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

84 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
This is the time for sharing personal news, announcements, messages, and other communications;
conducting Circle business; teaching, listening to music; a guided meditation; or just
quietly sharing the peace that comes from a good Working. This is a space that aids the participants
in letting go of the magickal work so that it may travel on. Indeed, if we keep working it,
and don’t let it go, it never gets sent out. With food, music, and joviality, this break in events
restores vitality that may have been drained during the Working. What is said during this period
must be related to the magick and the Circle, not stuff like TV shows, movies, outside news,
sports, or other mundane bullshit! The time and place of the next meeting may be decided,
chants and lore may be shared, and other magickal things discussed. During this phase the plate
and chalice may be refilled and continue to be passed as much as is desired. Other food
(“snackraments”) and beverages may also be brought out and passed around.
If a long evening is planned, this part of the ritual may even become a bardic, in which each
person in turn around the Circle may sing a song, recite a poem, or tell a story or joke. In a
bardic, your turn comes when you receive the chalice and take a drink. If you don’t have anything
to say, you can just drink and pass the chalice on to the next person.
Sacraments & Snackraments
By Oberon & Liza Gabriel
A “sacrament” is something regarded as holy or sacred. Ordinary acts or substances may be
elevated to the status of sacraments in a ritual context, thereby becoming gateways into a greater
awareness of the beauty and power of the BIG PICTURE, and our part in it. Such sacraments
may be grouped into three categories: actions, rituals, and substances. No one should ever be
compelled or coerced into partaking of any sacrament without their full knowledge and consent.
The four Elements – Earth, Water, Air, and Fire – are actually the four states of matter:
solid, liquid, gas, and plasma (going from lesser to greater energy). These comprise the body,
blood, breath, and energy of Gaia. All of material existence is composed of these Elements in
varying combination, and so we honor them in our rituals. Many also add Spirit as a fifth Element.
Within these broad categories may be grouped all the sacred substances, which are often
shared in the communion phase of a ritual as sacraments or “snackraments.”
Earth
Food Some traditions have specially-prepared “holy food” (or prasad in Sanskrit), while others just
bring home something they like from the grocery store. Because they resemble the crescent moon,
almond crescent cookies are quite popular for full moon rituals, or Esbats. Fruit is very popular when
it is in season—especially apples, which are often cut horizontally to reveal the pentagram formed by
the seeds. “White bread” Protestant churches are so named for the tiny cubes of white bread they
serve for communion. Roman Catholics use special thin wafers embossed with a cross, while a Jewish
ritual might use matzoth. And “Redneck Pagans” are said to use Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, and Moon
Pies! Of course, other foods (such as the special selection of “underworld foods” eaten in silence at
the Samhain “dumb supper”) may be shared sacramentally as well. All such foods are considered to
be the body of the God and/or Goddess. The most common phrases to accompany the passing of
food are “may you never hunger,” or “may you always have sufficiency.”
Bread
The most universal sacrament shared in communion rites the world over is certainly
bread—preferably fresh-baked for the occasion. Often ritual bread is rolled out and then