Creating Circles and Ceremonies

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Acclaim for the Authors

"A book of this nature helps balance our Wheel, with honor, respect and gratitude as guides, not to mention a heaping dose of fun and fulfilling activities."

--Patricia Telesco Author: Charmed Life

"I have known Oberon Zell-Ravenheart for over 35 years. He is one of the pioneers of Paganism in the United States. With his many decades of experience he, more than anyone, is uniquely qualified to write this book, having been teaching for the majority of his life. His name is greatly respected in all of the varying fields of Paganism and Witchcraft. He is truly an Elder...of Paganism, Witchcraft, and Magick." --Raymond Buckland Author: Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft

"Morning Glory's introduction to the magickal ways

of the Goddess, manifest in our time, has enlarged

my understanding of Pagan ways, enriching my spirit

and imagination."

--Elinor Gadon

Author: The Once and future Goddess

"I couldn't imagine someone more appropriate to write this book than Oberon Zell Ravenheart. I have worked with him personally for over 30 years, and have found him to be an excellent teacher, craftsman, artist, scholar, and general creative genius. His ability to organize information into nifty charts and easy-to-access language remains unequaled in the magickal community."

--Anodea Judith Author: Waking the Global Heart

"Oberon Zell-Ravenheart is not only one of the founders of contemporary Neo-Paganism but remains one of its most respected spokesmen. The Goddess herself shines through Morning Glory as she shares the joy and passion of her scholarship and worship. There is no more enthusiastic and delightful interpreter of the Goddess."

--Patricia Monaghan Author: The Book of Goddesses and Heroines

"Morning Glory Zell knows more about Goddesses than almost anyone I've ever encountered!"

--Margot Adler Author: Drawing Down the Moon

"To those who study the occult, the name of Oberon

Zell-Ravenheart is internationally known and re-

spected. He is a genuine Wizard. One of the pio-

neers of Paganism in the United States, he shares

his lifetime of learning and information with read-

ers from all walks of life."

--Lee Prosser

Fate Magazine

"Morning Glory Zell is one of the most knowl-

edgeable people I know on Goddess cultures of

the world."

--Joan Marler

Editor: From the Realm of the Ancestors:

An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas

"There is no more important task than the awakening of wonder, magick, and love for the inspirited Earth in the greater culture. And no one more ideal to pull it off than Oberon. Oberon has the talents as well as experience to make it happen, the way he brought together a church, a movement...and our Grey Council. He awakens a fire in everyone he comes into contact with, having long lived the life of a Wizard not only in image but in service. His enchanting art, writings, and talks are themselves a magical manifestation, and his influence on our community is legendary."

--Jesse Wolf Hardin Author: Gaia Eros

"Morning Glory is a charismatic ritual priestess with a great sense of humor." --Z Budapest

Author: Grandmother of Time

"Oberon Zell-Ravenheart has been personally in-

volved with many important historic events in the

creation of the Earth-based spirituality that is im-

portant to so many people today. Oberon has the

unique distinction of being probably the most in-

fluential male in the Goddess movement! He is a

gifted storyteller, a powerful magician, and is

young at heart. I have known Oberon, or known

of him, since 1969, and I am eagerly looking for-

ward to this book and to what I can learn from it!

Viva Oberon!"

--John Sulak

Co-Author: Modern Pagans

"Morning Glory displays a generosity of spirit that has always welcomed newcomers into the magic of the Great Goddess and empowered them to explore the feminine divine within themselves and in the universe. Her Goddess sculptures are among the finest in the world and incorporate her deep understanding of sacred ritual and her wisdom of an experienced high priestess." --Abby Willowroot

Goddess 2000 Project

"Oberon and Morning Glory recreated living uni-

corns, traveled to the remote South Seas in search

of genuine mermaids, and created the Church of All

Worlds. If there is anyone who can bring magick to

life for a million aspiring Wizards, it is Oberon and

Morning Glory."

