This marks my 18th anniversary of becoming a dedicated Pagan. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about myself and the world around me. It’s only opened up doors to more questions and more pathways yet unexplored. In this ritual, I honor the Native spirits of the land who first helped me in my journey as a child.
Priest: Mabon is a time when animals grow restless in anticipation of the coming winter. They are seen roaming the lonely, forgotten fields, fiery-leaved forests and in the chilling swells of lakes and rivers. For a moment, you can walk between these lands as both human and animal as we are all driven by the same beating drum. Life, escaping and chasing death in an endless spiral of cause and effect. The animals do not farm the land as humans do for they have no allegiances to countries and kings. They take only what they need and so, theirs is a harvest of will and instinct to survive. This ritual takes us through the turning of the wheel for an animal guide and helps us connect to the animal medicine we are seeking on our path.
Priestess: Envision yourself standing upon one of the powerful branches of the Spirit Tree that embraces Father Sky. Raise your hands to the Sky, you are now the Spirit Tree with your roots going deep into the loam of Mother Earth. The Spirit tree is unbreakable and eternal yet its presence is felt as only a spark within our hearts and a testament to our strength is measured by how high we are willing to climb the Spirit Tree.
(Participant 1 enters the Circle dressed as Father Sky. He wears clothing of white and grey to symbolize the clouds of the coming fall season. As He enters, He places pieces of howlite on the ground towards the center of the Circle preparing the minds of the audience to accept attunement to a higher consciousness)Priest: Father Sky, I call you into my Circle from the Wintry North. Soon Your skies will twirl and dance from vibrant blue shades to blotchy grey clouds. Father Sky, soon Your dance will block out the life-giving sunlight and the trees will lose their lushness and plants will wither. The world will hold its breath at the sound of Your fearsome howls. Only the strongest of us will find the will within us to brave Your troubles upon the earth and learn the lessons of our inner strength.
(Participant 2 enters the Circle clad in a bright red dress to invoke Mother Earth. The fiery red represents the warmth and comfort of home and planet. As Mother Earth enters the Circle, She walks towards the center, dropping pieces of Carnelian along the ground to harness and direct the flow of positive creative energy inside the home.)Priestess: Mother Earth, I call you into my Circle from your domain, the golden flames of the Southern Fire. You will enter our homes in the foulest of days and bring us laughter. As an ever-present Mother, You will be watching Us as young children who play and grow within Your protective gaze. When spring comes, You will leave our homes and yet keep a string within our beating hearts. When we leave the comfort of our hearth to toil in the spring fields, we seek You.
(Participant 3 enters the Circle wearing a bright yellow dress or robe. She may be adorned with trinkets representing the bear such as claw or teeth. As She enters the Circle, making the movements of the bear as it walks through the forest, She drops pieces of Citrine towards the center of the Circle to represent the forces of Truth working on the audience.) Priestess: From the East comes the stoic Black Bear of the wood. Lumbering and swaying rhythmically in Order as She moves through the forest on the hidden deer trails. She enters our Circle as the fierce warrior of truth who stands alone in Her efforts. The Black Bear is not a social creature. Her appearance is frightening. Her fur is as black as the coal heart of the Mountain. Ragged teeth and claws in the likeness of volcanic glass and eyes that are like the icy winds that collapse the Birch trees. Black Bear woman, come and speak the truth to us!
(Participant 4 enters the Circle wearing a black robe or dress. He may be adorned with the trinkets that represent Coyote such as teeth, claw or a tail. Coyote will be dancing very wildly as He does this to represent the movements of the Coyote on the hunt. As He walks towards the center of the Circle He drops pieces of Snowflake Obsidian on the ground to represent the Chaotic unknown and the bright stars on distant horizons.) Priest: The howl to the West haunts our hearts and minds and floods our dreams with the unknown. Coyote enters the circle dancing and beating His drum. He’ll twist when you think He’ll turn and cry mightily to the heavens when His head should bow in respect. He is never motionless and is always ever-changing. The Coyote’s smile gleams with the promise of new stars on our horizon and His ever-present laughter rips us from our stagnant thoughts and thrusts us to new places. Coyote Man, sing us a song that stirs our spirits and shows us the narrow path to You!
Priest: (The Priest holds a velvet or canvas pouch out to the audience and towards the Participants who act as the Directions. The Directions each take the pouch and place a small private blessing in the pouch in the form of words and sacred herbs as it is passed clockwise around the bonfire. The pouch is then handed back to the High Priest.) We now call with many voices to the sky, the fields, the waters and the mountains for the voices of our animal guides to be heard today. We call to those teachers who would guide us towards becoming better stewards of the land and of ourselves. We call You, sacred animals of Spirit, to be with us in this Circle and to make Your presence known to us! We seek a better understanding of our place in the Tribe and in the World. As we accept the honor of Your lessons, we give an Oath of Promise to you that we will strive to better understand You and to Honor the land that You first tread.
In the pouch is the names of local animals. Horse, Weasel, Black Bear, Deer, Porcupine, Coyote, Raccoon, Owl, Morning Dove, Hummingbird, Monarch Butterfly, Orb Weaver Spider, etc. The pouch is passed around the Circle going counter-clockwise in order to have these energies dispersed to each member of the Circle evenly. Each member of the audience takes ONE piece of paper and studies the name upon the tiny parchment.
For the rest of the year, that Tribe Mate can create a spiritual name for themselves with that animal and find a way to incorporate the attributes of that animal into their place within the Tribe. The primary effort is to meditate upon this animal in times of stress or disruption in order to seek a place of balance. The audience may choose to make an oath to this animal and to the directions that have been called in the Medicine Wheel ceremony.
