Council Blog

Ritual.  Perhaps it seems like a big word to you.  Perhaps you think it requires a priest in a robe or a Pagan priestess calling the quarters and the elements with great force and confidence.   But when it comes down to it, ritual is only what you need it to be and it never has to be more than that.  

What is a ritual? It’s something you define for yourself.  Perhaps it is the activity that brings you closer to the meaning of the Sabbat and the powers, if any, that you call upon.  Maybe it is when you help others to share these ideas with you.  It can be casual and intentional, spiritual and shared.  It is as formal as you need it to be.   Why is this time of year important to you, whatever time of year it is?  Is it gratitude? Is it honoring or celebrating? What matters is that it speaks to you. Ritual may feel hard to plan, but doing it should bring a kind of comfort to the participant(s). 

Mabon is next week and that brings me around to three. Three years with Covenant. And while we will do a ritual with each other on Sunday, I have my own Mabon ritual.  I make squash soup and bake bread.  It’s always the same recipes, the same methods.  My tradition.  The cup pours the flour, the knife chops the squash, while I remember what I am thankful for. My ritual.  I am grateful to find myself at Mabon again with my adult children drawn to the soup like a moth to flame.  My celebration and sharing. 

Here at Covenant, you will often hear members of the Council asking folks to share their rituals.  We really mean it.  As a group with many beliefs and styles it is interesting and it is a blessing to see someone else’s point of view. There is no “right way” to do a ritual, no set format, no requirements to light fires or call quarters or share cakes and ale.  Those are the rituals we find ourselves routinely using. And that can be comforting.  But it is also why we need you to help us step out into something new, to shake it up.  Maybe it will be just what I never thought of and needed.  Maybe it will be the same exciting discovery to someone else. 

Five months into my arrival at Covenant, I somehow ended up doing the Sabbat of Imbolg (or Brigid’s Day, or Candlemas, depending how you see it)  I was sure I would do it wrong. I didn’t think I understood Covenant, I hadn’t been here long enough to know what to use for comparison. I was sure there was a routine, an expectation but maybe it was good to do it without knowing.  I was free to be me and simply share what I saw as important for that Sabbat.  In the end, I thought it went well.   And I realized that “right” is only in the person who is doing the ritual for themselves. And sometimes it doesn’t matter what the ritual leader does other than provide a framework to honor the Sabbat or the Moon that the others fit their beliefs on.  The circle was not a created circle, it was us, the people sharing the ritual. 

Interestingly, what I saw as important that first early spring was what I find important in the cross Sabbat of Lughnasadh – the hope in the seeds, the strength of the earth.  The holy that comes in the tiniest of seeds and in the way the earth wakes it to its purpose. 

I sat in my backyard with a table and then a stump, doing solo work for over 20 years.  Watching the moon, starting little fires, doing what I pleased, what I thought was appropriate for the moment, what I felt called to do.  Reading books to help me understand, learning about Goddesses I wanted to help me find my way.  So perhaps I was prepared to share something of what I had learned.  What else could I do but be myself? It was all I knew. To bring my stump into the Hall (Figuratively).

My favorite ritual I have led at Covenant was the Full Moon when I turned everyone into children and the elements were represented by toys like pinwheels and bubbles.  We danced under the Moon/Goddess and found a different way to honor her.  It didn’t seem very “sacred” but what is more sacred than joy? (The first rune I drew at Covenant, by the way)  My first Full Moon with Covenant was a quiet, peaceful, small circle led by Pat with gentle bells and soft voices.  I still have the quarter he gave me, although I can’t remember what it stood for in the ritual.  It stood for Pat welcoming me into the circle.

So I am here to welcome you into the circle, whether you’ve been here 15 years or three Mabons, or you just found us today. I encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and share yourself with us.  Create a ritual to help us understand things as they look through your eyes.  Help us to feel the world and each other in a new way.  Teach us, dance with us, light candles, sit quietly.  Whatever works for your beliefs or practice.  Or write a ritual and ask others to lead it for you. We are not Wiccan or Druid, or Asatru, or any other Pagan group.  We are Covenant of the River and we are kind of like my kitchen Mabon ritual.  We are a mix of colors and textures becoming warm and full flavored together. We rise up with each other, and we nourish each other.  This Mabon, find gratitude.  Realize that, at Covenant, you are safe and welcomed.   You do you.  We will follow you earnestly, wherever you want to lead. 

