Heliogenna is a modern Hellenic Neopagan celebration of the Winter Solstice, created by Hector Lugo. (there is a lot of controversy in the hellenic recon community and modern hellenismos community about whether this should be celebrated at all. Do lots of reading, and make a decision that is meaningful for you) This collection of thoughts and liturgy expands on his original presentation of the celebration. Here is a link to more information and additional liturgy from Hellenion: https://www.hellenion.org/rituals-and-practices/heliogenna-festival/
Continue reading “Celebrating Heliogenna”Rituals & Liturgy
Either full rituals, or parts that I’ve had in ritual.
New Website on ADF Liturgy Concepts
So a thing I’ve been working on ADF Initiate Preceptor is getting our courses modernized. To that end I’ve now got the initiate version of Liturgy 1 up and running in Google Classrooms, and one of the things I made to go with it is a supplemental website that contains useful information when working through the course.
Ritual for the First Day of School
Howdy, y’all! It’s about time to school to start back up, or maybe for you it has already started (you poor souls). A lot of my writing lately has been focused on custom rituals for various things. I thought today I’d share with you a ritual for a child’s first day of school. This is written specifically for the first day of Kindergarten, but could very easily be modified for any pre-K or elementary grade kiddo. I will probably be doing something very similar to this with my daughter he in just a couple weeks. Enjoy!
Rainbow Attunement
This is geared towards the warmer months of the year and I originally wrote it for a Summer Solstice Ritual honoring the Avestan Goddes Ardvi Sura Anahita, though you could easily shift some of the imagery for use in rites in the dark half of the year. Enjoy!
A Simple House Blessing
Our grove priests travel around during the Stay at Home month in February of each year. I modified the blessing we do to work for any time of the year, and in this case focusing on a hellenic hearth. This is the blessing I use most frequently when doing commissioned house blessings.
Power of the Forge Attunement
I wrote this attunement for our Imbolc rite last year. It was requested that we do a “convection” attunement. I like these because it work the way science does, with heat rising and cold falling.
A Healing Ritual for Mental Health
Mental Health is something that so many people struggle with, myself included. It can seem hard to see the hope and the light when the world seems to be covered in darkness and nothing but feelings of bleak desolation. While religion is no substitute for other medical interventions, such as therapy and/or medication, is definitely has its place in making things more bearable. When the flame seems to have gone out, we can pray in hopes of finding it’s light again.
While this is a full ADF Core Order of Ritual, the working section can be performed as a stand alone piece, particularly if performing the whole ritual seems daunting. The ritual can also be performed on behalf of another, though please do make sure you have their permission first to offer prayers on their behalf.
Breaking Away from the Earth Mother/Sky Father Binary
One of the things that has come up recently in discussion on various ADF forums is the the binary nature of Earth Mother and Sky Father. Although not all groves or solitary practitioners include an invocation to the Sky Father, as only the Earth Mother is required in our core liturgy, the implicit binary is still present. This dualistic Earth Mother/Sky Father present in ADF rituals can be quite off-putting, especially for our non-binary members.
Continue reading “Breaking Away from the Earth Mother/Sky Father Binary”
Special Occasion Rituals
Special Occasion Rituals
This course was designed to expand a student’s knowledge and experiences for liturgical development beyond high day liturgy and specifically targets the development of liturgy for use in everyday life for a variety of different purposes.
The primary goal of this course is for students to enhance their skills for developing special occasion liturgy to meet the needs of individuals and groups occurring within every day life.
Course Objectives
- Students will identify, define and analyze several types of special occasion ritual and compare special occasion ritual to high day ritual.
- Students will increase their knowledge of creating ritual for diverse audiences.
- Students will utilize their knowledge and skills for liturgical writing to create special occasion rituals for a variety of different purposes.
Winter Solstice Spiral Liturgy: Overview
Winter Solstice takes place in the season of many winter holidays. Most of these have some focus on lights in the dark, renewal, or the gifts of the season. After seeing some folks post in the ADF Parents Special Interest Group pictures of their Yule Advent Spirals, I decided I wanted something of my own, but I also wanted to create a liturgy to go along with. Thus, the Winter Solstice Spiral Liturgy was born.
I asked Rev. Michael J Dangler of the Magical Druid to design and make a spiral for me. We settled on a three armed spiral with space for seven candles in each arm and one large candle in the center. The liturgy is likewise divided up into three sets of seven, with a large candle set up for the final day, and our family celebration.
The basic outline for the liturgy is focusing on the ideas of Storm, Water, and Fire. This allows the liturgy to move from dark to light as we progress closer to the solstice. There will be more and more candles lit each day to combat the increasing darkness, up until the Sun is honored on the final day when the nights begin growing shorter again.
The liturgy itself follows a basic template with a very simplified version of the ADF Core Order of Ritual, with only the center portion, the “being of the occasion,” changing between the days. Then the last day has a ritual and tradition all it’s own. This draws from the tradition our family has developed and practiced in past years.
I’m including the outline of spirits honored each day below, and then each day I will post the full liturgy for that day. The liturgy begins on Dec 1st, and moves through December 21st, with an extra piece for the morning of the Solstice. You can purchase a copy of the full liturgy in Kindle or Paperback on Amazon or get a copy of the pdf by supporting me on Patreon.
Day 1: The Destroyer
Day 2: Solitude
Day 3: The Winds of Change
Day 4: Nourishing Rains
Day 5: Clear Skies
Day 6: Justice
Day 7: The Winner of Waters
Day 8: The Waters of Blessing
Day 9: The Waters of Purification
Day 10: The Ferryman
Day 11: Memory & Forgetfulness
Day 12: The Mistweaver
Day 13: The God of the Sea
Day 14: The Mother of Waters
Day 15: The Son of the Waters
Day 16: The Center of Worlds
Day 17: Hearth & Home
Day 18: The Need Fire
Day 19: The Fire of Transformation
Day 20: Inspiration & Vision
Day 21: Sacrifice & Order
Morning following the Solstice: The Sun
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Mist to Open. Mists to Bind. 