Order of the Red Grail
Nebraska Community

Summer Solstice 1994

PREPARE THE SPACE

Clear the circle area of all debris.

Sweep out the Circle going deosil.

Place and light quarter candles.

Trace the outline of the Circle with the appropriate tool.

The HP shall take up incense, a censer or a smudge stick and cleanse theHPS with smoke and she shall do likewise for him. The HP will move Deosilaround the Circle purifying each of the gathered folk.

purify with salt water the same way (mark on forehead).

HPS Charges Athame by passing it through each of the elements representedon the altar in turn as she says:

I Call the Earth to bind my spell
Air to speed it's travel well
Bright as fire it shall glow
Deep as tide of Water flow
Count the elements fourfold
and in the Fifth the spell shall hold.

HP Takes up the bowl of salt and says:

Blessed be the salt that purifies that which it touches; bonesof the earth, bane of the unclean. Be consecrated and bound to our purpose: To make whole that which is broken, to Heal that which is unwell, to rejoicein the Glory of the Earth our mother. As it is willed, so mote it be.

He replaces the bowl of salt upon the altar and takes up the chalice ofwater into which he places three pinches of salt. He then hands the chaliceof salt water to the HPS, who consecrates it saying:
Salt and Water, Inner and Outer, Soul and Body be cleansed! Cast out all that is harmful. Take in all that is healing. By the powerof the Mother of all Life and her Lover the Horned God, as it is willed,so mote it be!

The HPS picks a member to asperge the Circle and hands that person the chaliceof salt water and the aspergium. The Asperger shall begin in the East sprinklingthe quarter three times saying:

With Salt and Water I cleanse the East (South, West, North).

When finished, s/he returns the chalice and aspergium to the HPS whoreplaces them on the altar.

HP designates a member to cense the Circle and hands the person the censer/incenseand a feather. The censor shall begin in the East censing the quarter threetimes saying:

With Fire and Air I charge the East (South, West, North).

When finished, s/he returns the equipment to the HP who replaces themon the Altar.

CASTING THE CIRCLE

HPS faces the altar and takes up her Athame. With arms raised she says:

I invoke thee, o Circle of power, to be a meeting place of loveand joy and truth, a shield against all danger and a space between the worlds. I bless and consecrate thee in the name of the Lady and of the Lord. Asit is willed, So mote it Be!

HPS steps to the Eastern quarter of the Circle and all members turn to faceEast, raising their right palms to the direction as the Circle is cast. With her Athame in her right hand the HPS salutes the Earth, lays the Athameover her heart, and then salutes the heavens. She uses her Athame to tracean invoking pentagram of Earth, calling astrally to the Guardians of thedirection. When the tracing of the pentagram is complete she speaks thesummons aloud:
Guardians of the Watchtower of the East! I do summon, stirand call thee up to witness this right and guard this Circle. Be here now!

From the center of the pentagram she traces the circle deosil to the southwhere she repeats the above as appropriate for the direction, continuingaround the Circle until returning to the East. Then the HPS steps to thecenter of the Circle and traces the Wheel of Spirit overhead saying:
Sprit, Sprit, we invoke thee! Source of all, we bid thee come. Make this circle one of wholeness, where all paths may meet as one.

Then the HPS kneels and places her hands upon the ground saying:
Earth, our mother, we honor you, for without you we would notbe.

She stands, raises her arms wide as she faces the gathering and proclaims:
In the heights and in the Deep, watch and ward eternal keep.
The magick circle now is cast - we stand between the worlds
where earth and heaven meet as one.

The HP turns to the altar and invokes the Goddess as is appropriate to theworking, then lights the candle of her presence. HPS does the same forthe God.

CENTERING

HP & HPS stand with their backs to the altar and the covenors standaround the circumference of the circle facing the altar. All enter no-form,and in unison breathe four cleansing breaths. With the fifth breath allwill resonate the "OM" sound, repeating as needed to energizeand harmonize the group's vibrations. Following a brief pause to stabilizeand integrate the energy, HP will read the following:

In the days of old we honored the changing of the seasons. We, as people of different bloods, clans and nations, were united in theworship of these solar cycles. They guided the times of fertility. Timesto sow, times to plant and times to harvest were choreographed by the danceof the spheres.

Today, with notable exceptions of course, we live in a technological nation. We have artificial light, we have artificial temperature control, we havefresh fruits, vegetables and meats available 24 hours a day, 365 days ayear.

As I read the words of Steward Farrar, reflect on how a once agrarian holidayis relevant to us as modern pagans, witches and magicians:

"The Sun-God significance of the Midsummer Sabbat is, literally, asclear as day. At the Summer Solstice, he is at his highest and brightest,and his day is at it's longest. Witches naturally and rightly, greet andhonor him at the peak of his annual cycle, invoking him to "put toflight the powers of darkness" and to bring fertility to the land. Midsummer is perhaps the most celebratory of the Festivals, in the sensethat it rejoices in the full flood of the year's abundance, the apogee oflight and warmth.

But the Sabbat cycle, even at the height of it's joy, always takes intoaccount what lies behind and before. As the ancient greeks put it: "Pantarhei, ouden menei" - "Everything flows, nothing is static." Life is a process, not a state; and the witches' Sabbats are essentiallya means of putting oneself in tune with that process.

So at Midsummer, the 'process' aspect is reflected in the other God-theme- that of the Oak King and the Holly King. At midsummer, the Oak King,God of the Waxing Year, falls to the Holly King, this twin, the God of theWaning year, because the blazing peak of summer is also, by its very nature,the beginning of the Holly King's reign, with it's inexorable progressionto the dark nadir of midwinter, when he in turn will die at the hands ofthe reborn Oak King.

Open circle for discussion

Do the healing Work

THE CONE OF POWER

Wine and Cakes
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