The elements needed for this ritual include:
• Posterboard, newspaper, water, and white flour to make a plaster-like paste, paint, glitter, feathers, sequins, colored markers, and sticks at least twelve inches long
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Gathering
(7:15 a.m.; sunrise 7:25)
People gather outside Ballroom A (Scandinavian Ballroom).
Welcome (priest)
Horns blow
Procession
People proceed outdoors, led by:
Stang
Libation bearers
Priest
People
People assemble, facing East.
Sunrise
As the first limb of the Sun touches the horizon, horns blow.
People pray, pour libations.
As the Sun clears the horizon, horns blow again.
Song: Turn to the East (all)
Lift thine eyes, behold the light:
turn to the East, where dawns the day.
Hope and love, forever bright,
guide and protect us on our way.
Hail the Sun's rays, shining bright
after Winter's long, dark night.
Lift up thy voice, with praises ringing;
turn to the East, where dawns the day.
Blessing and Dismissal
Priest
(Turns to face people)
I've written before about the dogs the Minoans kept as pets and hunting companions. But did you know the Minoans also had cats? They probably came to Crete on trading ships from Egypt, and it's clear from the art that they loved their kitties every bit as much as modern people do.
That's a Minoan cat up top in a fresco from Hagia Triada. In true cat fashion, it's hiding behind some ivy to sneak up on a bird.
...
What Should We Name Planet 9?
The math is pretty clear: our Sun has a ninth planet out there, so far out that it makes Pluto look like a next-door neighbor.
For now, they've taken to calling it Planet Nine. But if and when it's actually discovered, we'll need a better name than that.
What, then, should we call it?
First, a few parameters.
We should name P9 for a goddess.
Gods know, we've got plenty of Boy planets out there already. We could use more Girls in this family.
We should name P9 for a Classical deity.
Only a polytheist nomenclature is equal to describing the magnificence of That Which Is; all the other planets are already so-named. (While a foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds, internal systemic consistency is a simple matter of aesthetics. Call it contextual cognitive resonance, if you like.) No pantheon-mixing in this solar system, please.
The name should be in its Latin—not Greek—form.
After all, we say Saturn, not Khronos, Neptune, not Poseidon. While a foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds....
The Latin name should be in Anglicized form.
After all, we say Saturn, not Saturnus, Neptune, not Neptunus. A foolish consistency...
Granted the above parameters, then, an obvious choice presents itself.
The essential elements for this ritual are enough candles to represent every year of the crone’s life, flowers, silver wire, crystals, water, flowering branches, silver moon-shaped paper cutouts, and potluck food. The potluck food served at the party after the ritual will be even more special and good for all if they emphasize “women’s food” such as estrogen-filled yams, calcium-rich broccoli, and yogurt. Soy is recommended as well, and chocolate is essential.
The first part of the ritual takes place before the honored guest, the new crone, arrives. Working together, women should take the silver wire and form a round crown. Glue semiprecious crystals to this crown, attach charms and amulets, and affix the silver crescent moons. Make it beautiful and meaningful. The silver moon is a sign of the Goddess, and the new crone is a representative of the Goddess’s third aspect. The crystals, which are the stones and bones of Mother Earth, add power and the beauty of Gaia. Charms and amulets are for health, protection, good luck, and good life. As you make it and place the jewels and charms on the crown, state your intentions and hopes for the new crone. When the crown is complete, place it on a beautiful purple pillow or on the altar.
...
In the days of the emperor Arcadius, long after the rest of the region had been thoroughly Christianized, the city of Gaza remained proudly, defiantly, faithful to the Old Ways, its eight temples daily thronged with worshipers.
At the heart and center of pagan Gaza stood the Marneion, the marble-clad temple of Zeus Marnas, famed for its size and beauty. Though latterly identified with the Greek Zeus, the god of this temple (Aramaic Mâr-nâ, “our Lord”) was none other than the old Canaanite Thunderer, Ba'al Hadad himself, god of that place for more than 3000 years.
So few Christians were there among the Gazans that, when the city's newly-appointed bishop, Porphyrius, arrived to take charge, he could find only a handful in a city of several hundred thousand inhabitants.
In those days, when a new bishop rode into his city for the first time, it was customary to give him a triumphal welcome, the road before him strewn with branches and palm fronds, the air perfumed with incense. On March 21, 395, however, the people of Gaza gave Porphyrius a satirical entry instead. They strewed the road before him with thorns, fouled the air with burning cowpies, and met him with jeers instead of the expected hymns.
Porphyrius burned hot with anger, but the emperor would brook no interference with the city or its ways. Gaza was a wealthy city, and paid its taxes faithfully, fattening the imperial treasury with its annual revenues.
Porphyrius soon ingratiated himself with the empress, predicting that she would soon bear a son. When she did so, after the child's baptism, he was finally given the permission he had long sought to destroy the temples of Gaza.
Imperial troops entered the city on May 12 in the year 400. The plunder and rapine continued unabated for twelve days and nights. When they were finished, pagan Gaza was no more.
Our modern society has taken an unfortunate attitude toward aging, characterized by denial and shame. Rather than embracing the realization of their own highest wisdom, aging women are socialized into unhealthy regimens such as Botox and plastic surgery in vain attempts to turn back the clock. Women should feel good about aging; they should celebrate long, full lives. Women should be respected and honored for the wisdom they bring to the community. One of the roles ritual plays in the world is to change the dynamic between a person and her community. Therefore, croning rituals are the signal to the group that a woman has ascended into a new role of service and leadership to the family, the tribe, the village, and the sisterhood. Theories vary as to when a woman becomes a crone. Z. Budapest in her Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries says it happens to every woman at age fifty-six. Others say it is at age fifty-four, and priestess and writer Diana Paxson says it’s a range from sixty to seventy-one for the evolution from Queen to Crone. Often cronehood is confirmed at fourteen months past a woman’s last period, and when she has come to her second Saturn Return. A woman should decide for herself when she feels she has reached the age of “cronehood,” however; if she is not prepared to take on the title, then by all means she should wait until she is ready. Discussing it with other women will help authenticate what you know and feel inside. Support from the sisterhood is essential, and in many circles of friends and family, women who are of similar ages should sustain each other in life’s passages and honor each other as they wish to be honored.