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

218 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
When the Queen calls, there is none who would not willingly come. For Her libation
must be made with love and with pain. And in the magickal chase there is no transformation
which can stay her brassarids.
The Priestess signals for the music to begin again. Women join in a circle at the center around
the altar, facing outwards. The men join in a circle near the outer edge, facing inwards. The
men and women, led by the Priest and Priestess, will chant and imitate in very manner—
physical, mental, and astral—the creatures of the chant as they dance sunwards. As the
women dance, the men will stop and watch them, and vice-versa.
All: Cunning and art he did not lack, but aye her whistle would fetch him back.
Men: Oh, I shall go into a hare, with sorrow and sighing and mickle care,
And I shall go in the Horned God’s name, aye, til I be fetchéd hame.
Women: Hare, take heed or a bitch greyhound will harry thee all these fells around,
For here come I in our Lady’s name, all but for to fetch thee hame.
All: Cunning and art he did not lack, but aye her whistle would fetch him back.
Men: Oh, I shall go into a trout, with sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt,
And show thee many a crooked game, ere that I be fetchéd hame.
Women: Trout, take heed or an otter lank will harry thee close from bank to bank,
For here come I in our Lady’s name, all but for to fetch thee hame.
All: Cunning and art he did not lack, but aye her whistle would fetch him back.
Men: Oh, I shall go into a bee, with mickle horror and dread of thee,
And flit to the hive in the Horned God’s name, ere that I be fetchéd hame.
Women: Bee, take heed or a swallow hen will harry thee close both butt and ben,
For here come I in our Lady’s name, all but for to fetch thee hame.
All: Cunning and art he did not lack, but aye her whistle would fetch him back.
Men: Oh, I shall go into a mouse, and haste me unto the miller’s house,
There in his corn to have good game, ere that I be fetchéd hame.
Women: Mouse, take heed of a white tib-cat that never was baulked of mouse or rat,
For I’ll crack thy bones in our Lady’s name, thus shalt thou be fetchéd hame.
All: Cunning and art he did not lack, but aye her whistle would fetch him back.
At the conclusion all drop to a position of rest while the Priest says:
As one generation doth pass and the next appear thereafter, so have thy people always
continued. Thou hast returned to us, oh Lady. Return, we do ask, to the world outside to
bring back again the ancient ecstasy of joy and terror and beauty most sublime.
He salutes with his athame as the Priestess calls:
Achaifa, Ossa, Ourania, Hesachia, Tachema.
She throws a small handful of the magical catalyst* into the incense brazier and salutes with
her athame. The rite is ended.
Finally, the Great Circle shall be opened.
*Magical Catalyst: Mix less than an ounce of saltpeter with an equal amount of chamomile
and powdered incense. Mix well, and place in a bowl at the base of the altar.
210. Midsummer
Female: The Moon is full and rising
Making the meadow bright
And we maidens leap the circle ‘round
Clad in the moon’s soft light
A whisper in the meadow as
We wend through oak and corn
In fire the Oak King dies tonight
The Holly King is born
Male: The priests have entered the Giant’s
Dance
Of standing stone and spire
And in the dancing night we’ve seen
Fair Arianrhod’s tower
While in the fields the maidens feel
Their skin against the corn
In fire the Oak King dies tonight
The Holly King is born