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It seems the weather in the Bay Area is determined to be stormy this spring. We have had a ton of rain, which is both wonderful and difficult. Wonderful of course because around here, we can *always* use the rain. Difficult, for me at least, because rain means more mold and more dust mites which means more *fun* on the health front, but at least I have the sound of the rain to keep me company while I veg out on the couch.
The rain has also meant that our seedlings from the Ostara ritual are well feed and growing like … well… happy seeds! I even had enough energy today to go out and get most of them transplanted over into bigger pots so they can stretch out and grow the next steps. That of course meant I needed to take pictures 
Here are the seeds getting planted at the Ostara ritual (how about that plate of cakes – er carrots and strawberries we got to share?)
the seeds in their new homes (being guarded by my younger son’s bike)
I honestly have no idea exactly what in each pot (oops!) we had a little too much fun at the ritual and lost track of what went where. I’m pretty sure that my cats were working some serious mind control on the gang though, as I did recognize a fair amount of catnip among the seedlings. I think I saw a few sunflowers and I pretty sure I one pot has lettuce seedlings in it – so that will be nice. The rest? no idea! we had seeds for Hollyhock, cucumber, a couple of different herbs, some squashes, and more sunflowers… so this should be a lot of fun once the seedlings start showing their true nature.
Here’s a couple of other photos from the ritual:
Peeps of the North Altar Peeps of the East Altar
The Main Altar with our Chocolate bunny statues for God and Goddess
Next up… I need to get Demeter’s altar cleaned up, its a little neglected after the winter, I have a blueberry shrub to plant, and hopefully this summer we will finally get the labyrinth finished in the front yard! Pictures for everything of course!
Blessings,
Kate
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
Spring has very definitely arrived here in the SF/Bay Area. You can feel it in the air, in the earth, in your very blood – its just bursting out everywhere! Of course after the rains of winter its also in the weeds that have taken over my garden, but I am slowly hacking my way through those jungles. Soon there will be room to plant new vegetables and fresh flowers, watch my cats try and catch the birds and pick lemons from the never ending lemon tree.
Tomorrow our coven celebrates Ostara and Spring Equinox. This year I offered to revise a ritual I wrote that was all about jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. Well now its even more insane, or wonderfully perfect for the season. There are Peeps for the directions, jelly beans for the blessings, Chocolate bunnies for the god/dess statues and carrots of power! Oh, yeah and inside all the silly we will be planting seeds for the new year – both metaphorically and physically. It should be lots of fun!
I’m thrilled with how this ritual turned out, so I thought I would share it with folks. Feel free to share it with your coven, friends and community. Enjoy!
Blessings,
Kate
————–
Ostara Ritual of the Chocolate Bunnies
Created for Ratatosk Coven
By C. Pennington
March 21, 2010
Altar Set up:
altar cloth
Candles for the Goddess & God
Center candle
Carrot for athame
Bubble wand
Glitter candle
Fur of the fallen
Flowers of the season
Chalice and plate for cakes and champagne
Additional tradition tools
Peeps of the four directions/quarter colors
Four bowls of jelly beans: red, yellow, blue and green
Cakes and wine: Carrots, fruit, jelly beans, milk and juice
To begin the HPS will:
tap the altar 3 times with the wand
ring a bell three times
The Blessing Prayer
Light the center candle, then the altar candles as the Blessing Prayer is read.
High Priestess:
In the beginning was the burrow and it was dark and warm and safe.
From out of winter’s sleep the Lady awoke, ears and whiskers twitching.
She breathed a sigh of delight and brought light into the darkness.
HPs then lights side candles from the center candle
High Priestess:
But the light of the Lady could never be happy alone,
and so she sought out Her other Selves
Seed-Bearer and Nesting-Minder, Free-Spirit, Wandering-One, and Old-soul,
All different shapes and forms to carry Her light into the world.
They traveled from burrow to burrow, carrying joy and light in their paws.
She hands the candle to the HP
Priest:
Their light spread to the four hillocks and soaked deep into the winter-dark soil.
HP takes the flame to each point.
Summoning the Powers of the Elements
P: In the East, the light arrived on the winds bringing knowledge and carrots.
P: In the South, the light danced in as flames bringing will and carrots
P: In the West, the light swept across the waves bringing daring and carrots
P: In the North, the light became meadows bringing silence and carrots
P then returns to the main altar and says to the HPS:
P: My lady, the powers of the Elements have been summoned.
HPS: And the Circle binds them together with Carrots.
HPS lights the Goddess and God candles saying:
Bunnies to enfold me.
Bunnies to surround me.
Consecrating the Elements
Salt:
We honor the blessing of earth that lives within the salt distilled from Mother Rabbit, and the green jelly bean!
Raise up the bowl of salt and green jelly beans
Water:
We celebrate the blessing of water that nourishes all life with each freely given drop, and the blue jelly bean!
Raise up the bowl of water and blue jelly beans
Incense:
We honor the blessings of air that flow around and within us at each moment, and the yellow jelly bean!
Raise up the incense and bowl of yellow jelly beans
Fire:
We celebrate the blessings of fire that fuels the passions of our lives, and the red jelly bean!
Raise up the candle and bowl of red jelly beans
Casting the Circle
The Priestess/Priest casting the Circle says:
Here in our Burrow of Safety and Community,
We call upon the Bunnies of the Elements
Using the Wand of Bubbles and the Carrot of Power
Using the Candle of Glitter and the Fur of the Fallen
To cast and consecrate this circle of power
So that we may have a nest of joy and warmth
To celebrate our rites and our tribe.
