In my dream, the Summer Queen is wrapped in summer’s fire, garbed in gowns of gold and brown, and blazing with desire, the grass and grains are winding down, leaning in ebbing spires. She feels the heat beneath her feet, her stride is wide, her lips are sweet, her arms lift up to lightning streaks. She twirls around on thirsty ground raising the passions higher. With hips and hopes expanding wide her heart alight with joy and pride her song is strong, her howls are long, her many prayers are hot and bold and then her plans find ease at last remembering the wheel spins fast it’s nearly time to share the floor, as Autumn’s Queen peeks round the door.
In August, I feel held in a space between summer’s fire and summer’s fatigue. There has been a blooming and a ripening, and now a harvesting and a fading begin as the time comes to turn the page.
One of the aspects of spiritual practice that we've developed in Modern Minoan Paganism (MMP) is a standardized ritual format. It took a lot of research and even more experimentation, but what we ended up with is, we believe, true to the spirit of religion in the Bronze Age Mediterranean.
What that means, though, is that it doesn't look like Wicca's circle-casting and quarter calls, which is what many modern Pagans think of when someone says "standard ritual format." Much of Wicca's ritual basis comes from ceremonial magic, which is fascinating and nifty but has no relation to the centuries-earlier religious practices of the Bronze Age.
Listen. This is the time of waning and rebirth, retreat and re-emergence, the patience of rest, the renewal of will, the brightness of hope, the warmth of embers in a long night.
Happy Solstice! I have a Winter Ritual Kit and a bundle of companion materials including a guided audio ritual walkthrough available to you here.
Thank you for walking through this year with me!
May you find wisdom in the silent spaces, courage in the mystery, and the power to make the choices you know you need to make to activate your dreams.
All land has history – many millions of years of it – all natural places have living beings who reside there or pass through; all places have a landscape, an altitude, weather and seasons as well as a relationship to the four elements and all buildings have, as well as history, an intention or purpose informing them. Places can hold great resonances of emotion and just by being there we participate in it. Some locations gather layer upon layer of meaning, for example churches are often built on land, or on top of sites that were always considered sacred, as a method of colonising local religions. These places are often high points in the landscape with significant features of water, geography and relationship to the local spirits. Churches themselves are often majestic structures, containing art work of great beauty, reverence for the divine, interred bodies, memorials and the thousands of rituals that have occurred within them. Perhaps they also retain the whispers or cries of those who lived and worshipped here before this current building was constructed, from lineages that might stretch back untold generations.
If you are gathered with friends or family for New Year’s Eve, here is a light ritual you can do that isn’t interruptive of festivities but can add some meaningful heft to the launch of the new calendar year.
Place a dollar coin, for luck and prosperity, into the bottom of an iron cauldron or Dutch oven. Pour in 2″ of fresh water (rainwater if you have it). Add a handful of kosher salt or sea salt, for strength and patience, and stir until as much salt as possible has dissolved into the water.
I stand rooted here on the earth and offer my gratitude. I turn to the East and offer gratitude for the air I breathe. I turn to the South and offer gratitude for the fire of my spirit. I turn to the West and offer gratitude for river, lake, stream, and ocean. I turn to the North and offer gratitude for stone, tree, and bone. I touch the earth and offer gratitude for this land I call home. I reach towards the sky and offer gratitude for sun and stars. I place my hand on my heart and breathe deep, offering gratitude for all that I am and all that I have and for the many blessings of my life.
Thank you.
You are enough.
Our updated Gratitude Ritual Kit is available for youhere. And, our Winter Magic class has begun and is free too!
I spent some time with the new Three Cauldrons layout that is included in the ritual kit and my results were so perfect. I DO need freedom, hearth-tending, and making sacred/blessing as the core components of keeping my cauldrons tended. I actually laughed aloud when I saw the Wand show up in my “Contribution” cauldron.
The Three Cauldrons are those of Vitality, Connection, and Contribution.
Erin Lale
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