Mabon Blessings, 
Chel 

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When I go out to the garden these days there are more yellow leaves, more flowers gone to seed.  The temperature is fooling me about where we are in the cycle of the seasons.  My plants worship the sun and the path of Helios takes him past their garden less than it did just a few weeks ago.  The heat feels like July.  The plants know it’s September. 

When we get to know the ways of the earth, of the plants in the garden, of the trees in our areas and in the mountains, when buds will open, when leaves will fall, we find the earth teaching us to take life as it comes.  Life in the garden is right here, right now.  Every day is different.  Something got bigger, a flower finished and dropped off, another Morning Glory leaf turned yellow.   Don’t move! A tiny yellow bird is on the birdbath drinking.  Three sips and he’s gone.  Just like life – we have to be aware and we have to appreciate the things that bloom and grow and fly through our lives.  We enjoy the flower that is today.  And we feel the passage of time. 

This is that bittersweet moment in the garden.  It was so glorious!  But now the leaves are turning yellow and water cannot change that.  It’s time to start thinking about the next season.  Time to start saving the last of the seeds. Time to dig and share plants with friends.  Soon it will be time to cut the plants to the ground and take down all the dying vines.  The Crone is walking through my garden, gently getting it ready for the winter.   Perhaps this is why September is always so glorious.  We sit on the line between the beauty that was summer and the coming rest period of winter, and here in the “in-between” it is orange and yellow, it is crunchy and prickly. The harvest is coming in to sustain us through winter with sweet apples and colorful squash.  The work is different. It’s taking away, it’s harvesting in, it’s burning the unneeded.  Like all the seasons and all the days, the Earth reminds us that this day is the one I have available to use and enjoy. 

The plants are the small, easily noticed parts of our world that we can rely on to keep our minds grounded in the present.  We watch the moon wax and wane to mark time. But I think that being Pagan is a strong part of what keeps me grounded as well.  Most religions have a rotation of holidays that they use to tell the tales of their faith.  But my religion is an old religion.  My Sabbats belong to the earth, not to a collection of myths.  My old religion has myths to celebrate the turning of the Wheel but the stories do not define it.   The Earth defines it.  The Sea, the Moon, the Sun.  The Earth turns, the Moon turns and tugs the Sea, the Galaxy turns, and the Sun gives life.  These are the changing seasons, the life and death of all things.  That is my religion. The myths and stories that help me celebrate these great powers are my Sabbats.

Give yourself the gift of getting in touch with the turning of the year.  Find yourself in the cycle of the seasons.  Touch the great Wheel of the Year as it moves through your life, a touchstone in the passing of the days that spin out faster each year.   Crunchy, brown, yellow days will bring us Mabon.  I can’t wait to harvest the pumpkins.  Where is that squash soup recipe?

The Sabbat of Mabon is just around the corner! Don’t miss it. Eight special Sabbats a year to come together with community and mark the passage of time. May your coming days be filled with the power of the changing season, the Earth, and the love of those you hold dear. 

We’re going camping!!!!! YAY!!!! We have to get ready for camping. . . . ugh.

For many of us, the camping season is a highlight of our year, but getting ready for it can be difficult. Balancing work, personal life, and trying to prepare to be away from civilization for almost a week can be rough. I don’t know about the rest of you, but for myself it triggers a very nasty aspect of my depression: Lethargy. And that doesn’t help at all. Right when I need the most energy and to get the most done, my motivation dries up. Great. Thanks for that brain.

But whatever the reason for our stress, we don’t have to let those influences win. For me I have found a counter intuitive method of dealing with the stress and getting past my lethargy when it comes around. It may seem odd when I am extremely busy, but my solution is to be still.

