Thoughts on Sabbat Ritual Timing

I may be alone in this, but I've been pulled to align my sabbat circles to different times of the day, depending on the holiday.

 

• Evening for Imbolc, since for me, one main theme of Imbolc is a burgeoning spark of spring, inherent in the seeds of life. To me, this awakening takes place deep under the soil, and so, to me, it makes sense that this circle is during the dark time of the day. Any sort of night / early morning.
• Then the flowers burst from the soil, and it’s Spring! To me, Ostara sounds a bit like a brunchy sort of sabbat, with the best time for a gathering being late morning.
• Beltane seems an early afternoon holiday to me- definitely something during the day.
• Litha feels like a mid-afternoon gathering would be best… as that tends to be when it’s the warmest, and it’s a holiday celebrating the sun.
• Lughnasadh rituals might take place in the late afternoon, as it’s the first harvest, and after a long morning and afternoon of harvesting, it seems right to revel in the harvest, while it’s still light out, before the sun begins his descent.
• Mabon is an early evening ritual for me. It’s a little cooler (usually), and it just seems right to toast the balance of equal night and day as the sun sets.
• Samhain is a ritual that, to me, requires full dark, as it’s a time of reflection, and communion with ancestors. The darkness erases the distractions that light might bring, and allows us to focus more deeply into the mysteries.
• Yule is the celebration of light, warmer times to come. To me, this would be a great holiday to have an all night candle vigil, culminating with some sort of ritual at sunrise.

 

I haven’t always followed this, and usually my energy is directed toward the coven circles, which are usually at night, but I’m going to make an effort this year to DO something during the time of day that I feel is correlated the best to each sabbat. Anyone else felt the same… or different?

 

E is for Equinox

Two equinox events grace our calendar this year. One in the Spring and one in the Autumn. During the equinox the days and nights are of equal length. From Mid December to Mid June, the nights grow shorter, and the days longer. The equinox in mid-March represents the halfway point, where the days and nights are the same amount of time. From Mid June to Mid December, the nights grow longer, and the days shorter, and the autumn equinox in September bisects these solar events, and once again, the days and nights are of equal length.

The Spring equinox represents the safe time to begin planting seeds, if you haven’t already. Spiritually, it’s a time to make some small changes toward goals chosen at Imbolc, or the new year. Themes of the Spring Equinox include new beginnings, the planting of seeds (spiritually and physically), and balance. Maiden energy reigns supreme, and the spark awakened at Imbolc now begins the first few steps to fruition. It’s a time of hoping and dreaming. Symbols include what the mainstream sees as symbols of Easter: rabbits, eggs, pastel colors, and what we think of as spring: seeds, flowers, and buds on the trees . Goddesses associated with the onset of spring: Flora, Hebe, Bloudewedd, Ostara, Persephone, Aprodite, Artemis, and Maiden goddesses.

The Fall equinox is the second of the three harvest festivals. The first harvest being at Lughnasadh/Lammas, and the final harvest at Samhain in October. Also known as Mabon, it’s a fruit harvest. This is the time to sit back, and look at what you have created during the fruitful part of the year. What have you accomplished? What should you adjust? It’s also a time to be thankful, and people include a thanksgiving rite as part of their Fall equinox festivities. Symbols of the harvest include acorns, fruit, wood and deep harvest colors- yellows, oranges, browns, as well as deep forest green and purple. Goddesses commonly honored at this sabbat are Persephone, Modron, Cerridwen, Hecate, The Morrighan, and Crone goddesses. Here are some more ideas for your Mabon/ Fall equinox.

The equinoxes are great times to center yourself, find balance, work in your garden, and align with the wheel of the year as it turns.

Spring Equinox Evocation of Hebe

Hebe is a goddess that is often honored in the spring, being that she’s a goddess of youth; the archetypical maiden. She is a goddess of spring, of flowers and of new growth. She was the cupbearer of the gods, and served ambrosia at their feast. A daughter of Zeus and Hera, she attended Aphrodite, and was eventually given in marriage to Herakles.

Spring Equinox evocation of Hebe

Hebe,
Fair maiden,
Daughter to Zeus and Hera, Bride to Herakles
Devoted daughter and sister,
She who bears the divine cup of ambrosia
Golden-crowned one,
Grace us with your presence, as we honor you in our rite of Spring!

Roasted Vegetables for Samhain

I made this super simple recipe for the coven's Samhain ritual this year.

Preheat your oven to 350%.

Cut up any sort of solid veggies:

• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Onions
• Red Potatoes
• Russet Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Carrots
• Garlic Cloves
• Bell Pepper

Spray your cookie sheet with cooking spray and layout all of your veggies. You'll want them spread out, and not on top of each other.

Put in the oven for 45 minutes. If you aren't vegan, you can take out your tray at 35 minutes, and sprinkle parmesean cheese over it, then put it back in for 10 minutes. Then, eat!

Ritual Themes and Ideas for Mabon

Below are a few themes and ideas for your Mabon rituals. :)



Balance


In circle:

• Do a guided meditation in regards to balance

• Honor Ma'at, an Egyptian goddess of justice and balance

• Figure out what is causing you imbalance, and do a bit of petition magic, burning it away



Outside of circle:

• Take some time out in nature to really feel the energy of the earth as She comes back into balance.





Thanksgiving/ Fruit Harvest

In circle:

• Have everyone bring a fruit and ask the god/dess for blessing, then make fruit salad and eat!

• Put a bunch of grapes on a plate. Pass it around, taking turns- state something that you are thankful for, eat a grape, and them place on in the offering dish

• Face each direction and give thanks to each direction, using the correspondences to guide your thanks- Finances and job (north), Passion, hobbies (south), knowledge or travel (east) and relationships or psychism (west). Come to the center, and thank the god/dess.

• Honor Abundantia- a Roman goddess of abundance and prosperity



Outside of circle:

• Actually harvest your (or neighbors) garden

• Volunteer at a soup kitchen or do a food drive

• Make mead or fruit wine

• Go apple picking





Goodbye to Summer/ Wheel Turning

In circle:

• Raise energy to aid the gods in the turning of the wheel

• Bless collected pinecones to place on the altar until Yule

• Cut open an apple to find the pentacle inside

• Honor Demeter, a mother goddess of the harvest



Outside circle:

• Do fall crafts: create a harvest wreath, make pinecone birdfeeders, apple dolls

• Shoot off any leftover 4th of July fireworks (if in America :)

• Do the last of your summer activities

• Do some canning of your harvest bounty so you'll have it in winter

• Gather leaves, seed pods, sticks- whatever calls to you





Crone/ Approaching Darkness

In circle:
• "Shadow side" work

• Work on facing your fears

• Honor Hecate- a Greek crone goddess

• Anything that you feel is dark and mysterious

• Have a croning ritual, for any crone witches in your circle



Outside of circle:

• Spend some time in the dark, getting to know it

• Honor actual crones in your life

• Volunteer at a nursing home, some of those ladies love to talk, and their stories impart wisdom

Themes of the Summer Solstice

Litha is fast approaching- it falls on June 21 this year. I will be on a cruise during the longest day this year, but planning on celebrating the best I can- maybe greet the sun as he rises. There are many ways to celebrate the summer solstice, also called Midsummer and Litha.


Some themes of Litha incude:

• The God at his strongest
• Fire festival
• Faerie festival
• Anything sun-related, especially honoring sun-related gods
• The greening of the earth
• Battle of the Oak and Holly kings
• Relaxation and enjoyment

In your ritual circle, you might stage a ritual drama of the Holly King defeating the Oak King, or use your time to tend a ritual garden. You may honor sun deities, such as Apollo, Ra or Helios. Evoke the fey into your circle and leave offerings out for the faeries. Drum and sing around a bonfire, or work some fire magic. This is the time between the planting season and the time of harvest- it’s time to relax and enjoy while the earth does the hard work, making food! Decorate your altar in green and gold, with flowers and objects that make you happy.


