Tom got up at 5:30 am to take our son for his ACT's. I just couldn't go back to sleep after his alarm went off. So I got up and got to work. I did some cleaning, went over the ritual, planned out the Grok session, and began to gather the altar and other ritual items together. By noon I was already tired. I wish that our schedule allowed us to spread out the getting ready tasks over more days so that on the day of the event I could concentrate more on meditation, purification and spiritual readiness.
We also had a Dearinth work party and got our biggest turn out after the work party to get ready for BelSummer. 4 people came! We spent about an hour raking leaves to mulch the paths of the Dearinth with. We have one really humongous pile of leaves out behind the barn now and a promise of bags of leaves from a couple of people. Hopefully we will be able to get a good turn out in May to put newspaper down and use up all this mulch. Unfortunately I forgot to wear my wrist braces and my wrists got sore.
When it was time for the Grok healing focus workshop we brought chairs out and sat around the campfire pit. It was a beautiful sunny day, though very crisp and windy. We had decided to work on relaxation so we did a progressive muscle relaxation technique which began with yawning and stretching. That part was easy! But once we got started yawning it was hard to stop:) I thought it worked well to go through the process, then get up move around, and do this three times. But Tom didn't care for it. It was a good way to learn the technique and practice it though.
The Samhain rite turned out pretty well, I thought. We had 13 people, at least of the seen and material variety. Samhain is one of the rituals that I especially like, not only because of season, but because we have been able to have a variety of people help with the Deity aspects. And we have done essentially the same ritual every year for the last four years yet with various people carrying the God, it has been quite different. One year it was Tom, another it was a guest from another group, Hawk, last year it was Jack, and Kim aspected his partner. She introduced the idea of having each one pull a tarot card for an oracle. (I liked that quite a bit and added it into this year's ritual as well.) This has added something special to the mix each time. This year with the additions of Phoenix, a nest member, our Samhain rite is really cooking. While being approximately the same ritual every time it has flowed and shifted based on who is participating.
Phoenix planned an all night vigil around the campfire as part of our ritual so we drew the circle to expand out to the borders of our property. This gave us all access to the house and its amenities, the kitchen for the potluck, and the hot tub. It also allowed parents and friends to go round up our youngest ritual participant, Thor. He was a bit disappointed that we no longer had a mound of gravel in the driveway but managed to play with the rocks anyway. He helped us with the ritual by inspecting the jack-o-lantern and pointing out the giant spider in the web:)
We made offerings to the Fay and Phoenix sang a lovely song (written my Aeona Silversong, I believe) to invite them to attend. We laid out supper for the dead and invited our ancestors to attend. I called the names of my grandmother who died last Thanksgiving and my mother-in-law who died in April. For me this is a time to say last goodbyes before their spirits go through the gate to the otherside.
I embodied the Crone and led the procession widdershin to travel to the underworld to visit the Lord of the Dead. He spoke of how we live through the deaths of others and made it personal and down to earth by speaking of our lunch, both vegetables and meat die for us. We are warmed by the dead, which our houses are built of, warmed by their bodies in our fires. I felt very moved by his words. Afterwards I went about the circle and offered each person the opportunity to draw a card from a StarGate deck. There were several rains, a couple of magicians, a couple of fountains, and an egg (that I saw.) I found it interesting that so many people got the same omens this year. After toasting our ancestors we adjourned to the house to get the potluck ready. There was much good food: roast beef, pork and apple pie, meatless loaf, apple, cherry, and raisin stuffed pumpkin, a nice rice dish, deviled eggs, egg salad, sprout bread, etc. We ate well. Some of us went in the hot tub while we waited for the food to heat up. Phoenix read a lovely poem by Kahil Gibran for our food blessing.
After eating and talking for a bit I went in and put on long underwear, jeans, a sweatshirt, and a quilted vest. I took out my sleeping bag and went to the bonfire. It was very cold despite the fire. Others sat around the fire wrapped in blankets and coats but several were quite cold anyway. It was time for Thor to go to bed so his parents took him home but first they walked deosil around our Namesake Oak while envisioning the return to the realm of the living. We wanted to be sure that everyone who was not remaining for the entire night had a safe path back. Then Phoenix led the rest of us in a trance journey deeper into the Underworld. She used song as an induction with a song to send us deeper down, and a bit later a song of the Crone to guide us further on. Many of us had deep visions, which will keep us meditating on how to incorporate them into our lives for some time to come. Afterwards there was some drumming and a few hardy souls danced.
Several of us returned to the house for more hot-tubbing while others stayed to drum and dance. One by one through the night we began to drop off. The last participant to leave stayed till after midnight. Tom slipped off to sleep before then. Others nodded off on the floor and I went to bed a little after midnight. But Phoenix and her partner, Aaron, stayed up pretty much all night, just dozing here and there.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind