Sacrifice

Well, today is Lammas Eve and I did my first Red Meal and resealed the pact between the Harvester and that which is to be harvested... I had bought a bag of sweet but dark bread and put it in the bread basket for safekeeping. Also a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. I was so excited for today, because everything was going SO perfectly! However, that changed when the cat got into my bread and made it go stale. After which my father threw the whole thing away. All of this was without my knowing of course. So I get ready to do my red meal and I can't find the bread, so I call my father and he tells me the story of my cat and my bread.... Quite annoying. So I find some crackers instead. (Make due with what you have right?) the ritual was amazing. The candles were lit, the spirits called, the harvester quite present... The bread broken and shared, and the wine poured and drunk. It was magical, even with a cracker. I went to go pour the meal out upon the roots of the tree, but I had a feeling to stay and wait until dusk. When day and night were equal. When both the gods and the dead could partake. 

I spilled a few drops of blood from my left hand to the harvester. And anointed his and his bride's candles. I had some quiet meditation on the nature of sacrifice.. And true offering. All in all this was a wonderful Lammas. And I certainly cannot wait until Samhain. May you all bear good harvest upon this wild, crooked path. 

Thinking about Lammas and Harvest- Autumn Musings

     


       

 

          Well, Lammas, or The Red Day, is coming up on August 1st and I wanted to just use this post to talk about certain things I've been thinking about Lammas and so on. Lammas is a time for Harvest, for reaping what we've sown. The time when crops are felled by iron scythes. When the grain is cut, but always to return the next year. Harvest can mean different things...and it doesn't always have to be literally about crops. In my own meditations on this time of year I see that we ourselves are like the grain....
we start out as a seed, and then grow, and grow, and grow, until on our own "Red Day" the scythe comes down, felling us to the earth below...but then another seed is planted, and up we rise again.
Some of my favorite lore to read in this season is of the Sacrificed King, who is found in many different cultures. John Barleycorn is an excellent tale to read, or even hear his folk song played. I believe that though my practice has grown and grown and grown, some things must be harvested. and cast aside so more can grow in it's place.
Harvest and the Autumn season is intimately tied in with the forces of Death, and Death with the forces of change. Change is needed for the blossoming and ripening of the spirit.
many at this time will hold a Red Meal, or symbolic ritual sacrifice of dark bread, and red wine shared between the people, the powers of the land, and the Ancestral shades, mimicking the blood sacrifices of old days.
 Although I cannot drink or purchase wine due to my age, I will definitely try to hold a red meal with what I have available. Blood shall also be shed from my left hand to honor the pact between harvester and that which is to be harvested.
I use this time of year to meditate even more strongly on the idea of mortality, and living your life today as though you would die the next.
the sickle-bearer waits betwixt the rows of corn and grain. Know that you will all be harvested someday.....and to live your life in such a way that you will gladly accept the scythe at your time, for you lived a ripe, and fruitful life....

I hope you enjoyed this post :) and may you all bear good harvest...

introduction: Hello everyone!

     
      Hello everyone! my name is John Birkel and this is a sort of journal to chronicle my progress in the Arte as well as everyday life. This is to help me see where I am now, and the journey to my destination. I have been given advice by many wonderful friends and this is more or less my way of chronicling what I've learned so far. First of all I love to read, and so there are likely to be a lot of posts about books and my take on certain things in them. Secondly, in the next year or so I will be joining a local Coven and learning what they have to teach me. I love to learn about as many topics as I can. Witchcraft and Conjure being my two primary interests. I cannot wait to see where this is going to go, and hopefully I can keep it a regular thing. As of now I do not know how often I will be able to post...but I will try to do so as often as I can. My path and journey has been a wild and crooked one up to this point.... very confusing, very changing and twisting, but also very worthwhile. It is likely to get even more so wild and crooked....but such is the nature of the craft yes? It is a wild and crooked path I walk... and I can't wait to see where the crooked roads lead me...