Calendar of the Sun for December 4

Calendar of the Sun

4 Yulmonath

Day of the Frost King

Color: White
Element: Air
Altar: Upon cloth of thick, soft white place a figure of the Frost King, his sleigh, snowflakes, icicles, and many gifts given to each other. The gifts shall be removed to the Yule Tree later.
Offerings: Give gifts to each other.
Daily Meal: Frozen dishes.

Invocation to the Frost King

Hail to the Lord of Frost!
Hail to his sleigh of bells
Pulled by the beasts of the tundra
Or by snow-white horses
Through the thick white cloak of the Snow Queen.
Hail to the lace-maker, the artist
With his silver brushes, the giver of Death
In the most beautiful and painless way.
Hail to you who are found in many places,
Many stories, many tales, many rites
Around the world, and whose gifts pile up
Around the great Tree where you ride.
Gift-giver, you found the maiden in the snow
And near froze her with your testing,
Yet when she awoke there was fire, and riches
All around her. You smote the ungenerous
And the greedy, for in your world
No one refuses to share. That is the First Law
O f Survival. Share what you have,
Be it fire, food, drink, comradeship,
A warm cloak against the winds,
A warm body against the cold.
Let each day be a gift-giving, you say,
For if all gifts wait until the longest night
We will all be cold indeed.
Hail to you, Father of Winter,
And may you teach us generosity with your knowing smile.

(All bring gifts from the altar and give them to each other, saying why the gift was given, and blessing each person present.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for December 3rd

Calendar of the Moon

3 Ruis/Poseideion

Pandora’s Day

Colors: Grey and white
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a grey cloth set a large wooden box covered with carvings of horror, blight, and disease. It should be filled with two layers of rolled papers, separated by a cloth. The first layer is rolled papers tied with black string, which are assignments as to what offering of aid to the unfortunate should be given. The bottom layer is rolled papers tied with silver string, each of which has a saying of hope written upon it. Aside from the box, the altar should be starkly empty.
Offerings: Give aid and hope to those who are suffering outside the House. The following day should be a day of helping other organizations.
Daily Meal: Give food to others; the House fasts tonight.

Invocation to Pandora

Sweet Pandora,
Lady All-Gifted,
You were made like a toy by the Gods
To take revenge on the world,
Yet you hold your own mystery.
You were constructed with all gifts,
Yet we must never forget
That suffering, too, is a gift.
Though it may seem like the greatest of evils,
The pain that you bring hones us,
Tries us, trials us, tests our mettle,
And teaches us the limits of Life.
Help us to honor these gifts of yours,
These thorns and hails and lightning strikes,
This pain and weakness and suffering.
And help us to always remember,
Lady All-Gifted,
The final gift in the bottom of your box,
Which is hope for the future.

(All come forward and kneel before the altar. The keeper of the box says, “Choose your suffering.” One at a time, each comes forward and takes a paper from the top layer of the box. Then the keeper of the box says, “Choose hope,” and each comes forward and takes another paper from the bottom. The box is closed and all leave in silence.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for December 2nd

Calendar of the Moon

Elder Tree Month

Color: Russet
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a russet cloth set three black candles, a cauldron filled with water, a vase filled with elder branches, a cup of dried elderberries, and a knife.
Offerings: Give aid to the elders in the House, and outside.
Daily Meal: Soups and stews, and soft foods.

Ruis Invocation

Call: Hail the month of passing.
Response: For all things pass away.
Call: Hail the month of waning.
Response: For all things must fade and die.
Call: Hail the month of creaking wood.
Response: Hail the month of creaking bones.
Call: Hail the month of the dwindling Sun.
Response: Hail the time of all endings.
Call: For even as we began the year in silence,
Response: So we shall end the year in silence.
Call: For even as we began the year with chill winds of newness,
Response: So we shall end the year with chill winds of darkness.
Call: May the raven croak his warning from the bare branches.
Response: May the deer leave her footprints in the wake of the first snows.
Call: We will surrender ourselves to the darkness.
Response: Yet even with that surrender, we shall not pass away.
Call: For the seed that was grown in the spring still lives.
Response: Its life force is given back to the Earth.
Call: Its life force is given back to the Maker of new life.
Response: And new life shall spring forth in time.
Call: This is the moment of waiting for the end.
Response: This is the moment of bowed heads.
Call: Elder Goddess, teach us to praise loss, death, and the passing of all things.
Response: For from this flux we know your blessings flow.

