-
Dried fruits and nuts – symbolic of the successful Harvest as
experienced on the land and in our lives.
-
Brie and strawberries – passionate and romantic, these foods are
sacred to love.
Main
- Moroccan vegetable stew with couscous/brown rice – this rich and
hearty stew celebrates the Harvest and blesses our endeavours.
-
Breads – sacred to the Harvest – remind us that trusting in our
dreams and desires and honouring our efforts and experiences
guarantees a unique and richly rewarding life.
Dessert
- Blackberry and apple tart – berries are the fruits of passion and
apples are sacred to Aphrodite.
Libations
- Moët & Chandon – a heavenly beverage!
- Sparkling grape juice for abundance.
- Honey mead to toast the Moon during our ritual.
Blessed be*
When you are planning the menu, research the magickal
meanings of foods using books and the Internet, but don’t be
afraid to use your intuition and imagination too. For example, if berries are in season and looking lush, ripe and
sweet and you have decided your ritual will be for fertility,
then they will be perfect as they obviously evoke an appreciation
of qualities of fertility.
Remember: It is your comprehension of the world
around you that allows it to manifest and speak to
you in an enchanted way. Look for magick and it will
make itself known to you.
On the night I arrived early at Coral’s and she had already
made everything look lovely. The dining table was outside
and decorated with white and pink flowers, fairy-lights and
shimmering glitter; overhead hanging from a tree was a candelabra
lit with small scented candles.
A little distance away behind some trees was a circular
stone table and benches. I set about transforming the setting
from a picnic area into a mystical grove. First I set up
symbols of the four elements on the table. (Please note
these correspondences are for the Northern Hemisphere – for
the Southern hemisphere you would need to put Fire in the
North and Earth in the South, but you can leave Air in
the East and Water in the West.)
In the North quarter I placed a big piece of quartz crystal
for Earth. In the East, I placed a clay dish filled with heat
absorbing
sand and charcoal discs to burn incense on for Air.
On this night I had made a beautiful blend of resins of myrrh
and copal infused with essential oils of jasmine and neroli.
In the South, I set up a big white jasmine-scented candle for
Fire. In the West, I placed a crystal bowl of water with a seashell
in it and a pinch of salt to make a mini-ocean.
In the centre of what was now our altar I placed a large
cast iron cauldron and an altar candle. I set out twelve
glasses (we would be toasting the moon and pouring libations
to the Goddess) and alongside these placed twelve little
red rose-scented candles for love. Next to the cauldron I set a
vase in which were twelve long-stemmed roses. I scattered
tea-light candles in glass jars in the surrounding plants and
trees and the whole area looked liked a fairy grove, potent
and ready to make magick in.
By this time the Goddesses had started to arrive. Everyone
was laughing and smiling and looking divine. The dress code
of opulent and Goddess-like was definitely honoured!
When everyone was assembled, I gave a little speech about
what we would be doing: a ritual to honour our efforts over
the past year, and then we would invoke our new dreams
into reality. I asked everyone if they had their list of what
they wished to bring into their lives in the coming year; two
people realised they’d left theirs at home and there was a
mad scramble to find paper and pens! But soon after we were
walking single file towards our altar.
I was so impressed with the way everyone embraced the
proceedings. I was really the only Witch there who was
familiar with what we were doing, but every ‘Goddess’ had
at some point in her life been in a church or perhaps on a
spiritual retreat and could relate to the sacred and serious
nature of what we were doing together.
We gathered in a circle around the table, eyes bright and full of expectancy. Firstly I talked through the details of what
we would be doing. It’s important to familiarise everyone
with the general outline so you can all relax and focus on the
feeling of being in the space and not worrying about having
to remember things and what comes next.
FULL MOON GODDESS GATHERING
RITUAL
I started by chanting my favourite Sanskrit chant. It
is very euphoric and always unites everyone’s energy psychically
and emotionally. Then I sprinkled some incense on the
burning discs, and as the air filled with an entrancing scent, I
cast Circle by formally acknowledging our sacred space and
invoking the elements.
Then it came time to declare the Goddess present in Circle
as a part of the Circle-casting ritual. I asked everyone, in
turn, to take a rose from the vase and pass it to the woman
to her left bestowing a kiss on each cheek and saying,
‘(Name), Thou art Goddess’.
This was a beautiful moment as
some of us were strangers but in this moment we were all
intimate, united as Goddesses. A warm feeling of love and
acceptance filled our Circle so strongly that it brought tears
to my eyes.
We then joined hands as I declared:
Tonight we Sisters gather, under a Full and Harvest
Moon
On this sacred night of the Equinox.
We honour what we have and what we yet have not;
We celebrate our challenges and rewards of successful
schemes;
And on the wings of magick, we fly towards our
dreams.
Then, one at a time, we each lit our little red love candle from the large altar candle flame and then read our wishes
out loud. As accompaniment at first I alone sang the Wiccan
Goddess Chant,
‘Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali,
Inanna’,
but it didn’t take long before the other Goddesses
joined in. When her list was read, each Goddess threw it into
the cauldron with a sprinkled pinch of incense fanning the
spirals of smoke to the sky, carrying her wishes with it.
After the final list was read, we all joined hands and really
started chanting to raise power. As our voices grew in intensity,
tingles went up my spine and I could tangibly feel our
cone of power extending into the heavens. All the animals
around us could sense it too, because all of a sudden dogs
started howling, birds started calling and crickets chirping.
All of nature was joining us in intent and desire. It was truly
amazing!
At the peak of the cone, we ceased together intuitively
and I called out:
By one our spell is done,
By two it shall come true,
By three so mote it be,
By four for the good of all,
By five our dreams come alive.