Outside of your circle, you may want to make fairy wings, sunbathe (safely), weed your garden, or gather flowers. The first fruits of the garden tend to be coming up around this time in many areas, and you can imbue your meal with this energy by cooking or baking with some of your first veggies, fruits or flowers. To me, June is a month of salads, light food like grilled chicken and roasted veggies. Add berries or other garden fruit to your salad to align your energies with your garden. Wash that down with a crisp white wine or sangria (lemonade or sweet tea for those who don’t imbibe alcohol).

Ostara Altar

Just realized I didn't have a photo of my Ostara altar up on my bloggity.

Imbolc Recipe: Roasted Red Potatoes

I made this recipe for Imbolc, instead of potato soup, as Aislin was making vegan beef stew. They turned out rather well.


Roasted Red Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover a baking sheet with aluminun foil.

9 red potatoes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons (to taste) minced garlic (mine is in a jar)
2 teaspoons dried rosemary (I used 4 long fresh sprigs, minced)
4 tablespoons olive oil

Wash red potates and cut them into quarters. I ended up cutting the larger quarters in half to make smaller pieces. Place potatoes in bowl and add everything else. Toss in the bowl until everything is coated evenly. Lay out on the baking sheet and put into the oven for 35 minutes. Eat.

A Little Rant for Ostara

I'm taking some time off of getting ready for our Ostara celebration tonight. I've just finished compliling our ritual- in my coven, we all decide on key parts of the ritual, and we all help write it- and I'm getting ready to start my potluck dish.

Ostara is the name of a Germanic goddess of springtime, and the day bearing her name falls on the Spring Equinox, a day where the light and dark are balanced- literally. On the equinox, we have equal lengths of day and night. Ostara is a day to celebrate new growth, reverence for the Earth, slowly awakening from Her winter slumber, and also balance. That's the cliff notes version.

I was looking at all of the #ostara tweets coming out of twitter today, and a few reminded me of tweets I see every time a sabbat rolls around.

"OMG! How did I not realize that today was {nameofsabbat}! I must make last minute plans for this evening!"

The reason that you didn't realize that today was Ostara is because it's not important to you. If it was important to you, then you'd know. It doesn't just come sporadically. It's close to the same day every year. If you wanted to pay attention to the cycles of your environment, you'd realize that spring is on the way. Even if it's still cold where you are, the natural cycles will give you subtle hints. Or, you could just use a calendar to remind you of Her cycles and to tune into them.

Not that this has never happened to me. When I was solitary, and just starting out on my Craft path, I wouldn't realize that a sabbat was basically upon me, and I wouldn't do a ritual just because it was March 21st. I'd use that as a reminder that I should be tuning into the natural cycles of the Earth.

If you don't feel the seasons, and it's not a priority to be aware of the nature around you, or are still learning to do this, don't feel that you HAVE to do a ritual. Circle because you want to celebrate Spring. If you don't feel that its Spring yet, you can wait until you feel that it's Spring in your area to circle (unless you are practicing within a tradition that dictates otherwise). Don't fake it. Do what feels natural.

Yule by Any Other Name

Webster’s Dictionary defines Yule as: the feast of the nativity of Jesus Christ. Many other dictionary sources cite similar definitions. So, at first glance, Yule doesn’t seem like it would be a holiday for Pagans to celebrate. After all, think of all the Christmas carols that speak of celebrating yuletide, and bringing Yule cheer!

However, Yule wasn’t always associated with Christmas, and the birth of Christ. Prior to the birth of Christ and the development of the Christian religion, many native peoples celebrated a winter holiday that occurred on or near the winter solstice. The winter solstice happens on or around December 21 (20-22) each year. The winter solstice marks the longest night of the year. Most ancient European peoples celebrated this holiday with festivals, each similar to one another, but very different.

