Sabbats Almanac: Samhain to Mabon - Kristoffer Hughes 2018

Ostara Water Blessing Ceremony by Dallas Jennifer Cobb
Ostara

WHEN PREPARING, CONTACT THE local First Nations people. Speak your intention and invite collaboration. I live near Tyendinaga First Nations. The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte also live on Lake Ontario and the adjoined Bay of Quinte. While organizing, we worked with a Mohawk woman who suggested the use of the “water blessing words” from the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. View the full Address here: nmai.si.edu/environment/pdf/01_02_Thanksgiving_Address.pdf

In addition, invite representatives from water protection organizations and groups active in your area. Working together, we weave powerful magic.

Invite participants to bring about one ounce of water in a resealable container—water from somewhere meaningful to them: their well; a nearby stream, spring, river, or lake; the tap in their home; or even bottled water. Water is not hierarchical, so lake water is not better than tap water for the purpose of this ceremony.

Ask people to consciously gather their water, asking permission from the water and promising their care. This raises awareness, creating a conscious relationship between person and water.

Completing these small conscious acts raises the energetic vibration of their water, the molecules imprinted by individual energy, words, sounds, and thoughts.

My ritual group consists of six priestesses. You may have fewer or more, and they may be mixed gender. The ritual can be divided up among you in whatever way feels right.

Entering the ritual space, participants hold their water in both hands. They’re cleansed and blessed by two priestesses: one dips a cedar bough in water and flicks a fine spray around the participant, cleansing their energetic field; the other wraps their hands around the participants hands and water, repeating the water blessing stanzas from the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address (in translation).

Priestess: We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms—waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers, and oceans. With one mind, we give our greetings and our thanks to the spirit of Water. Now our minds are one.

Participants enter and assemble in a circle, standing.

Priestess: The circle is cast as we pass this blue ribbon, linking person to person. Holding this ribbon, we are between the worlds, and what happens here affects all worlds.

Four priestesses call in directions, each greeting a body of water which lays in that direction, locally. A priestess calls in the center and the ancestors: Let us invoke Grandmother water.

Priestess one: Today is Ostara, spring equinox. Equinox literally means “equal night”—the day and night are equal length. The earths’ axis is not tilting toward nor away from the sun. The equator is temporarily in the same plane as the sun that travels in its annual journey from the southern hemisphere to the north. The world is unified in the equality of day and night, just as we are unified in our purpose. We gather to bless the waters of the world—steam, mist, rain, puddles, ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, tears, and the waters of our living wombs.

Priestess: The ribbon symbolizes the water that moves through all of us. Hold it with your left hand, the receiving hand, and hold your water in your right hand, the giving hand. A walking meditation is done in silence. We walk in contemplation of our gratitude for water, and send blessings to it. We’ll move slowly, deliberately and silently. Match your footsteps with the person in front of you. Let us walk as one. We walk withershins (counterclockwise) to symbolize that we are trying to undo the damage that has been done to the water.

When it is your turn to add your water to the cauldron, silently add your blessings too. Keep your small bottle, you will need it later. We will leave the cauldron and walk deasil or (clockwise) to symbolize that from here forward we walk with water. As you walk out, raise your eyes and look at the faces that pass you, knowing we are all in this together.

One Priestess slowly leads the participants withershins around the circle, spiraling inward toward the cauldron. After emptying her bottle, she changes directions to spiral out. Another Priestess is at the other end of the ribbon. When she returns back to the circle, she speaks.

Priestess: Please hold onto the ribbon that keeps us all connected, so we can stand in unity. Place your bottle by your chair. Pause until all are ready, standing in a circle. We stand together tonight as water bearers joined with women worldwide. We bring water from our individual lives, adding it together to create “waters of the world.” We have water from many sources, many people and many bodies of water. All mixed together. She motions toward the cauldron, her hand circling.

Like the water we are all connected. (She motions to the people, her hand circling.) This water is blessed water. (Motions to the cauldron.)

These people are blessed people. (Motions around the circle.)

This water is magical water. (Motion.)

These people are magical people. (Motion.)

We have charged this water individually, now let’s raise our energy and charge it collectively.

Another Priestess leads the chant:

We all come from the Goddess

and to her we shall return

Like a drop of rain

flowing to the ocean

Drumming accompanies and slowly builds the tempo and volume, raising the energy. Then ending the chant. Please sit down, still attached to the ribbon.

Priestess: I want to teach you Ho’oponopono, an indigenous Hawai’ian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. It includes repentance, forgiveness, gratitude, and love. Please say it with me, and as we repeat, send your message to the water on the altar.

I am sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you

I love you

This is repeated many times.

Priestess: In the book The Hidden Messages of Water, Dr. Masaru Emoto photographed water molecules and showed that water changes shape as a result of being spoken to, and exposed to music, prayer and meditation. His research provided visual images of how intent shapes reality.

Tonight, we individuals unite. Our individual water is united into “waters of the world.” Our individual energy is united into collective magic. We move from the mundane world into the magical world. As we prepare to go back to the mundane world, alone, let us take some collective magic with us. The “waters of the world” represents us all, together. We’ve used chant and prayer to charge it magically. Gather your small bottles, and hold them before you, ready to receive some of the magic of unified action. As your bottle is filled, know that you receive the powerful magic of the collective, the will to protect and heal all water.

Priestesses move around the circle carefully filling each individual bottle from the cauldron. When the bottles are filled, the chalice is passed.

Priestess: We seal our work with the blessings of the chalice. Please chant with me:

We bless this water, we bless the ground,

we bless this chalice that we pass around.

Each participant takes a small stone from the chalice. When you return to where you came from, use this magical water to heal your waters, your people, your relationships and your lives. Magically charged water can be used in any way that water is used: to drink, cook with, for people and pets, for plants and gardens, and even for beauty and hygiene. Add a few drops to your tea, ingesting the sacred water and being nourished spiritually. Add it your family members drinks or food and talk to them about the importance of water conservation, protection and healing. Bless your pets, your gardens and your homes. Place this stone on your altar to remind you of your solid promise to the earth: to protect and heal her waters.

The directions are released and the ribbon is passed back, rolling up as the circle is opened.

Priestess: Please sing with me and then let us feast:

The circle is open but unbroken,

May the grace of the goddess be ever in your heart.

Merry meet, and Merry part,

and Merry meet again.

Each participant has magically charged “waters of the world” to take with them to use in the continued work of water conservation, healing, and protection.

I have used this water in my rain barrels, planters and gardens. I have offered magical water to the great Lake Ontario and the smaller lakes where I enjoy backcountry camping praying for their healing. When I use them I whisper Ho’oponopono:

I am sorry,

Please forgive me,

Thank you,

I love you.