2013 Lughnasadh Ritual Attendance

Our local Grove's Lughnasadh ritual was held this past Saturday.  It was an evening ritual and held on the land owned by my family.  The pantheon honored was Slavic, and I wrote the ritual (for complete ritual text, follow this link).  This was the first time a ritual I wrote was performed in a group setting.

Because it was a harvest ritual, I bedecked the ritual table in excess produce from our garden.  After the ritual, participants were encouraged to take whatever produced they preferred.

There was a smaller attendance than usual, and all the participants were women.  This was the first time since I began attending the Grove's rituals in May 2012 that there were no men present. The mood was calm and  friendly.  I lead the ritual and guided everyone through the Core Order.

During personal offerings each person stated their work out loud, which was a departure from the previous silent/whispered offerings of the past.  Hearing what others were feeling/asking for made me feel more like we were a group working together on common goals, rather than a bunch of individuals gathered to do piecemeal a ritual.

The omens were pulled and read by another Grove member, and spoke of change and adventure

I really felt connected during this ritual - to the words spoken, to the individuals present and to the Kindreds.  I'm sure part of this is due to the fact that I wrote the ritual, and the pantheon honored was my home pantheon.  This ritual definitely felt like a continuation of the Spring Equinox ritual my family performed, during which we asked the same deities to bless our planting.  It was really satisfying to feel the relationship between us and the Slavic pantheon growing.