Jane Meredith’s Blog www.janemeredith.com

It’s now a few days since I’ve returned from British Columbia’s wonderful 23rd Reclaiming WitchCamp, where I was part of the wonderful teaching team, Camp and Elements Path. Our story for the week was Avalon and we ventured through rituals oriented towards listening to the land, a Druidic training college, interacting with the Fisher King’s story, in reference to the wound of our relationship to the land and setting out on our own quests for the grail….

To write briefly about one ritual: we set up Arthur’s court in the centre of the circle, in tableau and then had a grail procession enter from the East, parade three-quarters of the way around the circle and exit via the North. The last person in the procession stopped, turned back and told the story of the Fisher-King and his unhealed wound… which Arthur recognised as being his own story… I led the procession, carrying the grail, wearing someone else’s red dress… All day I had been asking different people, “Who bears the grail?” and collecting responses: “the Goddess”, “spirit”, “the grail maiden”… and carrying it, I wondered even further.

But the essence of our rituals seemed to be; I do. I carry the grail. And you do. We all do. We are carrying the grail; hope, spirit, love, the mending of our relationship with the sacred; we are bearing the grail.

I have just spent the day - 12 or so hours of it - in conference with the teaching team for British Columbia WitchCamp, which starts this weekend. Twelve hours of ritual planning… I love it! It’s kind of a ritual in itself.

Our story is Avalon - and we are creating five evening rituals to unfold aspects of that story. This process of unpicking myth and story, of inviting in gods and goddesses, of uncovering the paths into and then stepping within the mythos is something really special to me; especially when done in community. There is an evolution which seems to occur… from initial ideas and brainstorming, through to intention, structure, details and then a whole, fleshed-out ritual. It’s a process I follow by myself, or sometimes with one or two other people, but to do it with eight people, and for not one but five rituals… which will be attended by a continuous group of 80+ people - it’s an awesome experience.

The team is wonderful and two of them - Ravyn and John - will be with us for the very first Australian WitchCamp next Easter. I’ll report back after Camp on how our rituals went! The link for the Australian Camp is: http://witchcamp.australiareclaiming.org.au/

Another deeply moving ritual that I attended at the Glastonbury Goddess Conference was the ritual to honour the men who were at, involved with or on the edges of, the Conference. It was held in the Glastonbury Town Hall with about 120 women and 20 men. The women formed a long double line, snaking towards the back of the hall and then men came through it, one at a time with their eyes closed. At the end of this passage - which took at least 10 minutes to pass through - they were embraced.

The women reached out and guided them through, each one also whispering something to the man as he passed slowly by; I heard words of praise, encouragement, appreciation and gratitude. I was standing about two thirds of the way along the line; by the time they got that far, the men were visably moved; some shaking, some crying, some whose faces were in wonderment. One young man, passing lightly along, listening to our words, breathed on an out-breath ‘I love you’ and seemed to send it out to the whole room. Another man came up to me afterwards and said it was the strongest thing that had ever happened to him, in his whole life, and he would carry the memory of it til his dying day.

After all the men had passed through, we stood and sang and the room filled with our voices. It was a powerful ritual, with a very strong sense of the strength of women and the rarity of this deep recognition of men.

I attended a very beautiful, deep ritual as part of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference… entering into a Temple space blindfolded one evening, with 100 or so others and then surrounded by drifting music, chimes, sounds of the sea… It was lengthy - I lay on the floor for nearly two hours (although I would have thought it was more like 40 minutes, I was in a quite surrendered space) and actually I was just thinking I could leave now, that I’d sorted through enough (and quite a lot within me had shifted in that lovely, deepening-within space) when I was got up and taken into the innermost temple…

This was a kind of constructed red tent, within the Hall, and my blindfold was removed to enter it. In there were eight (I think eight) goddesses sitting, some with someone in front of them, interacting and a few sitting with no-one there. My assistant whispered, “Go to the Goddess with her arms open for you” and I glanced into the North-East - the direction I had been in all Conference - and She was there, naked and with a red eye-mask, arms open. I went to her and it was wordless for a long time and then she leaned forward and spoke to me. I had tears running down my face and dripping between my breasts all the time she spoke.  It was very powerful, far beyond the rational. It was very personal, the woman in this role really reached deeply into my psyche and spoke as if within myself… it was extrordinary.

When I left the tent I was facing a mirror with the words “”You are beautiful, I love you” written on it… I laughed, because all week I had been talking and conducting workshops on how we are Aphrodite’s mirrors…

Last week I ran a small ritual at the Medicine Wheel in Byron Bay, with about 14 women. We did an exercise out of Aphrodite’s Magic - gazing with the eyes of the Goddess (the Beauty Eye). This is a beautiful thing to do - either with a friend or women’s group. It is something that never gets tired, no matter how many times you do it.

It begins with going deep within the self, finding the seed part of you that is the Goddess. Then send each breath into this part, allowing it to expand and grow til it stretches through your whole body (this takes a little time and you should keep stretching it further and further out, even until it goes beyond your body, like an aura). Lastly you focus on bringing that energy specifically up the spine, into the head and particularly into the backs of your eyes, so that when you open your eyes, you will be looking through the eyes of the Goddess.

When you open your eyes, you gaze at the woman sitting opposite you (also with her eyes open) and view her through the eyes of the Goddess. Looking for the Goddess within her, when you see it, you name it quietly, saying “I see the Goddess within you” and she does the same.