--Amber K

Author: True Magick: A Beginner's Guide

CREATING CIRCLES & CEREMONIES Copyright ? 2006 by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

CREATING CIRCLES & CEREMONIES EDITED BY KIRSTEN DALLEY AND ARTEMISIA TYPESET AND FORMATTED BY OBERON ZELL-RAVENHEART COVER ILLUSTRATION AND DESIGN: SCOTT FRAY PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY BOOK-MART PRESS

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The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zell-Ravenheart, Oberon, 1942Creating circles & ceremonies : rituals for all seasons and reasons / by Oberon Zell-

Ravenheart and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart. p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56414-864-3 ISBN-10: 1-56414-864-5

1. Magic. 2. Ritual. I. Zell-Ravenheart, Morning Glory. II. Title: Creating circles and ceremonies. III. Title.

BF1623.R6Z45 2006 299'94--dc22

2006014337

Creating Circles & Ceremonies

Rituals for All Seasons & Reasons

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart & Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart

NEW PAGE BOOKS

A division of The Career Press, Inc. Franklin Lakes, NJ

IVForeword: Always Coming Home... Creating Circles & Ceremonies

By LaSara WakeRobin Firefox

In the early days of my existence, the land, the seasons, and my family's ties with them held sway. We lived, as Oberon writes in his preface, "the semi-mythical lives of our ancient Pagan tribal forebears." Not all of it was easy, not all of it was idyllic. There is little romance to the Earth sometimes, and days of back-breaking work just to get food on the table and nights of not enough dry firewood have their cost.

The warmly-lighted moments that find purchase in the folds of memory are evenings telling "The Stories" by candle and kerosene lamp. The first solid memory I have of Oberon was from such an evening.

In those days, in the life that had been chosen by my parents, and by Oberon and Morning Glory, Anodea Judith, and many other latter-day "pioneers," a visit to another's home meant a two-hour hike and often a two-day stayover. Roads were not roads; they were logging tracks that were impassable for sometimes months at a time. Many of us had cars that were not always working, and even the best of what any of us could afford was not built for the terrain.

My family had the distinction of being at the end of one such not-a-road, with a waterway that was somewhere between creek and river. When it was in its river phase, we were landlocked. The only way in or out was overland hiking to the one bridge that crossed the river.

On one such pilgrimage that Oberon and Morning Glory made to our home, I recall all of us--Morning Glory, Oberon, my parents, three siblings, and myself--sitting very cozily in the Cook House, the central element of our homestead, around the beautiful, antique round table that served as our dinning set. Though I was only four or five at the time, I still remember the fire burning warmly in the cooking stove and the soft quality of the natural candle and kerosene light. I remember the stories and songs, and Oberon washing the dishes after the large and hearty supper my family had prepared for our visitors.

Visitors were a rare treat, and these visitors were a god/dess-send after weeks of isolation. That was three decades ago. Through the years roads were improved, bridges installed, dynasties rose and fell. Many of the people who had chosen this rustic life grew tired of it, went back to work for "The Man," put their kids in private or public schools, and moved back toward the middle ground, the middle class, the middle road. A few people held onto their dreams, even through all the transformations--the births and deaths, the love affairs and heartbreaks, the break-ups and breakdowns. As I grow older I recognize more and more that the path of the visionary is not a path that is easy. Walking a path outside the circumscribed, circumspect "way things are" is not something that is often greeted with fame and fortune, as much as we might want to look for examples of the rare occasions where it is. There are a few strong souls who feel the call of the wild, the call of the heart, the call of the Goddess, the call of God. There are even fewer willing ones who hear the call and are willing to answer. My forebears were not some mythical Pagan tribe; they were an actual tribe of spirit and soul who made magick with the bare land, made dreams real, made vision an integrated part of our cultural definition. I am a product of tribe, of community. I was born to the land, fostered by forest spirits, faeries, and phantoms. I was let to run free in the wild lands of my youth, where we were in relationship with each element of it. My forebears eschewed the notion of domination, and found new frameworks upon which to build a co-creative relationship with the land, with entities beyond the physical, and in ideal moments of communion, with one another. Out on the edges of the dominator culture, we were building a new way of being with the Earth. Ritual helped us to create and honor these bonds. Learning to listen to the land, the plants, each other, and with our hearts was what I was raised believing to be the natural way of things. My memories are laced through with nights spent around the balefire under the moon and stars,

