Posts Tagged ‘waters of life’

Yule brings a new dawn, as always!

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Today was the Grove’s Yule Rite, celebrated in honour of Cerridwen and with a rebirthing theme. It was not so long ago, just last year, in fact, when Yule was our smallest rite, when it drew no more than around 30 people. It is with joy and trepidation that we found that our Grove is growing stronger and drawing in more people: this year, Yule drew around 68 people! We go forth into a new year with numbers we never expected to see!

This was also the first rite since Lughnassadh 2008 that we have received a negative omen when we asked if our offerings have been accepted. This time, as last time, the omen was Hagalaz, the hail-storm. Our seer made a graceful piacular offering, however, in response to the negative omen, which pleased the Kindreds; our omens that followed were good and right for the occasion: Berkano, Dagaz, and Isa.

Berkano tells us that our offerings have been accepted: here, the fertile and flexible birch tree, which can survive even the harshest of weather and hardship grows healthy and strong. Even hail cannot break the spirit of this tree.

Dagaz tells us that the Kindreds offer us a new day, a brigh and shining dawn. This is an amazing and ideal omen for the winter solstice, particularly one that centers around this theme of rebirth.

Isa tells us that the Kindreds require of us the inward-looking vision, the contemplative path that shows us the way toward discerning between that which is beautiful and that which is dangerous.

These are good omens, indeed.

The rite went very well, though: each person received a token to take home, we collected over 50 toys for local donation, and several canned goods as well. Functionally, the ritual flowed beautifully, and though hiccups are virtually required in public ritual, they were small in this rite. I even got the chance to try out a new Waters litany, when I was presented with three vessels instead of two: we drew the blessings from the underworld waters and the heavenly waters, then mixed and mingled them together to bring in all the blessings from all the worlds. It was an awesome experience to combine these waters, and I cannot wait to write up the litany.

One thing is clear, though: the ritual teams have put together some amazing and impressive rituals. All of them, from Samhain to Lughnassadh to tonight, have done amazing things for our Grove. I am so proud of all of them.

    -Rev. Michael J Dangler

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New things on the horizon!

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Today we tallied up the submissions for the next edition of The Fire on Our Hearth and were pleasantly surprised to see that we’re likely to add a good amount to the book. Clocking in at 44 pages of new material alone, I’m pleased with the turnout, particularly the eager turnout from our newest members.

Over the past week, the Clergy Council of ADF has been working hard to get caught up on many things, including getting back to the Clergy Training Program Circle 3 courses which I’ve helped author. While the courses are out for revision, I spent some time working on my own training, including this piece, suitable for the Blessing Cup section of any ADF rite:

Endless are the Waters
  Joyfully flowing
  Thoroughly cleansing
  Never sleeping
Endlessly flowing in channels
  Furrowed by Taranis
  The Great Bull
  The Thunderer

Shining Ones, give us the Waters!

These are the Waters from the Heavens
  Waters from the Earth
  Waters gushing free.
Alone, Shining Waters
  Roaring in blessings
  Beautifully flowing to the ocean

Shining Ones, give us the Waters!

Presiding over the flowing Waters
  Are the Shining Ones
  Who know truth from falsehood.
Shining Ones, givers of Blessing
  Knowers of cosmic order
  Ceaselessly purifying

Shining Ones, give us the Waters!

As always with these sorts of things, this may make its way into a Grove rite, or it may not.

On an exciting new note, the Grove is planning its first Greek ritual for Spring Equinox: the Festival of Flowers. The rite is on March 22, and we hope to see you there!
    -Rev. Michael J Dangler

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Beltaine Blessings

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

As Three Cranes comes off a wonderful Beltaine celebration, with 78 participants, 91 canned goods collected, and an amazing drumming circle, it’s clear that there are some lessons learned.

We weren’t expecting to break new records today with the number of participants, though we were expecting a slightly larger crowd than usual. Our last-minute change of location also complicated matters, moving us from a traditional site for our Beltaine rituals to one that none of us had ever been to before this morning.

Despite that, our Grove has always (unofficially) operated on the Boy Scout motto: “be prepared” is a statement that we have taken to heart, often leading to excesses of ritual gear that we don’t need being brought along. Today, though, it led to our Grove having not only enough Waters to go around for the blessings, but also being able to offer each person the chance to drink the Waters, instead of aspersing the blessing across the entire crowd.

Because of the way the ritual space was set up, with tables and benches located in the middle of where the Folk would generally stand, most people ended up sitting at a table, so we ended up with a large crowd of parallel lines that sat almost perpendicular to the Sacred Center. When we were distributing the Waters, it was more like pouring drinks for a party in a crowded bar than a solemn, ritual atmosphere.

This, of course, suited Beltaine just fine.

We also chose a Fool by lot to lead our procession out through the purifying fires and back into the ritual space. Our fires stayed lit throughout the rite, and the nine sacred woods we burned in each fire purified and again blessed the folk who had joyously partaken of the Waters. Our method of Fool selection was originally designed by Anna Banana, who last year had us pick M&M candies out of a jar, making the Fool the one who chose the red candy. As we drew these lots this year to the sound of drumming and clapping, our Senior Druid began to chant:

    I want my M and M’s!

The immediate response was:

    Jim wants his M and M’s!

And this call-and-response was repeated several times until, as the one united and sacred Grove that we were, we simply couldn’t stop laughing in the collective joy we experienced.

In all, as Beltaine celebrations go, this was a wonderful one. We had many new faces and a few old ones that we hadn’t seen in a very long time. The Grove did a wonderful job of leading the rite and maintaining the space, but the thing I took home from this ritual is that our rituals thrive on the energy of the participants far more than on the energy of the sacrificers. Each person who comes to our rites adds spice to the experience and the joy of doing public worship.

And it is this spice our guests provide that makes us grateful to each and every one of them.
    -Rev. Michael J Dangler

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