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

216 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
Spiral Dance
Instruction and focus by Artemisia and drumming. Artemisia leads spiral dance, starting with
everyone facing out and brief meditation on nature and Gaia.
Chant: “We are alive as the Earth is Alive”
We are alive as the Earth is Alive
We have the power to create our freedom
We have the courage; we are the healers
Like the sun we shall rise!
(—Starhawk; lyrics adapted)
Spiral dance ends with everyone facing inward.
Dismissals & Opening
Wiccan Rite for Midsummer’s Day
The place of meeting should be decorated with boughs and leaves of oak with acorns. If
there will be music, singing, and rhyme before the rite, it should concern the idea of sacrifice
that others may live, traditions that never die, magick, “life continuing in spite of all,” and the
high spirits of one close to the Elements.
If there is dancing, the Priestess and Priest should lead it so that the dancers whirl and
wheel about the dance floor. The dances of this ritual may be performed out of the Circle in
preparation for the rite; they should, in fact, be learned by all.
Games should be played utilizing a wheel, preferably one of wood and iron, with candles
or incense mounted upon it. Men and ladies, for example, might play a mildly erotic game of
“spin the wheel.” During the rite, this wheel should be leaned against the south side of the
altar. A container of the magickal catalyst should be placed upon the altar. If a labrys (doubleheaded
axe) can be fashioned or obtained, it should be hung upright in a dominant location
both before and during the rite.
Because of the large amount of lively dancing in this rite, short and light ceremonial garb
in the ancient Greek or Cretan style, or some other very minimal but appropriate clothing,
may be fashioned and worn.
According to legends and traditions of the Craft, actual shape-changing of dancers sometimes
occurred during this rite, especially among Witches who were well-practiced in magick and
experiencing the ecstasy of the Goddess in their magickal dancing. Only fragments of the rite
survived the terrible time of the burnings, but this reconstruction of it is mostly complete and
may again in the future be made whole through the study and practice of the modern Wicca.
The Great Circle shall be cast in the usual manner, except that a 15-foot circle shall be
used. To begin the rite, the priestess stands to the north of the mirror with the altar behind
her, and says:
Witches all, in ages far past it was the custom on this day for the King who had ruled to
be sacrificed in a magical ceremony, that famine, storm, and war should not afflict the
people, and that the crops would grow tall and free from blight or drought. Darkness
would be removed from men’s souls by the courage, pride, and magick of the one who,
very willingly, walked steadily to his doom. The material rite was deeply emotional and
rendingly impressive; yet the magickal portion, unseen and unseeable by human eyes,
was awesomely stronger and more far-reaching. Such magick as this was cruelly powerful—but
it worked magnificently!
The Priestess sits, while the Priest stands in her place and with his arms out in invocation and
proclaims:
On this night we gather here to perform again in symbol and magickal dance the rite
of the Oak King’s sacrifice, as it was done in ages past. In this day, our Lady no longer