The most well-known Pagan winter festival is the festival of Saturnalia- the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The Romans celebrated this festival with friends and family in homes decked with laurel and holly. Evergreen boughs were brought into the home and decorated temples as a sign of the cycle of life. No criminals were executed during this time, and schools were closed, and the people rested. Good luck gifts were exchanged with friends and family, and the season was a time of goodwill. Parades and processions through the street were very common during Saturnalia.

In the area of Scandinavia, it would be dark for days during the winter months. During this darkness, scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to watch for any sign of the rising sun. Many people would light candles in their windows to help encourage the sun to return. Once the sun returned, the scouts would return to the villages with the good news. A great festival would be held. This festival would be called Yuletide and people would celebrate with bonfires and feast around the Yule log.

The people in the Mesopotamian area celebrated a new year’s festival around the Winter Solstice called Zagmuk. The peoples of Mesopotamia believed in many gods, but above all, they worshipped a chief god, Marduk. They believed that Marduk would do battle with the demons of chaos. During Zagmuk, the people planned to assist Marduk. According to tradition, during this 12 day festival, the King is supposed to die as a sacrifice, and return to fight alongside Marduk. However, instead of the king actually dying, the people would dress up a criminal and treat him as royalty for a day. Then, the criminal was slain, sparing the king, but yet aiding Marduk in his fight.

The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated their festival of Sacaea. Their festival was very similar to Zagmuk. One interesting highlight of Sacaea is that during the festival, masters and slaves would change places. Also celebrating a similar holiday were the Greeks, who made sacrifices to aid the God Kronos, who would be gearing up for battle against Zeus and his Titans.

For many years, Christmas was celebrated on various dates from December to April. In 350 CE, Pope Julius I decreed that the official date of Christ’s birth was December 25. Many scholars disagree, but since 350 CE, Christmas has been celebrated on that date. Even though most people no longer practice the ancient Pagan festivals, the winter traditions of olde are still evident and practiced each holiday season. Next time you see a Christmas tree, a pile of presents, or lit candles in a window, know that these traditions transcend centuries of celebrations.

Samhain!

Samhain night was wonderful! Here are a few photos of our altar!

And what Sabbat blog post would be complete without a recipe! And as Samhain is the third harvest festival, the meat harvest, a traditional food to eat is pork. Below is my recipe for Pork pastries.

Pork Empanada/Pasty Things
Makes 16-20

Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork
pork chop seasoning packet
small can of sliced new potatos
dried chopped onions
garlic powder
salt/ pepper to taste
olive oil
Package of 2 refrigerated pie shells

Directions:
1. Take out the pie shells to thaw a bit.

2. Get out a medium sized skillet with raised sides. Drizzle the bottom with olive oil, and turn the burner on medium heat. Put the ground pork in the skillet, and break up with a spoon or spatula. Brown the pork, about halfway through sprinkle half the seasoning packet over the meat, as well as some of the dried chopped onion (to your taste).

3. Open the can of potatoes and dice them. Once the pork is pretty much cooked through, add the potatoes, and shake some garlic powder over the whole pan, stir lightly to get everything seasoned. If it looks a little dry, add more olive oil. Turn off heat.

4. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

5. Roll out a pie crust on parchment paper. Use a wide mouth glass or circle cookie cutter to cut circles (at least 4") out of the pie crust. Repeat with other pie crust. Ball up the rest of it, and roll out to get as many circles as you can.

6. Take each circle and use a rolling pin to flatten into an oval. Spoon a bit of the pork mixture onto the pastry and fold over. Crimp edges with a fork.

7. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

This is good for potlucks, just refridgerate afterwards, and then warm up in an oven before serving.

One more weekend gone...almost.

I did get a lot out of this weekend. I organized some more of my Craft stuff. I did get up a bit of an altar. It lacks the personal flair that I'd like to add, and is definitely more shrinish than altar-ish. Its atop a bookcase, which works fine for me. I did want to put it by the window, but for some reason dottie-cat has attached herself to me and likes to sit in the window. She's very graceful, but I'd rather not put breakable sacredness in her way. I'll take a photo of my current altar and post it. It's nothing special at all, really- just a very basic traditional Wiccan altar- no athame, but everything else I need for circle is there, pretty much.