Priestess/Priest Consecrations
Each celebrant is consecrated with salt water and incense deosil around the circle.
By Carrot, By Candle, By Bubble, By Fur,
By the Breath and Blessing and Being of Mother Rabbit
Calling the Quarters
East:
Hail, Scampering Bunnies of the east
I call upon your yellow peeps to guard our Circle and witness our rites!
Hail and Nibbles!
All respond: Hail and Nibbles!
South:
Hail, Scampering Bunnies of the South
I call upon your pink peeps to guard our Circle and witness our rites!
Hail and Nibbles!
All respond: Hail and Nibbles!
West:
Hail, Scampering Bunnies of the West
I call upon your blue peeps to guard our Circle and witness our rites!
Hail and Nibbles!
All respond: Hail and Nibbles!
North:
Hail, Scampering Bunnies of the North
I call upon your green peeps to guard our Circle and witness our rites!
Hail and Nibbles!
All respond: Hail and Nibbles!
Invocation of Ostara
Hail to you Ostara,
You, who are the very essence of spring
The burst of energy that sings of life renewed,
The fresh buds that green the trees and color the landscape of our hopes
Hail to you Ostara,
You, who are the potent magic of youth,
The joyful eyes that see the world with wonder
The voice of the children dancing out of the womb and into the sunlight
Hail to you Ostara,
You, who are the glorious pressure to transform,
The sweet urge to dance with the winds
The passionate desire become more than we were in the darkness of winter
Hail to you Ostara,
Bringer of Spring
Bringer of Youth
Bringer of Transformation
Bringer of Carrots!
Hail and Nibbles!
ALL: Hail and Nibbles!
The Working
Today we stand on the boundary between winter and summer, between day and night. Today we of the coven and the wicca celebrate Spring Equinox and Ostara – the razors edge between light and dark! Huzzah! Or not… you know, depending on your opinion of razors.
From here the days get warmer; life gets brighter and more exuberant. As the wheel turns with ever flowing surety towards the fullness of summer and the richness of Beltane, we begin to churn with our own need to grow and stretch towards the sun. In honor of this itch to move, we will be planting seeds
Pull out the bag of seeds and show them all off
We have several seedling trays into which many seeds can go – so they have a good place to begin their journey, and several pots into which we can plant a collection of the wildflowers and see what they do.
As you plant your seeds remember that this is sympathetic magic. The physical seeds we plant today will grow into many wonderful plants, flowers, vegetables and herbs. The energetic seeds we plant are up to you. What do you wish to plant for this season of your life? What do you want to harvest in six weeks to six months? What will you need in the fall? What do you wish to bring into your life this year, this month? This season? Take a moment to really think about what you need and what you want for this year.
Pause to let them think.
Now, keep these thoughts in mind with each seed you plant, and plant your dreams along with the physical seeds.
Get folks started picking seeds and planting stuff.
While we are going to plant many seeds, not all will grow to fullness, some will be pushed out of the race by other seedlings with more strength and gumption, but in the end the ones that we need the most and the ones with the strongest will to live will win out and feed us in the harvests to come.
Finish planting seeds.
Time to sing and dance and empower the seeds.
The Lady’s Bransle (pron. Brawl)
For She will bring the buds in Spring
and laugh amid the flowers
In Summer’s heat, Her kisses are sweet,
She sings in leafy bowers
She cuts the cane and gathers the grain
when fruits of Fall surround Her,
Her bones grow old in Wintery cold,
She wraps her cloak around Her
© Glenn Turner and Hope Athearn
Cakes and Wine (aka Kate’s LBR of the CB)
Touch your forehead, intone *Ostara*
Point down, covering the groin, intone *Eostar*
Touch right shoulder, intone *Kore*
Touch left shoulder, intone *Blessed Mary*
Fold hands at chest, intone *Easter Bunny, Blessed Be*
Turn to east, draw pentagram, point to center, intone: *Sugar*
Carry line to south, draw pentagram, point to center, intone *Coco butter*
Carry line to west, draw pentagram, point to center, intone *Cacao*
Carry line to north, draw pentagram, point to center, intone *Cream*
Carry line to east, completing circle, return to center.
All Say:
Before me, Cadbury;
Behind me, Hershey’s;
On my right hand Scharffen Berger;
and on my left hand Godiva.
For about me flames the Divine Chocolate Bunny,
and within me shines the Goddess of Spring.
HPS breaks off a bit of bunny for the libation and says:
HPS: To the bunnies (and the gods)!
All: To the bunnies (and the gods)!
P/Ps pass out the cakes & wine
HPs: Now we EAT!
Circle closing
HPS and/or HP:
Our ritual is now ended, and it is time to say good bye.
Let us take the light and laughter we have shared
And spread it among our nestlings and burrow-mates
Bright blessings and joy be with you!
And abundant Carrots for All!
Dismissing the Quarters:
East:
Scampering Bunnies of the east
We thank you and your yellow peeps for guarding our
Circle and witnessing our rites! Hail and good nibbles!
All respond: Hail and good nibbles!
South:
Scampering Bunnies of the South
We thank you and your pink peeps for guarding our
Circle and witnessing our rites! Hail and good nibbles!
All respond: Hail and good nibbles!
