Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

Book II: Rites & Rituals 157
Each spirit-man in turn opened his hand to show a stone he has previously selected to
Sean, saying,“I have found sacredness in this world. It exists.”
He then tosses the stone outside of the Circle into the darkness saying, “I now charge
you to find sacredness in this world.”
Jeff presented antlers to Sean, and Sean drove the fire all night.
LaSara’s Coming of A ge
by Marylyn Motherbear Scott
She was born a child of Faerie, raised on the land. She spent her early years toddling around
on the high hills of Triple Tree Holt, Greenfield Ranch. Homeschooled from start to finish, her
teachers were the trees and grasses and the dark earth, the starry night sky, the moon through
her cycles, the sun as it rose and sat on the near hill, the animals wild and domestic, insects and
birds, birth and death. Now she was crossing another line into a scary place known as adulthood,
and I wanted to honor this lovely young woman I am privileged to call daughter.
Turning age 18 in America is a juncture unlike any of the models in primitive culture. It
was not a passage connected with a particular body change, like “first blood”: It was a sociopolitical
and cultural event. At agen 17 she was still my legal responsibility, she could not
vote, and sexually was still considered “jail bait.” Suddenly at 18, she was legally responsible
for herself, could vote, and the sexual approaches of men more than a few years older than
her no longer put them at legal risk. That’s what I mean: sca-a-ary!
Of course the primary intent of the rite was to celebrate LaSara. On another level, I
wanted to manifest continued protection on the part of the whole community. (In this way,
we see that a rite is not only for the one whose passage is being acknowledged, but also a
passage for the whole family, the community, etc.) I also wanted the community to acknowledge
that LaSara had co-created herself as woman out of child within this circle, and that on
some level she would always continue to be our child.
It was Beltane at Annfwn, 1989. Although there were rituals upon rituals that long,
warm weekend, still, a large Circle formed. LaSara stepped into it, with long red hair like
flames licking off her head and a radiance that surrounded her crown chakra—a powerful and
lovely Faerie goddess. From the center, she spoke her heart. Then stories of her childhood
came forth to honor her, telling of the gifts that she had brought to the tribe simply by being.
As we approached the time for her to be birthed into her new relationship with the
world, I invited the respective animal totems of all who were in the Circle to attend and bring
a gift of their medicine. “All My Relations”—this was the protection. And each came forth,
some with story, song, poem, or dance, and some bearing magical tools and trinkets. Her
gratitude and humility shone into the heart of the Circle.
I gave great consideration to the next round, and whether it was okay for men and
children to be part of the birthing. I decided that the circle of our lives and each of its
passages was co-created by the whole. And I decided that there was a necessity for communal
healing, so that men would take conscious responsibility for what they birthed, that
children would grow up conscious and aware of what they were becoming, and that women
would accept help and healing when offered.
The Circle re-formed, each facing the back of the person before them. LaSara removed her
clothes (we are all born naked) and laid herself down. The whole circle “gave birth” to LaSara as
she made her way upon the Earth and through the open legs of each man, woman, and child. The
labored moaning that day made its own music, a song that became a story that is told and retold.
Return again, return again, return to the land of your soul. Return to what you are, return
to who you are, return to where you are born and reborn again. A radiant goddess was born and
reborn that day out of the overarching womb of the grown-up world, ready to take her place.