![[Whirl]](images/mitsu.gif){kind=small}
To the Reeves Hall
J.S. Pereira, Raven Kindred South
The items which consistently have a place on our altar are a blot bowl, a hammer, a drinking horn, an oath ring, and an attractive bottle in which to put the drink. The blot bowl is present so that we can pour the libation, the drinking horn is present to drink from, the hammer is to do the hammer-rite with, and the attractive bottle is so we don't have to put a bottle of Microbrew's Finest on the table.
Most people new to this sort of thing want to know, where do you get this stuff?
Ours is of brass, and is maybe a bit smaller than half a basketball. I don't know what it was intended for originally, but it's quite attractive and maybe cost six or eight dollars. Stores that carry interesting bowl type objects that would make attrac tive blot bowls include antique stores, "collectible" stores, garden centers and places like Pier I. A blot bowl is so we don't have to libate during the ritual onto the floor. It is not necessary during an outdoor ritual, although in our outdoo r rituals, we tend to retain it because the offering of it at the end of our rituals provides a very satisfactory closing.
Ours came from a hardware store. It's a hammer that looks like a mallet made of metal, not a claw hammer. I've seen people with the same type paint it and decorate it with runes. I've also seen a hammer with the handle very attractively wrapped in leat her. Ours has no paint or decoration, and we kind of like the stripped down, ready-to-bash-etins look. Using the hammer during a hammer-rite is not essential, but sort of adds a certain something.
We get our drinking horns from Tandy Leather, where they are generally already sanded, and an initial cleaning has occurred. Detailed advice on how to clean and decorate horns has been published in various places, and is beyond the scope of what I'm wr iting here. However, just so you have an idea, this is a quick account of how we clean and prepare a horn, starting with a sanded, relatively clean horn bought from Tandy Leather.
We clean the inside further with a bottle brush, and dish scrubber pads, hot water mixed with a bit of bleach, dish soap, and after rinsing well, dump cheap beer inside the horn and let it cure for at least a day to get rid of the horn taste.
The outside gets worked on first usually with medium/medium coarse metal pads, gradually going to finer and finer grades. If at the beginning you want to get an idea of what your horn will look like sanded, splash some water on it, and the colors as th ey will appear will be brought out. We end with rubbing some beeswax lightly on the outside to help put a polish on the horn.
Horns are fun to drink from. To keep from splashing yourself, keep the tip of the horn up while drinking.
(I admit, I'm sort of out of the habit of using the attractive bottle for normal blots, but I still use it for public events.) Ours is dark green glass, is relatively wide-necked, holds more than a beer bottle, less than a wine bottle, and can be corke d. We pour drink into it, and place it on our altar so that we don't have to see the Microbrew's Finest label. For large groups of people, we keep a couple of extra unopened bottles of whatever we're drinking under the table, and use them if the amount we have in the bottle doesn't turn out to be enough. Kitchen stores, places like Pier I, and antique stores are all places you can find attractive bottles that look good in ritual.
One more item that is not quite as basic as those above, but is still something you will want to get as soon as you can is the oath-ring. As the name suggests, you hold onto it, and swear oaths on it. Traditionally, they were made with precious metals like gold and silver, but ours is made with coppper and we don't lose much sleep over that. (I made ours in a college metal working class, you could do the same, or you could find a friendly smith and commission one.)
I mention the seax, even though we don't use it because I expect that someone reading this will want to know about it. Theoretically, a seax is supposed to be the knife that you carve runes and other esoteric items with. I used to think that seax owner s were the stuff of myth, seeing as I had never met anyone who went to the trouble of owning one. An inquiry on the computer networks turned up something interesting, most of the Western Asatruars owned a seax, none of the East Coast Asatruars did. As to why this is the case, your guess is really as good as mine.
How do we prepare these items for ritual? With us, we usually buy/make it, clean it, and start using it. No muss or fuss.
