The Home Shrine

This is my shrine! It lives in my bedroom on two shelves of my bookshelf. I use it for ADF high day rituals and daily devotionals as well as any other rituals I perform indoors. I also use it as a meditation altar by lighting the fire candle and a stick of incense to ground, center and focus before I begin a trance journey. I rearrange the shrine from time to time as I add or replace things, but this is what it looks like today:

 

This is the top shelf of my shrine, where the fire, well and tree reside. I also have other altar tools on this shelf.

 This is the bottom shelf of my shrine, where the idols reside. I also have an offering bowl, shot glass and incense burners for offerings.

 The right side of the bottom shelf has two incense burners, a plain wooden one for the gods and a leaf-shaped one for the nature spirits. There is a candle with grape motif for Dionysus, a Rafiki figurine representing Thoth, a wooden statue representing Herne, two Buddhas, an eagle representing my Dad, a key for the gatekeeper and a shotglass for drink offerings to the ancestors. 

 The left hand side of the bottom shelf has a wooden offering bowl for the principal kindred of a rite, a shell dish and candle for Aphrodite, a wooden statue of Gaia, a statue of Bast, a winged woman representing the Universal Mother goddess and a statue of Ma'at.

 The right hand side of the top shelf has the fire candle in a lantern, an athame, a bell, an antler representing the world tree, a piece of birch bark also representing the tree, a box containing divination bones, a pine cone for the nature spirits and a mini drum for the ancestors.

The left side of the top shelf has quartz crystals representing the Earth Mother, a wine glass with water and coins in it representing the well, a chalice for the blessing waters, a candle snuffer and a wand.

I would like to have a representation of the world tree that looks like a tree, a small cauldron for the well, and representations of the other gods I honour in my daily devotionals, who have touched my life such as Odin, Athena and Kali. I keep my wand and athame on my shrine because although I am practicing ADF, I also practice witchcraft and often use the same shrine for those workings.

May 4th, 2012 Beltane Ritual - ADF style

For this year's Beltane, I did a solo ADF ritual based on the COoR as outlined in the Dedicant Program Handbook pg. 60. I chose to honour the Greco-Roman hearth.

0 - Preliminary Rites

A) Claiming and Hallowing the Sacred Space:

Lit the fire, poured fresh water into the well, rubbed essential oil onto the bile.

B) Preliminary Meditation:

Explained aloud my intentions for the ritual, to honour the fertility festival, the greening of the Earth and Venus and Aphrodite. Closed my eyes and worked through the Two Powers meditation from memory.

I - The Procession and Opening Prayers

A) Musical Signal and Call to the Grove:

Rang a bell three times and circumambulated the space.

A1) Optional: Purification of the Folk:

Dipped my fingers in the well and drew a triskel on my brow with the waters

B) Opening Prayer:

Sang "We approach the sacred grove” song three times.

C) Earth Mother Offering:

Honoured Ceres as goddess of agriculture, fertility, grain crops and maternal relationships. Sang "Earth Mother I sing to your body" song three times and "Mother I feel you" nine times.

II - Opening the Grove

A) The Grove Attunement:

Sang "The leaves on the trees" song nine times with eyes closed

B) Described from memory that this was a time when the ancestors celebrated fertility by dancing the maypole, bonfires and stealing away to the woods to “conjure summer in”. Described some of the traditions I've experienced as a neopagan, including wearing a circlet of flowers, weaving, casting out the Carlene, washing my face in the morning dew and jumping a fire. Described the Goddesses Venus and Aphrodite as goddesses of fertility, love, sex and beauty.

C) Optional - Purification of the folk

1) Offering to the Outdwellers:

Lit an incense different from the other offerings in this rite, and placed it in the open window, asking the outdwellers and anyone who would disturb the rite to accept the peace offering.

2) Cleansing by smoke and water:

Lit a sage smudge stick and waved it around the sacred space, saying "Negative vibrations be gone from here, this is no place for harm or fear" three times. Dipped my hands in the well and symbolically washed hands and face with the water.

D) Honoring the Sacred Center:

Sang "Fire, Bright Fire" song three times while acknowledging the representations of fire, well and tree on the shrine. Offered coins to the well, essential oil to the fire and censed the bile with incense.

F) Opening the Gates:

Called upon Janus the god of portals, endings and beginnings to open the gates with "Gatekeeper Open the Portals" song. Lit an incense offering to Janus and visualized an arched doorway for the gods to emerge.

III - Offering to the Powers:

A) Triad Offerings:

Lit an incense offering to the gods, ancestors and nature spirits with the song "Gods and dead and mighty sidhe". Called the names of my matrons, cherished ancestors and several nature spirits of land, sea and sky.

B) Key Offerings:

1) Descriptive Invocation and offerings to the Patron Powers of the rite:

Called upon Venus and Aphrodite as goddesses of fertility, love, sex and beauty and honoured their symbols of shells, mirrors, water, roses and, myrtle. Lit a tea light candle on a seashell dish and a blue taper candle on a pillar adorned by two lovers, in offering to them.

