Category Archives: Ritual

Full moon – 8th August 2017

After some break due to RL thingies, we were back to Tala’s attic.
This one was short. Tala did some different rite which is quite nice, by the way. There were only three of us, so went pretty fast.

After the rites, Goddess apeared to me in usual fashion. Touching my hands with the light, staring at my face. I allowed her to enter me and she did. Danced as the candle flames moved. I felt filled by light, but it was kinda exhausting. She exited my body, made circle around and said through smile: “We are all one. Anakh rah nun. We are all one, anakh rah nun. Anakh rah nun.”

I lay down to rest as I felt tired, but it was great.

Dark moon ritual with Hecate – Noumenia

Noumenia is held a day after the new moon usually, as the first sickle of the moon shows.

This is a separate celebration from the new moon celebration and Deipnon held in honor of Hecate.

This is a smaller scale celebration, than the ones held in public in the ancient Greece, where all the Gods were invoked and the offerings brought to them.

Noumenia is the day where no other rituals were held and it was known as the day of incense burning. Different resins and herbs were burned in front of the depictions of Hecate as a sacrifice. Additionally, different food connected to Hecate was also placed on the altars: garlic, honey, cheese, sometimes fish and eggs, olive oil, wine, honey cakes, bread.

Prepare a paper for writing down your intentions for the next month, and possibly a symbol or sigil that will represent your goal (a stone, chestnut, a couple of seeds, drawn sigil, clay figure, dried or fresh flower, garlic clove…)

Before opening the circle, cleanse the area. For new moon, the water was used, sometimes bowls with water were left in front of the shrine entrance, for the attendants to wash their faces and hands. At home, it is enough to sprinkle water and salt and to smudge around the circle. Walking around the circle deosil is important even before the ritual starts, since it symbolizes the movement and passing of the previous month, and stepping into the next.

Cast the circle and invoke Hecate as you do so.

There are many invocations, so I’m leaving this one to you. I have my own invocation that I use, and also a hymn, used later in the ritual. If you’re working with single deities, it’s always better to write your own hymns and prayers, since they hold the most of your energy and relationship with the deity.

Mine goes as following:

Hecate Triodia, I call upon thee, step into my circle, Dark Mother. Bring your light in and touch me with your Wisdom,
open the gates that I need to step through,
feast on the meal that I laid before you,
join me tonight, in the night of New Moon and new beginnings.

Light the incenses in Her honor or place the resins on the charcoal and take some time to feel the Goddess and connect.

Place the offerings on the altar or Hecate’s shrine, if you have one separate from the altar. Light the candles (I am using a dark grey or purple candles when working with Hecate on new moon). Bless the offerings.

This is the time to perform the rite with your hymn.

For me, each part of the hymn is sort of a lead on what to focus. Roughly divided, one part focuses on the past and my path toward meeting Hecate, another part reminds me of my goals and what I strive for in life and the final part is focusing on the present. To be into here and now, to question if I’m doing it right, to remember that life is about joy same as about growing through suffering. That all comes from the Dark and wise Mother as a lesson.

After first part, I usually take time to reflect on the past obstacles I overcame and what was left of them in me.

After the second part I usually write my intention down, short form, mostly minimized into a single sentence. I use no negative definitions when doing this. Remember, saying “I don’t want to… ” pulls energy toward the past and gives energy to the exact thing you don’t want. If you define your wish as: “I want..” or “I want something (different)” and there lies your focus, you’ll be moving forward.

After the third part of the hymn I connect the object or sigil to the intention I wrote before. Then I thank Hecate for taking part in my ritual and (in my mind) hand her the offerings. After that I burn my written intention for the next month. As it’s important to write down the intentions and have a clear definition of them, it’s as important to also let them go. If you cling onto them, you’re in the way of them coming true. Yet you can wear your object or sigil with you, or you can leave them on the shrine to remind you of your way.

Different practitioners do the rite differently and there are endless possibilities. I tend to keep everything simple with Hecate. She is the wise Mother. She doesn’t need (in my humble opinion) hour-long hymns, seasoned with bows, butterflies and shiny stars. She is straight forward and realistic, and I am keeping it the same. From almost 20 years of working with her and worshiping her, I’ve had a bunch of experiences, and too nicely packed up stuff tended to make her uninterested or sometimes unresponsive – other than being present.

As said, this might be different for everyone, it’s just important to find and keep up your relationship with the Goddess (or any deity you choose to work with).

