This is Lady Sheherazahde's Ritual Record for Imbolc 1999

I spent Imbolc 1999 with my friends.

My friend RainbowDarkly has been hosting an Imbolc ritual on the first full weekend of February for so many years she has lost count. This year it fell on the 6th.

This is the invitation RainbowDarkly sent (with confidential information removed)

Children are welcome, but please be aware that there will be nudity near the hot tub and possibly elsewhere.

Why: Because it's more fun this way...oh...to celebrate the returning light, and inspiration
To Respond or more info, call
Love, Light, and Laughter!, RainbowDarkly

I immediately started cooking the food I had brought to share. The buffet table was already started and there was a honey and mustard glazed ham in the oven. We jokingly refer to this as RainbowDarkly's "In bulk" ritual because we need to prepare food "in bulk". She can not feed 25-40 people without a lot of help.

Zahde's Chicken Marsala

I arranged the drumsticks in a disposable roasting pan.
Scattered the frozen onions over them.
Emptied the Marsala over that.
Sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper.
Baked in a 350 deg. oven for a couple of hours. I like the meat to fall off the bone but with a growing mob of hungry Pagans that isn't always possible.

RainbowDarkly's friend Tracy had brought trays of mini cheese cakes. She said it was a regular cheese cake recipe she just changed the flavors

Tracy's Mini Cheese Cakes

People kept arriving. We just hung out and talked to each other. Most of us knew each other from previous years and we got to catch up on each others lives. But there were also new people. My Karen and Kris for example. There was a new guy there named Lewis. He was raised Jehovah's Witness and is just looking around at us. We had a wonderful time discussing theology with him, although we didn't reach any conclusions.

The ritual is usually in the evening so around 9pm people started asking RainbowDarkly "when are we getting started?" She invited anyone who wanted a part in the ritual to come to one of the guest rooms for the planning meeting.

I usually have a part in these rituals. RainbowDarkly is an old coven mate of mine from MoringStar Grove and StarWheel so we know each other's style. We use the standard ritual form we are familiar with so the planning meeting is just to decide who does what.

Large Group Wiccan Ritual Form

• Staff set up? everyone set up the equipment they need.
  
  • Make sure everyone has a candle
  • clear the living room of furniture and people
  • set up the altar
  • do the room purifications
  • turn off the lights
• Ritual start?10:30pm

• Chant: Kris suggested this chant she had learned at Starwood.

  Burn, fire, burn bright
  Pure vision come to me
  Guide my life tonight
  with your strength and light.

• Air& Fire (Who?): Heather
• Water & salt (Who?): Michele
• Other Gates (Who?): RainbowDarkly and Joe anointed people with oil. RainbowDarkly did the men and Joe did the women. (*shrug* It's traditional.)

• East (Who?): Rob. He is an old friend of RainbowDarkly's and very experienced in the Blue Star Tradition. I don't want to damn him with faint praise but I am not familiar enough with his credentials to feel confident listing them. I believe he is 3rd degree in the Blue Star Tradition and has been for years. In my experience he is a competent and professional priest. Which is high praise from me.
• South (who?): Lisa. She comes from a more eclectic background. A very forceful woman. Very much like me.
• West (who?): Kris. I was very proud of her for jumping in and participating her first time with this group. She doesn't have much formal training but she is a research Witch (like me) with more experience in public ritual (from CUUPs) than most Neopagans get.
• North (who?): Brian, again.

• RainbowDarkly always does the "Invocation To The Ground of Being" (Starhawk, "Spiral Dance" rev.ed., p119) A.K.A. "Nameless One". It is a duet, call and response. We have done it many ways. This year she and Joe did it.

• RainbowDarkly stepped forward and explained the meaning of the ritual and what we were going to do.

• We each came forward, in no particular order, and said what inspires us and lit our candles from the center candle.

• Chant leader: RainbowDarkly asked that someone with a good singing voice start the chant again.
• Chant:

  Burn fire, burn bright
  Pure vision come to me
  Guide my life tonight
  with your strength and light.

• At the peak of the energy we focused on our candles and snuffed them out to capture the energy in the candles. When ever we need inspiration in the coming year we can light our candles and release the energy we stored.

• Wine Blessing (Great Rite?):RainbowDarkly and I did the traditional symbolic Great Rite with the StarWheel twist of using two cups.
• Bread Blessing: RainbowDarkly and Rob did a traditional BlueStar bread blessing over a tray of cookies

  Hear us, ancient Horned One--
  Provender and power are Thine:
  Hear and answer, gracious Goddess--
  Grant us laughter, wit and wine.

  Descend on us, O Thou of blessings;
  Come amongst us, make us glad:
  Since Thou art Chief of all Creation
  Why, oh why, should we be sad?

  Beam on us, o joyous greenwood:
  Banish heavy-hearted hate:
  Accept our Craft, O Ancient Mother,
  Let cheerful brightness be our fate.

• Passing the Cup: Because we had two cups to make use of, one contained juice and the other contained wine. Joe and I brought the cups around and blessed everyone with "May you never Thirst". RainbowDarkly and Rob brought around the cookies and blessed everyone with "May you never Hunger"

RainbowDarkly warned Brian that if he dismissed the circle by making a sucking sound she would kill him. Not that he ever did that but apparently she knows someone who did. I don't remember the exact words of his dismissal except that it involved "circle of fire...sink beneath the ground."

The Circle is open but unbroken, Merry Meet, Merry Part and Merry meet again. Pagan hugs all around

About 27 people attended that ritual.

Then we hung out and talked some more. And we ate and talked some more. Karen and I took a dip in the hot tub. Then we hung out some more.

At midnight my old friend Mogli arrived and we talked till 4am catching up.

With such a late night I slept till nearly noon. As people woke up Kris made omelets for everyone who wanted one.

Some of us started playing "Credo" It is a game where you try to assemble 10 articles of faith under the conditions that the Nicean creed was assembled. All of the articles of faith are real beliefs from the time period, some even have sect information. It is very educational, unless you take religion too seriously. My Baptist sister nearly disowned me for trying to explain the game to her daughter. The game is not meant to be offensive, someone commented that it looked like a college thesis. My sister found the implication that the Nicean creed *could* have been different than it is offensive.

We left around 4 p.m. on Sunday. There were still other guests there and probably would be till the next day.

The End