Offerings of food
A question regarding offerings:-
If one is making a food offering on, for example, a Samhain altar, what is done with the food afterwards? Is it buried? Composted? Eaten? It seems wasteful to offer food, then bury it - it also seems strange to offer food, and then eat it yourself, or serve it to others.
What is your practice with regards to food offerings?
February Full Moon
The temperature was noticeably cooler around the full moon, on 12 February, 2006. The sweltering heat of January had dissipated (although it made a reappearance the following week.) There were a couple of days of pleasant rain. The swamp banksia has grown, so that it reaches my shoulders, and the frangipani has put on a few more leaves. I planted herbs in pots during the waxing moon - garlic chives, thyme and basil - and plan to add several more to the increasingly fragrant verandah, including sage, parsley, and rosemary; all for combined culinary and magical purposes.
This month I did more personal growth stuff, as I term it - I made a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, which includes a lot of adventurous stuff that takes me outside my comfort zone, and did a workshop where I had to present a case in front of an audience and a pretend judge - I felt surprisingly comfortable. In a week I'm flying to Melbourne to visit my grandmother, who is turning 91. I don't think she'll live to see my wedding next year, and I am at peace with that. She is tired. After a period of sadness this month, I am feeling much more cheerful, and looking forward to spending time with my mother in Melbourne, whom I haven't seen for about 8 months.
Names for this moon used in the Northern Hemisphere are Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Bone Moon and Wolf Moon - not terrible appropriate for the warm weather and long days of our February. From my experiences of February, I would name this moon Planting Moon, Long Twilight Moon, or Grass Moon (because of all the mowing we've had to do this month.)
Blue moon
There are two full moons in June of 2007, and the second one falls on a Saturday - the last day of June.
I simply have to be married on that Saturday. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be married on a blue moon?
Trust
I stood on the pavement at the train station, waiting for C to pick me up. A gloriously pink sunset was sprawled across the horizon, and the puddles scattered over the carpark reflected small pink and blue clouds. I remembered a passage in
Twelve Wild Swans which described a street party where deep puddles were surrounded with greenery, and candles floated in them, so that people paused and gathered, gazing into those reflective meditative pools.
When I arrived home, I dripped patchouli and juniper oil into the burner on the household altar, and rubbed a little of the dark, spicy scent on my wrists. I lit candles, and watched their light flicker over the goddess statue, who gazed at me, arms folded over her chest. I am re-reading
Book of Shadows , and my hands itch to fill my spice cabinet with herbs and candles, to make magic once more. It has been years since I have cast a spell. I grew to afraid, too cynical. I'm ready to bring magic into my life once more.
I will work for several very intimately related things this year - to be more confident, to worry less, to trust more in my intuition. I was thinking over this at the train station, when the wind blew up suddenly, and raised a chill from my scalp to me feet. This is the right direction.
Moon
The full moon last night rose above the trees, and I went and sat out in the back garden, in the cool night air. The trees were illuminated in its cool grey light, and I sat underneath the mango, looking up into the sky.
My love is poured upon the earth, I whispered.
Goddess, take away this sadness. Fill me up with your light. Let me be cleansed by it, renewed, refreshed. I felt enormously peaceful, sitting there in the half-darkness. The branches of the mango tree shifted occasionally in the breeze, rustling gently. I was sitting by my neglected outdoor altar, and decided suddenly to take my goddess statue inside, to place on the household altar. She is wasted there, under the trees, as She is so manifestly present that I need no representation. Being under the trees and the full moon is enough. She pours into my soul.
Prayers
Michael Leunig is a Melbourne cartoonist who wrote
A Common Prayer, a book of strange and beautiful little prayers, several of which I have added to my very eclectic liturgy. I alter them with "Goddess" or "Gods" as I please, or leave them as they are, depending on my mood. I also generally leave the "Amen" off, as it's not a word that particularly resonates with me, or replace it with "Be blessed."
God, help us to live slowly;
To move simply;
To look softly;
To allow emptiness;
To let the heart create for us.
God rest us.
Rest that part of us which is tired.
Awaken that part of us which is asleep.
God awaken us and awake within us.
Amen.
Let us live in such a way
That when we die
Our love will survive
And continue to grow.
Amen.
Dear God
We loosen our grip
We open our hand.
We are accepting.
In our empty hand
We feel the shape
Of simple eternity.
It nestles there.
We hold it gently
We are accepting.
Amen.
Message
I asked, "How shall I speak to you? How can I make my ritual speak to me?"
And she said, "Poetry."
Breath
(J. Daniel Beaudry)
Tree, gather up my thoughts
like the clouds in your branches.
Draw up my soul
like the waters in your root.
In the arteries of your trunk
bring me together.
Through your leaves
breathe out the sky.
Woods (Wendell Berry)
I part the out thrusting branches
and come in beneath
the blessed and the blessing trees.
Though I am silent
there is singing around me.
Though I am dark
there is vision around me.
Though I am heavy
there is flight around me.
Invocations
As part of my practice this year, I'm beginning, for the first time, to create a Book of Shadows, a personal record of invocations, chants and rituals (most of them, hopefully, personally created).
This decision reminded me of a song cycle I attempted to write several years ago, as part of a pagan singing group, of the story of Persephone. I became really caught up in creating my little songs, and it was an excellent way to connect to the myth. As my focus this year is on Celtic myths, I would like to do a similar project.
With one touch of my handThe world changed around meHe took my light awayI could not seeDarkness surrounds me, presses my skinI'm falling into endless nightI struggle and stretch against the fallBut his arms they clasp me tightI turn toward the darknessBeg to be allowed to riseThen pause and gaze, such stillness,Into his raven eyes
Wedding
Since becoming engaged last week, I've been reading various books on wedding vows (yes, I do believe in being prepared early), and have been considering how to insert a pagan flavour into my civil vows with an agnostic man.
I would like to include blessings by the elements within the ceremony - something like, "May the waters and the rivers of the land bless your love. May the southern wind bless your love." I was quite inspired by a brief read of Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein's
Handfasting and Wedding Rituals, which has many good examples of pagan vows (although none of them quite as subtle as I'd like).
I'm quite attracted to the idea of a handfasting element within the ceremony as well - I'm planning to map out a couple of things I find attractive, and then begin negotiations with my partner. It's not essential for me to have pagan aspects to the ceremony - we're marrying outdoors, which is important to me. But I'd like to have the elements mentioned by the celebrant - they're an important part of my spiritual life, and how I view the world.
Celtic Australian Witchcraft
I've just finished reading
Ly De Angeles' When I See the Wild God: Encountering Urban Celtic Witchcraft, which I really enjoyed. This book was previously published in the late 80s as
Way of Merlyn under Ly Warren-Clarke, although I think this is a revised and updated edition.
De Angeles is an Australian witch, and this book is very much grounded in her own Celtic practice, and concentrates particularly on the God, and connecting with him. It was fascinating to read something so God focussed, especially written by a woman, although I especially enjoyed the sections which focussed on her version of the Wheel of the Year, as that's something I'm focussing on this year.
Obviously, there were parts of this book I disagreed with - De Angeles' fairly strict and traditional ritual structure, and her quite savage attack on overweight pagans - however overall, it was an extremely interesting and enlightening book. Fascinating reading for Australian pagans who have Celtic leanings.
