Calendar of the Moon
9 Huath/Thargelion
Thargelia Day III: Eireisione
Color: Green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a green cloth set a cut branch of some food-giving tree, such as olive or apple. Each member of the community should bring some small thing to tie to it, for it shall be a charm to hang over the door for good luck. Its name is Eireisione. Also set out a cup of wine, a cup of milk with honey in it, a wreath of flowers, and a small bowl of barley.
Offering: Good wishes for the House and its members.
Daily Meal: Vegan. Thargelos, which is a soup of barley, corn, and fruit, sacred to Apollo.
Eireisione Invocation
As we cast up our barley in little showers,
A little grace from the birds is ours.
(The officiant throws a handful of barley into the air.)
A holy heifer’s milk, white and fair to drink,
Bright honey drops from flowers, bee-distilled,
With draughts of water from a virgin fount
And from the ancient vine its mother wild
An unmixed draught this gladness and fair fruit
Of gleaming olive, ever-blooming
And woven flowers, children of Mother Earth.
(The milk and honey is poured out as a libation.)
Eireisione brings all good things,
Figs and fat cakes to eat,
Soft oil and honey sweet,
The brimming wine-cup deep
That she may eat and sleep.
(All approach the altar with their items. Traditional items are dried barley cookies, sacred wool from first-shorn sheep, small corked bottles of wine, figs and dates, and small bags of grain. Anything will do, however. Each ties their offering on and speaks its meaning. The wreath of flowers is ceremonially added last by the officiant, and then Eireisione is carried in procession to the front of the House, where she is hung over the door with great ceremony. She is taken down on Puanepsia and burned in the fire.)
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