Black Oak Midsummer '88

Tools

Celebrants

The Goddess, the Kings and the Fey are hidden; the horn or gong is hanging from a nearby tree limb. The circle is formed and the meeting dance done. Sacred space is created by 1st Priestess standing in the center of the circle and swinging the bullroarer.

1st and 2nd Priestess both then say:

It is beginning. It is becoming. It is befalling.
This place is sacred. This time is sacred. This way is sacred.

The Charging Bowl is mixed by 1st Priestess as follows:

Stir the stuff and sing the spell;
Bowl of blessings blended well!
Salt is sav'ry, stings the tongue,
Earthy anchor ever-strong;
Oil to ease through obstacles,
Fragrant, noble, magical;
Water washes, heals us whole,
Soothes the skin and fills the soul;
Last the leaf the brew to seal;
Vaster vision it reveals.
Stir the stuff and sing the spell;
Bowl of blessings, blend ye well.

Lady of the Silver Wheel,
Lord of Magic's Mystery,
Work according to my will,
Elements, I conjure ye!

Now 1st Priestess and 2nd Priestess go around the circle "smudging and sperging" everybody, using the following charms:

Smudging

Sacred smoke now spread and fill; Break and banish every ill.

Sperging

Blessings mingled in the bowl,
Touch and make of us a whole.

1st Priestess says:

Now we must leave for a land few see:
No mortal lives there, nor long may stand.
To touch it shatters the mystery,
So hold instead to this talisman.

1st Priestess and 2nd Priestess pass out the charms, empowering them with this chant:

Goddess of the crossroads, lord who shows the track,
Take us swiftly to our goal, and safely bring us back.

2nd Priestess invokes the Quarters & Dead as follows:

Eastward I stand, air I bid listen:
Whirl us through wind to the place behind thought;
Protect us from harms that come by air or arrogance;
Help us to know the message of acts.

Southward I stand, fire I bid listen:
Speed us through flame to the place before spirit;
Protect us from harms that come by fire or anger;
Help us to see what darkness conceals.

Westward I stand, water I bid listen:
Float us on waves to the place below feeling;
Protect us from harms that come by water or fear;
Help us to dare the opening of our hearts.

Northward I stand, earth I bid listen:
Lead us through stone to the place beyond flesh;
Protect us from harms that come by land or avarice;
Help us to hold body and spirit together.

Centered I stand, ancestors I bid listen:
Guide us through worlds to the realm of the gods;
Protect us from the harms that come by unknowing;
Give us the wisdom to discern what we shall see.

[Note from LAH, a decade later: I don't remember if I wrote that Quarter/Dead invocation or if Anya did. It sure has been a long time...]

While the people dance widdershins, chanting quietly:

Earth and Water, Fire and Air,
Carry us, carry us, carry us there.

1st Priestess takes the circle to the otherworld with this invocation over the chant:

On the track of the white hart and the golden-bristled boar;
Through the trilithons, under the mounds, in nameless, ancient woodlands;
Under the earth, above the sky, just outside of time;
Where the world tree stands, which fire and rain can never fell;
Where the dead and the yet-unborn gather potential to be;
Whence all images come, source of dream and myth and mystery;
Where the cauldron is stirred, the forge is fired, the thread is woven;
Where the pool's waters hold knowledge for who would drink and offer;
Where the dreamtime twilight is brightened by our festal bonfires;
Where the trees and winds and sun and moon take human shapes;
Where the cosmic forces move, eternally dancing the patterns;
Where the watching eye can read the cypher of truth from symbols;
Where even now they wait for us! now we come to them! now!

The chant grows and climaxes, then the Priestesses silence everybody.

There should be a moment of quiet, then eerie music begins; here one of the hidden Fey might light a stick of different incense. The point is to let the people know, through all of their senses, that things are different now.

The entire sequence in the Otherworld is done without any words -- there should be hidden musicians or a pre-recorded tape to play music appropriate to the action, as in Japanese Noh theatre. The action should be slow and dreamlike; the combat in particular should be slow and stylized. The Otherworld denizens should act as though the people of the circle are not there at all.

Here are the sequences of action, with suggestions for musical accompaniment:

For the first time in about 15 minutes (as long as this sequence should take), there is speech. 2nd Priestess goes to the edge of the circle, cuts a gate, and invokes WK as follows (music can continue; WK's theme, softly):

Lord of harvest, hunt, and feast,
Lord of forest, field, and beast,
Lord of winter crowned anew,
Hear us calling unto you.
Here your altar waiting stands,
Here your circle, hand in hand.
Come to us, we pray you, heed;
Bear your gifts to all who need.

WK turns to the circle as if seeing people there for the frist time. He picks up the cakes & wine and brings them with him into the circle. He offers the cup to 2nd Priestess's lips, but she holds him off, saying:

Lord, you know well that mortal risks her soul
Who eats or drinks in Faerie.

He nods, with a little smile. There should be a little more of the "Introduction" music to go under the next part, but gradually it should fade out before the end; while the people dance deosil and chant:

Wind and flame and sea and stone,
Carry us, carry us, carry us home.

1st Priestess returns the circle to our world with the following words:

Summer's King is carried swift away to the Isle of Apples;
Healing awaits Him there and in His own time he'll return.
Our time here is ended, and we must as we came move home.
Where flesh is solid, sight is truthful, thought has meaning;
Where food nourishes, taste and substance firm the body;
Where homes and tilth and sacred grounds inform the self;
Where sun and moon and stars and living put us in time;
Where the Quarters and the Circle's centre put us in place;
Where our lives are enriched by the gifts we bring from other worlds;
Where remembered vision works in all our acts and perceptions;
Elemental Pow'rs and Honoured Dead, thanks for your guidance!
Now our homes and lives are waiting. here they are! now!

WK should sag a little at the end of this (it may not be voluntary!) signifying that the God has left. Then, finally, the cakes and wine are passed around, 2nd Priestess saying:

These gifts brought back from the otherworld
Retain their benefit but not their danger.
Eat now without fear and share the otherworld's blessing.

The circle is taken down by whirling the bullroarer in the opposite direction, and the other Celebrants are let in to be fed and grounded. Take time and care about this, so that all are firmly back in this world. I like the grounding from the Samhain sabbat.

Costume Notes

The Summer King should be Jack-in-the-Green, with leaves and goat horns. The Winter King should be Herne, wearing (if at all possible) buckskin or buckskin-looking longhunter clothes, with antlers (a horned helmet is fine). The Goddess should look queenly, and the Priestess playing Her has every license to dress as her own idea of the Goddess indicates. The Fey should be fey (anything from Midsummer Night's Dream faeries to the tribal Otherworld denizens from Moonheart. Leaves, flowers, small horns, featehrs, etc, are all possibilities.)