Rituals for All Seasons & Reasons

V

images of the Maypole, ribbons flying and dancers laughing as we wound the ribbons joyously around the pole, tying our new May King to it. I reigned as Queen of the May twice, the first time at 19, the second at 25. As a community, we mourned the cyclical loss of the Year King at Samhain, wept with the Queen, said our goodbyes, and went into the world of Spirit. We ate silently and fed the spirits who gathered as the veils grew thin.

First my younger brother, and later my firstborn, served as the Robin, the new year's Child King, atop the Yule log. (Yeah, my child is a girl. We're flexible!) We sang and told stories, exchanged gifts, then wandered in the snowy fields to call in the shifting season. We greeted the dawn after the darkest of nights, making sure the sun still rose.

I served twice as Persephone's vessel (with my third and final round approaching--a girl

must have her limits!), and sat on Her throne in the dark and drear underworld of Erebos, and watched the myths unfold as we participated in the regeneration of deities more ancient than written history. I grew chthonic, found my roots, and stood with Her in me to find the stars again.

We held and beheld the Mysteries, and tied ourselves securely to the Earth with them. Ritual offered a space for recognition of the sanctified ground upon which we built our dreams of new worlds, new words, a new age, a new Aeon.

I grew up finding rhythms in the natural order of things: birth, life, and death all had their time and place. We grew a garden, helped our animals birth new broods every springtime, and buried our dead in the soil. Of course, by our dead I don't mean human relations, but our animal counterparts. My pony died one spring and became fertilizer for the raspberry patch. The remains of animals we took for food were honored with a resting place deep in the soil that would offer up next year's harvest.

There was no mediation between our lives and the seasons, and the lives of the lands and creatures we cohabitated with were part of the whole. This inherent witnessing of cycles was a pattern that we brought into the creation of our ritual cycles and myths.

My mother practiced a wide array of indigenous practices, and we honored the teachings of all paths. We celebrated Ostara and Easter, Yule, Christmas, and Chanukah. We prayed to the rocks and trees, and to the gods and goddesses for wisdom and assistance.

My parents encouraged faith and belief. I was told we were descended from the Pixies. I later figured out that the Picts may have been the origin of the mythical Pixies, and if that is so, what I believed was the truth. In magick there are many truths.

The ritual structures we founded were organic, just as the land and the seasons are organic. Just as human relationships and the process of aging and growth, births, rites of passage and deaths are organic.

We studied the Ancient Stories, created and recreated rituals that taught the Old Teachings. We pulled together paths and followed them all at once. We initiated Mysteries and learned from them as we taught; experienced the Mysteries as we performed them.

The loose-knit traditions of the Church of All Worlds offered space for intuitive ceremony, and encouraged the eclectic recombination of structure and experience, form and limitless expansion. In learning the basic elements of ritual structure, I became adept at creating and adapting ritual formats to make room for as many points of reception as possible. Using the Celtic-Hellenic hybrid that formed the basis of the CAW cosmology, and the ease of integration of the "Wing-It Tradition," I was given the tools to adapt, amalgamate, update, and re-vision mythical structures and ritual formats.

On numerous occasions I have pulled together a ritual at a moment's notice. I take the elements desired, the deities to be honored, and the purpose of the Rite, place it in the cauldron of mind and spirit, and pull out a fully-formed ritual outline in minutes. Once we have the desired end-point in mind, the rest is dressing. But that dressing works best when it is flexible and strong, inclusive and focused.

