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!

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! :)

Spring Equinox 2011

Freyja tile by Thalia Took

So we tried something new this year and had two Deities of the Occasion, Freyja and Frigg. Both are associated with fertility and spring and even though some think they are the same Goddess we don't think so, so we honored both as distinct entities. I felt I really dropped the ball on this one, starting with high expectations of painting paintings and writing litugy  but failing to even procure my praise offering of amber from the Occult Bookstore and really feeling like I phoned it in. Jack on the other hand, wrote new Triads for the Kindreds, the Invocation to Freyja and Frigg, and researched and found the kit we used to make the seed paper for the takeaway! I did make a Geis (or Oath) that I will get Them their praise offering and (I added this later) will be writing the main invocation for Beltaine regardless of the Deity. If I fail to do these things I have to wear all pink for a week! (The Grove decided my penalty, bless them. /sarcasm) Chris also took an Oath that he would get a similar tile for Frigg from Thalia Took (apparently she takes requests) because we felt bad that we had no image for Her. (We improvised with a pic from the Internet but it's not the same)

Frigg

Anyway we set up the altar, did the ritual run through for new people and began. We had Bragi as the Bardic Deity and of course Heimdall as the Gatekeeper. The Triads went down a treat and the Invocation went well and everything was going tickety boo until we got to the Sacrifice. Now, Colleen had found some lovely strawberries to offer but didn't realize that the Lambic Chris brought was also supposed to be part of the Sacrifice as well as the Return Flow. So when it came time for me to pull the Sacrifice Omen  we got Hagalaz. oops. So we did what almost always works when we get a less than ideal Omen and started pouring Peche and Framboise Lambic over the strawberries! I pulled the Omen again and got Fehu. Whew! Bullet dodged and important lesson learned (again): always share the nice beer with your guests! ;)

I pulled the Grove Omen and which was really positive from the Ancestors and Nature Spirits although the Gods seem to be expecting more from us (or some of us.) We then shared the blessing through the Return Flow and had some Lambic and a delicious strawberry and kiwi tart that Jack also made for us. We asked for blessing for those who were not in attendance and for Japan, Libya etc and Chris asked for blessings on the seed papers and we wrote our wishes on them. We then closed the ritual out thanking the Deities and Kindreds as we went and ended with hugs all around.

All in all it was a good ritual, the seed papers and new Triads are probably the parts that stand out for me. Freyja and Frigg seemed to be content with being invoked in the same rite and I for one would be happy to try multiple Deities again. Anyway, hope everyone had a safe and happy Spring Equinox and we'll see you at Beltaine! :)