I was one of 3 people, each from different paths, who performed a ritual of their path at a funeral. I wore my religious robes and brought a drinking horn to perform a traditional sumbel toast.

Participants were instructed that the mourning color in the Filipino tradition is white and we were all encouraged to wear white. I added as much white to my ritual garb as I could manage. I replaced the purple hatband of my wool hat with a white lace band and added a white silk flower. I wore a white lace apron, white pants under my dress, my white wool scarf, and a white silk veil. In selecting my ritual jewelry, I decided to include the white butterfly pendant.

In keeping with my new practice of choosing perfumes to honor specific powers and for specific occasions, I wore two perfumes by Cherry-Ka's Trunk, Valkyrie for the reapers of the slain, and One-Eye for Odin, the deceased's favorite heathen god.

He had followed 3 paths in life: the ways of his ancestors from the Philippines, a form of Wicca in which his wife was a priestess, and Asatru. Among us he was known as Jan Odinson.

A wake had already been held for him last year. This ritual took place on his birthday, which was the day after my birthday. As I was pulling up to the ritual area in my car, there were a few drops of rain. I immediately toasted Thor with what I had in my car, which was flavored water. When I got inside I said the ritual had already been blessed with rain, and was told someone else had said that exact thing. 

Lane Wilcken, an elder of the Filipino tradition, performed a ritual that began with smudging with guava leaf. Then there was a Wiccan ritual. Then after the Wiccan ritual circle was taken down, I performed the sumbel ritual. All those rituals were held outdoors. The Wiccan ritual was recorded.

After the rituals we were all glad to go inside where it was warm. There Lane and other members of the Filipino tradition held kava, and I was invited to participate. It was a wonderful experience. Kava tastes like petrichor. That's one of my favorite smells both in real life and in perfume, and it was great to be able to experience it as a a taste. I love it!

In talking with Lane, we discovered we are both book authors. His book is Filipino Tattoos: Ancient to Modern.

Back home, I raised another toast to Thor, with mint tea from my garden. I thanked him both for his blessing of rain on the ritual grounds and also for not raining during the ritual. I let him know that I would enjoy some rain now that I was back home.

My body turned out to be incompatible with kava. I started having problems with balance and standing up last night and am still having them this morning as I write this. Typing on a computer in a chair is just my speed right now, so this was a great time to work on this blog post. I'm still really glad I had the opportunity to try kava. I won't be having it again, but I will treasure the memory.