West:
Scampering Bunnies of the West
We thank you and your blue peeps for guarding our
Circle and witnessing our rites! Hail and good nibbles!
All respond: Hail and good nibbles!
North:
Scampering Bunnies of the North
We thank you and your green peeps for guarding our
Circle and witnessing our rites! Hail and good nibbles!
All respond: Hail and good nibbles!
Opening the circle:
The Priestess/Priest casting the Circle says:
No more are we set apart from the world of bunnies or men,
Sharing jelly beans on the edge between burrow and farm land.
Let the spirit world know that the garden gate is closed,
The carrots of power and mighty peeps put away,
Until next we meet to greet them and the Great Mother Rabbit.
So mote it be!
HP & HPS:
The circle is open, but unbroken.
The God and Goddess bless their children.
Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again!
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago. Add a comment
After more years than I can count of avoiding the topic, On Saturday September 10, 2009 I stood before Demeter’s altar and members of my community and declared myself Demetroi – a confirmed priestess of Demeter.
There really should be a whole lot more to say following a statement like that, but frankly I have a sinus infection trying to take hold in my head and yesterday was really LONG and wonderful and amazing and exhausting.
Until then, my thanks to everyone who has held my hand, read my mumbling questions, and been support of this long and crazy process.
Having my friends and family as part of my community and my life is one of the gifts I am grateful for.
Demeter’s Blessings upon you and your’s.
Kate
I Xrisi Örasis, Demetroi
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago. Add a comment
For the ritual my buisness partner Jamie and I wrote for PantheaCon 2009 I set myself the challenge of crafting the main god figures for the center altar. It took a while, but i managed to get them done just in time for the convention and the ritual!
Now that ritual is over they are for sale in our Artfire shop and I can show them off here! The awesome photos are by Jamie (of course) who now has a whole bunch of her photography up in the shop by the way!
I’ve also been doing a little bit of writing for Artfire.com’s Art Daily. So far they have posted two of my pieces. One is a short article about how to create your own beaded doll head. The other is about how to be friends with people with allergies and chemical sensitivities (like me!) I hope you’ll swing by Artfire and take a look!
Blessings,
Kate
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago. 3 comments
Greetings one and all!
Now that the PantheaCon 2009 schedule is live and public, its time for the official announcement of the ritual that Jamie and Kate have been working on with a few friends. Jamie and Kate co-wrote the ritual based on an idea Kate had to celebrate the polarity aspects of the Wiccan God and Goddess. Jamie is also the Stage Manager for the ritual and will be the on site contact, as Kate cannot be at the convention yet due to her health.
PantheaCon is a great opportunity for people interested in alternative religions and spiritual ideas to gather and network with each other. The convention has been held in the Bay Area every year since 1995. Mirth and Reverence is thrilled to be a part of the convention and looks forward to sharing our work with everyone.
“A Walk in the Garden of Polarity”
Written by Catherine Pennington and Jamie Morgan
Come take a walk with us through the Garden of the Wiccan Lady and the Lord to explore and celebrate Divine Polarity from a decidedly eclectic Wiccan perspective. Covens and solitaries from the Gardnerian, NROOGD, Coven of the Sacred Feminine, CAYA, Dark Moon Circle, NineSisters Ritual Group, and Eclectic Wiccan and God. This ritual will contain an extensive guided meditation and is not suited for young children. Participants are encouraged to wear celebratory garb, their cords, and any coven insignia they may have. Everyone, Wiccan, or not are most welcome and share in this celebration!
Program Bio
Mirth & Reverence is Catherine Pennington (by Remote) and Jamie Morgan (on Site). Together they create beautiful art work including Altar dolls and Beaded Jewelry as well as teach classes on ritual and magic, and produce innovative rituals. For this ritual they have the fun of being joined by many talented ritualists including members of their coven – Ratatosk, along with members of DarkForest Coven, Coven of the Sacred Feminine, CAYA, and a collection of amazing individual solitary practitioners, techies and warders. For more information visit their website: www.mirthreverence.com
The ritual will be Sunday February 15th at 7pm in the Cedar ballroom.
If you are at the convention that weekend, look for Jamie to be out and about, when she is not prepping the ritual, and Kate’s husband Scott Pennington at his massage booth Improoovements. Stop by and say hi! Also keep your eyes open for the roving stuffed cat gathering photos of friends to take back to Kate!
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago. Add a comment
I love researching Greek festivals. *snerk* First off we have the issue of when the event actually took place since our contemporary calendar does not line up well with their calendar. Figuring out when something should happen now is interesting. Then there is the process of deciphering what actually happened at the festival in the past and therefore what we might want to do for our reenactment of the festival in the present. For some festivals and rituals we have great records. We know the event happened, when, where, and even why, but not what was done during the event. Sometimes, like with the Eleusinian Mysteries this is because no one outside of the ritual staff and attendees was allowed to know, so no written records have been found and published to date. In other cases records have been lost, and in still others it may have been a case of people thinking it was so obvious that it no one thought to write about what they were doing.
Case in point, the Festival of Haloa. There seem to be two competing ideas about what the Haloa was about. On the one hand it appears to relate to grain and agriculture since the word Haloa is related to halōs meaning “threshing floor”. On the other hand the festival has sexual overtones and a few notations from writers about it being a women’s only ritual at which lewd and lascivious behavior and speech was encouraged. And on the third hand it may have something to do with the verdant growth going on all around the land at this time of year in Greece, much like in California, and by extension pruning of the vines and a connection to Dionysos.
