GOG’s 2013 Imbolc
GOG’s 2013 Imbolc was all about words. Celtic Goddess Brigid was honored as the source of our inspiration, and Mnemosyne was our Gatekeeper, Memory.
21 attended the ritual, and 10 attended the planning meeting. Kristen inspired and organized the ritual, and Tricia took over as D.I.C. when Kristen fell ill and kindly stayed home rather than infect the rest of us. The ritual began with a procession and blessings of well, fire, and tree from Kildare, Ireland, and blessings of air in the form of words. During the rite, each person invoking was offered the chance to pick a random noun, verb, or adjective (or all three) to inspire their invocation. Praise was offered in the form of stories, songs, and poetry, as well as drawings and objects. It was a quiet ritual of words. Afterwards, we offered a dolly to Brigid in the fire along with words written on kindling during the rite, made butter and fresh bread, made Brigid’s crosses, ate lots of good food....
Our omen (see photos):
“Bustling shiny chatter prolific child temperate stagnant, weave”; "childlike chatter, ooo shiny—helping us to go forward and keeping us moving forward"; “breathtaking sky swirl water chasm”; "uplifting vision of beauty, chaos we’re going to get comes together and creates a beautiful uplifting place"; “brassy marshmallow perceive crumble remnant note”; "different things coming together to form whole—and keep us from coming stagnation"; “brassy—like cojones”; "word that can keep what we perceive may crumble—remnants and notes for people who follow so this will continue"; “saucy newfangled gathering window (upside down) bond”; "we break from norms, we break windows, we go through them, we force new ways"; “bond”; "we’re from different walks of life and cultures but we’re family here."
"One other thing: the word 'hand' is away from everything else. Hands outstretched. Those outside bring new jokes. We all at some point were that other who had a hand stretched out to them."
Quotes:
“Words are kindling.”
“North, Inuit, igloo, kayak”
“”Norse, berserk; French, chauffeur...”
“Africa: zombie, jazz...”
“My verb is ‘coil’! Dynamo! As we move we create and see! Internal fire! Internal combustion engine of words!”
“There’s really only one place you can go with ‘petticoat’ and the well.”
“Tree connects words, words and sentences ‘chained’ together...”
“I need help with this... this is bad... text ‘riddled’, speech muffled...
‘telescope’ sees clearly...”
“the M is silent”
“...and as we watched you we laughed and cried.”
“We have always been here... you take that for what you remember...”
“(animal sounds) fuckfuckfuckfuck... I’m invoking New Brunswick.”
“Dearly beloved we are gathered here today in the memory of...our beloved ancestors... someone who may have planted a seed, an acorn...”
“ ‘Unveil’! Gods and Goddesses, unveil yourselves to us! Be here with us! Be in our midst!”
“By that time the turnip had been reduced to nothing... English... I’m sorry, this is the best I can do for you.”
“I didn’t like the guy I sat next to, so I stabbed him.”
“Someday, we will all be gone. It is because of you, when we are gone, someone will remember us.”
“Blessed woman come to me, woman of fire and woman of poetry...”
“First word that showed up: artichoke.” “Excuse me if I take that, that word belongs to me.”