GOG's Spring Equinox Ritual to Manannan Mac Lir

We'd expected about 25 people. Well, all 25 showed up-- and then some. We had 34. Ritual planners Hillary and Monika had a great banter going during the pre-rit. Monika was Druid-in-Charge, taking us on a calm trance journey across the sea to the Isle of Apples. Click here for the script. Norma invoked Earth Mother, and then Monika took over, taking us through the horizontal directions, well, fire, and tree as part of the trance meditation. Hillary opened the gates as Manannan, in rhyming couplets. Alex made our offering to the outsiders, breaking Prospero's staff from last year's Tempest ritual, echoing the end of Shakespeare's Tempest. Jenniforensic invoked Manannan as our muse, singing a beautiful song. Sue invoked Ancestors, Josh our Nature Spirits, and Cicely our Goddesses and Gods (quoting Rilke). Monika did the main invocation, drawing Manannan down, and then there was a goodly amount of praise. We added our local waters to our well (including some special not-so-local waters), and the waters from Equinox Day, and blessed our grove well. Then, as we chanted "Walk With Us, Manannan," we each had a chance to be taken to Manannan to look inside his well, hear his voice, and take an omen from his crane bag. With 34 people, this took a while, but the chanting was hypnotic, like a boat rocking upon the sea. Our grove omen: 3 different spiders. Our seer, Pat, explained that this year we will encounter spiders, but not the same spider twice, and each spider will prepare you for the next. After the ritual we had food, a bonfire, drumming, and some of us stayed for Portal of the Porcupine's twilight Wiccan ritual.
(5 druids attended the planning meeting, and 5 spent an afternoon cleaning up the ritual space the week before the ritual.)
(Photos, Marc and Ed.)

Hillary and Monika--
Ritual Planners.