Samhain 2012 - Signs and Portents

I try to maintain a Mythopoeic world-view - that the world we live in is part of a larger, interconnected, vibrant and alive place. With ancient stories to guide us and spirits and Deities and Who Knows What Else roiling around in a froth of activity and living. With all this hubbub around us, it just makes sense to be sensitive to what's about, and use divination tools to make sure we get a sense of things and grab any message that might be directed at us. 

So I tried not to be overly worried about the Samhain ritual that we were missing due to me needing to go to Ohio to be with my father.  Who, in his declining years, had a semi-serious medical emergency that ended him up in the ER. (It turned out to be, uh, a physical blockage of his digestive tract so was dealt with - but there are some lifestyle changes due in his future. I know, I know, TMI.)

But it got me to thinking, how funny/odd/weird it was that for our Grove's traditional "Ancestor" rite I was wending off to be with one of my Ancestors - albeit one that was still alive and kicking. (Ask me one Yule - our "storytelling" rite - about frantically received texts from me after the rite. Sorry for the scare Caroline!) One of the things about Our Own Druidry (in fact, most religions strive for this I think) is that we believe that Our Religion should inform our daily lives. Not just a Full Moon or Cross Quarter kinda thing.

So, was it a Deity speaking to me or just a weird twist of fate? Omen or Pizza? However kewl it might be that Someone Spoke to me, ultimately what matters is my reaction to it.  One more holiday and attendant story to help me remember what Ancestor means - and how I sometimes fail at honoring them while alive, or their memories when they've moved on.

Samhain 2011

As is our tradition, we held Samhain under the U.A.O.D Druid monument in Forest Home cemetery in Forest Park. The weather is always a bit of a gamble this time of year and there have been some very coooold Samhain celebrations but this year the weather was mild but very windy! The altar objects were arranged not as much for their aesthetics but as a way to anchor the altar cloth and lighter items! (and I brought far too many things for the altar anyway which I suppose was fortuitous as they made handy paperweights if nothing else!)

The Deity of the Occasion was Pwyll Pen Annwfn and the Blessed Ancestors. Since this was a sort of Welsh rite, we had Manawydan fab Llŷr as the Gatekeeper, and Taliesin for Bardic inspiration. Again we used the Triple Triads to invoke the Ancestors, Nature Spirits and Shining Ones. The main aspect of the rite was honoring the Ancestors and so Colleen honored her Grandfather with appropriate offerings, I offered some McVitties that Jack and Chris brought me, and others told stories or made offerings for their ancestors. Colleen sang The Reaper and the Flowers which is something of a Samhain tradition. We read our Ancestor Prayer and offered whiskey, ale, apples, hazelnuts, and of course our food donations.

Colleen  sacrificed some Whiskey and cookies to Pwyll and Janet and I took the Omen and the sacrifice was accepted. Chris then asked for blessings and we shared sesame cookies and ale. For the takeaway, Jack made some Ancestor Triptychs printed on vellum for people to record their own ancestor and place on their shrines. He chose vellum so people could place photographs and such behind the triptych so they would show through. (Anyone who missed the rite can print out their own copy if they like.) Towards the end the wind was really picking up (a branch fell off a tree right near us!) so we hastily made out farewells and packed up before we blew away. We reconvened at Khyber Pass in Oak Park to feast with delicious Indian Food and warm companionship with friends old and new. All in all the rite went well despite the wind, I'm still not convinced we shouldn't do Samhain indoors but so far I have been outvoted. Yule of course will be indoors at LFACs new location, which is much smaller than the old space but the parking is free on Sundays!  Yule is now going to be at a private residence so please RSVP for directions if you are planning on going! The rite will be dedicated to Odin and there will be a potluck afterwards so bring something yummy to share! Highlights will include a Chicago Wassail, Yulekake, and of course Runes!

The other important news is that we have a new phone number (312) 489-8610, which we figured we needed so people can get a hold of us if they get lost or just want to talk to an actual person about the Grove, events etc (or when Caroline messes up.)  Also due to the fact that December is usually a crazy time even for Pagans we will resume working with the Forest Preserve in January, there might also be some blanket making in our future as well....

Blessings on you and yours and Happy Thanksgiving!
Caroline
Your humble Scribe, Wild Onion Grove ADF

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!

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! :)

More Samhain with pictures :)

As Jack said, This Samhain was bright and sunny but bone chillingly cold, we sort of ended up speeding through some things so we wouldn't freeze, which is a shame but we did make sure Janus was properly honored as well as the Ancestors, and we had a brief eulogy for Isaac. We invoked Mercury  as the Gatekeeper and Vulcan as the Bardic Deity, and gave tootsie rolls to the Outsiders. Jack read a prayer he wrote and Chris read from Ovid's Fasti.

For the Sacrifice Coleen offered a loaf of Jack's soda bread. The omen was very favorable, we had Janet Berres as a guest and as she is the Tarot queen we asked her to pull the Omen and she pulled the Ace of Swords.  A good start for new beginnings and the ability to cut through the BS, yup that's the Onions through and through! :) Janus seems very pleased to be honored as the Deity of the Occasion and not just the bouncer! I did the Grove Omen and we got the Three of Pentacles, the Page of Swords, and the Two of Rods, I then blanked completely on the Three of Pentacles but did remember the other two! So our Grove Omen was equally good, mastery of skills, direct communication (again very Onion!) and success, power, attainment of goals and collaboration and  I think this does reflect how far we have come as a Grove.

We then made a special sacrifice of incense, rosemary, and apples to the Ancestors and said a prayer and eulogized Isaac and other beloved Dead. We then shared the blessings with mulled wine (very good especially in the cold!) and oatmeal cranberry cookies and quickly handed out the Janus heads.We even more quickly transferred the Senior Druid title from Jack to Chris and then wound the ceremony down to the end. Almost everyone left quickly at this point, people were shivering and hands going numb, but some of us decided to stay as we wanted to find the Haymarket Martyrs monument and Emma Goldman's grave. Which we did and we left a cookie for both.

All in all the rite went well, not quite as elaborate as I had hoped due to the weather, and the fact that we were late, partially due to traffic and partially due to my getting the time wrong. We Onions aren't known for being on "Pagan Standard Time" (i.e. late for everything) but we have found ourselves running behind the last two rites. Hopefully with the resumption of indoor rites at Life Force Arts Center, our on time-ness will resume :)  The only other thing we forgot was as it was a Roman rite, to honor Vesta first and last! That might explain why our fire went out halfway through the rite (facepalm!)....we (or at least I) will probably do a special piacular-type rite for her before Yule.

Hope Everyone had a joyous and blessed Samhain!
Caroline, Webmaster, Wild Onion Grove

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