“Starting from the beginning of the year, we find a festival celebrated at Athens about the commencement of January. Our information about it and even its name seem to be contradictory. The name, Haloa, 11 is derived from halos, which means both threshing floor and garden. Since the first sense of the word would be inapplicable to a festival celebrated in January, it must have been a gardening festival. It is said to have comprised Mysteries of Demeter, Kore, and Dionysus and to have been celebrated by the women on the occasion of the pruning of the vines and the tasting of the wine. It bore a certain resemblance to the Thesmophoria, and sexual symbols were conspicuous in it. If we think of the labors in the vineyards of modern Greece, this account is intelligible though not quite correct. In December the soil is hoed around the vines, and their roots are cut. At the same time the first fermentation of the wine is ended, and the wine can be drunk, although it is not very good. Thus, the description of the Haloa fits in with what we know about the labors in the vine-yards. On the other hand, the Haloa is also said to have been a festival of Demeter, and this, too, is possible. The crops grow and thrive during the winter, and, as we have seen, sacrifices were brought to Demeter Chloe at this time.”
- Greek Popular Religion by Martin P. Nilsson p 32-33
As a solitary practitioner honoring Demeter in her rounds, I am going to stick with the simplest ways to celebrate this festival. Since my altar to Demeter has been rather neglected so far this winter I will spend some time today cleaning and righting the altar, changing out the decorations and lighting her candles. In honor of the vines and new growth I will be getting some grapes and fresh greenery, and in honor of the grain I will get a nice wheaty loaf of bread to share with Demeter and some friends who are coming over today. And since I have friends coming over today I suspect there will be lewd talk at some point, there being only ladies present today, and perhaps we will indulge in a silly and lascivious movie or two at some point. All in all that should take care of all the bits of honor and respect for this fest day and my level of energy this year.
Happy Haloa!
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago. Add a comment
My last post “Living the Demetrian Wheel, Reality Strikes” was a first for me. Turns out it was the first time I have ever publicly written about having Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). After two years of living with this condition that seems a little odd, but its true. Up until now I have confined my writing and processing about life with MCS to my private journal, MCS email lists, and discussions with friends. Honestly I think it has taken that long for me to come to terms with this condition and make a certain level of peace within myself around the situation. But as an artist, ritualist and priestess, eventually what is in my heart and mind becomes a part of my work, and I guess my last post was the turning point.
All of that brought to mind that it was time for a little bit of truth in advertising for this blog. A little bit of “who is this crazy lady writing about MCS, ritual, art, gods and goddesses and the like?” And what is it that I am likely to write about on this electronic page of mine?
Five or Six years ago I would have answered that question by saying that I am writer and creator of ritual and ritual theater works, a mother and a priestess. At the time I was the founder and Artistic Director of Magical Acts Ritual Theater an experimental performance group in the Oakland, CA area that explored the boundaries between theater and ritual, between the sacred and the profane. We never made a living at it, but we did manage to pay the bills in the end, which if you know anything about nonprofit, volunteer theater is saying something! I resigned in the fall of 2002 to get some sleep, do some writing and rediscover my family. That worked for a while… but we Type A’s get bored soooo very quickly!
My Bio Photo from my days as AD of MART
Sadly, whatever I had planned for my post-MART days was eaten by the “Flue that would not go away” which started sometime around late 2004 / early 2005. Anyone familiar with MCS can see the plot begin to thicken right about now. Turns out that sometime in that period I was exposed to a very large dose of formaldehyde through a large remodel that was being done on the building that I worked in at the time. Lots of cheap industrial paint and cheap industrial carpet all over the place including right under my feet. Being “normal” at the time, it never occurred to me that this was a problem. Except that from that point on I had this flue and these sinus head aches that would not quit and would last for a week or two, go away, and then reappear – lather, rinse, repeat, over and over again.
In the summer of 2005 I was diagnosed with a massive dust mite allergy. WTF?? I had never had allergies in my life! That started the prescription medication and the allergy shots routine that I now live on. A little over year later I was on my second, or was it third?, sinus infection and a new round of antibiotics. Then in October of 2006 came the lovely adventure to the Emergency Room while at Disneyland that I wrote of in my last post. This was the triggering incident that brought the slumbering formaldehyde into full toxicity and me into the world of life with MCS.
My purple hair – dyed in celebration of my new life with MCS and suddenly jobless because of my health
- weird, but hey it was fun while I could still do it!
The first six to nine months of life with MCS I spent sleeping or watching DVD’s. There was just no energy – no spoons for anything else. So I missed most of 2007, which sucks when you have growing teenagers. Bless my house mates and husband! They stepped in and took over when I couldn’t be there and got the kids and me through the worst of those days! Slowly I learned to breathe again and think again. I discovered that there was a world out there… and of course… I got bored! Lol.
As luck would have it, around the time I got sick, a friend of mine had introduced me to the world of Robert Tonner dolls and Fashion Repaints and it occurred to me to try my hand at redo a doll for myself as an icon of Demeter. So I did and it was fun and other people liked what I was doing… so I tried a few other designs… and people liked those dolls… and started asking if I would do commission work! And now I have the seeds of a business doing Altar dolls! Getting sick lead me to my art – who knew? I have no idea if I will ever be able to make a living doing this, but for the moment it keeps me (mostly) out of trouble, and pays for itself, which in this economy is an absolute requirement!