After the rite is over, I thank Hecate for being there and if performed within the coven, we usually share some of the offerings (not ones on the altar, but separately prepared ones for us – you don’t use same plate as you put the offerings on, nor you take the offerings from the Goddess). This is the Noumenia feast part, and can also be performed with a whole family after the circle is closed.

After I close the circle, I leave the offerings a little longer on the shrine and then take them to the nearby crossroads and leave them next to a tree that I chose. The ashes from my burnt intention and a lit incense are also placed next to the offerings. Some old writings advise that one doesn’t turn around after leaving the offerings, but should head straight home.
In the following night, I am usually having many unusual and realistic dreams. It became a common thing for me, and I’m always looking forward for more messages from Hecate, in any form.

Blessed be!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lammas – Tala

We’ve (my family) had a short but sweet celebration.

I’ve set up the altar way simpler than usually, due to us not being at home. Some grains, a loaf of flatbread, bees wax candle, incense, beer (wine is also a possibility), and some usual magical tools.

Since I like writing my own rituals, I’ve decided to honor god Lugh as a craftsman and as a god of harvest. To me, those two aspects are most essential for a human to be able to survive: to grow food and to make all the tools they need. And if they can craft something more and with greater skill, that is even better.

First we did meditate about how our lives looked since last year and we were thankful for having enough for life. We also thought about what our talents are and what we did with them.
I will share the ritual with you:
My corn husk god and goddess are ready to be added to my Lughnasadh altar. I'll do a little blessing first. 🌾 My helper Merlin was on hand to oversee the creative process😻 🌽 I have a few corn husks still soaking, so will sa

You can find the whole ritual here:

Lammas

The thing that always makes me think a lot are the moments that follow the invocation of this kind, same like days after. I can clearly feel the traces of fresh energy (or entity) and how they grow stronger in me and take shape.

This is what I cherish the most and what true magic is for me.

 

19th July 2016 – Full moon, by Voxin

Last night we gathered in the ‘attic of awoken’ to perform ritual for the full moon and do some clensing of Tala’s daughter, remotely. As usual, we performed all of this in ‘the village’ (refer to previous posts). While we were bathing Tala’s daughter in a creek, her mother saw a green wound on her shoulder. I saw a leech and suddenly shapeshifted to a fox (again) and ate that leech.

Not caring at that moment for the people around, Tala or her daughter, fox, well me, but as a fox, snooped and sniffed around the village. It’s very strange feeling when I am in fox’s body. I am small, grass is tall, smells are beautiful and enhanced. I can smell all grass, flowers and trees, moist, rocks and all that surrounds me. I also see differently. More like infra-red green shade layers. My body feels well and strong, slick and agile. Fox found a tunnel below the tree I used to pass in elemental meditations, ended up in another plain, near the waterfall where I first shifted into a fox.

Afeter some snooping around, I returned to path, shifted back to my human shape created portal to return me back to the village and passed through. Guys were already finished so I went back to this world.

Tala performed full moon ritual, and later, Drawing down the moon. This is were we speak to goddess and goddess to us. So far she was only channeling through Tala, as usually women draw her attention and graces easier.

normal_David-Roberts-The-Temple-At-Dendera
This was the first time she spoke to me at the very end of vision, where she was holding a door knob of an egyptian temple, to not a door, but a wall. I clearly saw pillars and a wall between them. I knew that this was a door, to her perhaps, but to me it looked like a solid wall. She spoke to me something Tala took note as I was saying “Akhmon ra aniet ra, tukush, kaniet ra“. This morning she found a translation. It was arabic and should be written like “Akhamon Ra aniet rah, toukush kaniet rah” which translates to “Brother of Ra he claimed, had claimed the rituals“.
I still do not know what it means and why I was told this. I just know goddess and other deities speaks to us in languages that we spoke before.
Awesome experience.

Snow moon, 22nd

Yesterday’s full moon ritual was a strange one, for me at least. Five of us gathered at Tala’s attic and after standard circle opening and some initial relaxing meditation we began. I forgot my reading glasses at home, but I think Full moon is to be led by women, so Tala took over. Women usually have more intense manifestations in Goddesses invocations.

During the rites, my usual thing is to see Goddess appear in front of me, bathing me in the light. This time, however, she circled around me like ghost, in all of her light and beauty, gently smiling at me. After a few circles she entered me and I felt chill and got goosebumps all over my skin. Light irradiated from her, in me, all over the attic. In that time, Tala was finishing Drawing down the Moon part, and I saw moon diving into the water on the horizon. I felt like I need to go to the water.