In addition to that, on Friday, I took a ride to storage (if you follow me on twitter, you may remember my twitpic!). Other than that, we have no AC so it's been hotter than a muther. Which means not much else got done other than swimming. I haven't even been eating much lately. So, I'm looking forward to getting on the scale tomorrow. Who actually says that, right? I tend to lose weight when I'm not trying, and NOT when I actually give a crap. I've lost a little more than 20 pounds since September. Not trying, really- stress, I guess helps out a bit? Hey- I'll take what I can get! I've had a relaxing weekend, totally blew off unpacking more- it's really too too hot to do any of that crap. When its over 95 in the house- you are SO over physical labor. Hopefully it will cool down this week so that we can get our room together and Ben can go to Savers this weekend.

I wanted to have a Lughnasadh party this year. But maybe next year, I can't see getting everything together for a big shindig. Maybe I'll have a few people over and have a carbalicious potluck. For those who don't know, Lughnasadh is an Irish celebration of the first (grain) harvest. So, many people (like me) bake bread as an offering purposes(and for feasting afterwards). Last year was the first time I baked bread from scratch. NOW I have acccess to a breadmaker- watch out world! Lughnasadh is also sometimes thought of as the God Lugh's funeral, but really- it was also a celebration of his mother's funeral. In her honor, the Irish celebrated with the Tailtean games (Lugh's mom was named Tailte). Lots of athletic games were held in her honor.

Oh! Another thing I did this weekend was create a necklace, a bracelet, and some petite prayer beads- 28 lunar goddess prayer beads. I LOVE these because they are the size of a really large bracelet. You can slip it on your wrist easy enough, and you can roll them right into your hands. SO thrilled with these. It's already late tonight, but maybe tomorrow night, I might blog about how I take photos for my ecrater shop. :) It's not perfect or pretty but it works okay!

Tomorrow is a work day, but I had such a forcibly relaxing weekend, I think I'm actually okay with that. Even though I DID get a sunburn. I like it when my hubby puts aloe on me. ;)

Recipes for Litha/ Midsummer/ Summer Solstice

These are two recipes for the potluck items I brought to circle this past weekend. Thought I'd share. :)

Ivy’s “Bomb-Ass” Midsummer Salad
One package of romaine salad
One package of spinach salad
One package of blueberries
One package of blackberries
One package of candied pecans
Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing
One package of Feta or Bleu cheese
2 cups of chopped chicken breast

Rinse, drain and then mix all salad and berries together in a large bowl.
Add chicken and pecans. Dress with the raspberry vinaigrette. Sprinkle with cheese to taste.
I like to serve this with pieces of baguette.


Ivy’s Solstice Sangria
One package of raspberries
One package of blackberries
One apple
One package of strawberries
Four bottles of Rose’ wine

Rinse all berries. Take the raspberries, and blackberries, and drop them into a large “sun tea” type jar. Chop up half of the apple, and add to the jar, along with chopped strawberries. Add the Rose wine, seal and refrigerate overnight. The “Sun Tea” type jar is great because it already has a spigot- making it easy for party guests to help themselves!

Tired, sick, but the Gods don't take a sick day.

On the heels of my return to Kentucky, we celebrated Ostara. I'm lucky because my BFF facilitated this circle, so I didn't have to take care of anything, since I hadn't even been back an entire day. Hopefully, the seed of my will will grow, as it is planted deep within a flower bulb. I'm really looking forward to Beltane. As we now have an even number of people, maybe we could pull off a maypole. That would be awesome.

My plan to fix up my altar before I left didn't happen. Once I did come back, I got out much of my springy altar things, and put away my Brighid's cross. But its not together yet. It will be, though, and I'll take a picture and post! I still can't hear out of my ears, as they are both clogged, but I think I feel well enough to put it together today. You'll also see my new chalice. Its pinkish and the perfect size!