The Demeter Altar Icon on my altar behind my desk
With my art has coming my writing – my ritual work specifically. I used to say that I was a Writer! Ok, I don’t *think* I was that bad, but I might have been. But this enforced downtime has helped me figure out that its not that I must *write* in the sense that a novelist or short story writer might use that word. When I need to *write* it is almost always to write ritual. I am a ritualist first and foremost, all the writing about ritual comes afterwards. But the requirements of MCS, staying away from all scents and chemical fumes, makes working and being in public damn near in possible – so for now, I am limited to writing ritual for my coven which is small and very MCS wise, and writing about ritual. Yes, its frustrating as hell! And actually its not the complete truth… I am writing rituals, just more complex and detailed ones; the kind that need time to brew and percolate to become their ideal selves.
And last, but never least, I am a priestess. Somehow this has always been true, and now, even with the MCS, or perhaps because of the MCS, it is even more so. I am a priestess of several powers. My work for the rest of 2008 and through June of 2009 at least will focus on my relationship to Demeter, hence the recent spat of work on the Demetrian Wheel of the Year.
So what is Sacred Seeds Weblog about? Art, ritual, life with a chronic condition… ways to celebrate life no matter what the universe throws at you!
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago. 2 comments
I feel like I should title this post “bad priestess no biscuit”. October has been a wash, ritually speaking. Thankfully Demeter seems to understand and be rather tolerant of my efforts to get my life in order. Or at the very least she has not ripped open the ground at my feet or anything that dramatic.
My plan in drafting a Demetrian Wheel of the Year for my own working was to follow it for at least a year to see how it fit into my life and to learn from the experience. After all, if I claim to be Demeter’s Priestess shouldn’t I walk that talk in a very real sense by walking the path of her festivals? Well as with many well intentioned plans… life er… had other plans?
This is the complication of being a priestess and having a chronic illness, everything needs to be adjusted to the needs to the body. Oh. Goodie. So October has become “Flue” month rather than “ritual” month as I was planning. *sigh*. But then again, Demeter seems to understand what she has in me… so this all seems to be part of the process. Yeah, the process of teaching an Aries to mellow out and walk instead of run into everything! Riiiiiiight. Good luck!
All that being said… a few things have been accomplished, a little out of order… but I’ll take all the successes I can get.
I now have my out door altar to Demeter. This is a stand in for the Temple that is to come. The hubs and a cluster of other crazy friends have offered to assist in the creation of a larger exterior “temple” for her in the same spot. We are designing it along the lines of the Asian Spirit / Ancestor Houses which are built as mini houses in various designs for the spirits to live in. Since this is for Demeter, it will be Greek in style of course. And I have finally worked out what I want… hmm… what we want I guess is the better phrase. A four (Doric) column, single room temple with three steps leading up to the entrance. Nice and simple.We are going to rig an opening in the roof so that I can place the Demeter Altar Doll I made several years ago inside during the dry summer months and take her out in the winter. I’m pondering painting the image in Pediment rather than trying to create a set of mini sculptures for the whole thing! I found this very cool website that goes through the stages of development for the Greek temples complied by John Porter of the University of Saskatchewan. I’m hoping to have the temple built and put in place in time for Plynteria in April/May.
Over the weekend I ordered Barley seed so that I can plant a winter batch as soon as they arrive. I will need to work out a private honoring of Proerosia (about a month late, ah well) and include preparing the container and the location I am going to set the seeds out in – near the new altar.
I have a great idea planned for honoring the Stenia, but my schedule keeps getting messed up and timing with the group of ladies who are game to join me has been fubared – we all seemed to have gotten sick this month. My plan is very un-ritualistic and horribly contemporary but entirely within the spirit of the thing. A Girls Night in with videos, tasty things to eat, questionable drinks, and lots of bawdy girl talk. In particular we’ve been plotting a viewing of a lovely little musical called Naked Boys Singing. The Musical is much fun and the dvd was well done… and well… what can you say about lovely men with no clothes on who are enjoying themselves and singing about it? So again, the celebration will happen… just very out of sequence to the actual calendar.
I did manage to do an honoring of the Thesmophoria in a way… another very contemporary approach to ritual, but honoring the spirit of the festival if not the actual script. October 15th is the anniversary of the day I went into the Emergency Room at Disneyland in anaphylactic shock, which is a much longer story that does not need to be told here. That event triggered the toxins that had been stewing in my body from an exposure to Formaldehyde about 18 months earlier. The anaphylaxis pushed me over into full blown Multiple Chemical Sensitivity – the chronic illness I now live with. This year my business partner Jamie and I created a ritual to help me mourn some of what I had lost through that experience and celebrate some of what I have gained. We performed the ritual on Friday October 17th at the Berkeley Marina with a handful of other friends who shared in letting go some of their grief and celebrating some of their joys. It was a quiet and poignant evening.
Now the wheel turns and the Wiccan in me prepares for Samhain this weekend. More honoring of grief and joy at the end of the year. Somehow it all fits together. And just behind me, supporting and offering comfort and understanding, I can feel Demeter’s presence. Sister, Lover, Mother, Goddess, Cohort in Crime, and Friend.
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago. 4 comments
So after much digging and not a little bit of hair pulling, I have a schedule of festivals that makes sense to me. Whether this works for anyone else? That is not up to me… feel free to play with it and see what works for you. I will keep posting notes as the year progresses.