Recited a poem to invoke Aphrodite: From Sappho:

Glittering-Minded deathless Aphrodite

I beg you, Zeus’s daughter, weaver of snares,

Don’t shatter my heart with fierce

Pain, goddess,

But come now, if ever before

You heard my voice, far off, and listened,

And left your father’s golden house,

And came,

Yoking your chariot. Lovely the swift

Sparrows that brought you over black earth

A whirring of wings through mid-air

Down the sky.

They came. And you, sacred one,

Smiling with deathless face, asking

What now, while I suffer: why now

I cry out to you, again:

What now I desire above all in my

Mad heart.

2) Praise Offerings

Recited a poem to Aphrodite:

 Sweet, Laughing Aphrodite

©2003 Christa Landon

Sweet, laughing Aphrodite,

born of the foam,

patroness of seafarers,

confidant of lovers,

Your fragrant season

is returning,

Make us ready

to bear you into our world:

Touch our eyes,

that we may recognize

the beauty you create everywhere.

Touch our hands,

that they may be gentle.

Touch our minds

that we may discover

the secret of harmony

which heals all discord.

Heal the hearts

of those who have been betrayed,

and draw them forth again to joy.

Recited a prayer to Venus:

Prayer to Venus As the Evening Star

By John Fletcher,

O Divine Star of Heaven,

Thou in power above the seven:

Thou sweet kindler of desires

Till they grow to mutual fires:

Thou, O gentle Queen that art

Curer of each wounded heart:

Thou the fuel, and the flame;

Thou in Heaven and here the same:

Thou the wooer, and the woo'd:

Thou the hunger, and the food:

Thou the prayer, and the pray'd:

Thou what is, or shall be said:

Thou still young, and golden tressed,

Make me by thy answer blessed.

C) Prayer of Sacrifice:

Sang "May my life be a gift to you" song, modifying it to include love, beauty and passion.

D) Taking of omen:

Shuffled the tarot deck while focusing on the taper candle and asked for omens for the near future. Drew three cards.

From the Gods: Two of water, Love. Given the context, I take this to mean romantic love, which I have been praying and offering for lately.

From the Ancestors: Two of fire, Will. Further to my last ritual, I believe this is a continuation of the Power omen I received. Not only will I have the power to create positive changes in my life, I will have the strength of will to use that power effectively.

From the Nature Spirits: Six of air, Clarity. I take this to mean that I will come to understand myself better and thus open the door to others' truths.

IV: The Blessing

A) Meditation on the Omen:

Closed my eyes and asked for visions of the blessings.

B) Calling for the blessing:

“Ancient and Mighty ones, I have honoured you. Now I pray you honour me in turn, as a gift calls for a gift. I thirst for the waters of wisdom, bounty and rebirth, for the blessings of Love, Will and Clarity, from the bosom of the Earth Mother. I open my heart to the blessing of the Great ones, and pray you hallow these waters.”

C) Hallowing the Waters:

Poured the waters into my chalice, held the chalice in the air and visualized the gods, dead and sidhe charging the waters with their blessings. Sang “Pour the waters, raise the cup” chorus three times.

D) Receiving the Blessing:

Sang "Power of the spirits" song three times as I drank thrice from the cup. Visualized each of the blessings entering me and running through my body.

V) The Working:

Wove a friendship bracelet to give to the next person I fall in love with, charging it with love and passion, depth and emotion. I used blue for emotion, red for passion and brown for depth.

VI) Closing and Ending:

A) Affirmation of success:

Acknowledged the feeling of Love, Will and Clarity in myself, blessings and magic planted and sprouting within me.

B) Thanking the powers:

Gave thanks to Venus and Aphrodite, Ceres, Janus, the nature spirits, ancestors and gods for their presence and blessings. Said "Go if you must, stay if you will, I bid you farewell".

D) Closing the gates:

Asked Janus as Gatekeeper to close the gates, clapped once to signify the closure.

E) Final Blessing and announcement of ending:

Said "Blessings be upon all who have attended this rite. The rite has ended. " And rang the bell three times. Extinguished the Fire.

Reflection:

I would have liked to have performed this rite outside, but it was windy and overcast, and I thought it might rain or the candles would keep blowing out, so I stayed in. I enjoyed performing the rite during the day, and placed my outdweller offering in the open window which seemed more appropriate than the far corner of my room this time. I was really excited to get the omens of Love and Will, because I have been making offerings to Venus and Aphrodite as part of my daily devotionals and asking for a lover and meaningful love relationship to be sent into my life, so I feel that this is a confirmation of blessings already on their way. Yesterday I decided to become a vegetarian, since I have been having a lot of trouble with trying to “eat healthier” in a general sense without any rules, so I feel that will power is needed to make any dietary switch, and making the choice every time I eat will take will power that I know I have somewhere in me, but knowing that the nature spirits are going to help me not only makes sense (we eat things that come from nature) but knowing I have support and that the spirits are paying attention will definitely help me make conscious choices. I liked calling Janus as the Gatekeeper and felt that summoning the gods, spirits and ancestors through him was effective and powerful. Ceres manifested in my generic Earth mother statue, who I usually call Gaia during my devotionals, which I thought was really cool. I didn't get many visions during my blessings meditation, but often I'll have interesting dreams the night after a ritual, so I expect them to be on their way. I would like to know more about the Clarity omen from the Ancestors. Perhaps the message there is “Time will tell.”