wall around it.
And together they drove the Ettins to the world beyond the dawn.
Thus the Mighty Ones came to dwell in the outermost worlds traversed by the Glory of Elves.
And the Oses then espied, between these realms, two trees growing in the Middle World.
Two trees, standing along the seacoast, an ash and an elm,
With no destiny assigned to them;
With no wód, nor willa, nor blód.
The gods gave each of the trees three gifts;
To each tree, the breath of inspiration, the power of intellect, and a divine form.
And so from the ash tree came the first man, and from the elm the first woman.
Like the ash and the elm,
Our spiritual roots reach down, even now, to seek nourishment in the waters below;
To seek nourishment in the Well of Wyrd.
Wód inspires us to reach upward to the light.
Like the ash and the elm, each of us is like unto the Great Tree that spans the worlds.
The Fire; the Well; the Sacred Tree;
Flow and flame and grow in me!
(All repeat)
The Fire; the Well; the Sacred Tree;
Flow and flame and grow in me!
CALLING THE GATEKEEPER:
One-Eyed Woden,
World-wanderer, wolf-lord, wild wondrous windmaster!
Hooded and cloaked you walk between the worlds.
Woden, accept our sacrifice!
(pour libation of mead)
Give us your blessing!
Open a way between the worlds
that our prayers and praise might be heard
in the halls above, below and beyond this Middle Earth.
Woden! You who hear all!
Hear us now, and let the gates be opened!
(Three knells signal the opening of the gate.)
HONORING THE KINDRED:
For the Elves (Artemisia is recommended as an incense offering)
I give this offering to the spirits who dwell in this place.
To elf and dwarf,
Woodwose and wight,
Moss-wife and púca and hob.
Good neighbors, we honor you!
(All repeat: Good neighbors, we honor you!)
For the Ancestors (rosemary is recommended as an incense offering)
I give this offering to the ancestors who have brought us to this place.
Across the ages we call to you!
Ancestors of blood, who’ve given us worldly form;
Ancestors of spirit, whose inspiration illuminates the path before us.
Ancestors, we honor you!
(All repeat: Ancestors, we honor you!)
For the Gods (stór is recommended as an incense offering)
I give this offering to the Mighty Ones who have blessed this place.
You who dwell in the celestial heavens,
You who dance upon the waves,
You who are found in the depths of the earth, and in the wild places.
Mighty Ones, we honor you!
(All repeat: Mighty Ones, we honor you!)
PRAISE TO EOSTRE:
(Place basket of eggs in center of friðgearde as all sing.)
When the silent, barren winter casts its frozen pall
Over trees and grassy hilltops, rivers large and small
Suddenly the snows stop falling, and from out of the cold
Comes the form of a fairy maiden as the legends fortoldLady Day, on quiet Lady Day, with blossoms in her hair
Comes the form of a fairy maiden leaving green everywhereLo the mighty fairy maiden rises from the earth
Dismal winter, gently thawing heralds her rebirth
Softly now the budding branches offer new life for old
And in splendor the holy maiden lets her mantle unfoldLady Day, on quiet Lady Day, the world is poised for spring
And in splendor the holy maiden lifts her silvery wingTreading softly through the valley, across the snowy field
She has brought the tufts of grass with every step revealed
Quietly she bares her bosom where the fountain once played
And in answer the waters come forth to the will of the Maid
(Gwydion Pendderwen, 1975)
(Singing ends, and Alaric pours oats into offering bowl)
Eostre, accept our offering! (All repeat: Eostre, accept our offering!)
INDIVIDUAL PRAISE OFFERINGS
TAKING THE OMEN
RECEIVING THE BLESSING (take up basket of eggs):
Eostre, Mægden Lenctenlic, þa æges wesað þín gástgiefa!
(Carries basket around so each celebrant may take an egg, while all sing “Snowdrops and Bluebells”.)
FAREWELL TO THE KINDRED:
Mighty Ones, Ancestors, Spirits of this world,
May there ever be peace among us.
We thank you for your many blessings.
Wassail!
FAREWELL TO THE GATEKEEPER:
Woden!
You who wander between the worlds!
One-eyed, hooded and wise beyond all knowing.
We give thanks for helping us to open the Way!
Let the gate be now closed!
(Three knells signal the closing of the gate.)
RETURN TO MIDDLE EARTH:
Close your eyes for a moment and take a deep breath… let your spirit return fully to this Middle World…let the Great Tree fade into the mists…let the recelsfæt become an ordinary smoldering coal…the Well of Wyrd, a simple vessel of water…take a deep breath…step into this world…and open your eyes.
FINAL OFFERING:
We give thanks to you, Þunor, for warding this sacred space.
From the gods, to the earth, to us;
From us, to the earth, to the gods!
NINE KNELLS
(Song: “Walk With Wisdom”)