Demetrian Wheel of the Year – a Version by Catherine Pennington
Two notes:
a. please be aware that I have bolded the date line for the date I am going to use in my cycle but I have also included the other author’s info underneath even when the dates clash, so that I have a record of what both authors (Reif and Apollonius) think.
b. I have not included all the notes about each date or festival here… those are listed in the first two posts. this is just about the dates in the cycle and enough info to remind me/us what the frakk its all about.
The Calendar:
Proerosia — 5th October
This is a festival for Demeter’s blessings in preparation for the ploughing and sowing at the beginning of the agricultural season (proerosia = things before the time of tillage)
October 7 Rites of Proerosia Preplowing rites. Blessings and magic for to
prepare the sacred field
Stenia — 9th October
a nocturnal women’s festival for Demeter and Persephone in preparation for the Thesmophoria. The women engage in Aiskhrologia (foul language, abuse), hurling insults at one another to commemorate the way in which Iambe made the grieving Demeter laugh.
October 15 Stenia Festival
Bawdy humor, sacred sexuality. Barren
Thesmophoria — 11th-13th October
The Thesmophoria is a celebration of Sporetos (Seed-time), the autumn sowing, dedicated to Demeter and restricted to women.
1st Day: Anodos (Ascent) — 11th October
During the Thesmophoria proper the women camp for three days in the Thesmophorion, the hillside sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros.
October 22 Thesmophoria Proper
Celebration of Demeter’s sacred laws. Remembering our divinity.
2nd Day: Nesteia (Fast) — 12th October
On the second day the women sit on the ground and abstain from all solid food in humility and sympathy for Demeter’s mourning (when she also refused a chair), but also to transfer their strength to the soil.
3rd Day: Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring) — 13th October
Nightfall brings the official beginning of the third day, and there is a torch-light ceremony, for Demeter sought Persephone by torch light.
October 23Rites of Nestia & Kalligenia
N = The Sadness. Persephone leaves Plouton/Hades and the underworld.
K = The Rejoicing. Ascent of the Maiden. Reunion of Demeter & Kore. Planting.
Poseidea — 8th December
The month of Poseideon was dedicated to Poseidon and the eighth day was especially sacred to him.
Festival of Haloa – January 10
Celebration of new green growth in both cultivated field and wild nature.
Haloa — 26th December
Most likely the Haloa is a celebration of the pruning of the vines and the tasting of the wine after its first fermentation, or it may be to encourage the growth of corn from the seed. It is named after the halos (the circular threshing-floor) and is in honor of Demeter and Dionysos.
Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis — January /February
Initiation in the Lesser Mysteries is a prerequisite to initiation in the Greater (Eleusinian) Mysteries; they accomplish the preliminary purification of the Mystos (Initiate). These secret rites belong to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, and the oldest of the Rhea-Demeter-Kore triad, but no more can be said about them.
April 12 The Lesser Mysteries
Ceremony of the whole festival cycle. Purification. Consecration to Demeter.
March 1 Festival of Chloaia
Festival of flowers, of Verdant Demeter and Kore, and of the green earth.
Anthesteria — 11th-13th Jan / Feb
This is the “Festival of Flowers,” when the first shoots of blossom appear, and is one of the oldest Greek festivals, dating back to the second millennium BCE; it was also called the Older Dionysia. At this time the vines are pruned again and the second fermentation of the wine is complete; it is now ready for drinking, and so this festival complements the Oskhophoria, which celebrates the vintage.
Plynteria — 25th Thargelion April / May
This is the festival for washing (plynteria hiera) the ancient statue [of Athena]
Skirophoria — 12th May / June
The Skirophoria (also known as the Skira) occurs at the time of the cutting and threshing of the grain. The Skiron is where, according to tradition, the first sowing took place.
June 7 Kalamaia
the Threshing. Freeing the seed grain from the chaff, honoring Triptolemos.
June 28 Skira Festival
The Maiden’s descent. In love, Plouton and Persephone unite. The grain is stored. The fallow period begins and in the following months, Demeter becomes the Crone.
Great Mysteries of Eleusis — 15th-21 August / September
In origin the Great (Eleusinian) Mysteries were a festival for the autumn sowing. They are, of course, mysteries, so some things about them remain concealed, in particular, the contents of the Sacred Kistai (boxes) and the actual initiation of the Mystai (Initiates). Anyone can be initiated, regardless of age or sex.
The festival is conducted by the Arkhon Basileus and four assistants. Two of these, the Hierophantes and Dadoukhos (Torch Bearer), wear the ependytes (a long-sleeved tunic ornamented at the hem and shoulders), headband and Thrakian knee-boots; they carry one or two long torches. Further, there are Mystagogoi (Initiate Guides), who guide individual postulants, often their friends, through the initiation.
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago. 1 comment
This is the first of several posts that I made in a private journal exploring some aspects of my research work on the calendar used for festivals and rituals related to Demeter. After many wonderful comments in private, I made the decision to bring this work public and cross post the core material here. This is an on going process of discovery and exploration.
