Tag: Telltown

Planning and Performing Handfastings

Planning and Performing Handfastings

Author: Iris Firemoon

Handfastings are pagan wedding ceremonies, in which typically the couple’s hands are tied together to symbolize the joining of two people, or specifically, “tying the knot”. A handfasting can be a trial, lifetime, or eternal (spiritual) marriage. Depending on the intent of the couple and the national, state, or province laws, a handfasting can be a legal marriage as well.

Regardless of the legal or time extent of the union, marriages typically have one requirement. Both parties must willingly consent to a joining. However, this is not always a universal requirement.

In Ireland and Scotland, during the early Christian period it was a form of trial marriage, often performed in rural areas when a priest was not available. The couple could form a temporary, trial marriage, and then be married “in the Church” the next time a priest visited their area. This is similar to a betrothal, or a ceremony of exchanging vows of consent to a marriage at a future date and/or agreeing to a marriage contract.

“Telltown marriages” were named for the year and a day trial marriages contracted at the yearly festival held in Telltown, Ireland. The festival took place at Lughnassadh (August 1), and the trial marriage would last until the next Lughnassadh festival. At that time, they were free to leave the union if they desired.

We are going to explore two sides to a handfasting. On one side, we are planning the handfasting, and on the other, we are officiating. While not all of us will plan a handfasting, and not all of us will officiate them, these topics go hand in hand.

To plan a wedding, you must understand what it takes from your officiant, and to officiate, you must understand what goes into planning it. Priests and Priestesses are in essence clergy of this religion, and it may be requested of us to perform or aid in these duties.

PLANNING A HANDFASTING: While there are lots of things to consider when planning a wedding, such as a caterer and photographer, today we will stick to planning the ceremony itself.

When picking a date, the astrological influences around that time should be taken into consideration. At the very least, you would probably want to steer clear of getting hitched during a moon void-of-course, Mercury Retrograde, or when the Sun is in opposition of Venus.

Who to put on the guest list is an important fact to think about. When thinking of non-Pagan family members, and even those you will invite that might scoff at the idea of a Pagan wedding, the couple has to sit down and decide how obviously pagan they are going to let the ceremony become. In what a handfasting ritual implies and was first practiced in Wicca, there was no audience of people invited for the novelty of sharing the experience, or non-Craft people. However, since our society is more open to these experiences, things have changed.

Some families are more open to new experiences, and other families are more conservative. A wedding is not the best place to come out of the broom closet. Not only could it ruin a day that is considered to be special to most people, but also it could make everyone uncomfortable, and cause problems down the road.

However, allowing the thoughts and beliefs of family members to heavily influence the ceremony that you want could create feelings of regret. Think about what you and your partner want in the ceremony, and then think about how the guests would respond.

If the couple is set on having a more elaborate handfasting, but do not want to involve family and friends, two ceremonies could be held. The legal bond could be established at a more non-denominational ceremony, while the spiritual bond is fortified in an all-out handfasting.

My good friend who got married in 2004, she sent out a notice in her invitations about the nature of the ceremony. This gave guests a chance to opt out then. I believe that she also passed out programs that explained some of the various part of the ritual (their purpose, some history, and explanation), as well as contained the script of the ritual. The priestess also reinforced these explanations during the ceremony. She also let people come forward after the ceremony and ask questions.

When planning for cowan family members and friends, there are many elements standard to ritual that must be considered, such as the language of the ceremony, the altar, attire, casting a circle, calling quarters, cakes and ale, etc.

One way to make family and friends more comfortable with the background of the ceremony is to adapt the softer language. I have written and performed handfastings in which the couple asked that I omit words that may be misunderstood…such as Witch, Wiccan, and Pagan. Instead, I would create a strong earth-based theme in my ceremony.

I described concepts in terms of the cycles of the sun and the moon, our connection to all things, and in the symbolism of the circle. It may also be wise to explain the history and practice of included elements in the ceremony that might be alien to the guests, such as jumping over the broom, binding, the circle as sacred space, etc.

Keep in mind the attire that you will wear. While Pagan ritual attire is different than traditional wedding garb, you may want to think twice about what you wear. For example, you probably will not want to end up skyclad in front of your parents, and that it typically illegal in public. It would also be a wise move to alert Craft folk attending about any general attire suggestions, mention that family and friends will be in attendance, and to keep that in mind.

Also, think about other traditional elements of rituals, such as how the altar will be structured, whether or not you will set the area up in a physical circle, as well as cast a circle, and call Quarters, Goddess, and God.

