Lughnassadh 2011

Lughnassadh Altar

So Lughnassadh did not go quite as expected. Just about everything that could go wrong, did. For starters, our location, Illinois Beach State Park, got shut down due to storm damage. So we quickly changed to Osterman Beach here in Chicago in hopes that it would be relatively quiet (it was) and hopefully cooler than inland (it wasn't.) Then due to yet another storm, Jack and Chris' basement flooded and they needed to do clean up and were unable to attend. We thought about canceling altogether but since this whole year has been messed about because of the weather, we decided to carry on and Colleen and I decided to go ahead and run the ritual ourselves (gulp!)

Our new web logo thing I made

We did scale down a bit though as we would be carrying everything for the rite on public transportation, so we dropped the potluck. I made the amazing Irishgasm cupcakes and prizes for the bake-off and small gold medallions for the take away (which you can just about see on the Altar in the pic above, in the lower right hand corner. We didn't get many pictures as we were too busy making sure we remembered everything else.) We didn't have the Grove altar things so we brought some of our own stuff, and used the tree behind as our Tree. For the rite itself we used Jack's Triple Triads, and the Lugh Invocation we have used in the past. I did take out the marriage part out though as I wasn't sure it fit which what we were doing and I am a bit iffy on the concept in general. This was however overwhelmingly accepted as a good idea by those attending the rite, so a good call I guess.

The bake- off was a bit of a wash as only three people showed up besides Colleen and me. I don't know if it was the heat or the venue change but we only had two things for the bake-off so I just gave Jennifer the gold medal for her very excellent banana bread, and Colleen the silver (for helping me with the rite plus she made an oath to bake her offering and offer it at Autumn Equinox) and we offered both offerings to Lugh.

The Grove Omen

Despite our nervousness the rite went pretty well, I did the Opening prayer, the meditation, the Gatekeeper invocation (Mannanan Mac Lir of course) and the Well, Tree and Fire, the Omen and return Blessing,  Colleen led the songs, did the Earth Mother invocation, Outsiders, and the Sacrifice, Jennifer did the Bardic invocation (to Brighid) and we divvied up the Kindreds and Lugh's Invocations among everyone. All went well until the sacrifice,  but it was accepted the third time around when we offered sufficient cupcakes (6) and sufficient banana bread (2 or 3 pieces I think?) some raisin bread was also offered, and fruit and ale. Ah well we usually get there in the end! The Grove Omen was good (I remembered to give offerings to the Kindreds this time!) and I asked for blessings from Lugh for us and we asked for blessings for those not present and then we shared the remaining cupcakes and banana bread and some lemonade.

After the rite the idea was to hang around the beach and play games and eat but with the potluck off and it being horribly hot and muggy (even on the lake front which should tell you something about how yucky it was) we all chatted for a bit but left soon after the ritual was over to go find some AC and a place to nap! (okay those were my goals anyway.) But we did get a new person interested in coming to Autumn Equinox (yay!) and Colleen and I survived running our first rite with only a few days notice so I think despite everything going pear shaped, the Onions prevailed once again!

Lughlapalooza!

Please join us as we celebrate Lughnassadhin honor of Lugh. We are making a day of it! Along with the the ritual we are having a potluck picnic, and inspired by country fairs there will be a bake-off with Lugh choosing the winner which will become the offering, games, prizes, and good times! As always, we will also be gathering food donations for the Chicago Food Repository, so feel free to bring a contribution (no glass containers, please). Please contact us with any questions, need for directions, etc. Also, you can now RSVP directly on the website which is greatly appreciated!

Date: July 31st 2011
Time: 12-5pm
Where: Illinois Beach State Park
What to Bring: Non perishable food items in non glass containers for the Food Bank, and if you wish, Praise Offerings for the Deity of the Occasion and/or something for the bake-off!

View Illinois Beach State Park in a larger map

And not to make anyone nervous but for the bake-off I did find a recipe for Irish whiskey filled Irish stout cupcakes with Baileys frosting...just sayin ;)

A Virtual Nemeton! We have one!

