A Ceremony For Mid-February
At the time when one is most weary of winters cold and emptiness, then shall this ceremony be directed toward the fertile promises of Earth and the warmth hidden in her patient flesh. For she sleeps only and her awakening has been assured by the fires of December and by the newly arisen light of January. At the Vernal Equinox will she truly turn to new conception.Yet even now in this spare-seeming month,her substance is complete, her wealth immense and by proper invocation
there may be a softening in her stony frosts.
Call forth then the strength of her darkened seeds and behold her no longer barren but only bared,
soon to be summoned by the sun of spring.
The Altar for this ceremony should be spread with a length of brown velvet.Six candles, coloured as the six colours of the spectrum, shall be set in a row, according to the spectrums order, along the cloth. No incense or scent of any sort should be provided, but all garments worn shall be ornate and fantastical, with flowing scarves and ribbons of gaudy hues, many bright amulets and strands of beads and rings upon the fingers and toes. Some budded twigs, rinsed clean and set in an earthen jug of water, should be placed at one end of the altar, and at the other a like jug holding new golden ale, with an earthen mug beside it. In the center of the table should stand a large pottery bowl half filled with Earth dug up that day from the cold garden and near it a small box of seeds,either of flowers or from any common weed, as burdock which stands even now in the waste places, full of fertile knots and burrs.
The time of day for this ceremony is not important, yet it might best be performed in the early evening following some afternoon of sun and moderate thaw.
Thus all shall begin---------the six candles are lighted and these words said:
Earth asleep in winter's bed
On thy limbs this light be shed,
On thy face as still as stone
And silent dreaming of the sun:
He shall come to claim his own,
Thou shalt waken to him soon
Yet today with candle beams
We ourselves may warm thy dreams.
Each candle in turn should be passed over the bowl of Earth,
and then the bowl lifted in both hands with these words:
Flowers of sun
Flowers of earth
Sleeping, turn
To share our breath.
Set down the bowl and remove the twigs from the jug of water.
Hold them over the bowl a few moments, then stand them upright in the jug of ale, saying:
Now may this golden potion of the sun
Fill thee with sweetness and a brightened sleep
Wherein thy dreams shall wear a better shape
To set thee flowering when thy sleep is done.
Then take the jug of water and pour over the earth in the bowl until all the Earth is moistened.
Each person should now bend over this bowl, and breathe upon it thrice while these words are recited thrice:
Warmth of our breath warm thy breath,
Warmth of our flesh warm thy flesh:
We who are waking melt thy stone,
We who are living thaw thy bone:
Into thy spirit we breath ours:
Out of thy sleep we father flowers.
Next scatter upon the surface of the watered Earth all the seeds from the box with these words:
Sparks,stars, suns, seeds
Soon be raised to glorious weeds,
Noble roses, soveriegn trees,
All whose strength begins in these.
Take then the twigs from the jug of ale, set them again in the other jug, and fill the
earthen mug with ale;it should be offered to all present,with this:
Where life has stood
The draught is good
so drink the brew
And live anew.
When the ale is finished all should attend to these words:
Now the sleeper dreams her golden dreams,
Bound in warmth that flickers ever brighter:
yet we may surround her quiet bed,
Her limbs she rests in subtle nakedness,
With all the gaudy garments we have kept
To drive dark winter back into the grave.
She sleeps in nothing but her fertile flesh
To shield her from the wind and winters evil,
Then should we hide our everlasting heat
Behind the colours of all spring and summer?
Cast off those coverings and be
No less prepared to greet the sun than she.
Each one should then take off some articles of bright clothing and ornament,
much or little according to inspiration,and all these be piled before the altar
as an offering, say then:
This is our warmth
To Earth now offered
These our flowers
Plucked for the taking:
We her attendants
Wait for her waking,
So we may rise,
Like her,well favored
By sun and his strength
Through all his reigns length.
All should then bend in obeisance over the bowl wherein earth, water and seeds are contained saying:
I offer thee only
What is thine:
Iam thy seed
And thy creation
So may i grow
And so remain
Thine image,spirit
Flesh and vision.
The ceremony shall then be ended by each persons breaking a fragment of twig from those in the
jug to keep for a talisman and covenant.
The Crones Book of Charms and Spells By Valerie Worth
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