I sought ordination in the Church of All Worlds after years of training, and my path to that ordination was ten years long from start to finish. I was the first, and as far as I am aware, the

VI

Creating Circles & Ceremonies

only second-generation CAW member to be ordained. It wasn't easy, but it was mostly good. My stepping up, stepping into a position of

adulthood made the elders nervous perhaps, or at least led them to recognize the movement of time. I was 29 when I was finally ordained. I was older than Oberon was when he started CAW. But I grew up into an existing structure, and we are all products of our environment.

At some point we grew into a multi-generational sense of tribe. Somewhere along the way the wisdom of age and the wisdom of youth made peace, and we all learned how to learn from one another. We all claimed our positions as visionaries, dreaming a new age into being.

The people you will read writings from in these pages were, and are, those visionaries: outlaws, renegades, anarchists, hippies, teachers, dreamers. They are ones who heard the call of the Divine, and answered that call. Hearts open, eyes wide and wild, and minds churning, these pioneers took to the path of Spirit, and emerged as both gods and seekers.

I'm the result of a social experiment. I am one piece of proof that this experiment worked. The revolution of the heart lives on in the lives we build, the rituals we create, the dreams we live, and the communities we invest in. Generation to generation the vision takes deeper purchase in the soil. It gestates, seeds, and grows.

And we grow continually closer to the Earth, closer to the gods, closer to living with our hearts. We are always coming home.

--LaSara WakeRobin Firefox, Beltaine, 2006

Acknowledgements

First off, we'd like to thank everyone who contributed chants, invocations, workings, and rituals to

the original loose-leaf compilation of HOME Cooking (1997) as well as to the present work. There

are too many to list here individually, but each piece is credited.

And thanks also to Meliny Hansen and Wynter Rose, who each spent volunteer days at the Green

Egg office collating the HOME Cooking books.

But most importantly, the genesis of this book, as with its predecessor, emerged organically out of

decades of rituals developed and performed in the context of the Church of All Worlds, and its

subsidiary, the Holy Order of Mother Earth (HOME). These rites especially blossomed into full

manifestation when a number of us came to live and work magick together on the sacred lands of

Coeden Brith, Annwfn, and the encompassing Greenfield Ranch in the Misty Mountains of

Mendocino County, NorCalifia, from the mid-1970s to the present day.

Significant contributors to the evolving HOME liturgy during that formative period include Gwydion

Pendderwen, Anna Korn, Anodea Judith, Eldri Littlewolf, Tom Williams, Avilynn Pwyll, Marylyn

Motherbear, LaSara Firefox, Diane Darling, Sequoia Greenfield, Ayisha Homolka, Aeona Silversong,

Orion Stormcrow, Maerian Morris, Starwhite, Night An'Fey, Wendy Hunter-Roberts, Buffalo

Brownson, and D.J. and Rick Hamouris. All of these are deeply appreciated, and you will find some

of their inspired work within these pages.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank other authors, teachers, mentors, and creative

ritualists whose works have inspired and informed our own. These include Aleister Crowley, Gerald

Gardner, Doreen Valiente, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert H. Rimmer, Frederick MacLauren Adams,

Webster Kitchell, Robert Graves, Deborah Bourbon, Paul Huson, Ed Fitch, Carolyn Clark, Gavin

and Yvonne Frost, Isaac Bonewits, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Bran & Moria Starbuck, Victor

Anderson, Z Budapest, Kenny and Tzipora Klein, Aidan Kelly, Diana Paxson, and Starhawk.

And finally, special extraordinary thanks go to Jack Crispin Cain and Tamar Kaye, who have

devoted over a decade of their lives to being caretakers on Annwfn. Without their dedication to

ensuring the maintenance and survival of Gwydion's 55-acre legacy, we'd have had no place to hold

many of these rituals, and they might never have come to be.

May you all Never Thirst!

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

5/1/2006

Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart



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