Chant: In the eye of the Moon
We walk willingly
Into the darkness.

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for December 2nd

Calendar of the Sun

Bruma

Colors: White and brown
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a bare table lay a large pot shaped like a human figure, reclining, filled with earth. All should enter bearing two white cloths, one on each arm.
Offerings: Silence and meditation.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian

Bruma Invocation

Earth, you lie sleeping in silence,
And we can do nothing but wait.
We have breathed upon your first seeds,
We have sung your first green shoots
Up from the bare brown soil,
We have watered you with tears and sweat
And fed you with the remains of our meals,
We have cut down your bounty and saved it,
Yet this is not the time for seeds, or green,
But simply the long cold wait in the dark
Until the light waxes and the time comes again.
You are silent, and will not speak to us,
No matter how we cry out.
You are dormant, and will not sing to us,
No matter how we raise our voices,
For all things come in their own time,
And this is not the time for movement.
So we will sit with you, Earth,
We will watch over you as you sleep
And take part in your dreams
In silence, and wait for your awakening.

Chant:
Earth dreaming
Silent seeming
Winter’s vigil
We will wait for you.

(After the chant has been sung five times, all come forth to the altar. Each lays one white cloth gently over the pot, saying, “Blessed be the Earth in the time of winter.” Then each sits on the floor and places the other white cloth over their heads, and meditates on all that is sleeping and cannot be awoken. Silence in the House until Akte.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 30

Calendar of the Sun

31 Blutmonath

Sigyn’s Day

Colors: Light pastel colors
Element: Air
Altar: Bedeck the altar with cloth of light pastel colors, upon which place candles of light colors, many flowers, graceful toys and dreamy figures, and a silver chalice of liqueur. In the center place a black cloth with a burnt wooden bowl full of ashes.
Offerings: Care for the wounded.
Daily Meal: Fasting today. Instead, bring food to those who need it.

Invocation to Sigyn

Long ago, the Gods quarreled with each other,
And there were many chained, and many slain,
And those who moved the pages of History
Had their say, and their screams.
Yet there are always those who screams
Are not heard, as History and its makers
Run them over. And so today we hail Sigyn,
Child-bride of Loki the Trickster who slew
The beautiful Baldur, son of Odin.
When Loki was scorned, you closed your ears.
When Loki fled, you followed.
When your children were slain, you cried out,
But none heard you save the weeping Earth.
When your beloved was bound by the body of your son,
And condemned to poison and pain,
You forsook all that you knew
And stayed with him, faithfully,
Doing what you could in a place of horror.
Lady of the Staying Power,
Innocent child-bride thrown into terror
Who survived, and grew stronger.
You who gather broken things to your breast,
You who understand the blameless
Forced under the wheels of circumstance,
Aid us in our moments of pain and torment
When we, too, are caught undeserving in the rages of the Gods.

(The wine is poured out as a libation. Each person present speaks in turn of undeserved events that they must endure, and how they came to have the strength of spirit to do so.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 29th

Calendar of the Sun

29 Blutmonath

Sekhmet’s Day

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: Upon a red cloth set two torches, the figure of a lioness, and a clay pitcher of beer mixed with red fruit juice.
Offerings: Meat. Blood. Wrestle with the Beast Within.
Daily Meal: Beer. Meat from a hoofed animal. Barley.