In my personal faith meditation and sitting still, to sit with and analyze my emotions is an integral part of practicing spirituality. We are often so busy that we do not sit, we do not process. This can lead to a build up of excess emotion. It can lead to even more stress, less resolution, more frustration. In Taoism we practice what is called Wu Wei which simply means action through inaction, or doing by not doing. Taking a little time o sit with my problems, my thoughts, my feelings can allow me to control them rather than letting them control me. This was one of the most powerful lessons I learned from my martial arts training. Not the moves or strikes, but sitting and listening to myself. Everyone wants to feel heard. So shouldn’t we give ourselves the respect of listening to ourselves at least?

Next time you feel stressed try taking a moment. Sit with your thoughts and process where they come from and what is really yours to handle and what is beyond all human control? It isn’t always easy to do, but if like me you find that you have the least energy right when you need the most, it might be of use.

Blessings!

Jordan

This last week we celebrated Lughnasadh, named for the God Lugh from the Celtic pantheon. I have always found the story of how the holiday came to be quite interesting and fitting as a model, and example by which to live.

For those who do not know the story, Lugh was the champion of his people, much beloved and they decided to honor him at the harvest festival by naming it for him. He was told this and he replied, “No, do not honor me. If you wish to celebrate what I have done and what I mean to you then honor my mother, Tailtiu.” This was of course first very humble. But the other thing that always stood out to me was that Tailtiu was his foster mother. He did not name Eithne his birth mother, he did not name his father, or his tutors, but he named his foster mother and did not call her foster. The Gaelic word used was “Máthair” which is the affectionate version of the word mother, instead of “Diahal” the formal form of the word mother.

Fostering children was not entirely uncommon in the ancient Celtic world. But by his choice of words he was expressing deep affection and respect for all that his mother Tailtiu had done for him. He was honoring her sacrifices, and how she had cared for him as if she was her own son. There are a number of reasons why it is apt to remember Tailtiu at the harvest, especially for those who follow the Celtic pantheon. But the message I took from this story was one of building family where you find it. Lugh had found family with the Queen of his people’s former enemy. He found love in an unusual place because his mother taught him to love the people he surrounded himself with.

For many of us today we have had to cut ties with family members, or we find out faith puts as at odds with them at times, or maybe they live far away. So at Covenant of the River we have always striven to create a comfortable place to be, and as we build bonds of friendship we form our own family of choice. I am reminded of that at Lughnasadh, and I am so grateful for each of you who have bolstered and supported each other through the years. I love my family of choice.

Among our folk there is love enough to go around. A heart that heals and a hand that lifts. May the blessing of the season be manifest through out the year for all the folk.

Blessings! – Jordan

Welcome to the midweek moment in the Council Blog on our new website! We will probably still do some Facebook videos but the majority of the Council’s musings will now be here.

This coming Sunday (August 1st) Covenant of the River will be celebrating Lughnasadh with ritual and fellowship at the River Hall. We have much to celebrate at this time of First Harvest, not the least of which is that we will be honoring this high holyday in person in our sacred space!

Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas, is a time of beautiful breads and dinner spreads shared among the community. Lughnasadh celebrations can include competitive games, copious homegrown flower arrangements and counting the blessings of the past year. It is a time to walk among the lush fields and give thanks for the bounty in our lives, both that which we can see now and that which we trust will come with the turning season. Gratitude is shown to our folk and our gods for all that is good in our lives.

While many of us are not physically harvesting wheat or any vegetable in mass quantities, we can still pause at Lughnasadh and be proud of what we have in this modern world. The First Harvest is a time to recognize the skills it takes to make our personal goals bear fruit. The manifestation of healthy children, full pantries and clean swept porches takes effort and hope just like a crop of barley or strawberries. The time you have spent breathing to find your center and the prayers you have sent to struggling loved ones counts as part of your harvest, in my opinion. Offerings can be made for the grace you have been given and for the grace you have maintained. While many traditional Lughnasadh themes center on food, I would encourage you to look at what else sustains you for this life requires more than food for sustenance.

May the gods and good spirits continue to guide us on the path that feeds our souls and fuels our passions. May you find blessings around your hearth and in the faces of your beloveds.

~Jean Loomis