Additional items to add to the altar can be any items appropiate to the Deity being invoked (a necklace for Freya, etc.), an attractive cloth, special items that are appropiate (we have this nice strip of woven beads that depict the entire Futhark that a friend made for my birthday). While such items can be very attractive, I would err on the side of having too sparse an altar, rather than too elaborate. If not done carefully, the end result can look more like a display at a tag sale than preparation f or a ritual.
One final note.
Treat the altar like an altar. In other words, when you're finished with the ritual, break down the altar before putting your beer on it. Don't leave ratty books of matches on it. You get the idea. No, nothing bad will happen to you if clutter up the a ltar with this and that, but it's a lot more aesthetic if you don't, and it sends the message that this is something that you take seriously.
The following is meant to go into some of the history of why our blots look the way they do, as well as presenting a picture of the thought behind and the evolution of our rituals. It also gets into the more esoteric side of What Happens during a blot, (warning, Personal Gnosis to follow) and suggestions for people who are somewhat new to officiating at a group blot.
Our blots begin with chanting "Odin, Vili, Ve" three times.
We got this from Alice Karlsdottir. This chant works very well in terms of setting the mood and getting people to orient towards the ritual. The aural resonance that occurs when you have over ten people doing the chant in an enclosed space can be quite dramatic.
Esoterically, this chant can be viewed as invoking the Gods who were present at the very beginning of all things, before the Nine Worlds, before the Sun and Moon, before humans-at the beginning at the ritual. At this time, we acknowledge the God (or Go ds, depending on your point of view) who have the greatest ability to bring forth reason and holiness from chaos. At this point of the ritual, I try to turn my mind to Odin, Vili and Ve, and how they fought Ymir, and then ordered the Nine Worlds, created humans, etc.
Thor's Hammer, Mjolnir is the tool with which Thor continually fights back the Jotuns, it's the means of bringing his goats back to life, and also traditionally used to bless a bride at a wedding. In other words, the Hammer is an object of protection, and a brings of fertility and new life. A representation of the Hammer is commonly worn by members of the Asatru religion.
The Hammer-rite establishes the holiness of a place. We consider it to be superfluous when a place is used consistently for rituals, or when other rituals have occurred recently in the area. The Hammer-rite is different from a Wiccan Circle in that it does not create separate sacred space. For myself personally, the "feel" of a Wiccan Circle tends to be a sense of being enclosed, almost like I'm in a greenhouse. The Hammer-rite to me feels more like the ringing of a bell, a sort of "clea ring" of the air.
We had originally had two Hammers in our Hammer rite, a Hammer of Fire and a Hammer of Ice. As best we can remember, this was inspired by a comment from Kveldulf Gundarsson. Fire and Ice can be viewed in a sense as being analogous to the Wiccan element s, yet are undeniably Norse.
Also, in keeping with the idea behind the Odin-Vili-Ve chant, Fire and Ice are the two opposites that were present at the beginning of the world. Esoterically, Fire and Ice can be viewed as chaos and stasis. Nothing but the most extreme frost and fire beings can live in either, but where the two of them meet, a dynamic order conducive to Gods, humans and many other beings becomes possible. In other words, acknowledging Fire and Ice, and indicating that we are between these two opposite forces establish es that we are in the place that is the essence of dynamic order, and is most conducive to ourselves and the Gods.
The only trouble with having the two Hammers in the Hammer rite was that the idea that it was fire and ice, and not north and south kept getting lost. It's hard enough to convey the idea that what we're doing is not the same as a Wiccan circle, so we f inally decided to drop to one Hammer.
Even now, we still get a grumble or two from purists who note that it seems "awfully on the Wiccan side", and I gather we've had visiting Wiccans surreptitiously fill in the "missing Quarters" during our rituals. Occasionally I deba te whether it might be best to drop it altogether, however, I admit, I rather like it and am reluctant to give it up.
How does one make the sign of the Hammer? Trace an upside-down "T" shape in the air in front of you, while saying something appropriate like, "Hammer of Thor, Hallow and Hold This Holy Stead".
