Jane Meredith’s Blog www.janemeredith.com

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.