Envision an altar lite with two candles next to images of the Goddess and God and lite torches lead down to a circle in the woods. Jack O' Lanterns lite up with candles greet you along the path you as you walk into the woods. There are two torches at the door way into the circle that glow into the evening.
There 10 good folk gathered around a hot oak fire with the setting waxing moon shining through bare limbs of the woods in the west. Ah the moon in the 7th house! There are stars above shining down through the opening in the branches of the glade blessing each and everyone in the circle and ritual.
All hold hands and intone an “AH” and so welcomed to the Sweetwood Temenos Samhain ritual. The Circle is casted and a libation of whiskey is poured to Eris and her Kin, the mischievous makers to take their due and enjoy the night and all are at peace with one another.
Words of the season are spoken and the remembering of those who have died begins. The priestess hands out dried wild flowering plants gathered from the fields to each in the circle. The honoring of the dead begins as each remember good folk who have died by casting a dried flowering plant into the flames and takes a turn in speaking about the ancestors.
Several rounds of speaking happen until all are finished. Then the priest goes to a small alter in the west, speaks of the life given for the circle and Sweetwood and pours a water libation to them as a promise kept to remember them also.
Then the Horned God, the consort of the Goddess is drawn down upon the priest by the priestess with the stang, the taming wand. He speaks his words of promise, of the Mystery of Birth, Death and Rebirth and reunion with loved ones in the Summerland. And after his words are spoken and releases his priest by the power of the stang, the priest invokes the Holy Crone. By the power of the stang she is invoked and all who wish may come to her seated upon her common block of wood and ask for an omen. All are asked to meditate upon what they seek in the coming year as this time is the ancient New Year for the peoples of Northwest Europe. All go and seek a symbol of guidance for the coming year and chose a card and return to the fire.
When all finish and received an omen the bread is blessed and shared around the fire in the woods. Coyotes howl and owls hoot. Water then is shared....around the circle from one person to another. A goblet filled with water is passed and saying unto one another as it is passed "water shared, is life shared, is love shared, Thou art Goddess, Thou art God, may you never Thirst. After final water libation and blessing the priestess and priest take down the circle. The priestess speaks the final words “All from Air into Air … the circle is open but never broken and the feast begins all around a hot Samhain fire in the woods... a good time was had by all.
Never Thirst
Iacchus