Then we all clapped our hands once in unison and quickly
rested them on the ground to let the energy drain out. We
were all silent for a moment and then, all of a sudden, there
was an eruption of voices: ‘Wow!’, ‘That was amazing!’, ‘I
could really feel that!’ We had certainly cast a powerful spell
together.
We raised a glass of mead each to toast ‘To the Goddess,
To Us!’ and then poured a little on the ground as libations to
her and to ourselves.
Then it was time for our feast. Coral and I had both
decided to play Witchy dinner music, which in our taste
amounted to Kate Bush, The Mediæval Bæbes, Australian
enchantress Wendy Rule and ambient trance music. Soon
Kate was serenading us as our own voices rose in shared discussion.
Our dinner conversation was not the usual fare –
it was deep and thoughtful, hilarious and revealing. United
we drew strength from each other’s sharing of experiences,
triumphs and tragedies.
As the evening finally drew to a close after midnight, I
reminded the Goddesses not to speak of what had transpired
on this night: spells that are cast are best served with silent
respect, trusting them to whisk away and do their business.
Gossiping and constant going over the events would be like
planting a seed and then digging it up to see how it’s going.
We left the Gathering changed – reinvigorated and renewed.
As I was putting away my ritual tools and preparing for
the trip home, I reflected a little on the night and was really
touched – what brave, special creatures the women of this
night were, ready to leap off the precipice of fear, cynicism
and doubt into the arms of trust, wisdom and empowerment
together!
Well, as I’m sure you’re dying to know . . . did the spells
work? I can tell you mine certainly did! I normally never do
spells for myself – at this point in my magickal evolution it is
more appropriate for me to serve and assist others – but on
this night I needed a shift and some clarity in a situation
relating to someone who seemed to care for me but was constantly
sending mixed signals. Within a day of doing the spell
all of a sudden that person was very clear with their intentions.
The shift in their attitude was so remarkable I could
only put it down to the spell. I then had to decide if I wanted
to return this person’s clear intentions. (Once I knew what
was going on I actually decided it would be better not to.)
The other Goddesses all experienced results, ranging from
job promotions, to love restored, to being confronted with
the very difficulties they sought to avoid (but instead of being
thwarted by them, they had the energy to blast through the problem and resolve the issue that was blocking them from
happiness).
The wonderful thing about creating something like a
Goddess Gathering is not just the results of the spells cast.
You realise that, when joined with others in a magickal
mindset, your whole life is a work of magick, an expression
of your unique creative essence. When you experience the
divine and mystical in a tangible way initiated by your efforts
rather than, for example, that of a priest at the front of a
church, you are empowered as a whole being, spiritually,
emotionally, physically and mentally.
The more Goddess Gatherings and other magickal
moments you create in your life the more wonderful life becomes.
GODDESS GATHERING CHECKLIST
Here is a checklist to help you plan your own Gathering.
- Decide on an auspicious date.
- Write an appropriately charmed invitation.
- Email or post it out to fellow Goddesses.
- Plan the ritual. Do some research and write up the intent, the process and the incantations. Decide what
input each individual Goddess should make.
- Decide what props are needed for the ritual and
organise their availability. For example, candles,
feathers, flowers, shells, incense, cauldron, etc.
- Plan the magickal menu. Again do research and choose
foods that relate to your magickal event and goals. And while you are
deciding on food, you may like to also decide on the music that will add an extra dimension to the evening’s
entrancement.
- Once the RSVPs start flooding in, send out another
email informing each Goddess of what she will
personally need to provide for the Gathering. For
example, her wish list for the spell, an object she
would like blessed, etc.
- Shopping and cooking. Do as much cooking as you
can in advance of the day. You need to be feeling
relaxed and ready to make magick too on the night,
not absolutely trashed from a hell day in the kitchen!
- Perhaps plan a gift for each of the Goddesses. After
our gathering everyone left with the rose they were
given and the candle they lit.
- Type up the Goddess Menu and a clear outline of the
ritual in large bold print that you can keep on hand to
help guide you throughout the proceedings. Having
said this, though, it’s important that you try to memorise
everything, so the proceedings can go smoothly
and to maximum magickal effect.
- The day before, rehearse your ritual and memorise the
words you need to.
- On the day, relax and go with the flow; let spontaneous
things happen, but as much as possible stick to
the planned ritual so that the power raised is focused
for good and maximum effect.
- Delegate any chores you can so that you don’t have
so much on your plate that you can’t be a Goddess
on the night!
A tip: The trick to guaranteeing a special and successful
ritual is careful planning and practice. This means running
through the proceedings in your mind before the event and learning all the invocations and incantations off by heart.
When you are actually doing the ritual people can repeat
after the person who leads, but at least one person needs to
be very familiar with what is going on.
Another tip: It is better that no one drinks too much
before the ritual. One glass of wine perhaps is fine, but if
everyone is sloshed there will be more giggling than granting
of wishes.
GOOD OCCASIONS FOR A GODDESS
GATHERING
Full Moons and New Moons are always a good excuse, as
are solstices, equinoxes, and Sabbats. Also, gatherings don’t
only have to be at night: dawn, midday, sunset and twilight
are all special, evocative and atmospheric times.
Birthdays, anniversaries and other events such as these are
generally not a good idea as they focus too much on an individual
and not enough on the collective. The key to a
successful Goddess Gathering where both magick and merriment
are invoked is a unified purpose and egoless state in
each individual.
WHAT ABOUT A GOD GATHERING?
Sure, you can have a God Gathering. Pretty much the
same instructions apply, but there is a warning: No
chicks means no help cooking (or cleaning up)!