Invocation to Sekhmet

Long, long ago, Ra Lord of the Sun
Was wroth with the people of the earth,
For their disrespect and their carelessness,
And his anger was so great
That he called forth into existence
The lioness goddess Sekhmet
As a manifestation of his wrath,
And he set her upon the people,
Intending her to eat a few of them
And teach them all a lesson.
And Sekhmet leaped upon them,
But she did not stop her destruction,
And after three days she had killed so many
That Ra begged her to stop, regretting his error,
But she refused, saying that there would be no end
To her appetite for blood and death.
So Ra had beer dyed red as blood, and spread it
Over the field of carnage, and she drank,
And fell asleep, and was enspelled.
And so we hail Sekhmet, for within each of us
Is the beast of wrath whom we must propitiate,
And never let run wild, lest it slay
All that we hold dear. Hail Sekhmet!
(All respond: “Hail Sekhmet!” )
Be merciful to us, we who cower
In your shadow, and feel your footprints within us.
(All respond: “Have mercy upon us!”
And may your hunting be plentiful,
And all your days bright with sun.
(All respond: “Hail Queen of the Desert Sun!” Then the red beer is poured as a libation, and the torches are carried outside, where they are left to burn out.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 28th

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant:

Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 28th

Calendar of the Sun

28 Blutmonath

Sophia’s Day

Colors: Red and white
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a red cloth lay a white cloth, and upon that set a lit lantern, a glass chalice of clear water, incense of frankincense and lemongrass, and let each place upon the altar a book which they find to be great in wisdom.
Offerings: Promise to grow in wisdom, even when the path is difficult.
Daily Meal: Simple and communal.

Invocation to Sophia

Hail, Great Mother of Wisdom!
Consort of the One Whose Name May Not Be Spoken,
Lady whose still small voice
Echoes through every one of us,
Teach us to listen, Lady,
Teach us to pay attention
And to consider well our actions,
Lest we may come to regret them.
Teach us to walk each of our words
Through the door of truth,
Through the door of necessity,
And teach us to know when
We must walk them through
A door yet narrower than those,
The door of kindness to the hearer.
Let our words be heard
By ears who will listen,
And show us how to speak their language
That no misunderstanding
May mar what flows between us.
Lady of Wisdom, speak to us,
And we will strive to hear your voice.

(Each comes forward and takes the book from the altar, and speaks to what that book taught them, and how they are the wiser for it. Then each speaks to another lesson that taught them wisdom, a lesson that did not come from books but from life. Each person thanks Sophia for these lessons, and bows before her altar. Her lantern is carried from the room in procession, and set to hang, still lit, in the main room of the House, where it will remain lit for seven days.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 27th

Calendar of the Sun

27 Blutmonath

Forseti’s Day

Colors: Red and White
Element: Air
Altar: Upon cloth of white place eight red candles, a horn of mead, and a great axe.
Offerings: Provide mediation for those who are warring.
Daily Meal: Any food which has been obtained through fair means, with fair compensation to those who produced it.

Invocation to Forseti

Hail, Forseti, Lord of Justice,
Hand of Fairness of the Aesir.
Son of Baldur the Bright, Fallen Sun
And his faithful Nanna who followed him into death,
You stand quiet but strong on the fringes
Of the light and noise of your people.
You who are a warrior
And understand the nature of warriors,
Yet who steps between the warring parties
And finds the threads that lead to compromise.
You teach us that compromise need not be a betrayal,
But can indeed be a triumph.
You who father was slain,
Creating great rifts between the hearts of many,
Yet who demanded not vengeance or weregild
No matter how many voices cried for war,
Yet instead set yourself on a path of peace,
Until your words were seen as so just
That the Gods themselves would lay their grievances
Before you. Hail, Lord of the Great Axe
Who is not afraid to use the warrior’s skill
To wage peace, and also to enforce it.
Teach us to see those with whom we quarrel
As honorable opponents worthy of our respect.
Teach us that a fair compromise,
Or better yet, a breakthrough in understanding,
Is a far better victory than one wrought of anger and blood.