I've been meditating more often since my return from Kentucky. It's been easy to focus on a sound... the constant ring in my ears. It's been helpful, and I feel like I'm making the most of being sick. :)

Imbolc 2 (@ Home)

Tonight is actually Imbolc, Brighid's feast day. So after a tough and tiring day at work I came home and made one of my favorite Irishy dishes, Potato Soup!



So, it looks kinda gross in the pot, but it looks pretty yummy once you pretty it up with sour cream, bacon and cheese!



Then I put together my altar to Brighid (and Imbolc). I know I might have work people who read this on FB, and hopefully you won't be judgy, but I'm a Wiccan-flavored Pagan. And Brighid is very important to me. So, here are a few photos of my Imbolc Altar. I have a one of a kind hearth goddess statue patterned after Hestia, but tonight I'm using it to represent Brighid, the Irish goddess of the hearth, as well as the fire, forge, inspiration, childbirth, marriage, fertility and more! Two candles represent balance and polarity. The candle on the left represents Her fire, and the small cauldron on the right represents her well at Kildare. The clear sparkly gems represent snow and the concept that although it might feel like spring today, but we still have some winter left. :)





This month's focus of my group is Brighid, and I have a few things I need to do tonight to facilitate that. I'm posting a bunch of activities one might do to get in touch and connect with the goddess Brighid. I'll post them here, as I need to post in our forum anyway. :)

~Fire scrying
~Create a safe childbirth charm for a pregnant friend or family member
~Create something using metal, like jewelry or a decor item
~Write poetry
~Meditate on Brid and how she might influence your life this year
~Make candles
~Create a shrine to Brighid and pray/light candles to Her
~Create a well dressing or other work of art like a mosaic
~Dedicate a candle to Brighid and decorate it with her picture or other Brid-like ephemera

Stay tuned for Imbolc, part 3- our Coven ritual. I'll post a few pictures, while I won't be able to give details. But I love photos, so you'll see a few from me!

Imbolc 1

Last night was the Imbolc bonfire for the SoCalSisterWitch group. We have one each year, and this year, it was pretty small, just 5 of us. My non-Pagan SIL and niece came, too! And, it was fun! We made s'mores, chicken, and even shrimp. It was muy yummy! The weather was so beautiful, and the moonlight sparkling on the ocean was so beautiful! I wish I could have captured it with a camera, but the Gods were against me. :) None of these pictures involve me, though, so I guess I can count my blessings! ;) Tomorrow, I'm planning on making my Irish soup in celebration. I'm kicking myself for not taking this day off. Next year, I will, though!

Possible Menu for Imbolc (01/12/09)

I've been thinking about what to make for Imbolc. I want to make the holidays special and important at home, so I'm thinking about creating a yummy menu and leaving work early that day to prepare. I'm gonna post recipes that I'm thinking of making...

Savory Cheese Biscuits
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1/4 pound Jarlsberg cheese, shredded (1 cup)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp coarse sea salt

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350.
2. In food processor, pulse together with on-and-off motion flour, butter, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, rosemary, thyme, garlic salt, nutmeg and cayenne pepper until combined and mixture resembles small peas. Add egg yolk and water. Pulse until ball forms. If mixture is too dry, add 1 tsp water and pulse until dough comes together. Turn out onto lightly floured work surface; knead a few times to blend, if necessary. Divide dough in half.
3. On floured surface, roll out each half of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into star shapes using 2 1/2-inch star cookie cutter, flouring cutters well to avoid dough sticking to cutter. Place stars on ungreased baking sheet. Gather scraps together, reroll and cut out more stars for a total of 48. Sprinkle tops with coarse salt.
4. Bake in 350 oven for 18 minutes or until firm and lightly browned around edges. Let biscuits cool on baking sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes. Transfer biscuits to racks; let cool completely.
5. Lightly sprinkle paprika over biscuits, if desired. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.