Most rituals involved us casting a circle, and with a handfasting, this is no exception. Because of non-pagan family guests, some choose to cast and call the quarters before the guests arrive.

At my most recent ceremony, I all of the prep work, while the bride and groom sorted their affairs. A good friend of mine got married and had us cast a circle while the guests were there. Guests were explained the importance of the magick circle, sacred space, and the barrier that it created. They could then choose to sit inside the circle, or outside the circle.

There are many elements of a handfasting that make it different from other rituals, such as a wedding party, binding, challenge, exchange of vows and rings, as well as jumping over the broom.

Who’s in the wedding party? Handfastings are not the typical ritual, and as a result, we end up with some non-typical situations. If the guests at a wedding are cowan and Pagan, then there is a chance that some of the wedding party may be a mix.

The wedding party can range from coven members and Pagan friends, to the Pagan-friendly and the pagan-skeptical. Keep this in mind when planning on whether or not your wedding party will participate in the actual ceremony.

Find out whether or not they are comfortable with the roles that you are thinking of assigning them, and make sure that they know what to expect. The wedding party can take on group roles, such as setting up the altar, casting the circle, and calling quarters, etc.

Most weddings include an exchanging of vows, which are promises that the bride and groom make to each other. More conventional handfastings will also include exchanging of rings.

During the binding, the wrists of the bride and groom are bound together with ribbon. They clasp right_hand-to-right_hand, and left_hand-to-left_hand, crossing wrists. The priest/ess asks one of them if they wish to be bound to the other. This takes place of traditional “I do’s.”

Then, they may be a set of challenges the bride and group must pass to receive a blessing. The bride and groom, bound, are led to each element, then to any close family members (such as little ones) who want to participate. Bound, their bond is challenged by each.

Either the bride and groom are brought to each quarter, or the person representing that quarter (if you have them) comes to the bride and groom. They present a challenge of some sort, such as “I am the Elemental of the East, Guardian of Air. This is the element of life, of intelligence, of communication, and of thoughtfulness. It is the inspiration that moves us forward.

Do you and will you continue to share your thoughts, ideas, and burdens? Your hopes and dreams?” The bride and groom answer “We do.” They may then receive the blessing of that challenger.

Then, move around through a challenge by the remaining quarter guardians. In one handfasting I participated in, after the elemental challenges, the daughter of the bride had her own challenge. I would imagine that it could be extended to any person directly involved in the union.

When cakes and ale are partaken, this is the bride and groom’s first meal as a united couple.

Jumping over the broom is an African tradition still used today. Brooms were given as wedding gifts as a blessing of abundance, and they were decorated, and kept as keepsakes.

The action of jumping the broom also symbolizes crossing the threshold, as well as taking a leap of faith. Since the besom is a tool of cleansing, it also symbolizes the couple entering the marriage unencumbered. The wedding party or designated people hold the ends of the broom, while the bride/groom jump over it.

For more information on planning a handfasting, Selena Fox put together a great page: http://www.circlesanctuary.org/events/weddings.html

OFFICIATING A HANDFASTING: As priests and priestesses, we are sometimes asked, and at times required, to perform certain clergy duties. Included in the rites of passage that we may be asked to preside over are handfastings.

Not all handfastings are intended to be legal. Some are trial, some symbolic, and some only spiritual ceremonial unions. Legally recognized marriages have several benefits, however none of them are universal to all cultures and countries. In the United States, some of the benefits of a legal marriage include the ability to file joint taxes (which may decrease their total income tax), to control property, to be added to the same insurance policy, to make decisions for their spouse (including life and death decisions, such as the controversial “pulling the plug” scenario), and others.

Legal marriages also afford some spouses benefits should the couple divorce, such as child and spousal support. They can also sometimes establish the man as the legal father of a woman’s child, the woman as the legal mother of a man’s child, give the husband or wife and their family control over the sexual services, labor, and/or property of the spouse, and establish a joint fund of property for the benefit of children.

However, each state, province, or country will have its own requirements for deeming a marriage legal. As the officiant of any wedding ceremony, it is your responsibility to find out what is legally required of the ceremony, if the couple desires it to be legal. You cannot risk performing a ceremony that the couple believes is legal, and finding out later on that it was not. Should something ill happen as a result, you put yourself at risk for a lawsuit.

For example, a person could attempt to add a spouse (who was not previously covered) onto his or her insurance plan, but only to discover that their marriage was not legal, and cannot be added on to the policy. While they are wrestling with paperwork and arranging another ceremony that is legal, the spouse that was not covered is in an accident, all of which is not covered by any insurance.