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I have begun a cycle of work with Demeter that will lead to interesting places. Among them, are a set of rituals I need to do, many will be just me, myself, and I, others will have invitations sent out to them on a small scale. These rituals follow what is called by some the Demetrian Wheel of the Year. As you might imagine the fall is rather busy for this harvest Goddess, which makes my life more than a little interesting right now, but I have plans and plots that will make this work without too much stress (I think). What’s bugging me is the fact that the year as laid out for Demeter’s festivals is not meshing with what I understand of growing cycles here in California. I’d sum up for you, but that really wouldn’t help – so here is the long version…
(dates are contemporary approximations of when the rituals happened in the past – the ancient Greek Calendar being rather different than our current one. The Description of what happens comes from Jennifer Reif’s “The Mysteries of Demeter” – a good book over all. )
October 7 Rites of Proerosia Preplowing rites. Blessings and magic for to
prepare the sacred field
October 15 Stenia Festival Bawdy humor, sacred sexuality. Barren
Demeter becomes Fertile Mother.
October 16 Arkichronia Festival Creation of fertility talismans. Combining
Earth and Underworld powers.
October 22 Thesmophoria Proper Celebration of Demeter’s sacred laws.
Remembering our divinity.
October 23 Rites of Nestia & Kalligenia N = The Sadness. Queen Persephone leaves
her beloved Plouton/Hades and the
Underworld. K = The Rejoicing. Ascent of the Maiden. Reunion of Demeter and Kore. Planting.
January 10 Festival of Haloa Celebration of new green growth in both
cultivated field and wild nature.
March 1 Festival of Chloaia Festival of flowers, of Verdant Demeter and
Kore, and of the green earth.
April 12 The Lesser Mysteries Ceremony of the whole festival cycle.
Purification. Consecration to Demeter.
May 15 Thargelia The Harvest. Demeter the Harvest Queen.
The seed and the Maiden are matured.
June 7 Kalamaia the Threshing. Freeing the seed grain from
the chaff, honoring Triptolemos.
June 28 Skira Festival The Maiden’s descent. In love, Plouton and
Persephone unite. The grain is stored. The fallow period begins and in the following months, Demeter becomes the Crone.
September 20 The Greater Mysteries aka The Eleusinian Mysteries Proper
The Sacred Drama. The reconciliation of
Demeter, Plouton, and Persephone. The Rite
of the Cista Mystica. The Thanatos Rite.
The Crowning.
Now… the cycle as stated here, starts in October and everything is geared toward the Greater Mysteries being the end of the cycle … so in a way, that helps me. I could do nothing now, i.e. skip the GM/EM… which just sounds wrong, or go ahead with a small thing, and then do something a bit bigger next year as a way to complete my year of processing.
The other odd thing to my poor wiccan brain is that the reason the cycle starts in October is that the planting apparently starts in October. Now maybe I am just to Temperate focused but that just sounds wrong to me. Eve in Greece, or it did back in olden days… I don’t know what its doing know… Mum… do you recall from your days in Greece? Meanwhile here, where we have a supposedly Mediterranean Climate the plants are completing a cycle of growth and harvest. We are not preparing the soil for planting. We are preparing for dark time, and a time for the land to lie fallow. Reif talks about the Proerosia as a rite of “pre plowing” – am I just not understanding? Is this something we do to prep the soil before winter so that it will be ready to take seeds and grow in the spring? … But she also has planting happening at the Rejoicing during the Kalligenia. So again with the confusion.
New growth in January I get. “The hills turn green with winter rain” is a powerful line in one of the songs from the Spiral Dance. And by March we have flowers so that I can see… but the rest is messing with my head.
So I am trying to sort out this planting cycle thing Part Two
… June through October is not a fallow time in California. Though honestly is there ever much of a fallow time in CA? I went looking for growing season information starting with Wheat:
Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L. ) can be classified as winter or spring growth habit based on flowering responses to cold temperatures. Winter wheat development is promoted by exposure of the seedlings to temperatures in the 38 degrees to 46 degrees F (3 degrees to 8 degrees C) range. Such types are usually planted in the fall which exposes the seedlings to cold temperatures during late fall and winter. Spring-types, however, do not require exposure to cold temperatures for normal development and can be planted in spring. Both winter- and spring-types, when properly grown in Minnesota, head in the late spring or early summer and mature by mid- to late-summer. this from: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC2547.html
grrr. Everything I am turning up in my web searching is showing me exactly the same thing as what I thought I knew from two years of working in the Produce industry and from actually paying attention to both what comes in at Whole Foods and to the Farmers Markets. While we might get classified by some as a Mediterranean climate, we have the growing cycle of the Temperate Zones only better. But overall the cycle is similar.
What all this means food wise is that the summer fruits are ending now. While you will see peaches and nectarines in the stores, they are past their peak. Ditto for all of the berries. I have been told that Pears are coming into season – the interesting ones, not the year round crap, so I need to try some of the good stuff and enjoy.
Oranges have become a year round crop, so I can’t actually tell what their natural cycle is. Same for Apples. I did find notes that January is the month to tend to Apple planting and apple trees. I know that fall is “apple season” in my head. Back east is was when we would get the organic apples in to the farmers market. And apples last through winter because they store well so that is why they are one of the common fruits used in the fall for feasts. Same with onions and potatoes. If you store them right, they will get you through a lot of tough times.
The vegetables I am less clear on. Artichokes are summer. Cucumbers are traditionally summer but are force grown now for year round use, same with all the lettuces, celery, carrots, and tomatoes. The heirlooms you get in the summer though. Corn is a late summer / early fall crop. Here’s a lovely blog by a Bay Area gardener who is growing corn: http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/ The squashes have specific seasons depending on their nature: Winter squash or Summer squash. The Zucchini have been over grown so most people don’t know that they are a squash let alone that they are supposed to have a season. *sigh* Pumpkins of course are a fall/winter veggi. I *might* get one from my attempt to grow them this year, which would be way cool.