So I was playing around with my virtual nshrines earlier this week and it occurred to me that maybe Wild Onion could use a virtual space to make offerings, prayers etc, so I went ahead and made a Virtual Nemeton. I made several new shrines so now we have one for the Earth Mother, Bardic Inspiration, the Gatekeeper, Well, Tree, and Fire, the Nature Spirits, Blessed Ancestors, and the Mighty Ones. The plan is to add Shrines for the Groves' various Patrons and other Spirits and Deities we work with. I am hoping it's at least fun if not useful. I am not sure how well they work on smartphones and tablets but I was thinking it would be neat to have a place to make a quick prayer or offering with you at all times! I also wanted it to be a community space, where we can all go and share with the Kindreds in the same place, even if we can't be in the same place. I am sort of big on community spaces for us right now (have I mentioned we have a new message board?) in case you couldn't tell. :)

In other news it looks like we are doing Lughlapalooza (don't ask) again this year for Lughnassadh. This means a bake off with Lugh as the judge, the winning item becomes the Offering! There will be prizes as well. It will be like a county fair with games, and food, and the ritual of course! We don't know exactly where yet, but most likely near the Lake and away from the man eating mosquitoes and soul crushing humidity (that's my vote anyway!) You can keep up with all the latest developments on the message board (did I mention we had one....? ) and don't forget to RSVP!
Anyway I hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer and I hope to see bunches of you for Lughnassadh! :)

Summer Solstice 2011

Summer Solstice altar

Summer Solstice day dawned cloudy and potentially wet, so we initiated our rain plan and moved the rite to Jack and Chris' house. Ironically it didn't rain the whole day but I have to admit a certain amount of pleasure at having the rite in air conditioning as the day was muggy and hot.
The first thing we did was prepare the herbs for the herb bags, we have made herb bags before for our rite to Belenos, but this time we could add some grown by Jack in his and Chris' new garden! As people started showing up, we prepared the altar and made sure everyone had a drink and some nibbles.

Herb bags waiting to be blessed and filled

We began the rite processing from the kitchen to the diningroom/ritual room, singing We Call the Tribe, with Jack leading us because we still mess up the words (headdesk) I think we are improving though, it's not that we forget the words just in what order they go in! As always we invoked the Earth Mother, and Jack did a visualization for the meditation. We called Cernunnos as our Gatekeeper (using an invocation by Michael Dangler) and Brigantia for our Bardic inspiration, in keeping with the Gaulish theme.

Wild Onion Grove

We invoked the three Kindreds but did not give offerings I now realize, well they must be quite forgiving as nothing untoward happened (no woad drinking or anything!) I must start keeping better track of the offerings! We then of course invoked Belenos and made praise offerings, Jack read his Belenos story (which I will post a link to as soon as I get it!) and Jennifer read a lovely poem she wrote (again will try to link) For the Sacrifice we offered fresh herbs from Jack and Chris' garden and some Polish honey wine Chris and I found at the store. We thought that the honey wine would be a good choice as its amber color and sweet taste seems to embody this time of year and is very appropriate for a Sun God!

Jack tells a story of Belenos

I then drew the Omen and the sacrifice had been accepted, the Grove Omen was also very positive (despite forgetting the Kindred offerings!) So Chris prepared and asked for blessings on the return blessings of mead and of course the herb bags and we all had some mead (and pomegranate juice) and filled our little bags with the herb mix. (The herbs were echinacea, fenugreek, juniper berry, blackberry leaf, eucalyptus, meadowsweet, spearmint, rosemary, and hellebore) We then concluded as the sun came out of the clouds and so we all went outside to enjoy the beautiful garden and quickly improving weather and have more nibbles and honey wine!

Enjoying the garden and each other's company

So next up is Lughnassadh. It looks like we will be going back to Lugh this year and we will be doing the whole country fair theme again with a bake-off (Lugh picks the winner and it becomes the sacrifice), games, prizes etc and it will probably be a whole day affair. We are currently discussing the details on our new message board, as well as some of our future plans, talks, field trips etc. Anyone is welcome to participate even if you aren't in the Chicagoland area, the more the merrier I say! Besides I am hoping we can have some cracking good discussions about a lot of things. We also have an RSVP page on the site now where you can RSVP to any of the remaining High Days of the year as well as any other events that will posted as they arise. Anyway hope everyone had a lovely Solstice and is enjoying the bounties of summer!

We have a new message board!

Facebook got rid of message boards for groups so I made one for the Grove.  I am hoping it will foster creativity and communication for all of us and help us plan some of the activities we keep talking about and help us grow as a Grove :) It is open to anyone interested, Grove member or not, ADF member or not. Some of the boards are open to guest posting some require registration though (anyone can register) I've posted a few threads with questions about the Kindreds I have been wondering about for a while to get the ball rolling, as well as an into post about me (Jack and Chris have also posted) and a discussion about Lughnassadh. Anyway check it out if you are interested! :)

Beltaine 2011

Planting petunias for the take way

We had a really lovely Beltaine this year. Spring hadn't sprung quite as much as in most years, but the weather was perfect, we had really good attendance and everything just clicked really well. The Deity of the occasion was Medb, as it has been for the past several years. Before the rite we decorated pots and planted petunias in them for our take away blessing. The altar was a little more sparse this year, and I realized we don't have Medb's crown anymore! We will have to make a new one for next year, but at least we had room for everything this time!