Check with the local courts for the exact laws for the area. A marriage license, blood test, witnesses, and a licensed officiant may be required (among other things). For example, in Ohio, a marriage license must be obtained by the bride and groom in person at least three days prior to the ceremony. This license is valid for only 30 days. A blood test is no longer necessary.

However, if not a judge, mayor, or other public figure deemed eligible to perform such ceremonies, the officiant must be licensed by the State of Ohio. To obtain a license, the officiant must mail in $10 with an application and a photocopy of the ordination certificate.

While any person can officiate a handfasting, whether or not the ceremony that person performs is legally recognized depends on each state, province, or country. The area that you live in will have its own laws on who can officiate marriages and have them recognized by the government.

Some places require a license, some say that anyone ordained by their religious body can perform weddings, and others require a letter of good standing from the ordaining organization. In Washington D.C., a license must be obtained, and if you are not from the District, a person that is currently licensed in the city must go with you to vouch for you.

There is more information on various state and region laws here, but keep in mind that you will still want to verify with the local courts: http://www.themonastery.org/?destination=ulcLibraryMarriageLaws

To find someone to officiate your handfasting: http://www.witchvox.com/vn/vn_index/xclergy.html

Now, where can you get ordained? Ordination can occur through any religious body. Ordination “is the process in which clergy, monks or nuns are set apart and authorized by their religious denomination or non denominational seminary to perform religious rituals and ceremonies or otherwise to minister in a clerical capacity.” It typically occurs when a student has completed a certain level of study, or certain requirements within a religious group, and thus the requirements vary from group to group.

While eclectic Wicca teaches that self-initiation is permissible, thus indicating that this person is a priest or priestess of Wicca, this person is still not ordained.

In the U.S., most people have heard of the Universal Life Church, and its free online ordinations. I typically do not talk about it, because I do not believe that every person should go online and sign up for ordination, though it is possible. While there are laws on the legality of weddings, and the requirements to perform legal marriages, there are no laws on which religious bodies can perform ordinations.

If Wicca is a recognized religion, and a religious body deems a person capable of performing such ceremonies, then that person is ordained. But I would rather not mail in an ordination certificate from my Wiccan coven to the state of Ohio. Yes, I would rather mail in my ULC certificate for which I paid $4.95. It also gives solitaries the ability to apply for licenses if required and legally perform marriage ceremonies.

There is information on the ULC website as to which states accept and do not accept ULC ordinations, as well as which countries outside of the U.S. do accept them. Many people consider it a joke that people’s pets can be ordained through ULC. Of course, I feel that those people make it a joke, for it serves its purpose.

To check the Universal Life Church: http://www.ulc.org

In some situations, you may be asked to write the ceremony, or give input as to some of the elements. You must be familiar with the elements of a handfasting, as well as how to write and perform rituals. You should at least have a basic handfasting ritual that can be adapted if need be (somewhere stuffed in your pointed hat). If they wish to write their own, this basic ritual can also be given to the couple as a guideline.

You may be asked to counsel the couple, or be put in a situation where the couple needs advice. It is not uncommon for either the bride or groom to get cold feet, to ask questions about commitment, or have questions about the ceremony itself. It is part of the clergy role to act as a mentor and guide.

Be prepared to answer these sorts of questions, should they come up. However, if there are major differences that need to be reconciled, you may want to refer the couple to a professional that can help them sort issues out.

You also have the right to advise the couple address these issues before the ceremony, and even refuse to perform the ceremony should you feel it necessary.

While officiating a ceremony, you have the option of charging for services. Some people feel that it is unethical to charge for such services, but it is a service nonetheless. Some areas have laws establishing a maximum amount that can be charged for ministerial services.

Some of these laws are vague and say, for example, that no more than $15 dollars can be charged for the service of a minister. This type of wording does not say how much work is worth $15. Writing a ritual could be one set of services, performing the ceremony another set of services, etc. Check your local laws for specific information. When I officiate handfastings, I do not charge for my services, but have usually asked that my travel costs be covered.

