Spirit

Unity

Ministry

Rituals For

Sabbats

Open Ostara 2006 Ritual Announcement

Hail and Welcome All who would celebrate the gentle balance of Ostara on this the Vernal Equinox.

To join us in the Spirit Unity Ministry / Othala Grove Spiritual Center Celebration

If you are doing this ritual on the astral plane, imagine these items if you are doing this ritual in real time from your own location then it is more fun to have the supplies.

Please gather the following things:

1-3 Hollow plastic or wooden eggs, which can be opened and closed

1-3 paper scrolls, (to create to fit standard eggs… fold a piece of printer paper into thirds (creating 3 long skinny strips) cut on the folds, then roll 1 strip of paper up from the end to create a scroll.

Permanent Marker: in a color that will show up on your egg.

A Pen to write on your scroll with (or if you would like lemon juice and a stylist to write and invisible message)

The Rune descriptions found at this address website address: (or make up your own symbols and meanings.

http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html

Chocolate Eggs (sugar free is ok too)

Order of Ritual:

Grounding and Centering: use your favorite method, be a tree, a rock, or whatever works best for you. Take several deep breaths, connect to the Earth, the Stars, and find your self balanced and centered guided by your heart.

Cast the Circle: We will be casting with a broom, sweeping thrice around counter clock wise to cleanse and thrice clockwise to cast. Cast your own circle using the method which works best for you.

Call the Directions: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Above, Below and Within, Ask the guardians and elementals to stand with you within your circle, as you celebrate the return of spring and the gentle balance of the equinox.

Call Spirit, from your heart, call the aspects of the Divine, which you most closely relate to spring, and balance. The Green Woman and Green Man are whom we will be calling, but you are free to call whom ever you are drawn to invite.

Ritual Intent: This is the eve of the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring, Ostara, the rebirth of the green of nature, sleeping who’s death like winter slumber is now behind us.

We celebrate the growing strength of the sun’s warmth as it beckons hopes to grow.

We each have hopes for our lives in the coming months, to give strength to them we form deliberate intent, we create a seed of desire for the universe to nurture, and grow.

The Work:

On each of your scrolls write the seed message, which you want to grow this season. Be specific; place only one desire per scroll. Your seed message should be one written in the affirmative. Add this statement: In it’s own perfect time for the highest possible good of all.

Example: Write I pay my bills with ease and always have plenty of extra money, in its own perfect time and for the highest possible good of all; instead of I need to have less bills. Tell the universe what you want not what you don’t want.

Roll up the scroll and place it in an egg, one scroll per egg.

On the outside of the egg, in permanent marker, write the rune symbols that will best protect and nurture your seed. Read through the runes listing provided to find which runes best support the positive statement of your desire.

Examples:

If your seed message is about abundance, Runes for wealth, insight, joy and pleasure, good harvest, endurance, success and protection might be good nurturing thoughts.

If your seed message is about good health, you might place the runes for self, life energy, protection and break-through.

Hold your egg in your hands; imagine the seed within, growing to fullness, imagine the joy that will bring you. When you feel you have charged the eggs with your deliberate intent, place the decorated eggs on your altar, or other place where you will see them and remember the hope you feel in writing them, your smile at the memory will further nourish them into being.

Now take the chocolate eggs, open one, place it in your mouth and savor the sweetness of it, let your mind open to the sweetness in your life, when you are immersed in savoring the abundance of sweetness your life has to offer you, open your heart and share your heartfelt gratitude with the universe and all those who share your life. Know that those of us are also offering our gratitude to you for being apart of our lives as well.

When you feel it is time, return your awareness to your own circle.

Ground and Center again. Place your hands on the ground if you feel you need to ground more physically. Remember you are always connected, to the earth and the stars, and you are centered in your own heart.

Thank and Release Spirit, and the God and Goddess or other aspects of the Divine, you invited

Thank and Release the Quarters, asking the Guides and Elementals to return to their own realms, with our gratitude.

Open the circle, knowing that it is never broken,

Ground with food and celebration, as you are called to.

May the seeds of your desires grow to the full harvest of your dreams, guided and nurtured by Source. May the blessings of Ostara and Balance be yours throughout the turning of the wheel.

Ameya Spirit

Solar moon 14, March 20, 2006

Hail and Welcome All who would celebrate the Rites of Spring on this, the Astrological Beltaine!

Come join us in the Spirit Unity Ministry / Othala Grove Spiritual Center Celebration of Beltaine: The Rites of Spring!

If you are doing this ritual on the astral plane, imagine having the items with you.

if you are doing this ritual in real time from your own location then it is more fun to have the supplies: Candle, Red Ribbon or yarn, paper, red marker, scissors, and a cauldron or ashtray that you can burn paper in.

Order of Ritual:

Cast the Circle: We will be casting with Fire thru the lighting of candles around the circle. Cast your own circle using the method which works best for you.

Call the Directions: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Above, Below and Within, Ask the guardians and elementals to stand with you within your circle.

Guardians of the east, spirits of air
Open our minds to the promise of summer
Fill our lungs, carry our thoughts
Help us to understand our place in the great circle
Even as We offer to you a place in our circle here

Guardians of the south, spirits of fire
Inspire us to seek out our own rebirth
Warm our blood, excite us to action
Help us to experience the passion of living
As We invite you here to remind us of your place in our lives

Guardians of the west, spirits of water
Guide our roots to the source of life
Nurture our compassion, bathe our wounds
Help us to heal the world by our love
As we ask you here to share in the healing of our hearts

Guardians of the north, spirits of earth
Keep us safe in the arms of our Mother
Be firm in our youth, and gentle in our aging
Help us to find the wisdom in nature
As We welcome you to support our steps on the path of the wise

Guardians of above, spirit of the summer sun
With you, We feel the light within us
As the world once more explodes with life
We thank you for your passion
For the glory of the lengthening day
Be here now and guide us, as we celebrate you
And greet you in all that lives.

