Happy Birthday Dear Newsletter......
This newsletter marks one year since I started sending out these
newsletters. Yes, I know I have missed a few holidays and new moons
in there but still.....one year and ummm, 2 days : ) So, how do you
like them? Feel free to let me know what you think, especially if
you enjoy reading them, or even if you don’t. I really do enjoy
writing these and hope to be better at sending them on time. And I
thank each and every one of you subscribers for listening to my thoughts,
ideas, rants and musings ; )
Kitty update (last one, I swear!): Sandy is doing great
now. She still prefers to sleep under the couch but now she is out and
about when I am home, especially at night! She is not the sweet angel
I thought she was. When we celebrated Midsummer this year we had to
be inside because of the storms. I created a fairy ring out of rose
petals surrounded by some fairy statues and crystals (see pic below).
So it would not be disturbed by the kitty or walked over, I created
it on my hutch. I placed a small glass of wine in the center for the
fairies to drink. I left it overnight and in the morning wanted to show
it to my boyfriend. What a surprise when only a few petals remained!
They had disappeared. Nothing around the missing ring of petals was
disturbed, the wine glass was still there along with the crystals and
statues. My boyfriend was even beginning to believe the fairies took
them when later that night we witnessed sweet little Sandy jump up there
and without disturbing anything, started eating the remaining rose petals!
I could not believe she could get up there without knocking something
down. So now I have to watch her to keep her from jumping up there and
breaking a fairy while looking for more rose petals!
I'm Scrying in the Rain.......
The topic for this newsletter came very easy, what to do when your
Midsuumer is rained out as ours was. We decided to celebrate Friday
night as that was the only night we were sure everyone could be there.
Oh, and by the way, how fabulous was it that Midsummer fell on Father’s
Day this year.....what better way to celebrate the masculine energies
of the day then by honoring your father or the father figure in your
life.
Anyway, so there I was, waiting until the news at noon on Friday in
the hopes that the weather report would change before deciding that
we had to be indoors. Of course, since I had the whole outdoor ritual
planned. Now I had to come up with something to do inside that would
capture the spirit of a bonfire on Midsummer’s Eve. Being that
this is also considered a water holiday (and since Mother Nature was
providing some great storm water) I decided to have us try scrying in
water after the ritual.
I should explain, as I don’t think I have before, that at each
of our holiday celebrations we try a different form of divination. Different
as in not the same as the last holiday, we do repeat some. We have scryed
in water before but I will give you this advice: do it right after the
ritual, don’t wait until you have had time to relax and/or wait
for it to get full on dark. Since it was really storming when our ritual
ended, lightning and thunder and pouring rain, we had a snack and visited
a bit before I got the bowl of rain water. The problem then was that
I had a song from the movie Labyrinth going through my head that
I could not clear out, we had been discussing the movie since we had
just seen it last weekend. The others had songs in their heads too.
We were unsuccessful in clearing our minds and only one of us got a
message. I think Midsummer is too playful for such serious divination
too, with all that fairy energy floating about. Oh well, live and learn.
So to incorporate a "bonfire" inside, use candles. I have
a thick tall one that is orangy-yellow (for the sun) and of course,
our Midsummer gel candle
was our fire candle on the altar. Alicia found some daisies for the
altar and we all wore daisy jewelry that I recently inherited from my
grandmother. At one part of our ritual I gave everyone a tiger eye stone
so that was on there too. My yellow cloth is not quite big enough to
cover the table so under it I had a dragon tapestry that is red tie
dyed to look like fire. I had a small cup of rose petals for each one
of us which we scattered around when we called on the fairies to join
us at the end.
And as I mentioned above, I created a fairy ring so the fairies would
have a way to come in and join us. You can make a fairy ring out of
any natural material you have. I made mine out of red rose petals from
my rose bush. Alicia has one in her house made of stones and crystals.
This is a great way to invite fairies into your home. If you make it
out of rose petals then you either have to keep creating it, shrink
it when the petals dry, or as I did, just use it for a temporary doorway.
Not that I don’t want fairies in my house, I do, and I’m sure
they are here, but this was a special day for them and they deserved
a special invite.
My rose petal fairy ring surrounded
by fairy statues, stones & crystals (selenite wand in front) with
a glass of wine for them.
After all was set up, we gathered around the altar and I cast the circle
as the clouds and rain covered the setting sun. We did a ritual we do
every year at Midsummer that honors "The Lord of Summer" and
fire. It is really cool as we all speak in turn to form sentences (see
below). Then we did a Druid Meditation called "The
Invocation of Amergin" that I found at About.com that I thought
would be empowering as we spoke the lines. I spoke them and they repeated
them with a pause in-between for reflection. We then called on the fairies
to join us, each of us communicating with them in our own way. We finished
by sending energy to each other to help create what we want to accomplish
this summer and then everyone took a turn speaking their thoughts and/or
gratitude to the Powers That Be. It was really storming as I closed
the circle.
So don’t let the rain ruin your Midsummer or any other outdoor
holiday. Adapt and be creative. Midsummer itself was a beautiful day
so those who celebrated on the day had great weather.
Lord of the Summer Ritual
This is the part of the newsletter where I like to discuss herbs and/or
oils. Last year I gave an overview of the herbs
for Midsummer. Last year I created three different blends for us
to throw on the fire: one for fire, one for the Sun God, and one for
the fairies. Last year I wrote it down. This year I can’t find
where I wrote it down. So I guess this year I cannot share my blends
as was my plan.
Instead I will give you the part of our ritual where we all speak as
I love doing this. This year as we spoke I got chills (the good kind
when you feel the presence of something bigger than yourself). I am
not sure where I got this ritual from so if it sounds familiar to anyone
then you probably saw it too. It is written for four people, one for
each direction, but when we only have three then the south person speaks
for the missing direction as after all, south is fire and that is what
we honor.
The South person steps into the circle and lights a candle set in
the center. Then she steps back into the south. (if outside have her
throw something into the fire)
West: It is the longest day.
North: It is the shortest night.
East: It is Midsummer.
North: It is the time of light.
East: It is the derth of dark.
West: It is Midsummer.
East: It is the reign of summer.
West: It is the poverty of winter.
North: It is Midsummer.
South: It is Midsummer, and the Lord of Flames takes his height.
The heat comes on, baking all in its path, as the Earth rises to great
the Summer Lord. His light illuminates the sky, and night becomes day.
East: Between us, we hold the earth and sky.
North: Within us, we hold the dark and light.
West: Among us, we hold the Lady and her children.
North: Earth,
East: Air,
West: Water,
All: And the fire grows between us.
West: Autumn,
North: Winter,
East: Spring,
All: And the fire glows within us.
East: The Wand, She sets the wand on the ground, facing east.
West: The Cauldron, She sets the cauldron on the ground in the
west.
North: The Stone, She sets the stone in the north.
All: And the sword of fire around us.
South: The Lord of Summer takes arms and strides across the
sky, bearing with him his shield of the Sun and the Sword of Fire. On
this longest day, none challenge him and he reigns for one day supreme,
unchallenged.
East: Fire in the air as lightning...
North: Rears to strike the ground...
West: Soaked with the summer rain...
All: We bid welcome to the Fire, the Lord of Summer.
Have a blessed and warm summer!
~~~~Rhiannon Rose