Suggested reading:
Handfasted and Heartjoined by Lady Rhea
Handfasting and Wedding Rituals by Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein
A Romantic Guide to Handfasting by Anna Franklin


Footnotes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handfasting
http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_hand.htm
http://www.themonastery.org/?destination=ulcLibraryMarriageLaws
Handfasting and Wedding Rituals by Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein

Dying and Rising – The God of Grain at Lammas

Dying and Rising

The God of Grain at Lammas

by Melanie Fire Salamander

 

Lammas, to the Irish Lughnassah, comes at the first of August, the year’s first harvest festival. From the Old English “hlaf-maess,” “loaf Mass” or “loaf feast,” “Lammas” in Christian times was the Mass at which the first loaves of new grain were blessed on the altar. It’s clear, however, that under a thin Christian layer, a pagan feast survived. The early Scots knew Lammas as one of the quarter days for paying rents; Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legendcalls this an obvious Christianizing of an old Saxon first-fruit festival, when tenants brought the first new grain to their landlords. The English also used Lammas as a day of accounts and reckoning, and “at latter Lammas” is an English folk phrase meaning never, or at the day of last accounting. In the Scottish Highlands on Lammas Day, people smeared their floors and cows with menstrual blood, an action of especial protective power at Lammas and at Beltaine.

Lammas comes down to us trailing half-forgotten associations: the death and rebirth of the Grain God, the mystical link between a ruler and the Goddess of the Land. As a first fruits festival, Lammas marks a time of hope and fear, when the people sacrifice the first of the harvest to the gods, praying that the rest can be gathered without trouble or bad weather. All farmers recognize that grain and fruit, riches in the fields, remain unsafe until brought in, and the ancients sacrificed accordingly.

As Lughnassah, this Sabbat is the wake of Lugh, an Irish god whose name means “light” or “brightness.” In the Mediterranean, it marks the death of the Grain God, known by various names. Now the Goddess becomes the Reaper, as Starhawk writes in The Spiral Dance, “the Implacable One who feeds on life that new life may grow.”

Gods of grain and mourning

Grain is traditionally associated with gods that die and are reborn. In southern climates, this grain is corn, rice, or millet; in northern climates rye, barley or oats; in temperate climates wheat, as Pauline Campanelli points out in Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life. The people of ancient Akkad, around 2000 B.C., believed at harvest their grain god Tammuz was slain by another god and went to the underworld. Tammuz was the beloved of Ishtar, great goddess of life and love, and as Ishtar mourned all Nature stopped its cycles of birth and reproduction. They only recurred when She traveled to the land of death to bring Tammuz back.

The Assyrians, Babylonians and Phoenicians called Tammuz Adonis, meaning “lord”; the Greeks took that title as the proper name of the god. Child of the myrrh tree, Greek Adonis, most handsome of young men, seduced both love goddess Aphrodite and Persephone, queen of the dead. The two goddesses battled bitterly over Him. Zeus solved the argument by making Adonis split his time between the sunny glades of Aphrodite and the dark underworld of Persephone, six months a year with each. Adonis died in a boar hunt, the pig throughout the Mediterranean region being sacred to the Great Goddess. He drew his last breaths in a bed of lettuce, associated by the Greeks with death and sterility.

Adonis was a god beloved of women, his chief cultists concubines and courtesans. At the World Wide Web site http://www.arches.uga.edu/~maliced/gothgard/, mAlice reports that Adonis’s devotees grew on their rooftops gardens of fast-sprouting lettuce, barley, wheat and fennel in baskets and small pots. Each garden surrounded a statue of the god. Adonis’s followers planted their ritual gardens when the sun was at its hottest; the plants quickly sent up shoots and just as quickly withered in the sun. Their gardens grew only eight days, after which Adonis’s worshipers threw the withering sprouts into the sea, along with images of the god. At the death of Adonis, the Greek women filled the cities with their keening.

In other cultures, the grain god is killed between millstones, as the grain is ground to make flour. In Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life, Pauline Campanelli associates the circular motion of the millstones with Caer Arianrod, the castle of the goddess Arianrod, also known as the Castle of the Silver Wheel. In Welsh myth, Caer Arianrod is the dwelling place of the dead. Arianrod had a son Llew Llaw, remarkable for his rapid growth, called by different mythographers both a sun god and a grain god. One of the first feats to proclaim his godhead was killing a gold-crest wren, which connects him with the cycle of the Oak King and Holly King. Llew Llaw, a god of death and resurrection, was destroyed through his wife Blodeuwedd, the Flower Face, who like Persephone starts as a goddess of flowers and young spring and becomes a goddess of death.

Llew Llaw is a cognate of the Irish Lugh, or Lug mac Ethne, whose Lughnassah occurs August 1. Celebrants held Lughnassah every year in Ireland at Telltown on the River Boyne, where a mound still marks the spot, according to Funk and Wagnalls. The Irish books of lore The Dinnsenchas and The Book of Invasions and Keating’s History of Ireland all say that Telltown took its name from Tailtiu, Lugh’s foster mother, buried on that spot, and that Lugh instituted Lughnassah fair as an annual memorial.