Beltaine Altar

The Gatekeeper was Mannanan Mac Lir as usual but the for Bardic Chris did something a little different, he did invoke Shakespeare but also Brighid and Puck; Bardic inspiration from the Gods, Ancestors and the Nature Spirits. We did a bit of the literary Beltaine again with my poetically enhanced version of the Cosmic Order. We used Jacks new Triads for the Kindred Offerings but did not use Shakespeare's Queen Mab speech as an invocation this year, but I did write one as promised. One of the things I focused on and one of the the things I like about Medb is She has aspects of each of the three Kindreds, She has been known as a Sovereignty Goddess, the mortal (if mythical) Queen of Connacht, and the later the Queen of the Faeries. Which made Chris' Bardic invovation a nice tie-in. :)

Flowers for the Sacrifice

For the Sacrifice Jack and Chris brought fresh flowers from their garden and of course we did not forget the booze and a bottle of Peche Lambic was sacrificed as well (We learned our lesson!) Janet Berres attended again and as she is Queen of Tarot, she pulled the Omen. The offering was accepted and Chris prepared the delicious orange cupcakes Jack baked and some of the Lambic and pomegranate juice for the return Blessing. We nom nomed the cupcakes and Lambic and since Chris brought a bunch of bottles of bubbles, we (okay me) became 5 years old again and blew lots of bubbles much to the amusement of our Otherwordly guests I am sure! We then ended the rite and unfortunately had to leave almost right away because I had to get to work. We missed going to see the frogs and toads at the vernal pools this year which kind of made me sad. I am hoping there may be some left when we go back to Thatcher Woods for Summer Solstice! (Which as I look at the clock is in about 9 hours from now!)

Speaking of High Days, I have added a link to the website for RSVPing to High Days and Wild Onion events. There is a drop down menu to specify what event you are planning to attend and a place to put some contact info in case we have to change venue due to weather etc. I am hoping this makes communication easier in case of last minute changes and will help towards not leaving people stranded. It also helps us know how much food/beverage and take-away blessings to bring! Thanks and hope everyone has a blessed Solstice :)

Beltaine planning and crafting

Méabh, Beltaine Altar 2010

This past weekend some of the Onions had a crafting day and Beltaine planning meeting. The planning was quick and easy, Méabh will be the Deity of the Occasion again this year (yay!) I will write the Invocation, and probably resurrect the Well, Fire and Tree from last year, Jack will write the Triads and make something for the Sacrifice, we are giving bouquets of herbs and flowers for the take away (and I have some ideas to add small prayers or something to them, I'll have to let that bubble away for a bit) and it will be in the Forest Preserve, the first High Day of the year to be outside (here's hoping the weather improves before then!) We didn't actually establish the Gatekeeper or the Bardic Deities but it will probably be Manannán Mac Lir and Brighid. This will be our third year invoking Méabh at Beltaine so it should go well as we have forged a good connection with Her.

The preliminary drawing

Crafting took up most of the day. The Artisans Guild of ADF started a quilt with blocks for all the Groves, Guilds, Kins, and SIGs in the org. We finally got around to starting the Wild Onion block and it will hopefully make it onto the quilt before Wellspring! The idea for our block was to have Chicago rising up out of a garden (the city's motto is "Urbs in Horto" or "City in a Garden") and have Lake Michigan present and have representations of the State flower (Violet), bird (Cardinal), and tree (White Oak), as well as Wild Onions of course! (For those of you who did not know, the name Chicago derives from the Miami-Illinois word for Wild Onions which grow along the river) The swoosh is either wind (for the Windy City) or the Chicago River we sort of left that open to interpretation. Now we aren't seamsters really so the idea was to print the image onto cotton fabric and then paint the scene upon it, then embellish it with a Cardinal button, and some embroidery and seed beads for the climbing vines.

A work in progress...

So we got most of the painting done, just a few details to be added, and some areas refined, but then the Cardinal will be sewed on (he is just resting there for the picture) and the vines need to be embroidered. It will then be cut out and surrounded by a light green ribbon and mounted on a hunter green background. You can't tell from the photo but the onions are pearlized and the lake has micro fine blue glitter in it and the swoosh has both. We were going to use tiny flower buttons for the violets but they didn't look right so we may just leave them painted or use some ribbon or something. I might repaint the title as it isn't very even and I am not happy with it.

Anyway I think it turned out pretty well and we are all pleased to finally get it started! Looking forward to writing some liturgy and celebrating in the great outdoors before the mosquitoes set in! Hope everyone has a great Beltaine! :)