(The mead is poured out as libation. Today is a day of mediation, and all can air their grievances for the rest of the hour, and on into the rest of the day, with Forseti’s axe between them.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 26th

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant: Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 26th

Calendar of the Sun

26 Blutmonath

Valraven’s Day

Color: Black
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a black cloth set a black stone, a white stone, a chalice of mead, a knife, a skull, and the figure of a black winged horse.
Offerings: Kneel and meditate on Death. Face a fear that is long overdue.
Daily Meal: Meat.

Invocation to Valraven

Black horse that runs across the sky
Ridden by Valkyries in their battle-wrath
Ridden by Hel in her implacable coldness
Riding the spirits of the air in turn,
Show us our dreams
And not our nightmares,
Yet if you must bring us nightmares,
Let them be guides to the darkest corners
Of our hidden mind and soul,
The better to know ourselves.
Black horse that runs across the sky
On great black wings,
Let us listen for the rustle of your feathers
In our ear as we lie awake
In that moment before sleeping.
Let us go to visit you
Where you are enthroned
In the place of smooth black stone
The place where no light falls
The place where the Dead pass by
On their way from rainbow to earth
On their way past Mordgud’s toll
On their way past Nidhogg’s working
On their way over chill water
Into the icy realm of Death
Where only your Queen rules.
And when we come as your guests,
Lord who lives beneath the ground
And rides the winds in the sky,
May we always be free to leave.
(Hum one wordless note, then blow out the candles and leave in silence.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 25th

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant: Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 25th

Calendar of the Sun

Media Autumnus

Color: Brown
Element: Earth
Altar: Set out a brown cloth, an earthenware jug of water, dried stalks of yarrow in a vase, and incense of many woods. In front of the altar set a great empty barrel, an earthen pot of soil, another of the day’s vegetation garbage, a smaller one of wood ashes, and a basket of gathered dried leaves.
Offerings: Bits of hair or fingernail parings.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian.

Media Autumnus Invocation

Let us invest in the Earth
Beneath our feet
And see our returns in millenniums.
Let us say that our main crop
Is the ancient forest
Which we did not plant
And will not live to harvest.
Let us say that the leaves
Are harvested when
They have rotted into the mold.
Let us call that our profit,
And prophesy such returns.
Let us put our faith in the two inches
Of humus that will build
Under the trees every thousand years.
Let us listen to carrion.
Let us put our ears close and hear
The faint chatterings
Of the songs that are yet to come.

Chant:
Clay receives you
Earth has chosen you
Worms prepare you
Earth encloses you

(During the chant, several who have been chosen to do the work of the ritual come forward and add the garbage, the ashes, the soil, the dried leaves, the yarrow, and finally the water to the compost barrel. It is removed again to the corner until Spring.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 24th

Calendar of the Moon

24 Ngetal/Maimakterion

Maimakteria

Color: Grey
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a grey cloth set a chalice of rainwater, five grey candles, incense, large fans, lightning bolts of metal, and a pile of heavy grey cloaks and veils.
Offering: Let grain blow away into the wind.
Daily Meal: Cold raw food.

Maimakteria Invocation

Hail Zeus Maimaktes, Blustering One!
Hail Gods of wind and rain!
The year turns from autumn to winter
And the storms come, with the hail
And the falling thunder! Spare us,
Spare our houses and the last remnant
Of our crops! Spare the trees that shelter us,
Our roofs and walls and chariots,
Our animals that huddle against the cold.
Hail powers of oncoming winter,
Powers of storm and hurricane,
Powers of wind and water that threaten us!
We ask for forgiveness for all that we have done
That could have been done better,
And we ask for mercy, O Winds,
Even though we have not always been merciful ourselves.
Hail Zeus Maimaktes, Blustering One,
May you turn your eyes from us
And lay your seething vision somewhere
That no innocent heart is harmed.

