For this year's Samhain, I did a solo ADF ritual based on the COoR as outlined in the Dedicant Program Handbook pg. 60. I chose to honour the Celtic hearth.
0 - Preliminary Rites
A) Claiming and Hallowing the Sacred Space:
Lit the fire, poured fresh water into the well, censed the tree with a smudge stick
B) Preliminary Meditation:
Explained aloud my intentions for the ritual, to honour Samhain and the end of the harvest season, acknowledge the Ancestors, Brid and Calleach Beare. I explained that this was a passing of the year from Brid to Calleach Beare, there would be a time to extinguish and re-light the hearth candle as the world descends into chaos and the year is born anew, and a dumb supper for the ancestors. 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 deosil.
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".
C) Earth Mother Offering:
Honoured Danu as the mother of the Tuatha de Danaan. Offered milk. Sang "Mother I feel you"
II - Opening the Grove
A) The Grove Attunement:
Sang "Well of Memory" by Diane Emerald Vaughn
B) Described the season, that this is the time when the herds are culled for the coming winter, and the crop harvest is complete. It is said that the Pooka curses any remaining vegetation, and it must be left to fallow.
Described some of the traditions I've experienced as a neopagan, including decorating the altar with apples and pomegranates, carving pumpkins, shelling out candy for trick or treaters, dressing in costume, divination, honouring the ancestors with a dumb supper, and extinguishing the hearth flame and kindling it anew.
Described the gods and ancestors, Brid as the lady of summer and Calleach Beare as the winter hag. My deceased family members by name and a few things I remember of them.
C) Honoring the Sacred Center:
Sang "Fire, Bright Fire" song three times while acknowledging the representations of fire, well and tree on the shrine. Silvered the well, dropped essential oil into the fire and decorated the tree with an apple.
D) Opening the Gates:
Called upon Manannan Mac Lir to open the gates with "Gatekeeper Open the Portals" song. Lit an incense offering to the gatekeeper and visualized the portals of each gate opening for the kindred to emerge. Declared "This fire is all fires of all worlds, it's flames reach the heavens. This well is all water of all worlds, it's depths reach the underworld. This tree is the world tree, it's branches reach all the worlds. The gates are open!"
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 gods, ancestors and nature spirits, saying "Kindred, I invite you to join me in this celebration of Samhain!"
B) Key Offerings:
1) Descriptive Invocation and offerings to the Patron Powers of the rite:
Called upon Brighid and Calleach Beare, described Brighid as the lady of poetry, healing and smithcraft, who presides over the light half of the year from Bealtainne to Samhain. Described the Calleach Beare as the winter hag, who presides over the dark half of the year from Samhain to Bealtainne.
Called upon my closest Ancestors by name, inviting them each to join me if they are near.
Lit incense to the Beings of the Occasion.
2) Praise Offerings:
Offered incense and thanks to Brid for a lovely summer.
Offered poetry to Calleach Beare:
Lament of the Cailleach Beara (Hag of Beara)
translated from the Old Irish by Anthony Weir
(Apparently an 11th century poem, originally in Gaelic. Weir's translation is dated 1975.)
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Beara/2008-04/1207934677
My life is ebbing: let it drain -
unlike the sea which flows again,
The boiling, unbegotten sea.
I whose gown was always new
am now so pitifully thin
that this old shift will outlive me.
They want only money now.
When I was young, love was what
I wanted - and so richly got.
People then were generous,
and in return they asked a lot.
They ask and give so little now.
I had chariots and horses then,
given by admiring kings.
I drank mead and wine with them.
Now among old onion-skins
of withered women I drink whey,
myself a withered onion-skin.
My hands are bony now, and thin;
once they plied their loving trade
upon the bodies of great kings.
My hands are bony, wasted things,
unfit to stroke an old man's head,
much less a young man's glowing skin
Young girls are happy in the Spring,
but I am sad and worse than sad,
for I'm an old and useless thing.
Nobody round me is glad;
My hair is grey and going thin.
My veil conceals what is well hid.
I once had bright cloth on my head
and went with kings - now I dread
the going to the king of kings.
The winter winds ravish the sea.
No nobleman will visit me
no, not even a slave will come.
It's long ago I sailed the sea
of youth and beauty wantonly.
Now my Passion too has gone.
Even in Summer I wear a shawl
It's many a day since I was warm.
The Spring of youth has turned to Fall.
Wintry age's smothering pall
is wrapping slowly round my limbs.
My hair's like lichen, my paps like galls.
I don't regret my lust and rage,
for even had I been demure
I still would wear the cloak of age.
The cloak that wooded hillsides wear
is beautiful; their foliage
is woven with eternal care.
I am old: the eyes that once
burned bright for men are now decayed:
the torch has burned out its sconce.
My life is ebbing; let it drain
unlike the sea which flows again,
the man-torn and tormented sea.
Flow and ebb: what the flow brings
the ebb soon takes away again
- the flow and the ebb following.
The flow and the ebb following:
the flow's joy and the ebb's pain,
the flow's honey, the ebb's sting.
The flow has not quite flooded me.
There is a recess still quite dry
though many were my company.
A hand is laid upon them all
whose ebb always succeeds their flow,
whose rising sinks into their fall.
If my veiled and sunken eyes
could see more than their own ebb
there's nothing they would recognise.
Happy the island of the sea
where flow always comes after ebb:
What flow will follow ebb in me?
I am wretched. What was flow
is now all ebb. Ebbing I go.
After the Tide, the Undertow.
Said: Calleach Beare, old age is the afterglow of youth, just as winter is the restful peace after a busy summer. I welcome you this Samhain to take your place as you grace us with the beauty of the first snow.
C) Seasonal Customs and the Working
Said: There are some things I would like to leave behind in this waning year. I would like to release these things, so that they can return to the source of all things, where they can gestate over the winter and be transformed into something good.
Wrote some things on paper that I want to release, and burned them in the hearth flame.
Said: Kindreds, join me in extinguishing the hearth flame, as our year ends and our world dissolves into chaos.
Extinguished all lights and candles and sat for a moment in darkness.
Said: Now join me once again in lighting the hearth flame anew, a symbol of a new beginning. Brighid, although your time to reign is over for now, you live on in our hearts and hearths throughout the winter, keeping us warm and happy when the world is cold and depressing outside.
D) Prayer of Sacrifice:
Said: Ancestors, join me now in this supper, as we share a meal of soul cakes, pumpkin bread and apple. I light this candle to lead you to my table, where you are welcome guests.
Placed a plate of food prepared especially for Samhain (a soul cake, pumpkin bread and a sliced apple) on my table and lit a candle for the ancestors to share in the feast, and joined them in a dumb supper with my own plate.
When the supper was ended, lit incense for the kindred.
Said: To all the kindred, I honour you as the wheel turns, and thank you for your continued blessings. Please accept my sacrifice!
E) Taking of omen:
From the Gods:
From the Ancestors:
From the Nature Spirits:
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, from the bosom of the Earth Mother, for the blessings of:
I open my heart to the blessings 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, ancestors and spirits 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.
VI) Closing and Ending:
A) Affirmation of success:
Acknowledged the feelings of: in myself, blessings and magic begun within me.
B) Thanking the powers:
Gave thanks to the Ancestors, said "Ancestors, you are always welcome to visit me, know that you are loved and remembered. Go if you must, stay if you will. I bid you farewell.
Gave thanks to Brighid and Calleach Beare. Said "Go if you must, stay if you will, I bid you farewell".
D) Closing the gates:
Asked Manannan Mac Lir as Gatekeeper to close the gates, clapped thrice 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:
