Samhain Ritual

By Dorothy Morrison

This was written when I did not have a qualified Priest in my group. However, it may easily be adapted for those groups in which the Priestess and Priest work together. It may be just as easily adapted to solitary work.

Place an apple and pomegranate upon the altar. There should also be a planted pot of earth for each participant. These may be arranged on the altar as well, if there is space. Instruments of divination may be placed within the Circle perimeter for use during the ritual if you wish. Arrange the altar as usual and decorate with autumn leaves, pumpkins, etc., cast and purified the Circle in your usual manner.

Dance around the Circle in a shuffle step (deosil), all chant three times:

The Moon is bright, the Crone is old,
The body lifeless, the bones so cold.
We all live and pay our dues,
To die in ones and threes and twos.

Death, dance and play the harp
Piercing silence in the dark
The Woman's old with withered limbs
Death beckons Her to dance with Him

As She accepts the Dance of Death
The Earth is cooled by ghostly breath
To lie in dormancy once more
To have Her strength and life restored

Go to the Western Quarter and draw an invoking pentagram with the athame to open the gate. Then evoke the dead by saying:

All ye spirits who walk this night,
Hearken! Hearken to my call!
I bid you in our Circle join!
Enter! Enter one and all!

Come ye, spirits of the dead!
Be ye spirit of plant or pet
Or human being who still roams!
Into this Circle you are let!

Speak to us of things unknown!
Lend your energies to this rite!
To speed your journey, we have joined
On this sacred Samhain night!

All ye spirits who walk this night
Hearken! Hearken to my call!
I bid you in our Circle join!
Enter! Enter one and all!

Bestow blessings upon the dead, saying:

Oh Mighty Pan of the Summerlands!
Guardian of the beloved dead!
We pour forth love on those you keep
Safely, in your peaceful stead.
We bless those who have walked the path
That someday we as well shall rove.
We offer peace unto their souls
While resting in your arms, below.

Now is the time for divination and communication with those who have gone on before us via the Ouija Board, pendulum, cards, etc. Allow plenty of time for this. I have found it helpful to have a tape recorder handy within the Circle for recording any communications that may be channeled during this time. Some people disagree with this suggestion, saying that the metal of this electronic device causes scattered energies in the Circle; however, if the recorder has been cleansed and purified as the rest of the ritual tools, the problem seems to be resolved.

When the divinations are completed, the Priestess goes to the Western Quarter and draws the banishing pentagram, saying:

Blessings be upon thee, oh wondrous Spirits of the Summerlands. We humbly thank thee for your presence in our Circle and honor you in celebration this sacred night. We beseech thee, oh Pan, keeper of the sacred dead, embrace once again those souls within your keep and hold tightly to your breast those who have been lost and wandering. Grant them safe passage to the Summerland, where they may rest peacefully in your strength until they are refreshed and reborn again in perfect love. We bid thee all a fond farewell. So mote it be!

The gate is now closed.

The Priestess goes to the altar and holds up the pomegranate, saying:

Behold the pomegranate, Fruit of Life

She plunges the athame into the pomegranate, splitting it open to display the seeds and says:

Whose seeds lie in the dormancy of Death!

The Priestess eats one of the seeds, saying:

I taste the Seeds of Death.

The participants pass the pomegranate hand to hand, each eating a seed and saying to the next person:

Taste the Seeds of Death.

The Priestess then holds up the apple, saying:

Behold the apple: Fruit of Wisdom, Fruit of Death

She then cuts the apple crosswise, saying:

Whose symbolism rewards us with life eternal!

She holds up the apple, displaying the inner pentagram, and says:

Behold the fivefold star, the promise of rebirth!

Consecrate the fruit and wine. Each person then tastes of the apple and sips the wine, saying to the next person:

Taste the Fruit of Rebirth and sip from the cup of wine.

After libation, the Priestess presents each member of the group with a small pot of earth, planted with three seeds, preferably rue or lavender. She briefly explains to the group that this is the season of the seed. It is a time of dormancy, but also a time of regeneration for growth. Further, as the seed rests in the earth, they should also take time to rest and reevaluate their lives, metaphorically planting only those values that will enrich and enhance the growth within the Divine Self. She then instructs them to name the seeds within their pots with three values they wish to incorporate into their lives, knowing that as the seeds sprout with new life, their lives will be new as well.

After the presentation, all join hands and hold them skyward. The Priestess says:

Thus is the Circle of Rebirth.
All pass from this life
through the great god, Pan.
But through My love you are all reborn
In the cycles of nature
through the Cosmic Plan.

All respond:

In living we die, in dying we live.
The fruit is first seed,
yet seed comes from the fruit.
In the mystery of life and death and rebirth,
The Circle turns ever, and I am its root.

The Sun conceived in Darkness, cold;
In the Shadow of Death, a Life unfolds.
A shred of Light begins to burn;
From Death comes Life, the Circle turns.

Dismiss Quarters and Dissolve Circle.

Priestess:

The rite is ended.

All:

Merry meet and merry part
and merry meet again!

Leave an outdoor libation to the Lord and Lady, and the spirits of the dead.

Dorothy Morrison lives in the bootheel of Missouri with her husband, fourteen year old son, and Sadie Mae (a Labrador retriever mix rescued from the animal shelter where she works). She is a Third Degree Wiccan High Priestess of the Georgian Tradition, founded the Coven of the Crystal Garden in 1986, and teaches the Craft to students in seven states and in Australia. Other interests include competition archery and bowhunting, world-wide computer networking with other Pagans, magical herbalism, stonework, and needlecraft.

She has been published under the name Kalioppe in Pagan journals and newsletters during the past three years. These publications include Circle Network News, SageWoman, Silver Chalice, Aladrissa's Cauldron, Witches and Witchlings, From the Heart/h, Craft/Crafts, The Spider, The Kore, Tudor Rose, New Moon Rising, and The Crone Chronicles. Her poetry and magical recipes appeared in Patricia Telesco's The Kitchen Witches' Cookbook (Llewellyn), and her mythical short stories are included in S.R. Smith's anthology of Folklore, Fable and Fantasy (Galde Press). Perfect Harmony, a children's story written in verse, is currently under consideration for publication as a coloring book by Altar Publishing, and Goddess Bless and May Your Needles Never Snap!, a how-to book of magical needlecraft ideas and patterns, is currently under consideration for publication by Llewellyn.

Under her given name, she writes bowhunting and other archery-related articles and currently holds a position as staff writer for one of the nation's largest bowhunting magazines.