Chant:
Hail, hail, the wind and the rain,
Hail, hail the tears and the pain,
Hail, hail the force and the form,
Hail, hail the power of the storm.

(Each goes forth to the altar and wraps themselves in heavy grey cloaks and veils. Then all come into a circle and dance, slowly and heavily, chanting. When the chant builds and subsides, the rainwater is poured out as a libation.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 24th

Calendar of the Sun

24 Blutmonath

Vainamoinen’s Day

Colors: Blue and orange
Element: Fire
Altar: On a blue cloth lay the figure of a ship, a sword, and three orange candles. Lean a shaman’s staff up against the altar.
Offerings: Pictures from faraway lands. Explore a new area of knowledge, especially from another culture.
Daily Meal: Traveler’s food, done up in separate packages, to be eaten as one walks the bounds of the property.

Invocation to Vainamoinen

Thirty years in your mother’s womb,
Born already old before your time,
Walker, wanderer, adventurer,
Doomed never to be at home,
Solitary one who failed
Even to gain a mate to ease
Loneliness, you beckon to us
And tell us of far horizons
Outside and inside both.
Keeper of Words of Power,
Knower of the True Names of things,
Old man who walks in unknown places
With your wizard’s staff ,
Great boots and a battered hat,
Shrewd one, banished for your
Prophecy of truth that would
One day rend the world
Yet even you could not impede,
Maker of ships, maker of magic,
Stauncher of blood and pain,
Make sure that we never become
So comfortable in our patterns
That we forget the wide, wide world outside.

Song: Vainamoinen’s Song

(Each person approaches the altar in turn, takes the shaman’s staff in hand, and walks in a circle around the room, returning the staff to the altar. It must not be passed hand to hand. Then each leaves to be alone with themselves; work through Akte and Elekte is done alone.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 23rd

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant: Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 23rd

Calendar of the Sun

23 Blutmonath

Chiron’s Day

Color: Grey
Element: Air
Altar: On a grey cloth set a pile of books, a flute, a pot of salve, and a chalice of Greek wine.
Offerings: Votive candles. Offer to teach or mentor someone.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian

Invocation to Chiron

Tutor of the children of Gods,
Mentor of heroes,
Teacher of legends,
Wild centaur nurtured
By light of Sun and Moon
Into something more than
Mere wildness and savagery.
Someone had to teach them,
These half-powerful youths,
And who better than the one
Who is half sage and half beast?
Wounded by your own student,
Doomed to an immortality
Of pain and suffering,
You cheated your fate
By gifting life on one
Reviled by the powerful
And loved by the weak.
Chiron, Teacher, Wise One,
You who always knew
The right thing to do,
Share with us this certainty
And mentor us in our confusion.

Chant:
In your hands the flame of learning
In your flesh the fire of burning
In your eyes the force of sorrow
Give us insight for tomorrow.

(Pour out the libation for Chiron, sit around the altar with votive candles, and meditate on doing the just and right thing in every circumstance, no matter how painful.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 21

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant:

Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 21

Calendar of the Sun

21 Blutmonath

Quetzalcoatl’s Day

Colors: Bright red, gold, green, and blue
Element: Air
Altar: On a multicolored cloth set many feathers of different colors, and a plate of chocolate.
Offerings: Colored feathers. Make something creative.
Daily Meal: Mexican food. Chocolate.

Invocation to Quetzalcoatl

Feathered Serpent
Creature of earth
That learned to fly,
You who brought the gifts
Of civilization and culture
To a troubled people,
You who fought against
The unnecessary sacrifices
Of the greedy gods,
Once a god, once a man,
Always a mystery,
You who sailed away into the west
And one day promised to return,
Lord of good judgment
Who is always fair,
Brighten our minds
With thoughts that dance and run
And finally leave the earth
And fly.

(All partake in a drum circle, after which the chocolate is passed around and shared.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for November 20

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant:

Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]