You can repeat this with several different women, or make it more elaborate, seeking to name the aspect of Goddess you see in her (ie a water Goddess, the maiden Goddess, Shakti…). You can also spend several minutes detailing her beauty to her, which we did. Not only do you get the amazing experience of seeing the Goddess before you, in the form of another woman, you also get to hear how she sees you, as the Goddess. These words can be very precious and affirming.

I’ve just had two Winter Solstice rituals in quick succession - last night and this morning. This morning we (my partner, son and I) went down to the beach very early - ie before sunrise) and watched the gradual changing of sky and light, before red-gold, the sun emerged… (then we went swimming, of course!)

Last night we did a quiet-ish, inner ritual, a lot of it in the dark or semi-dark. We did a meditation of being a seed in the dark earth, letting our husk fall away, reaching down with new roots for nourishment and then finally feeling a green sprout heading upwards towards the light. In total dark we entered the chaos-sphere, with sound and movement and then, into the silent dark, we recited Charge of the Star Goddess and Charge of the Earth God. Then we each lit a tealight and sat meditating on our own light…

I just ran a weekend Aphrodite’s Magic course… the most amazing moments towards the end, where 13 women sat making their girdles, whispering and chanting their magics over their plaiting… the whole room was filled with this hushed focus and bubbling words, ‘love’, ‘passion’, ‘beauty’, ’surrender’, ‘joy’, for half an hour or more. I felt completely within the Temple, and that life could not be any better than this.

Later dancing with our girdles on the room seemed light-filled, by us and I thought Aphrodite’s presence sparkled from every woman.

The Essence of Magic Class just held it’s Full Moon Ritual at Uki’s Castle on the Hill in the Dianic Temple, before attending Wendy Rule’s Concert. Nine women, standing in the quarter-light (it was cloudy) with blue/purple crescent moons drawn on our foreheads drawing down the moon…

There was a beautiful feeling of timelessness - not just that this could be any full moon, but any time, any place in history. Any nine women. We did simple things, that could have been done any number of ways; greeting each other under the moon with blessings, with elements, with namestes… singing together, drumming and rattling raising energy until one then another then another stepped forward with arms raised to call for the moon’s light and magic to enter our bodies, our lives.

There’s a sisterhood that’s formed by creating such rituals together, that doesn’t rely on similarities of life or experience. It’s a special feeling - I don’t get it any other place. Women doing ritual together - even when I’m not hungry for it it still feeds something deep inside me. And Wendy Rule was magnificent - an amazing performer and ritualist, very generous in her giving of herself.

Last Friday in the first of my Level 2 Essence of Magic Classes we did a Women’s Stages of Life Ritual. This is quite easy to set up and you can do it on your own, with a few friends or as part of a larger women’s group, adapting the exercises to fit the numbers. It’s a ritual for getting closer to your essential woman-self, the Goddess in her different aspects and also (if you are doing it with a group) with other women.

Begin by setting up 4 Altars in the 4 directions for Maiden, Mother, Priestess and Crone. In the Southern Hemisphere, I set it up as Maiden in the East, Mother in the North, Priestess in the West and the Crone in the South. In the Northern Hemisphere, I’d swap the Mother and Crone Altars. Each woman brings 4 items with her to the ritual, one for each of the ’stages of life’ and places them on the relevant Altar.

Begin with Casting a Circle, invoking the archetypes/aspects of Goddess - Maiden, Mother, Priestess and Crone, grounding and learning a song together. Then everyone moves to the Maiden Altar, where each woman in turn speaks of the item she has brought and its significance to her and her Maidenhood.

After this is complete, move to the Mother Altar. Here each woman should sit in silence for a while, reaching down into the depths of her experience with this stage of life… whether it be mothering children (which may be biologically hers, or not), animals, gardens or creative ventures… Then each woman is asked to speak of one her deepest moments with this archetype, whether or not it involves her object on the Altar.

For the Priestess Altar, the women sit in pairs and each talk about how the Priestess aspect currently exists in her life, and how she would like it to be. They may also choose to talk about their objects and what they represent. Then feed this briefly (even in one sentance) back to the group.

At the Crone Altar use a meditation - either guided or self-guided - into one’s own old age and Cronehood. Each woman should approach herself as Crone and ask her for some guidance or wisdom for  her current life.  Then return in silence and finally share one thing each about their Cronehood or their guidance.

Finally each woman has some time to go and sit at the Altar of her choice - maybe the aspect of womanhood she needs more strongly in her life, or is yearning for. Conclude the ritual with singing together, thanking the aspects of Goddess and Grounding the Circle .

I know it was Beltaine for a large section of the English-speaking Pagan world… but for us in the Southern Hemisphere, it was Samhain last week, and is still the season of Samhain. The nights are darker suddenly, I’m wearing a jumper and feeling the damp coming at my joints. The cats refused to go outside this morning, because it wasn’t a light summer shower but a heavy, cold rain. They sat and looked at through the windows, instead.

For our Samhain Ritual we always wear masks, and usually black clothes. Looking up during a ritual - dimly lit - to see 11 people standing round completely dressed in black, all wearing masks, is disconcerting and immediately other-worldly. When we went outside at one stage during the ritual - the moon hadn’t risen but the stars were brilliantly out - I felt part of the vast night, the dark earth and the rustling trees (this was before the rain). We connected with the seed part in each of us that lies dormant, waiting for the right conditions before it will sprout.

Later we passed through 3 gates, leaving behind the past, entering the unknown and paying a price to enter the Underworld… walking then into a double-spiral drawn on the floor in chalk… in the centre an altar covered in a cloth, fertile earth to plant our seeds in, with an animal skull in the centre of it and a snake skeleton winding its way around the edges… bones and seeds.