The Great Rite at Lughnassah

This tale probably reworks a more ancient one forgotten by later generations. Funk and Wagnalls notes that “nasad” seems related to words meaning “to give in marriage.” Telltown fair featured a marriage market; as the men stood on one side, the women on the other, their parents settled marriage contracts between them. Tradition tells that at the nearby “Hollow of the Fair,” couples made handfastings in pagan times, and in the 19th century couples still arranged trial marriages there, only later to have them sanctified by the Church. Presumably the leafy hollow, shaded by new haystacks, gave the newly bonded a consummation bed.

This tradition of Lughnassah marriages seems to echo an older tradition, where at Lughnassah the king of Ireland was ritually married to the land. Just so in ancient Akkad did the high priestess of Ishtar perform the Great Rite with the king, marrying him to the earth. A late medieval manuscript says that at Taillne, presumably Telltown, Lug Schimaig made the great feast for Lug mac Ethne to celebrate his marriage to the Goddess of the Land. It’s worth noting that August 1 is nine months before Beltaine, the beginning of summer; at this point Lugh impregnated the land with the following summer.

In a related myth, the great Irish king Conn of a Hundred Battles affirms his sovereignty by means of Telltown festival, according to The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom by Caitlin and John Matthews. One day at Tara, Conn mounted the ramparts with his three druids to check for enemies approaching from afar. Doing so, he trod upon a stone that screamed so loudly it was heard all over Tara. Conn asked one of his druids why the stone screamed and what kind of stone it was. After pondering fifty days and three, the druid by divination answered that the stone’s name was Fal, or fo-all (“under rock”), that it had come to Tara from Inis Fail and that it yearly went to Telltown for the fair. Any king who did not find this stone on the last day of Telltown Fair would die within the year. The number of shrieks the stone made underfoot equaled the number of kings of Conn’s line who would rule Ireland.

Fal thus shows itself a stone of sovereignty, like the Scottish Stone of Scone, now ensconced below the ceremonial throne of British royalty. Fal’s shrieks are the voice of the land, speaking the relationship between the king and the Irish Earth Goddess.

At this point in the myth, a mist drifted over, and Conn and his druids lost their way. A horseman met them and, after making three casts against them, welcomed them to his home, a structure 30 feet long with a ridgepole of white gold. In it sat a girl in a seat of crystal, wearing a golden crown. Before her stood a silver vat with gold corners, a vessel of gold, and a golden cup, and on a throne nearby sat a phantom.

The phantom spoke to Conn and his druids, announcing himself as Lug mac Ethne. The girl in the crystal seat proved to be the Sovereignty of Ireland, the living goddess of the Irish land, and she gave symbolic food and drink to Conn, the ribs of a giant ox and a giant hog and also red ale. Lugh meanwhile told Conn of his rule and that of his sons. Then all disappeared.

Thus Telltown Fair, in other words Lughnassah, celebrates marriage not only of mortal to mortal but of the king to the Goddess of Earth, here the girl in the crystal chair. Just as the nu gig priestess of Akkad, symbolizing Ishtar and the land, married the Akkadian king, symbolizing Tammuz, so too at early Lughnassahs a priestess of the earth may have married the Irish king, symbolizing Lugh. The tales definitely make Lughnassah Lugh’s marriage feast, and the feast is also said to be his wake. At Lughnassah, Lugh fertilizes the Goddess and dies, as we ask for harvest.

Lugh of the many talents

Lugh was beloved of the Celts, who raised more inscriptions and statues to him than to any other deity, according to R.J. Stewart in Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses. The Romans associated him with Mercury, and like Mercury he was a patron of the arts and of all crafts and skills, of traveling and money and commerce. He also was a war god, the Celts regarding battle as an art; by Roman times their wars had become mainly ritual contests between champions, or conflicts to be settled by druidic decision, a civilized approach the Romans did not follow. As the battle god Lugh of the Long Arm, Lugh’s chief weapons were the magickal sling and spear, giving him the power of killing at a distance – hence the “long arm.” Such attributes seem appropriate to a god of light, who shines from far away.

Romano-Celtic images of Lugh show a young, handsome man, carrying the symbols of the caduceus and purse, his totems the ram, cock and tortoise. He also appears as bearded and mature, and he’s frequently accompanied by the goddess Rosmerta or Maia, representing wealth and material benefit. Such companionship parallels the marriage of the king to the material goddess of the land.

