Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012
Autumn Equinox
The Golden World: Sun
What one begins, one has to finish. Blessing the seeds yields, eventually, to the task of blessing the harvested crops. Since it is assumed that this is six months later and you have been doing shamanic practice for that long, we are not going to provide you with prayers this time. We will just let you know what prayers you need to say, and you can work them out in any way you like. It’s not the eloquence that counts, it’s the sincerity . . . and the efficacy of those words, songs, chants, or motions in helping you make a good, clear connection with the spirit in question.
Exercise: Blessing the Harvest
For this exercise, you will need to have a large garden, have friends who garden, or have friends who are members of a vegetable CSA (community-supported agriculture, small organic farms that sell shares of their crops direct to local customers) or shop at local farm stands. In any case, you want people to bring you freshly harvested crops to bless. It doesn’t matter what sort they are so long as they will be eaten. If you can arrange it, get people together in a group for you to bless the entire mass at once. Unlike the seed blessing, this is done in public. You can, of course, practice beforehand. Plants are harvested throughout the summer, and you can practice blessing all the way up to the equinox. The ritual itself doesn’t have to be on the exact equinox; it should ideally be at the time when your Einkorn wheat is ready for harvest, and that might be earlier or later, depending on your climate.
Put the baskets (or other containers) in front of you, ideally on the Earth, close to the patch of ancient wheat. Then say the following prayers:
First, thank the Sun and give her an offering. Ask for her blessing on the vegetables she has helped to grow, that they might provide their consumers with energy.
Second, thank the spirits of the land who helped grow the crops, and give them an offering. Ask for their blessing on the vegetables they have helped to grow, that they might strengthen the bodies of their consumers. For both, speak from the heart, and keep your mind clearly focused on the reason you are making your request. There was a time when, if the harvest failed, people starved to death. It was the shaman’s job to make sure that didn’t happen. This type of work, simple as it may seem to those of us raised in urban societies, was utterly crucial.
Third, thank the spirits of the rain that nourished the plants and helped them grow. Ask for their blessing on the vegetables that they might be tender and delicious and keep well.
Fourth, ask the blessings of the plant spirits themselves, that they might bring the nutrients in these vegetables into whatever parts of the consumers’ bodies they are most needed.
Fifth, ask the blessing of the Force of Sacrifice, all that dies that we might live. You can call him by the name of John Barleycorn or, if you work with the Northern Gods, Ingvi Frey.
Sixth, go to the patch of ancient wheat with a sickle. Ask for the blessing of Father Wheat, who is one of the Ancestral Fathers and Mothers. (For more information on this, check the Green World chapter.) Cut down the wheat stalks just above ground level. Tie the bundle of wheat and hold it up in the air. Ask the blessing of the ancestors on the ancient grain that they bred themselves, so long ago.
Send everyone home with their blessed food. Remind them that as this food is now sacred, none of it must be wasted. Feed any scraps to animals or compost them to go back into a garden. Then let the bundle of wheat dry out, and carefully thresh out the grain. Keep it, like the amber powder in the last exercise, as a sacred substance. It can be used to bring in the energies of Sun, John Barleycorn, Father Wheat, or the ancestors, depending on what you need. Twist the stalks into a braid to hang on the wall for health and good fortune. At the next harvest, that dried braid may be cast into a sacred fire and replaced with one from the new harvest, always with gratitude and thanks to the vaettir, ancestors, Elemental Powers, and Holy Powers.