When we finished, I asked Tala to bring me down to the water. Not usual element meditation where one of the element shapes pops-up, but directly, to the water. She led me to the lake over the forest paths uphill outside our ‘village’. When I came to the lake, I walked slowly in and dived deep down. I saw bluish glow and approached. There was a stone table with two pillars and a drawer below it. There was a mirror on the table that irradiated light. I opened a drawer and found a stone egg. Egg was too heavy and I could not swim up with it. Behind, I saw a wraith. My last water meditation didn’t go quite nice being surrounded by wraiths, so I was weary, but this one was at distance. Just as she was there to make sure I do what was to be done. I looked at the egg, saw carved lines, but only in the mirror I could read them. It was written “Marcus”. Actually, kind a Roman way: “MARCVS”.

Egg crumbled to the pebbles and I started swimming up the surface. Went out, but could not find the path down for some moments. I looked around and found a small strawberry. As I approached to pick it up, I saw path and started going down, but as everything was wet, I slipped, fell to my back and had a bumpy slide down the hill. I ended up back in the village and from there, I came back.

Still need to reflect on what I saw and discover the meaning. I am sure it will come in time.

Samhein @31st Oct. 2015

I was reading work diaries and decided to publish diary of last year’s Samhein, as nothing worth writing happened since new year.

Samhein, Oct 31st 2015 around 21h, moon 65% waning. Belgrade, Kosutnjak forest.
Participants: Voxin, Tala, apprentice “JJ” – first time with us. I will pass journal entries ‘as is’, and here they are.

Voxin’s entry:
Feeling strong energy. I made strong circle so nothing can pass in or out except energy of eleme2015-10-31 21.45.54nts though the ground. I grounded myself pretty good by sitting and leaning on my both hands on the ground. Palms were buried in fallen leaves and dirt. Energy flow was fantastic. I saw my father outside the circle. He was my age. Had his brown coat hanging on his finger on the shoulder, falling back. Beside him, there was a viking. He had long and dirty blond hair, he had horned helmet and short beard and was in full war gear, all with shield and axe. Had green squared kilt. I knew he was one of my ancestors.
There was also some kind of demon there, but lesser one – weak. More like a jester then real menace. Behind me was an old lady dressed in black. I could not see her face. She wasn’t radiating negativity of any kind.
When we finished work, I felt a need to thank to each one which I did. It was awesome experience. Tala’s and JJ’s energies were boosting pretty good. I felt very very good.

Tala’s entry:
Circle was cast and I left candle at each world direction. JJ left a flower beside each candle. Gratitude to God and Goddess, some old thoughts of gratitude have returned and I felt it intensely. Cleansing and Chackras – Cleansing was on few planes at the same time. JJ was shining 😀 It was interesting to feel how I became conscious of each one of the elements. Earth, footsteps in the distance as one walks by, I let him pass. Gusting wind has blown pretty strong and I waited for it to come, get stronger and leave. Fire in that moment has become stronger. I felt my palms burning. I thought if I turn them toward up that light would shine out. I saw the ones who were more distant from the edge of the circle. I realized my mother was here but she was standing aside. Water wasn’t cold. Warm drizzle that carries all.
I saw them around, some who didn’t want to be too intrusive were standing behind, quiet. Others were in front, mostly to the west and north. That one evil spirit was there, but not willing to provoke or try anything. Grandpa came and set at north side on a fallen tree log. Happy and shining, but with some tiny ray of sadness in his eyes. Around him I saw many small children, lost, some only 2-3 years old. Like he was dragging them with him. Asked me how I am, told me that he is happy that I’m free, that he didn’t like my ex. Told me that he is glad I am finally healthy. Children were standing in between, looking at me. I told them to go with him. That fell really tough on me.
We offered bread and wine to all sides. Gratitude from them also. There were old warriors from this land, torn shoes and old wool hats. Some with colorful bags, stained. Two old ladies to the southwest, one in black was moving to the west, other was mostly standing in one place, but was smiling, like she wasn’t sure that she is not alive. I had urge to say something, but I do not remember if I did or just whispered. I called Hecate to lead them where they belong and to offer them peace. Great feeling of happiness and fullness after this. Smell of forest, energy that we gained through meditation. Wonderful feeling.