Guardians of below, spirit of the flowering earth
With you, we feel the blooming within us
As the world once more is wrapped in warmth and light
We thank you for new birth
For a world awash in fertility and creation
Be here now and guide us, as we celebrate you
And greet you in all that lives.

Guardians of Within, spirit of Center

Touch us with the breath of your passion,

that we might seek for the ecstasy of Life.

Inflame us with the fever of your innermost longings.

Bestow upon us in overflowing measure

the passions of youth for love and life

as we rejoice in the sensual stirrings of the season.

Call in Spirit, from your heart, call the aspects of the Divine which you most closely relate to Beltane, love, inspiration and passion. The Green Woman and Green Man are whom we will be calling, but you are free to call whom ever you are drawn to invite.

Ritual Intent:

Blessed be this day of Beltane,
Wedding day of the Goddess and the God.
Holy day of Sacred Marriage,
Holy night of Sacred Union.
The fertile Goddess of Summer walks through the land
With the Great Horned God of the Forest,
And the dark time of Winter is behind us.

Background:

Beltaine is a time for the rebirth and regeneration of the plants, the people, the animals and the land. It is a time to celebrate sexuality and community - in all, the balance between sacrifice and rebirth

So does May Day carry with it some very earthy and lovely images; however, remember that a celebration of life cannot be complete without the acknowledgment of the balancing forces inherent in all works of Nature.

The people celebrated Beltaine with dancing, feasting, and “greenwood marriages.” Men and women would disappear into the woods throughout the night for their own personal celebrations; these being understood to be unions through which the Horned God impregnated the Goddess and brought fertility to the earth, through the physical forms of man and woman.

These unions were a celebration of life and love, accomplished to ensure the fertility and fruitfulness of the land, animals, and of themselves. Further, any babies born of greenwood marriages were considered children of the Lord and Lady, specially blessed by Them, and were seen as children of the whole village, rather than of just two parents.

For modern Pagans, Beltaine is the time of union and pleasure; of celebrating the returning warmth of the sun, and the greening of Earth. It is about the reconciliation of opposites through love, and the fruitfulness that arises from this reconciliation. It is a time of bonfires and feasting, drumming and dancing; a time of brightly colored ribbons woven around that ancient phallic symbol, the maypole. It is a time to renew our commitments to the land, to love, and to each other.

The Work:

Beltane means many things. It is a celebration of spring coming into full flower, of the return of the Goddess from the underworld, the mating time of the animals, the return of the sun, and many other things. Above all, it is a celebration of life and passion.

Webster’s Dictionary defines passion as “the emotions as distinguished from reason; intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; ardent affection; a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept; sexual desire; an object of desire or deep interest.”

Passion is the spark that motivates, inspires, and compels us. Without it, we do not live. What is your passion? What is that thing that lives deep inside you that can provide the spark needed to make your life’s fire burn bright and strong? Our meditation will show us what our passion is.

Look into the depths of the fire (or candle flame). Open yourself, now, to the pulse of life all around you. It is there, if you can free your spirit enough to sense it. Feel the life straining to be born in every sprouting seed, the exhilaration of the blossoms bursting from their buds on the trees, the joy of the very grass itself, of every bush and shrub and piece of moss, greening again as the earth is warmed by the sun, as the life-giving rains fall from the sky, and all of nature is borne into the ecstatic dance of life’s return.

Feel the heat and see the light. Let the heat envelope you and light the way of your sight into the core of your being. Find the fire that burns inside you, and go to its center. Sit there for a few moments, and open your mind and spirit to the passion of your life. Listen for the voice of your passion and hear what it has to say to you. Feel it, and know that this is what you need to do, to be. Ask for guidance in how to achieve this and bring it to full power in your life.

When you have received the information, return your awareness to your circle.

Write on your piece of paper what this passion is, or draw a picture or symbol of it. Roll the paper up like a scroll and tie it with a piece of the red yarn. Sit with the scroll in between your hands for a few moments, with the picture of what is on the scroll in your mind. Breathe energy from your Mind, Center and Heart into and through the scroll, and then inhale it back into your Center, Heart, and Mind. Do this for a few minutes, feeling the energy of your passion fill you and become firmly seated in your being.

Take your scissors or knife and cut a small bit of the yarn off. This you will keep on your altar to remind you of your passion. Take your scroll and put it to the flame of your candle and light it well, so that it will burn completely. Put it in your cauldron or ashtray for safety’s sake, and sit and watch it burn. Let the smoke carry your passion to Goddess and God for their help in making it manifest in your life. We will be burning our scrolls in the balefire.

Kindling of the Balefire

The priestess and the priest will go to the kindling prepared for the fire (if the rite is held outdoors). Otherwise, a candle within the cauldron is substituted. The priest will light the balefire as the following incantation is recited by the priestess:

Priestess:

Strike the fire and let it rise,
Beltane flames ‘neath Spring-night skies!
Ancient customs we now renew,
’Tween dusky dark and evening dew!
Fire with warmth of Summer shine,
Invoking Gods from Older Times
For fertile crops with Sun-fed rays,
Gardens of plenty and golden days!

Once the Balefires are lit, we will all walk between them, and toss our scrolls into the fires. If you have a candle burning, you can pass your hands over the flame or walk clockwise around the candle.

Ritual is now completed.

Thank and Release Spirit and the God and Goddess or other aspects of the Divine you invited

Thank and Release the Quarters, asking the Guides and Elementals to return to their own realms, with our gratitude.

Open the circle, knowing that it is never broken,

Ground with food and celebration, as you are called to.