So I am back to the fact that I am not convinced that the cycle as practiced in ancient Greece fits contemporary Northern California, or really any of North America for that matter. What to do about that is another matter. …
See it’s the May date that really starts my problems. The Thargelia – Harvest in May. For Temperate zones this is the beginning of summer. While we all call Summer Solstice The First Day of Summer, in Pagan/Wiccan terms Beltane is the first day of summer and Summer Solstice is the Height of Summer and the Height of the Gods power – hard to be the beginning and the height of something at the same time, how did you get to the top of the apex anyway? Here things are still reveling in life and growth and sex for Goddess sake. Who wants to be harvested now? Just after Beltane? Yuck! So now. That does not work for me. Ditto the Kalamaia on June 7th – Thressing and seed from the chaff? That’s John Barleycorn time. Nope, not working for me. Skira Festival June 28th – the Maiden’s descent. Excuse me? What is she doing going down in the bright sun? And then Demeter is supposed to be a Crone at the height of the growing season for this region. I don’t think so. Nope, also not working for me.
Ok… Wiccan wheel of the year – starting at harvest for a visual:
August 2 Lammas First harvest
Sept 21 Mabon Harvest festival threshing. Seed from the chaff
Nov 1 Samhain New years. The dead. Mourning and Celebrating.
Preparing for fallow period.
December 21 Yule Festival of Ligts during the dark. Land lies cold. No
growth. Dark nesting seeds.
February 2 Imbolg Milking of the lambs, celebrating new life in the
sheep. One last storm before spring.
March 21 Ostara flowers and green growth
May 1 Beltane Vibrant life growth all around
June 21 Litha Height of growth and sun.
But what if we pushed all of those back a few months? If the Thargelia is actually a cognate to the first harvest that the Celts and contemporary wiccan’s celebrate as Lughnassad / Lammas, and Kalamaia is what we celebrate at Mabon / Autumn Eqinox, then the Maiden descends into the underworld with her lover at oh I don’t know… Samhain? Heck, I’m easy… it could be any date about two weeks after Autumn equinox, so the 1st of October even. Which for contemporary pagans works out nicely since some of us end up doing the Greater Mystery anytime in the first two weeks of October, and really that makes much more sense to me (though why that would be I think is a separate diatribe) .
It also seems to me that the Rites of Proerosia happen out of order here in Northern climates. I suspect, though I need to do more digging because its not a rite I am familiar with yet, that it has more cognates with Imbolg magic and that level of preparation before spring than it does with Mabon’s harvest magic. If I am correct, I would vote to move this rite to early February between Haloa and Chloaia – honor the human work that needs to go into helping the land be ready to produce on an agricultural scale vs celebrating what nature does naturally when the rains come (Haloa) and after plowing and work has been put into the fields (Chloaia).
Hmmmm….
Alternatively move Proerosia to January when the land here is rich and wet and able to receive. Prepare it for the work ahead. Then push Haloa and Chloaia each back. That puts Haloa in February as the celebration of green growth as the rains begin to slow and trickle off. Chloaia at Beltane and the Festival of flowers. Move the Lesser Mysteries to June / Summer Solstice – the height of Demeter’s power with so much growth happening all over the place. Then we are in sequence with the other dates for the local harvest. That feels better, it doesn’t leave the whole summer without festivals to honor the Goddess who brings us the yummy stuff.
Haha! The damn cycle does map to the stuff in my head!! So this is what I think it should look like:
January Rites of Proerosia Preplowing rites. Blessings and magic for to
prepare the sacred field
February Festival of Haloa Celebration of new green growth in both
cultivated field and wild nature.
May Festival of Chloaia Festival of flowers, of Verdant Demeter and
Kore, and of the green earth.
June The Lesser Mysteries Ceremony of the whole festival cycle.
Purification. Consecration to Demeter.
August Thargelia The Harvest. Demeter the Harvest Queen.
The seed and the Maiden are matured.
Autumn Equinox Kalamaia the Threshing. Freeing the seed grain from
the chaff, honoring Triptolemos.
October 1 Skira Festival The Maiden’s descent. In love, Plouton and
Persephone unite. The grain is stored. The fallow period begins and in the following months, Demeter becomes the Crone.
Pre Thesmophoria
October Stenia Festival Bawdy humor, sacred sexuality. Barren
Demeter becomes Fertile Mother.
October Arkichronia Festival Creation of fertility talismans. Combining
Earth and Underworld powers.
Thesmophoria Main
October Thesmophoria Proper Celebration of Demeter’s sacred laws.
Remembering our divinity.
October Rites of Nestia & Kalligenia N = The Sadness. Queen Persephone leaves
her beloved Plouton/Hades and the
Underworld. K = The Rejoicing. Ascent of the Maiden. Reunion of Demeter and Kore. Planting.
October 10 – 25 ish The Greater Mysteries aka The Eleusinian Mysteries Proper
The Sacred Drama. The reconciliation of
Demeter, Plouton, and Persephone. The Rite
of the Cista Mystica. The Thanatos Rite.
The Crowning.
Now this still leaves me with what to do about all the damn rituals I need to celebrate… but if I can get Demeter to agree to this calendar, then I think I have something to work with. I see a meditation in my future.
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A few days later… I learned more… that changed my world view again!
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago. Add a comment