Lugh possesses skills in many arts simultaneously. In the Irish tale of the Battle of Magh Tuiredh, those in the royal hall of Tara began by refusing Lugh entrance, because though he claimed skills as a wheelwright, metal-worker, warrior, bard, magician, doctor, cupbearer and more, the inhabitants of Tara already boasted those skills. Lugh’s Welsh cognate Llew was also known as a shoemaker, and an inscription from Romano-Celtic times in Osma, Spain, notes the Guild of Shoemakers’ dedication of a statue to the Lugoves, a triple version of Lugh. The people of Tara finally conceded that only Lugh combined all the skills mentioned, so at last they admitted Him.

The Celts also credited Lugh with the invention of ball games, horsemanship and fidchell, a symbolic board game like chess. As Stewart notes, the Celts regarded these three games as having a ritual, magickal significance.

A loaf of bread for Thou

Lugh’s marriage to the goddess of worldly wealth and sovereignty links Him by association to the grain gods Adonis and Tammuz. These gods of grain and their goddess brides stretch back to prehistory. In the Eastern European countries of the Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Hungary, still known for their wheat fields, archaeologists have found small clay temple models dating to 6000 to 5000 B.C., Campanelli writes. Many of these models show humans shaping and baking loaves in bread ovens, and many incorporate bird heads as architectural elements, indicating shrines to Bird Goddess. These bird heads connect to Aphrodite of the Doves, the bread baking to her consort Adonis. Similarly, Ishtar sometimes took bird form, and dying and rising Tammuz is a god of grain.

To celebrate this dying and rising god of grain, it’s appropriate to bake and eat ritual bread. From a ritual point of view, the important point is to focus while baking on imbuing your bread with the spirit of the God of Grain, however you see Him. From a practical point of view, a breadmaking acquaintance offers a few tips:

  • Making bread is very easy.
  • Make sure you use flour with a high gluten content, as opposed to baking flour. Gluten provides protein; baking flour specifically has very little protein.
  • When you mix flour and your water or yeast mixture, don’t worry too much about portions. Basically, you take flour and add liquid until it’s the right consistency. Bread is a tactile thing.
  • When you knead your bread, knead till the bread feels right, elastic but not too heavy.
  • You can let the bread rise and reknead as many times as you want. The more times you knead, the smaller bubbles will occur in the loaf, resulting in a finer bread.
  • Put a little fresh rosemary or other herbs in your bread for a different tang.

Almost any general-purpose cookbook, including The Joy of Cooking, includes bread recipes. Pauline Campanelli offers the following recipe and ritual for multigrain bread:

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine two cups warm milk, two packages dry baking yeast, one teaspoon salt, one-half cup honey and one-fourth cup dark brown sugar.
  • Cover the bowl and set it aside in a warm place till the mixture doubles, about half an hour.
  • Add three tablespoons softened butter and two cups unbleached white flour and stir till bubbly. Campanelli suggests at this point also adding sprouted wheat, expressing the idea of a god that dies and is reborn. If you do so, start your wheat sprouts a few days before you bake the bread.
  • Next, mix in one cup rye flour and two cups stone-ground whole wheat flour.
  • With floured hands, turn the dough onto a floured board and gradually knead in more unbleached white flour until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticks to your fingers.
  • Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn it so the dough is greased.
  • Cover the dough with clean cloth and keep in a warm place to rise until doubled, about an hour.
  • Punch the dough down, divide it in half and shape the halves into two round, slightly flattened balls.
  • Place these balls onto greased cookie sheets, cover them and return them to a warm place to let them double again.
  • When the final rising is almost complete, with your athamé incise a pentagram on the loaves with ritual words. Campanelli suggests “I invoke thee, beloved Spirit of the Grain/Be present in this Sacred Loaf,” but whatever words you want to say to the god of grain and material harvest are appropriate.
  • Beat a whole egg and a tablespoon of water together and brush this onto the loaves.
  • Bake the loaves in a 300-degree oven for about an hour, or until they are done and sound hollow when tapped.

Make and eat your ritual loaf in celebration of the dying summer, to be reborn after nine months at Beltaine. Celebrate too your summer’s harvest, your wealth of material life, for we are all wealthy while we live. At Lammas, the loaf-feast, we greet Lugh in the loaf, hail his marriage to the earth and eat him. By so doing, we avow our wealth and our mortality.