Priestess: We now close our ritual with this feast that we have prepared for our animals and the land. (Participants 5 and 6 or the High Priest and Priestess produce a large serving platter with the bounty of the land upon it so that animals can feast at the expense of people. It would be preferable to have locally grown vegetables if possible. People in the audience can offer their own foods as long as it isn’t anything too processed. They may also leave offerings of birdhouses, etc.) We do not tell them to leave the circle for They were here long before us. We are now left to bond with the spirits that have presented Themselves to Us.
Exit Circle
some very unexpected ways and lead me to understand that the very first step is to become a whole person. While this insight is wonderful…what does it mean? How does anyone become a whole person and how does one recognize when they’ve made that transformation? I had so much more questions that my Gods, physical teachers and spirit guides merely smiled knowingly and asked me more questions so the answers could come from myself instead of another person.
I’m often visualizing my answers in the form of memories and pictures so these two mediums are my best sources of expression. So I got the privilege of taking a trip to Powers Bluff, just south of Marshfield, Wisconsin with a very good friend! 
which have emanated in my life in tremendous ways however I always took them for granted. What have I lost and how do I know I’ve lost it in the first place? I took a few deep breaths and walked along a path, listening to the jingle of bells around my ankles and occasionally, my own heart beat pulsing in my ears like soft thunder. Life force, connection, deep childhood memories and the urge to walk a path that has twisted and turned so many ways that sometimes I get dizzy when I look back on my life.
sense of purpose and intent. I hadn’t read a single book on Paganism, psychology or any other school of thought I am engaged in as an adult studying to be Clergy. I had only seen pictures of Native Americans and while I could read these words, they weren’t from any acclaimed Native American author; they were books that came from a library in a Catholic school in New York, one such Catholic school that forever changed the course of my spiritual path.
first danced in utter glee at the thought that I had reached some Native American spirits and they were honoring me with an unforgettable experience. The funny part is that it rained for days after my little rain ritual and I wanted to go camping with my father. I asked the rain to stop and it didn’t. In my exuberance, I snapped the staff in half and threw it into the woods. An hour later, the rain ceased. From that moment in time on, my father who was watching from the house called me Rayne Drop. Throughout my entire high school experience, I went by the name Rayne as a way to honor the memory and him as he had passed on towards the beginning of that time period.
into a leafy solo. The rocks around me seem to have faces peering from them and as I throw a few handfuls of rose petals, I bow my head in respect for the people that touched the land before me and left their whole selves behind.
and each other by asking questions with thoughtful intent and keeping their minds open to what was plainly around them. By using all of these terms to describe mental illness, one initially seeks a way to build an understanding. Our words are very powerful processes and they shape not only the world around us; they also shape the internal work within that we’re trying to accomplish. We essentially build a cage for ourselves that can be very hard to escape if we’ve spent a life time culminating this reality for ourselves and never going past what those diagnoses and labels are – we think we’re expressing ourselves when all we’re doing, ALL I’VE DONE, is further splinter me.
does not matter what our internal motivations and intent may be – if you create a rain stick – prepare for it to rain! I’ve been doing this for so long that the memory of myself as a little girl haunted me and was trying to get me to remember what it was like before the madness of being an “adult” in modern America. I never understood what this teacher was trying to tell me until I walked into Powers Bluff and took in all that was around me.
understanding of me, I am going to explain myself differently. It’s going to take time to figure out how to do this properly for myself. I am going to need to ask more questions of my teachers and see if they have insight. Eventually, I need to find my own unique way of expressing that idea. That may take some work to untrain my mind of the social conditioning that I have received. This isn’t going to be easy however I am willing and able to take up the work to become better not only for myself – also those who I will be trying to teach and learn from on my path to Clergy.
of the Wheel of the Year. We are staring down the barrel of Mabon – a celebration of harvest and for me, a sacred time that represents my renewed commitment to Paganism as a whole and my own personal spiritual structure. Deeply Rooted has been so much a corner stone, a foundation if you will, of that change within me that I can not begin to put into words my everlasting gratitude and utmost respect for the land and the people that have committed themselves to its protection and operation.
am blessed double by the mountains of support from people who are my Tribe. People that have worked hard to guide me spiritually and given me a sense of contentment and safety when the world around me felt very dark. The tribe that stood by me countless times and awakened a sense of purpose within my being. I can now take that sense of purpose of move forward to a future I could not have imagined a few years ago. Gods and Nature please hear my thanks!
circled the shrine. I kept my cool and acknowledged in my spirit that I saw Her and that She had nothing to fear from me. I was here to honor Her. She left me and while I would not recommend the same actions from anyone else for safety sake, I am glad I was given audience by this kindred spirit. Our encounter was chance and in no way did I bait Her because that is a very dangerous practice.
didn’t feel threatened, I felt in awe. It looked as if a HUGE GOD was coming through the trees and making them sway and dance. I did not run into the house. I stayed and stared, letting the rain drop around me and cleanse me. I got very much the feeling that Pan had accepted my offer and would help me. I had, in the past, run screaming from storms like that because I was not looking at them with the eyes of a Pagan.
that are familiar to me. One such person was a repeated theme and even a guide through some of the “scarier” parts of the dream that involved being lost in a large crowd of people and being trapped in a subway that opened up into a river as I walked down the tracks to a hidden path. Following that river, I emerged from the city and back to the group of people that kept reoccurring. I felt like the dream went on for many hours even though I know most dreams take place only in the course of a few minutes.
real, living creatures. I am blessed to witness such imagery in my mind.
A vision of what was, what is and what could be filled me every time I walked through a stream, down a rock road, picking crystals and laughing in the sunlight and slogging through the muddiest places to find the biggest bullfrog and name him the King of the Frog tribe.
beautiful place. It’s when I met my spiritual teacher, Wade Mueller of Deeply Rooted, that my mind and connection to deity began to radically and fundamentally change on every level.
