Sun's
Day, August 10th: Summer Harvest Rite to Rosmerta and the Spirit of the
Garden
A
gardener's ritual to Rosmerta, Goddess of prosperity and abundance, from
Gaul. 19 people braved the rain. The ritual was held indoors, rather than
outside, which forced some last-minute changes. (Thanks to everyone who
helped out!) We filled a cornucopia with garden vegetables and fruit, and
also a basket, with each invocation. (The Outsiders were offered Little
Debbie Zebra Cakes.) Nora led the ritual and invoked Rosmerta; Maria gave
us an earthy invocation of the Spirit of the Garden. We planted a maple
seedling that Matt took home to plant in his yard, and we scryed the omen
in olive oil and vinegar and carrot shavings in a bowl that Pat knelt and
held. The omens were interesting: "Salad dressing, goldfish, prosperity,
and chaos." "Don't scry in salad dressing." Then to clarify,
the omen readers pulled three tarot cards: the Star (pouring and mixing),
Judgement (chaos, we need to think more about how we do omens), and the
Page of Cups (Goldfish again, Pat holding the bowl, "sometimes it's
just a fish in a cup talking to us," "Listen to the green shoots
come up and help them grow and feed them to koi."
It was a visually engaging ritual, very colorful and bountiful. We also
passed a mortar and pestle so everyone got a chance to grind herbs, and
the aromas filled the room. You could hear the sound of the rain outside.
Maggie was our kitchen witch (thanks, Maggie) and we had a lot of people
help out at the planning meeting, and on the day of the ritual.
(Photos by Norma and Bob.)