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

224 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
The Great Circle shall be cast in the usual manner. To begin the rite, the Priestess stands
before the mirror, her arms outstretched like the limbs of the moon, and invokes:
Oh Goddess—friend and sister to women, wife and lover to men, Thou who art all
women, be Thou among us as we know again this ancient wisdom, sacred to Thee. (All
make the sign of the pentacle.)
She lowers her arms and rejoins the Priest, who reads:
Throughout this world, and others, and the many strange and beautiful worlds of the
water-sprites, the wood-sprites, the creatures of the Earth and of fire, in our many lives,
in the lives of all others, in the great power of knowledge and magick, of countless
centuries of time—all things are cyclic.
Kingdoms rise and fall, and others rise from them. Land comes from the sea, and after
aeons, the mountains sink beneath great waves to rise yet again aeons later. The story
remains the same, holding within it the greatest of truth and the greatest of magick.
At this point there will be a pause to add more incense. The incense brazier will be left open
if any of the magickal catalyst is available on the altar.
Priest: The legends of this festival are clear: Isis, Osiris, Set; Idana, Heimdall, Loki;
Blodeuwedd, Llew Llaw, Gronw; Guinevere, Arthur, Lancelot; and others. It is now
with the year’s seasons as it is with all things.
Priestess: Now does the Goddess turn away Her face from the lotus-born King of the golden
cup. Bright, handsome, and laughing though He be, She smiles instead on His dark and
somber brother.
Priest: As season follows season, as snow follows summer, the change is made. For darkness
must inevitably follow light.
Priestess: As Lady Ishtar did seal the doom of high Gilgamesh, so also does She of the
flowers require the life of the smiling King. Where falls His blood, red flowers grow, as
his immortal soul journeys beyond.
Priest: In time, in the midst of winter, He will return, incarnate once again, to know the deep
love of the Lady, and to decree fate upon His brother. As day follows night this must
come to pass, for all things must rise and fall, and only the Goddess remains the same.
(All make the sign of the pentacle.)
If any of the magical catalyst* is available, it is cast into the brazier. The rite of cakes and
wine follows.
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.
215. Lammas
A field of grain stands, stalks tall and heavy
Beneath tall stones carved long beyond memory
Through life and deaths of aged crones
Have stood the ancient standing stones.
Now the grain grown in their shadow
Is offered in fire
To she who is both dream and desire
Mab, the forest’s daughter.
Now come among the grain tall grown
Now sing the Forest’s daughter home
Now dance among the standing stones
To ringing peals of laughter.
Beneath the tall stalks, wet, bedewed
Stand quietly, and look anew
Upon the stones, heavy with years
Beneath cold stars, the granite tiers
Weathered, beaten, towering high
The giant’s dance beneath the sky
Their words like carven thunder;
“Come under my great tower!
I am stone, the Earth’s first flower
Long I roamed in ice and fire
Shaped by the two-fold Hunter!”
In stone’s shelter cool darkness grows
Through the stalks, the breeze of sunset moans