What we do?
We create this space by either acknowledging the directions (can be four, seven, or eight, depending). Or by recreating the cosmos (on a minor level) via land, sea, and sky, using well, fire, and tree. We're flexible. We haven't settled on one route and that has not been a hindrance.
Four: air, fire, water, earth -- the directions are East, South, West, and North. We set candles at each place in colors we deem appropriate (usually yellow for East, Red for South, Blue for West, and Green for North -- though it could easily be black for North, White for South, Red for East, and Grey for West as in Doreen Valiente's poem/chant.)
Seven: This is both Faerie and Native American. It includes the four directions put up,down, and inward.
Eight: This one is Norse, calling the keepers of the directions for Northri, Austri, Suthrie, and Vestri (four dwarves), plus above, below, inward, and outward. Outward contains the directed energy of the rune ring which has been called.
Three: This is Celtic.
If you're not familiar with any of this, it would seem strange to you. We are erecting a "house not made by hands". We are becoming "lively stones built up into a spiritual house". (2nd Corinthians 5:2,
1 Peter 2:5)
We set up our place of worship in whatever ways we do it. A place set apart and made holy. We cleanse it with the sweep of a broom or by a wave of the smudge stick (usually sage).
Then we honor our Kindred, those who share this earth with us in the unseen world, (the cousins) land spirits, house wights, -- faeries, if you will -- and our Ancestors, some of whom walked along these same spiritual paths, and the Shining Ones which are the Gods, Goddesses, Archetypes, Storied Ones.
We give them offerings of grain or apple cider or wine, depending on who they are and what our purpose in meeting is.
Sometimes we have a prayer or spell to do. Spell is word that just got a big frown, if you are not actually familiar with what this is, or if you have some idea that we are causing your chickens not to lay eggs and your cows milk to curdle. So let me tell you a spell we do.
A friend is looking for a good apartment. She has to move because the house she was renting has been sold. So we have her draw a picture of what she would like to find. Then we take a candle and we anoint it with oil and we set the candle on top of the picture. We may have added cinnamon to the oil, because the smell of cinnamon reminds her of home.
Another friend needs a healing, so we take a white string and we begin to tie nine knots in the string, while holding the intent of her healing in mind as we tie the knots, tying the energy into the string. She is to burn the string and release the energy.
We take up our drums and begin to move in a circle and chant. Our chant might be: "We all come from the Mother and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean."
When all the prayers and spells have been done, we say farewell to the Unseen friends we believe have gathered with us, we "take down" our special -- place that is not a place in a time that is not a time -- and restore all as it was before.
Except all is not as it was before. We are changed. We have courage and hope where it wasn't before. We have conditioned our minds to work with the energy of the Universe to good ends. This is the nature of ritual. This is what it does.
In case you wanted to know.
We set up our place of worship in whatever ways we do it. A place set apart and made holy. We cleanse it with the sweep of a broom or by a wave of the smudge stick (usually sage).
Then we honor our Kindred, those who share this earth with us in the unseen world, (the cousins) land spirits, house wights, -- faeries, if you will -- and our Ancestors, some of whom walked along these same spiritual paths, and the Shining Ones which are the Gods, Goddesses, Archetypes, Storied Ones.
We give them offerings of grain or apple cider or wine, depending on who they are and what our purpose in meeting is.
Sometimes we have a prayer or spell to do. Spell is word that just got a big frown, if you are not actually familiar with what this is, or if you have some idea that we are causing your chickens not to lay eggs and your cows milk to curdle. So let me tell you a spell we do.
A friend is looking for a good apartment. She has to move because the house she was renting has been sold. So we have her draw a picture of what she would like to find. Then we take a candle and we anoint it with oil and we set the candle on top of the picture. We may have added cinnamon to the oil, because the smell of cinnamon reminds her of home.
Another friend needs a healing, so we take a white string and we begin to tie nine knots in the string, while holding the intent of her healing in mind as we tie the knots, tying the energy into the string. She is to burn the string and release the energy.
We take up our drums and begin to move in a circle and chant. Our chant might be: "We all come from the Mother and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean."
When all the prayers and spells have been done, we say farewell to the Unseen friends we believe have gathered with us, we "take down" our special -- place that is not a place in a time that is not a time -- and restore all as it was before.
Except all is not as it was before. We are changed. We have courage and hope where it wasn't before. We have conditioned our minds to work with the energy of the Universe to good ends. This is the nature of ritual. This is what it does.
In case you wanted to know.
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