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One aspect of ritual that we don't often think about until we're armpit-deep in actually performing one is music. The ancient Minoans, like other Bronze Age cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean, used music in ritual - we know because we see it in the art. But we don't know what it sounded like. So how can we incorporate music into Minoan ritual? It's not that hard, really.

Like many aspects of Minoan religion, we have to base our choices on two points: what we see in the archaeological record and what evokes the ancient Minoans to us as modern Pagans. In other words, we have to make some educated guesses as to what Minoan music probably sounded like. We know a lot about Minoan music from Minoan art. And we have a pretty good idea about what other types of ancient music from the Mediterranean and the Near East sounded like. So what we tend to go for in Modern Minoan Paganism is music that makes us feel like we're in the ancient world. It's a psychological trigger, in other words.

Since the Minoans aren't around anymore and we can't read the things they wrote (Linear A has not been deciphered), we have to build our practice of Modern Minoan Paganism based on whatever kind of inspiration we can find.

It turns out, there are still remnants of ancient rites that cling to life in the folk practices of Crete and other parts of Europe in this Christian era. You probably already knew this: the Christian church took over Pagan practices and renamed them, like the Irish goddess Brigit becoming a Christian saint.

I call upon the Goddess
She who weaves the whole.
I call upon the elements
Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.
I call upon my ancestors
the legacy of their years.
I call upon the creative pulse within
this fire of inspiration
I am privileged to carry and birth.
I call these together now to support,
recognize, honor, and witness
the completion of this year
and my work therein.

This week, I anointed my head, throat, heart and wrists with oil and settled down with representations of our work from 2018 for my annual ritual honoring the completion of the year. I burned incense, helped Tanner (4) waft palo santo around to all the stale corners of the house, and worked on the biz review section of the Shining Year workbook. I sang my new song of the year, celebrated myself for a year well spent, and thanked these creations for coming through me. After I acknowledged the work, I took a cleansing shower with a special salts mix from Sugar Muses and offered myself a body blessing of appreciation and gratitude. The words of blessing poured from me spontaneously in the shower and I wish I’d written it down for better recall, but perhaps it was meant as solely a personal experience. Today, I will walk the labyrinth as the final step in sealing the year. 

And sometimes there’s nothing quite like the familiarity of a ritual you’ve attended every year, for half a dozen years, knowing that you’ll be attending the very same ritual half a dozen more.

A Prayer Whispered into the Threshold

We're approaching Samhain here in the northern hemisphere, so my thoughts naturally turn toward the Ancestors. The Minoans didn't celebrate Samhain - it's a Celtic festival from a time many centuries after the fall of Minoan civilization and a place a great distance away from Crete. But the Minoans did honor the Ancestors and the spirits of the dead. In fact, as far as we can tell, that's something all ancient cultures did in one way or another.

The Minoans appear to have performed dining rites, something along the lines of a Dumb Supper, a meal where the spirits of the dead are invited as honored guests. The image at the top of this blog post is a fascinating terracotta model from the Minoan tholos tomb at Kamilari. It depicts four people in a dining shrine, seated with little tables in front of them. Two of the tables hold what appear to be loaves of bread. In front of the tables, two human-like figures are rising up out of the floor: the spirits of the dead.

Cross-posted at Goddessing from the Heart.

This post is the first in a five-part series for #SacredSpiritualGrowth that I will be writing related to my personal conception of energy flow and focus, both internally and throughout the year, which I’ve titled the “Goddessing Cycle."