We were somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that our blots were very good at honoring one particular member of the Aesir and Vanir, but the Aesir and Vanir as a whole didn't really get acknowledged in our rituals. So we took to adding a general prayer at this point, fairly simple, thanking the Aesir and Vanir for their blessings.
Invocations concentrate on God or Goddess being invoked. If you really aren't sure what to say, mention some of the attributes of the Deity being invoked, some of their titles, who they are related to (Mother of, Son of, etc.), and voila, you have an i nvocation.
It should be noted that Asatru has a relatively egalitarian attitude towards the Aesir and Vanir. One respects the Gods, but the respect offered is more closely akin to the way one deals with a respected elder member of one's family. There is no " sin" involved in disagreeing with or being severely aggrieved with a particular God or Goddess. As part of this, the worship of the Gods is free of kneeling or other gestures of subservience. The most commonly used stance for invocations is standing straight up and with one's arms raised (more or less in the shape of a Elhaz rune).
Often, after the invocation, our most common "thing" we do during ritual is a guided meditation. Or a reading of something appropriate. For readings, Kevin Crossley Holland's Norse Myths has lots of beautifully written tellings of the myths, and the Hollander edition of the Poetic Edda has lovely poetic material.
At this point, the person officiating at the ritual raises the horn into the air. They are symbolically "offering" it to the God or Goddess being honored. It is appropiate to visualize the God or Goddess "drinking" from the horn bei ng offered, and imbuing it with their might. When the person holding the horn "feels" like it has been accepted by the God or Goddess, they should lower it, and begin the next part of the ritual.
When we were first starting out, everything that we read on the subject suggested pouring some of the drink into the blot-bowl, dipping an evergreen twig into the bowl, and then asperging all present with the evergreen twig. We initially experimented w ith this, and decided there was something faintly silly about asperging a group of three people (the number of people we started out with).
We finally settled on what we eventually nicknamed the "mini-sumbel". We pass the horn for three rounds, the first round is always dedicated to the God or Goddess being honored at the blot, the next two are open. Besides getting rid of that s illy feeling, we liked passing the horn because it got people more involved in what was going on.
Sort of like the invocation, only you're thanking the Deity instead of invoking them. (Please note, this is not a "dismissal", a concept from Ceremonial Magic.) I always emphasize that the Deity being honored is one whose blessings we feel in our day-to-day lives, in other words, getting across the idea that these Gods don't just wink into existence during a blot, and disappear after the blot. This may sound obvious, but in some Neo-Pagan groups this is not necessarily the operative assumptio n.
Our libation part of the ritual comes from (of all places) an ADF Druid grove. At this point, if the ritual had occurred inside, the person who will be libating takes the blot bowl and starts to head outside. Everyone should follow. Outside, we usually walk a (very) short distance away from where we initially did the ritual. In either case, after everyone has gathered, (and settled down) the person carrying the blot-bowl raises it and says:
"From the Gods to the Earth, to Us,We had a hard time finding something truly decisive with which to end the ritual. Finally, we hit upon the pouring of the blot-bowl as a way of getting across, "Yes-the-ritual-is-over-and-we-can-kick-back.", which is the main reaso n we've retained it even at most outdoor rituals.
From Us, to the Earth, to the Gods.
A gift for a gift. Hail!" (libates)
The Rite has ended".
This is the last post in the "Ritual Analysis" series. This deals mainly with what I call "fine-tuning" rituals, imparting a more polished or professional feel to rituals.
Once you have the basics down, you will probably look for ways to refine your rituals. By this I mean better organized, better suited to the group you're with, and no doubt more ambitious. Fine-tuning is something that comes with time, partly because a lot of it is learning the way you enjoy doing ritual, part of it is building traditions specific to your group, and then wanting to build upon those traditions.
One important thing to note is that people prepare rituals in very different ways. I like to write it all out beforehand, and really do a lot of internal preparation before running a blot. In contrast, some people thrive on improvisation, and can produ ce guided meditations and invocations seemingly out of a hat. Determine the amount of preparation you need to be really comfortable with running a blot, and put in the time to do it. You will feel much more confident during the blot, and you will get more out of the blot than you would if you were feeling awkward or harried.
