Lisa is a solo-practicing wiccan whom I've been dating for a while now. She explained to me early on, that she had never "cast" because she didn't feel that she had enough knowledge, or experience, or something, and was afraid of getting it wrong. I encouraged her to go ahead and cast, saying that experience is obtained by the doing. Tonight, she performed her first ritual, and I was privileged to take part in it.
December 21st is the winter solstice, sometimes called Yule. It is one of eight sabbats, or days that mark an event in the turning of the "wheel" of the year (she explained to me). Yule is the day when night and day are the same length; the days have been growing shorter to this point, and now they begin to get longer. The Yule ceremony celebrates the return of the sun with its warmth and light, enabling a new season of birth and fruitfulness for the earth and everything in it.
Lisa asked me to spend solstice with her and celebrate, and I gladly agreed. She began research on how to perform the ritual, and discovered that there are about as many rituals as there are books on the subject. Many were complex and called upon various gods; they also were written with a coven in mind, not a sole practitioner. Lisa determined to write her own ritual, using what elements of others she found appropriate.
While at a pagan resource store shopping for incense and altar tools, she struck up a conversation with the proprietor and asked for help. The woman, who had trained in several traditions, asked Lisa, "What tradition do you follow?" Then, before Lisa answered, she said, "Eclectic?" to which Lisa answered, "Yeah, that's it." So Lisa showed her script for the ritual, and the lady told her it was good. An hour's conversation ended with this lady telling Lisa she could be a great teacher and healer.
This afternoon we met at Vikon Village, a flea market where you can find all kinds of odd items such as fantasy swords, incense, jewelry, belly dancing costumes and so on. She picked out a pendant with a woman's image on it ("The goddess! How pretty!") and I had it put on a silver chain and gave it to her for a Yule present. Then we went to a garden center looking for pine and holly with berries. The man gave her some pine twigs for free, and she was about to leave, but I wanted the holly too. I asked him if he had any sprigs, and he said no, but he had full plants. He told me to cross a wooden bridge outside the building and follow a trail down to the end, where the holly would be. So Lisa and I headed off down the trail. It was turning dark now, and we had trouble figuring out at first which ones were holly. Then when we found them, I started to walk forward to pick one up, and walked right into a spray of water from a sprinkler. We looked around us and everywhere, there were sprinklers at head height, squirting out jets of water and turning in slow circles. We dodged one only to be hit by another, and spent a little time trapped, pinned in with the holly as the sprinklers worked their way across the path we'd followed.
Lisa pulled a set of clippers out of her pocket and started to clip off a sprig of holly with a plump cluster of berries. "Wait," I said. "I'm going to buy it."
"We don't need the whole thing," she said. "Just this little bit will do."
"But... I need to buy it. We can't just clip that off and take it without paying."
"What are you going to do with the whole thing? Plant it?" She asked.
"I dunno... I guess so. I could." I shrugged.
She said, "Look I'll just clip this off and pop it into my purse, and we'll leave. No harm done, and the plant will be just fine without this one sprig."
I sighed. She clipped. We left. On the way back I got splattered good by a sneaky sprinkler. I deserved it: corrupted by an evil wiccan, led astray, my high morals discarded in an instant for the enticing lure of satan worship. Woe is me.
Lisa set up an altar on my marble-topped end table, consisting of pine incense, a white candle representing the feminine aspect of nature ("the goddess"), and a red candle representing the masculine aspect of nature ("the god"). The pine and holly sprigs were representative of longevity and the red berries represented life-blood. An athame (a ritual daggar), also representing the male aspect, was present, as was a goblet of water representing the female aspect.
There were four more candles, representing the four elements, which were used to describe a protective circle: yellow representing earth to the north, blue for water to the west, red for fire to the south, and green for air to the east. There was also a orange candle for the sun god at the south end of the circle.
In preparation for the ritual we both had a ritual cleansing, bathing with a scented bath oil. Then, both of us naked, we stood before her altar as she "opened the circle" by using the "goddess" candle to light each of the element-candles with an invocation. The invocation for south, for example, was "Ancient Father, I look for your fires, but tonight the embers only begin to glow more mighty. May this gentle warmth temper my spirit."
After the elements, she stood in the center and said, "Ancient Ones, I seek your face, but tonight darkness surrounds. Help me find your spark within to guide my path." And the opening of the circle was complete.
Next was an invocation similar to the scapegoat ceremony of old testament times. She called to the darkness to embrace whatever she wanted to get rid of (in this case, it was her fears) and take them to itself. Then, as darkness receded before the sun, it would take those things with it. I then spoke the same words, asking that the darkness take my worries with it when it receded.
Turning to the south, she lit the sun candle and spoke her words of love and praise for the sun and its warmth:
Strong sun, returning sun
The light burns
As the wheel turns
Strong sun, returning sun
The shadows fade
By magick bade
Strong sun, returning sun
The shadows flee
The magick is free
Then she lit the "god" candle and offered its light to the "Sun Father" as strength to reach toward the heavens again with warmth and brilliance.
Now it was time to close the circle. I did this by speaking Lisa's chosen words of respect to each element in turn, moving counterclockwise around the circle snuffing each of the element candles. Finally I stood in the center and spoke again to the "Ancient Ones" - which for me meant all those who have gone before us.
Her first casting--her first ritual! And I was a part. It doesn't matter that I don't believe as she does. I respect her, and from that respect I respect what she believes as being her set of beliefs. She likewise respects my beliefs--or rather, my lack of belief.
It actually works quite well together.
Lighting the Sun Candle
Showing Off Fancy Earrings
Edited by - COMF on 22 December 2002 2:42:13
Edited by - COMF on 22 December 2002 14:17:42