Ritual Drama for Cú Chulainn

This was one of my first ritual dramas, and our grove performed it for the Fall Equinox some years back. It was great fun. We enlisted the help of one of our Irish Wolfhounds, Artemis, to be the Hound of Culainn. She was a great ham who happily laid down “dead” in exchange for a treat. A puppet will do in a pinch, of course.

Here, first is the key offering:

We call the Hound of Culainn!
Son of Deichtine and the Mighty Lugh,
Great warrior of the Morrigan,
Against whom none can stand in battle,
You who lived your life like a fiery arrow
flying through the night sky,
we invite you to join us tonight.

Cú Chulainn, accept our sacrifice!”

The drama requires 5 actors. Some parts can be played by the same person.

ACT 1

CAST

Cathbad
King Conchobar
Setanta
Boy
Culainn
Guard

SCENE 1

CATHBAD: Who goes there?  Why, it is my lord, the King of Ulster, Conchobar mac Nessa.  

[King enters]

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Midsummer Rite for the Fae

I was just looking around at some old rituals and came across this one that I thought I would share.  It’s a fun little rit, but some of the parts are borrowed from Shakespeare and elsewhere and can be quite long and not easily memorized.  There is nothing more energy-killing in a ritual than having someone simply stare at a scrap of paper and monotonously read out the lines.  So, I recommend that those with longer parts should at least read them several times in advance so that they know the lines well enough to be able to put on a show while reading them out.

The ritual requires a couple of props.  You need a fairy, Puck, and Mab.  When our grove performed this at the Summer Solstice in 2015, our members made beautiful Puck and Mab puppets; the puppets gave the ritual that much more fun and energy.  You also need a bed of some sort on your altar for Puck and Mab to retire to; we used a lambskin blanket.

Ritual

1. Initiating the Rite & Purification:

The group gathers outside the circle. Two torches stand in the path to the circle.

Druid #1: Let us with gladness sound the drum
To honour the magical ones we come!
Light the fires to guide the way
and purify our bodies here today!

Ritual Drama for Rhiannon

I just love ritual dramas. Without over much effort, I find that they are capable of raising great energy to honour our Gods and Goddesses. The key is to keep them simple — no more than 3 or 4 parts, keep the dialogue to a minimum so that people don’t need to memorize too much, and stick to the main elements of the myth; having a good narrative flow means that actors don’t need to know every word… as long as they know the story and their part in it, they can ad-lib freely and the story still unfolds as it should. I have found that having a narrator role helps a lot to describe scenes that are difficult to act, and to fill in details such as time and locations changes.

Our Grove performed this at Samhain this year, but it could be suitable for any High Day. We had only two props; a foam toy sword, and a large futon cover that worked well as Pwyll’s bag. Wooden hobby horses would have been nice but we got along find without them.

Rhiannon and Pwyll

Roles

Narrator
Pwyll
Knight
Gwawl
Rhiannon

Photo Friday!

Ritual for Arianrhod and Blodeuwedd

Our grove performed this ritual at Ostara in 2013, but it can be used for pretty much any High Day.  What I tried to do was inter-weave the invocations to the Welsh Goddesses Arianrhod and Blodeuwedd into their story.  Thus this part appears as the Key Offerings section of the Druidic rit.  I love this story for many reasons, but one of the best reasons is how beautifully it illustrates the Indo-European tri-functional cultural perspective as Llew Llaw Gyffes seeks a name (magic), arms (warrior), and a wife (fertility/love).

 

Druid  begins the invocations:

“Once there was a king in Wales
by the name of Math ap Mathonwy
who could only rest if his feet should lie in the lap of a maiden.

He consulted with Gwydion the Druid as to
which maiden he should choose, and Gwydion’s reply was
that he should choose the Goddess Arianrhod.

So Math ap Mathonwy went to the the castle of Arianrhod,
and there he called unto her:

“Arianrhod!

Goddess of the Silver Wheel that descends into the sea!
I open myself to the night sky that is your domain!
Daughter of Don, come to me tonight!

Arianrhod, accept my sacrifice!”

Druid makes the Arianrhod sacrifice.

