Affirmations as Armor

Beltane greetings!! We’re halfway to summer and the world has come to life. It’s a time of celebration. Morris dancing. Maypoles. Bonfires. May Games. (We played a floral coin toss and a mini-ring toss to crown our May Monarchs).

And in Blue Star, it’s the time of the Path of Power of Love.

In Haven Song, we celebrate and honor the cycles of the Wheel of the Year, but we’re also cognizant of the current needs of the community. In a world filled with doubt, we decided to focus on self-love. More specifically, self-love as a way to protect ourselves from that creeping doubt.

To that end, all attendees were asked in advance to consider something positive about themselves—about their being—that they know to be absolute truth, and bring that thought with them into circle. For the work, everyone received a piece of chain mail with a small tag on it. They were asked to think about how they perceive themselves, and on one side of the tag write their initials, or a personal symbol or sigil that represents them. For the other side of the tag, they were told to think about the affirmation they brought with them into Circle and draw a heart.

For each ritual, we also give consideration to the deities we call, and for this particular work whom better to call than the married pair of Aphrodite, goddess of Love, and Hephaestus, god of the forge, from the Greek pantheon. For the blessing of our Affirmation Armor, everyone was asked to hold their chain mail in a closed fist over their heart. We asked Hephaestus to bless our Affirmation Armor so we can use it as a source of strength against times filled with doubt. We then asked Aphrodite to bless our Affirmation Armor so we can use it as a means of protecting our hearts from those who would try to make us doubt ourselves.

So mote it be!

… For There is No Greater Magic in All the World Than That of Love

Beltane is just around the corner, the mid-season sabbat when we can really feel that summer is approaching. The days are getting hotter, the world has woken up, and Nature is abuzz with life and energy. This all begs the question: Why am I so focused on love in the title of this blog post?

In Blue Star, Beltane marks the beginning of the Path of Power of Love, which makes it the perfect sabbat to celebrate it. If I ask you to think about love, what comes to mind? Does your brain immediately jump to the romance aspect—or maybe a little bit more toward the lust side of things? Maybe your brain goes to family (and yes, I’m including pets in this category). And we certainly can’t forget about platonic love, that connection and bond between friends.

But when you think about the people and things you love, how far down the list do you get until you name yourself? It’s far easier than it should be to forget to add ourselves to that list, but it is one of the best things we can do to steel ourselves for hard times, be it to support yourself or to be there for a loved one. For we are each connected, and when we bolster ourselves, we can’t help but lift each other.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

— from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

The Power of Love indeed.

Blessed Ostara

Back at Imbolc, it was decided by the Grove and our guests that our Ostara feast should be focused on floral flavors (possibly my favorite feast theme of all times). However, usually we write the ritual, and then, if it's appropriate, set a related feast theme. This time around we had to reverse-engineer a ritual that worked with the already-chosen feast theme.

Ostara is the vernal equinox, and the official start of spring. It's also the point in the Wheel of the Year where the majority of our tradition leans hardest into herbology. As such, we figured that a ritual focused on flowers would be easy to come up with. Unfortunately, the more we talked about how to incorporate flowers into our work, the less I liked the idea of celebrating the Earth waking up and coming alive with dead-and-dried flowers, or cut-and-dying flowers. At my suggestion, we had already agreed to build the work around Victorian flower language (see the previous post), so somehow we needed to find a way to incorporate the symbolism of flowers, without actually using flowers.

As it happens, I am extremely lucky to have a room in my home set aside for ritual, journaling, divination, and other such spiritual pursuits. It is in this room that I sat down with my laptop to brainstorm and write our Ostara ritual for this year. Also in this room, on display, are my bridal bouquet, the boutonniere my husband wore at our wedding, and several of the other bouquets and boutonnieres from that day. We've been married for 13 years, and other than a little dust, those flowers are as beautiful today as they were on our wedding day. The solution was literally right in front of me: origami flowers!

Armed with two separate, large, period lists of Victorian flower language meanings, and a Google search bar pre-loaded with "origami pattern -ai" we ultimately settled on creating origami talking bouquets (aka tussie mussies, aka nosegays) for all of our attendees. Each nosegay was comprised of oak leaves for bravery, and snowdrops for hope. Those seemed like attributes worth carrying with us at this point in history, but also at this point in the Wheel.

As I started to write, I found myself favoring the descriptive term, "nosegay" for these little boutonnieres we were building. Of course, what they described was a pleasant scent that would make your nose happy--and ours smelled of nothing but paper and glue. It was upon this realization that the ritual really took shape.

On the day of our Ostara ritual we gave out the origami nosegays, along with an explanation of both their meaning, and the Victorian tradition that inspired them. Then we passed around 3 bottles of essential oils, inviting each participant to add a drop of from each vial to the back of their nosegay. First, a drop of vetivert for luck and hex-breaking. Next, geranium for good health and warding off snakes both literal and metaphorical. And finally lavender for comfort and peace. After each tussie mussie was scented, we asked the Lord and Lady to bless the nosegays, that they would lift the wearer up when they are down, and protect them from those that would do them harm.

After ritual, we spent the afternoon enjoying our floral delicacies, and one another's good company. Although we made the nosegays as boutonnieres, in case anyone wanted to wear them, I've been carrying mine in a side pocket of my purse. Every time I see it, or catch a whiff of the oils we used in ritual, I am bolstered for whatever the day may bring.