RITUAL FOR SAMHAIN October 1995 Cast circle using salt and the placing of pumpkins to ring the area. HIGH PRIESTESS: We meet this night to celebrate Samhain. It is the final phase of the solar year, the time of death. A time to honor the memory of those who have gone from our visible world. A time of acknowledgment and release of that which is finished with our own lives. A time to reflect on the mystery of what may lie beyond. HIGH PRIEST: May Aries give us courage, may the quick mental powers in ourselves aid in the projection of our thoughts. We look upon the face of death. May we have the faith to accept and release that which is finished. MAIDEN: East, we call you. Bring us refreshing breezes to clear our thoughts. WARRIOR: South, we call you. Bring us passion to warm our spirits. GUARDIAN: West, we call you. Let us look into your depths and learn your secrets. GUIDE: North, we call you. define our limitations and then let us see beyond them. KESTREL: The Watchtowers are here, Hear them. Listen to the autumn wind Hear the leaves rustle and see them blow free and swirling. Listen to autumn's fire. Hear it cackle, listen to the tale. Listen to autumn's water Feel the flow of the wheel and the mysteries. Listen to the autumn land Feel the slumber of the earth. Lighting of the Candles and Invoking the God and Goddess HIGH PRIESTESS: The night grows long. Earth Mother takes on the garb of winter. Do you fear the darkness, and cold? Do you wonder why thing must come to an end? HIGH PRIEST: We have come to a time of endings. Yet if you know not the darkness, how can you know the light? Death is the other side of life. The fruit and animals of the earth must die that you might live. HIGH PRIESTESS: Think of those things that must end and cast them into the fire. Think of those you must let go, and cast your bonds with which you hold them into the fire. Let them go that they and you may live in peace. (Coven members cast their letters and anything else into the fire) This is the time when the veil is thin that divides the worlds. It is the new year in the time of the old years death. Tonight the King of the waning year has sailed over the sunless sea that is the womb of the Mother and stepped ashore on the Shining Isle. The gates of life and death are open. We meet in a time out of time, every where and no where. HIGH PRIEST: Here all eyes are open. You warriors, here your battles are over. You workers, here your tasks are done. You who have been hurt, here find healing. You who are weary, here find rest. You who are old, here grow young again. This is the land of youth, the shining land, the land of apples. Here woods never fail, here there is a tree, the heart of light and a well of silence. Sink down, sink to sleep beside that deep green well. HIGH PRIESTESS: Dread Lord of Shadows, God of Life, the giver of life... Yet it is the knowledge of thee, the knowledge of death. Open wide, I pray thee, the Gates through which all must pass. Let our dear ones who have gone before us return this night and make merry with us. And when the time comes, as it must, oh thou the comforter, the consoler, the giver of peace and rest, we will enter thy realms gladly and unafraid. For we know that when rested and refreshed among our dear ones, we will be reborn by the grace of the Great Mother. Let it be in the same place and the same time as our beloved ones that we may meet, and know, and remember, and love them again. HIGH PRIEST: Tonight is a night of death, when our blessed God passes into the Summerland. Blessed be the God, beloved of the Summerland. KESTREL: Let the night fall For We are not afraid of the dark Or of imaginary evils Or of myself And my own power Let the night fall Let it come with its dreams Its mysteries Its wonders Let the night fall Let the goddess drape her scarves of black Around us And clear the cauldron's surface So that We might remember Ceremony of Cakes and Ale OFFERINGS/THANKSGIVING: HIGH PRIESTESS: Grateful, we give now, gifts of our own Theart-work and hand-work the hearth shall grace; Happiness, harmony, health in the new year, Send to the world and we in it, we wish you. Scrying HIGH PRIEST: Wide are the world gates, Sights to be sent us; Ready for rede-gifts, We wait for your wisdom. Ushering in the New Year HIGH PRIESTESS: Tonight is also a night of life, when we honor our wise old Goddess who will see us through this ever darkening season of life renewed. GUARDIAN: Blessed be the Crone, bringer of death and giver of life. Friends and friendly spirits. Blessed be the New Year. Blessed be the spirit and the flesh. Blessed be the ever turning wheel. GUIDE: Behold, the Summers end. Behold, a new Winter. Blessed be the New Year. Welcome winter, waning season, Now with night the new year comes; Hail the horse's head with blessings -- Blessings be on those who bide here And indeed on all the world! WARRIOR: Lord of Life, hail Land-Master! God of grain that grows and dies And rises reborn, full of richness; Fallow fields shall yet be fertile -- Spring sap runs as stirs your phallus Bless barren earth, let it bear again! MAIDEN: Snow-shoes striding, hail swift Huntress! Wild one, free and willful Goddess Bow and blade you bear beside you, Finding food to fend off hunger -- Winter will not leave us wanting; Give good hunting, grant us skill. ******************************** ** This Space For Rent! ** ************************** Darkening of the Altar HIGH PRIEST: Be with us Our Lady, through this time of darkness, be our guide, our strength. Farewell, and Blessed Be! HIGH PRIESTESS: Our Lord we say Farewell, may your journey through the darkness time be easy and safe, return we pray to us at Yule! Farewell and Blessed Be! Release of the Quarters HIGH PRIEST AND PRIESTESS JOINTLY: To watching winds we wish fair traveling; To sleepless dead sweet rest we send; Gods and Goddesses, go with praises -- See: the circle is severed thus. [cut with sword at east] EAT AND ENJOY!!!!!