A Samhain for Cerridwen

I was just suggesting to a friend on Facebook that we need to publish more rituals for the community to draw upon.  I figured that maybe I should see if I could find a few that folk might be interested in.  Here is the Samhain ritual that we did in 2013.  Note that for Samhain rites we do not invoke a gatekeeper since the veils between the worlds is thin.

Special Notes

• One of the women should have a bundle of dry sticks.
• Participants will be asked to hold one particular ancestor or departed loved one in mind to call out to.  They may bring an offering/light a candle and/or say a few words to them.

Ritual

Purification:

The group processes towards the nemeton.  As they approach, Druid 1 asperges them with water, saying “May the waters of the Earth Mother cleanse you.”  and Druid 2 purifies them with incense, saying “May the air of the Sky Father purify you.”

Initiating the Rite:

The group gathers in a circle around the centre.

Druid says:

“Of old, on Samhain the Celts would put out their hearth fires and clean their fireplaces.  Then the women would spend Samhain day gathering dry wood.  Have the women come with dry wood?”

A woman brings forth a bundle of dry wood.  Druid continues:

“With such wood, the men folk would build a need-fire.  Without fire, the tribe would not survive the coming winter, so it must be made or we shall perish.  But once lit, each member of the tribe would bring home with them an ember of the need fire to kindle anew their hearth fires.

Now, if the women would raise some energy, we men shall try to kindle the need fire!”

The men work on kindling the fire while the women chant:

“Come fire come we welcome you
come fire come we honour you”

Establishing the Group Mind

When the fire is kindled, all of the folk join hands and dance deosil, singing:

“Fire red, summer’s dead
Yet it shall return.
Clear and bright, in the night,
Burn, fire, burn!”

Simple Office Blessing

I recently moved into a new office at work and decided to perform a short blessing ritual on it.  Fire was obviously not an option, which for me meant that the ADF framework was out.  Anyway I liked the idea of calling the directions, so decided to make it OBOD-y.  If anyone is interested in using this, feel free!

With the blessing of the hawk of the dawn soaring in the pure clear air, I call upon the powers of the east. May you bless this office and grant knowledge and inspiration to he who toils within it. Blessed be.

With the blessing of the stag standing under the fire of the noon sun I call upon the powers of the south. May you bless this office and grant passion and leadership to he who toils within it. Blessed be.

With the blessing of the salmon of wisdom who dwells within the waters of the sacred well, I call upon the powers of the west. May you bless this office and grant wisdom and health to he who toils within it. Blessed be.

With the blessing of the great bear of the starry night and deep earth, I call upon the powers of the north. May you bless this office and grant strength and prosperity to he who toils within it. Blessed be.

Cernunnos, stag lord Cernunnos, king of the golden torc Cernunnos, you who stand between the civil and the wild I make you this offering and ask that you bless and protect this office and he who toils within it. Cernunnos accept my sacrifice!

After each quarter, I put a dab of “Horned God” essential oil on the wall. After my Cernunnos invocation I poured a small vial of wine into the soil of my office plant.  Ta da!  All blessed!

The Earth Mother Prayer as Student Prank

I’ve been doing a cycle of ritual that aims to teach the folk about the various elements of the liturgy in a hopefully engaging and entertaining manner.  At Imbolc we took on the Earth Mother Prayer aspect.  Here is the ritual script for that part of it, in the hopes that it may be useful for interesting for someone.

Statement of Purpose

The Druid provides the statement of purpose:

“Let us pray with a good fire.

As our Ancestors did in times before and our children may do in times to come, our tribe has gathered once more.

We come together to walk the elder ways, to mark the changing of the seasons, and to honour our Gods.”

Photo Friday!

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

A Samhain for The Morrigan (with ritual drama!)

I’d like to start publishing some of my rituals in the hopes that they may be of some use to others.  Our grove Daoine dhen Tamais performed this ritual at Samhain 2014.  The invocation was quite something, but we probably had way too much fun with the drama!

The liturgy followed the ADF core order of ritual, so what follows is from the key offerings:

Druid 1 steps forth, saying:

“An Mór-ríoghain – I, (name) of the tribe Daoine dhen Tamais, call to thee
An Mór-ríoghain – Great Queen! I honour you!
An Mór-ríoghain – Lady of Sovereignty! I welcome you!
Freely I give this mead that the Land may bless you back!”

Druid 1 makes an offering of mead