In the Dianic tradition, on Summer Solstice we celebrate Goddess as Mother/Maker and the diverse ways we create in our lives. Through movement, trance and ritual enactment, we work the power of Fire: Fire as the power of Will, Fire as Healing, Fire as Spirit that weaves and inspires all of Creation.
The Priestess stands at the center and says:
Drawing a spiral above three times, "The sky above us"
Drawing a circle around us, "The sea surrounds us"
Touching and grounding in the earth, "The earth beneath us"
Thus these Realms make sacred our circle.
She lights the three candles representing the three realms.
The fire of inspiration infuses the realms and links all beings to the inner fire of divinity.
Hear us, O Opener of the Bright Well
Lady of the Five Salmon, holy fish of knowledge
Lady of the Nine Hazels
Whose purple nuts drop into your waters
Your sacrifice sends forth the five streams of our mortal senses
And unlocks the power of the seer and the poet
We invoke thee for thy gifts
Come from the source of life below
and bless our circle with your knowledge
Be welcome in our midst.
Please all say with me ...
We stand outside of time, in a place not of earth, as the Old Ones did before us, we join together in Her name.
Blessed Be.
Hear me, O Ancestors
Parents of all that live
Ancestors of my body and path
We invoke thee for thy gifts
Come from the land of eternal youth
to witness and aid in our rites
Be welcome in our midst
Please all say with me ..
Be welcome in our midst.
Hear me, O Spirits of the Land
Foundation of growth and life
Spirits of rock and tree and earth
We invoke thee for thy gifts
Come from the body of the land which surrounds us to witness and aid in our rites
Be welcome in our midst.
Please all say with me .. Be welcome in our midst.
Blessed Be
"All acts of love and passion are my rituals..."
This ritual is about coming into fullness. The time on the wheel represents blossoming, the stage of the mother. Flowers are full bloom. The element associated here is fire, and passion and ecstasy are part of this ritual. This is the fullness of summer, the reign of the Mother Goddess. Tonight all wants are fulfilled, all wishes come true, and love reaches full passion. People everywhere are gathered together to invoke the Old Ones. Our many voices embrace this land.
Listen to her words:
I have slept for ten thousand years.
Now I stretch and waken.
They are calling, calling me,
and my heart leaps to greet them.
My forests - my hair, the grasses - my heavy eyelashes. They call me, and I waken.
My body bedecked with a million flowers,
And these many breasts of mine, the mountains joyfully rear their tips.
I long to suckle my young. They are calling.
They will know me!
I want to embrace all the sad and lost.
All the wrongs that have been done,
to me and to my children,
My hands shall turn them, and make them right
I am the defender of every mother,
as I am the defender of my holy self.
Earth Mother am I, the only one;
life springs from me.
I carry the seed of creation. And I awake!
Z. Budapest
Tonight the work of this ritual is to bring Global Goddess into the fullness
we desire. We will begin with a color and fullness meditation.
BREATHE!
Feel the movement and heartbeat of the earth at Solstice, feel the rich black earth. Draw black into your body, through your feet, legs, abdomen, heart, chest, throat, and head. Feel it feel it enter through your feet, travel through your body; feel its vastness and depth, let it exit through the crown. Feel the richness of the Mother Earth. Feel the color shift to red, see the pulsing of your blood, the movements of energy and passionate life. Feel your strength, the length of your muscles, the marrow and hardness of your bones.
Now let the color lighten to a bright warm orange. Feel yourself bathed in energy and power. Feel your body rise in passion, in yearning, in ecstatic union with all that is.
Now let the color brighten more to an active, vibrant yellow. This is the color of knowledge and power, of oomph, the bright understanding of things happening, and making them happen. Know yourself to be the cause, the agent
of changes. Wash in yellow!
Now let your mind's eye cool a bit and let the green grow and spread out from your heart. This is the color of sympathy and emotion, of growing and helping things to grow. Green is the color of healing. Feel the fertile green, where love takes root. Green shifts cooler now, to blue. Blue is the color of the sky, the water. It is the color of will, and peace, and the natural order. Let your will be in harmony, let your throat be filled with songs, and the words you need to say. Know that yours is the power to make real that which you imagine.
Feel the color purple now, the color of psychic knowing. Let the winds whisper, the fire burn within, the waters of intuition flow, and the secrets be known to you. Know what you know, and be unafraid. Let all the colors swirl faster and faster about you and through you until they make a swirling white light, around you and in you. These are the colors of the Goddess. You are part of Her for She is all that is. Feel the patterns moving, the wheel is turning, turning, see the light of it.
Look into the candles. Swirl those colors around, spinning with the fire. See the colors, all the colors of the rainbow, spinning with the fire. Move the color swirling it counter-clockwise through the flames, banishing all those things standing in the way of positive growth of Global Goddess. Now, turn the colors - move them clockwise, spinning in the flames manifesting the energy, the enthusiasm, and the collective cooperation needed to give our organization what it needs to flourish and prosper.
Come now back into our Circle and take my hands.
Let us now give thanks and share our cakes and ale.
Bless the food and share it together..
We bless this bread. We bless this ale.
We bless the Land that nurtured it and the Sun that gave it power.
We bless all hands, seen and unseen, that have brought it to this place.
May it nurture all here, seen and unseen.
Conversation and good cheer!
Spirits of the Land, Foundation of growth and life
Thank you for witnessing our rites
May there be abundance for all, now and always.
Ancestors, Parents of all that lives
Thank you for witnessing our rites
May there be abundance for all, now and always.
Lady of the Nine Hazels
Thank you for witnessing our rites
May there be abundance for all, now and always.
Drawing a spiral above three times, "The sky above us"
Drawing a circle around us, "The sea surrounds us"
Touching and grounding in the earth, "The earth beneath us"
Thus the Realms make sacred our lives.
Let the circle be open but unbroken.
The fire of inspiration infuses the realms
and links all beings to the inner fire of divinity.
We hold this flame in our hearts as we depart from this place.