Setting the mood throughout ritual is important. One of the places where many people get awkward is when something physical connected to the ritual goes awry, i.e., a candle goes out, you need to be handed something, you run out of drink during the rou nds, etc. Few things break the mood faster than someone saying, "Hey, we need a lighter over here", or "Uh, where's the horn?".
Part of overcoming this is just careful preparation beforehand. But, since awkward interruptions happen to the most organized, learn to think quickly on your feet, and not waste time wondering what to do.
One of the more awkward moments in one of our outdoor rituals was when a giant wasp landed in our bottle of wine, and proceeded to thrash about, drowning in it. We had one more round to go, and clearly were going to need more wine. Lew and I both acted at once. I grabbed the bottle, and beat a discreet, yet hasty exit, Lew did also, and while I was dumping the wine and dispatching the beast, Lew was hastily uncapping beer bottles. We refilled the bottle, and made our way back to the ritual, just as the gentleman who had been toasting as we left had gotten around to lowering the horn. Talking to him later, he hadn't even noticed us leave and come back, although he was kind of surprised when the horn went from wine to beer. This to me is the ideal " quick fix" during a ritual, the person who hadn't been watching us hadn't even known anything was going on.
Another example of quick thinking I had a chance to witness during a Valley Pagan Web ritual. This was a Wiccan-based ritual, done as a walking Mystery Play. You went down a path in the woods, encountered various Deities, and spoke with them. A friend of mine was supposed to be the Cerridwen tending her Cauldron, and well, the fire that her cauldron was supposed to be on top of had gone out. Instead of saying, "Yo, I need a light", she called aloud, "Will the Horned God bring his blessin g of warmth and light to my hearth?" The gentleman who was representing the Horned God got the idea, left his station with a lit candle, and helped her stoke up the fire.
Most blots can easily be run by one person, but there's a lot of ways one can easily expand the blot format, and that generally means including more people. When that occurs, you may need to plan rituals as a group.
When planning a ritual as a group, it is very easy to start adding extraneous material in an effort to keep everyone happy. Most commonly, one person wants to do something, another person wants to do something else, so both things get added in. Sometim es this works, and more often, it just makes for a jumbled blot. When planning a ritual, someone needs to ask the following questions:
One of the best ways to avoid the traps of planning rituals as a group is to designate one or two people to do most of the planning, and then refine the "rough draft" of the ritual as a group. This will usually save a significant amount of ti me, and is generally less stressful for all concerned.
When speaking aloud (such is during a guided meditation or an invocation) it is possible to say something that is unintentionally funny. Sooner or later, I guarantee that you will do this.
Once I was most solemnly toasting Eric the Red, a figure from the Viking age whose wife converted to Christianity, and from that point on, refused to have sex with her Heathen husband. My concluding statement on the subject was said with perfect innoce nce and straight-man sincerity, "And poor Eric had a hard time of it". Naturally, those assembled immediately broke into laughter.
This being a friendly sumbel, it was actually not inappropiate, although not what I had intended. Such mistakes can be hard on the mood of a ritual when they occur during a solemn invocation, or guided meditation. My best advice is be aware of language , and if you do pull a real howler, and everyone is rolling on the floor, naturally wait until things settle down.
But then, after everyone has had a good laugh, don't dwell on it. Ease back into the meditation or the invocation and return to the focus of the ritual. If done right, the initial silly moment shouldn't make that much of a difference, and if anything, may help relax people. There's few things create a group bond quite as well as a shared laugh.
At this point, some people may be saying, "Does all of this really matter? Isn't sincerity enough?"
I would be the last to denigrate sincerity, because I beleive that must come before all else. I do not think the Gods look down on a quick blot done in five minutes because you really need to talk to Tyr and don't have time to waste. But when a ritual is a planned occurance, and a group of people have taken the time to be there, doesn't it make sense to try and make the ritual a quality experience for all present?
Last Modified 9 January 1998.
Comments to Manny Olds, oldsma@pobox.com