“Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival 2012 – Bonfire” by Stefan Schäfer, Lich. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
One question that cropped up recently on a forum was ceremonial cleansing before a ritual. It seemed that, in certain circles, ceremonial baths or showers are the norm – whether they take place in one’s home, or at the place where the ritual occurs. The discussion was about what herbs or other things might be included in the ritual bath or shower.
As far as I know, this doesn’t occur in the UK. Oh, it might – but if so, that would tend to be a practice particular to the individual or coven. I confess I haven’t previously heard of it. Furthermore, the conversation on that forum shared ideas that seemed to me to originate in Voudou magic. In the US, Voudou magic is much more commonplace, through something called hoodoo – what might be termed everyday Voudou magic for non-Voudou practitioners.
But all that aside, it set me thinking about preparation prior to a festival. I’m used to the idea of cleansing as part of working magic, but I hadn’t really though of it in connection with a ritual before. Perhaps it’s because there are really so few festivals that are agreed by all Heathens. Yes, there’s Winter Nights and Mothers’ Night and Yule. But that;s it. Beyond that it comes down to personal preferences. some people like to adopt modern dates from Scandinavian countries, or to invent dates – such as 1st April for Loki. (I rather like that one!). But the big three – mentioned in the old texts, are the ones above. yes, there’s also the disablot and the alfenblot, but there are arguments about when these took place.
Actually, there are arguments about the big three, as well. 🙂 You see, according to Bede Mothers’ Night probably occurred on what we now call Christmas Eve, with Yule starting the next day. But modern Heathens tend to celebrate it the night before the solstice, and start Yule on the solstice. However, some…
But that’s another story. 😉
Returning to Wicca means a partial return to festivals on set dates. I say partial because my HPS prefers to try to set things according to the seasons. So Beltane occurs when the hawthorn blossoms. That’s why I joined this coven… the thinking is Heathen. Alas, that doesn’t work if you’re trying to pl;an ahead for a number of folk, so you have to fix on dates regardless of when you, individually, feel “this is the time!” That’s the nature of communal rituals in the 21st century. We simply have to plan ahead – we can’t drop things because a bush has blossomed, and decide to meet tonight.
And, of course, that’s the other problem. Most of us work, so we can’t celebrate Beltane on 1st May. Well, not normally. 2015 is a wonderful year because the festivals actually fall on weekends. But it also means that they’re not terribly moveable. It really wouldn’t feel right to celebrate Beltane on (say) 8th May.
But back to preparation.
One of the things my far-flung kingroup would do, for a meeting, to declare in advance the subjects of a blot. Who was it in honour of? That made us all think about the sorts of food or gifts that god or gods would want sacrificed, and whether they would want us to bring special foods for our feasting. So we began to think about what we were doing far in advance. Sometimes a god would want the journey to the blot to take a detour, or for me to think of something, or do something, on the way. It was common for any of us to experience such things. By the time we arrived for the blot, we’d been preparing for it for days.
But no, we didn’t bathe. 😀
If you’re going skyclad in a circle, it’s different. Hygiene is a goddess to whom one sacrifices on each occasion, in a rigorous manner that tends to remind me about the Kemetic gods, who love the use of soap. No one in their right minds approaches a Kemetic god unwashed! Indeed, if my own gods didn’t get huffy about it, I’d tend to think that circling skyclad fell under the auspices of Djehuty or Aset. Or even, given the ways things go on occasion, of Set – the gods preserve us!
<grits teeth and tries to get back on track> PREPARATION is the subject.
OK. I have dodgy skin and prefer to shower at home, where I can put on various medications and swan around skyclad while they sink in. This doesn’t work so well in someone else’s house, so my preparation takes place at home. The journey is always part of that, as I have a four-hour drive to the covenstead. But it begins anyway, with certain private rituals. All small things, but all beginning to focus on what the season is, and why we are meeting.
I wear different things according to the gods I feel we are focussing on. At Beltane, this is a god I know by many names. As a Heathen I would call him Freyr, but he came to me first using a different name; and one I refused to use. So we settled on something. But my mind is already focussed on him. And the excitement rises. 🙂
Leaves from a Book of Shadows 