Our Annual
Feast of Manannan at the Beach
the Moon’s Day after our Samhain Vigil, 6 of us were ready to head down
to Pt. Pleasant to feast Manannan Mac Lir, our gatekeeper, with beer and grain
and grass and flowers and to return to him the 9-waves water He blessed us
with on the Spring Equinox, now full of our own magic as well as His.
Norma blew a conch shell, and we had a short ritual (it was cold) and Jenniforensic
and I took turns pouring out the waters as the others- Patrick, Maria Raven,
Marc and Norma- counted out the waves and strew beer, grains, grass, flowers
and other offerings into the sea. All of us went in up to our knees (and more)
except Norma, who thinks we’re all nuts. Typical for this time of year,
the ocean was warmer than the air. Patrick wrote a thank-you to Manannan in
runes in the sand, and I wrote in ogham. Marc told us about working on his
father’s fishing boat in the winter. We tried to do the ritual where
we might be seen on “tikicam,” the 24-hour internet camera that’s
focused on the beach by the tiki bar. Next year, we’re going to coordinate
with cellphones and computers and hope to televise the ritual for all those
who would have if they could have so they could log on and be a virtual part
of it.
The Triple
Death!
No, we’re not talking about ice cream. We’re talking about a pumpkin.
St. Jack the Incorruptible, the pumpkin that was carved for the Samhain 2002
ritual to Jack o’ the Lantern and Will o’ the Wisp. The pumpkin
that refused to rot through snow, sleet, hail, rain, sun, heat, humidity;
through Yule, Imbolc, Spring, Beltane, Solstice, Lughnasadh, Autumn; the one
we put flowers on at Beltane (see our web site); the pumpkin that wouldn’t
die; the one, you will recall, if you’ve been reading these ritual reports,
that we burned, yes, burned, in the bonefire after our Samhain 2003 ritual.
Well, as we were leaving for the beach, Maria noticed a portion of a face
grinning up at her beside the driveway. We have no idea how, but Jack managed
to extricate part of himself from the fire. We had already burned him, so
now we took him to the beach, strangled him, and then drowned him in the sea.
Click here to see Jack himself, through the seasons: Photos
of Jack the Incorruptible
