Long Island Open Circle


Mabon Circle
September 23, 2006

HPS consecrates water and salt:
May the salt admonish the water to bear the virtues of the Great Sea. (Genuflects) Mother, be thou adored!

HP consecrates incense (air) and fire:
May the fire and the air make sweet the whole earth. (Genuflects) Father, be thou adored!

HPS, lighting Goddess candle:
I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky. 

HP, lighting God candle:
I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.

Purify/consecrate participants.

Circle casting:

HP asperges and censes circle.

Participants call Directions/Elementals, lighting quarter candles: 

(East)
Hail, Air, Force of Thought!
Breath of Mind, Image and Word,
We call upon your influence 
To inform our Rites and guard our Circle! 

(South) 
Hail, Fire, Force of Will!
Spark of Life, Warmth, and Light,
We call upon your influence
To energize our Rites and guard our Circle!

(West) 
Hail, Water, Force of Devotion!
Wave of Love, Passion, and Desire,
We call upon your influence
To impassion our Rites and guard our Circle! 

(North)
Hail, Earth, Force of nature!
Rock of Health, Wealth, and Sustenance,
We call upon your influence
To solidify our Rites and guard our Circle!


HPS walks thrice deosil about circle, cutting circle with sword:

I call up this Circle by and for the glory of Artemis the Virgin Huntress and Clotho the spinner of the Thread of Life and Guardian of the Hidden Kernel.

I carve and cast this Circle by and for the glory of Demeter the Fruitful Earth and Wife of the Grain and Lachesis the Measurer of the Thread of Life, who calculates the bounty of the seasons.

I empower and establish this Circle by and for the glory of Hecate, Dark Mother and Gateway to and from this world, and Atropos, the Cutter of the Thread of Life and harvester of the Grain.

(Stopping at Altar) So mote it be!

All: So mote it be!

HP calls Watchtowers:

(East)
Hail the Watchtower of the rising Sun!
Here are the Gates of new Light, 
The beginnings of thought,
The first stirrings of Life in a newborn world.

East, Air, Dawn, and the new life of the Sun’s course in Spring,
I call and summon you to attend these rites and guard this Circle.

(South)
Hail the Watchtower of the noonday Sun!
Here are the Gates of the God’s triumph,
The fullness of our will and passion,
The height of our power and achievement.

South, Fire, Noon, and the shining power of the summer Sun,
I call and summon you to attend these rites and guard this Circle.

(West )
Hail the Watchtower of the setting Sun!
Here are the Gates of the Underworld,
The embrace of the Goddess,
The threshold of death and initiation.

West, Water, Evening, and the portal of the Sun’s descent, 
I call and summon you to attend these rites and guard this Circle.

(North) 
Hail the Watchtower of the Sun at Midnight!
Here are the Gates of darkness and sleep, 
Regeneration and change,
Stillness in the waiting for Rebirth. 

North, Earth, Midnight, and the black Sun of the darkest depths,
I call and summon you to attend these rites and guard this Circle.


HPS: 
The circle is cast. 
We stand between the worlds.
This is the place that is no place,
And the time outside of time.


Mabon Drama

HPS: In the heights of Heaven a light is burning.
From the stars’ embrace our Lord is leaving,
Looking to the West, to sleep and dream.

HP, taking up God candle and proceeding toward the West:
With a glad heart I will go now
To ride the horses of the roaring Sea.
Called to the West, I carry the Light
That it may shine again in due season.

Harvester, approaching Altar:
The End is embedded in the Beginning
Just as the Beginning is embedded in the End.
Just as a flame to a burning coal,
And, as coal begets diamonds,
So does the harvest guard
Against the approaching days of barrenness.


Harvester cuts down sheaf of grain. As s/he does so, HP extinguishes God candle and sinks to the earth. HPS shrouds him with a cloth. 

HPS: From the heights of heaven a Star is falling.
From the trees the ripened fruit is dropping.
Amidst decay the seed is planted
To sprout again in Spring.

HPS lifts bread from the base of the fallen grain sheaf, declaring:
Ground by the Wheel, the grain releases
Its life for our relief.
The Lord is hidden in every loaf.
His light and life sustain us.

HP rejoins HPS, placing extinguished God candle on Altar and declaring:
As I wane, so will I wax.
The days will not decrease forever.
With the promise of sleep comes the pledge of awakening.
The Grain will sprout again.


HPS: Guided Meditation

Mabon Meditation:

Autumn is here. The grass is browning; the leaves are dying. The night falls sooner and lasts longer. When we go out into the night we wrap our cloaks around ourselves more tightly and duck our heads against the chill of the wind.

We are children of the Earth and the Sky. We speak of the turning of the Wheel. We speak of the cycles of our lives. Sometimes autumn seems the hardest season of all. We watch the sun fade and something in us wonders whether it will ever really come again.

But the autumn evening falls. The long night of winter passes. The Sun rises again in the dawn of Spring. 

We speak truthfully when we speak of the seasons of our lives. We lie fallow through our winters; we feel the spark of new life in our springs; we come into the fullness of joy in our summers. But we must return to our autumns, and take stock of our harvests, and release the things we cannot keep.

Sometimes autumn seems the hardest season of all.

These things that we give up… that we let go of… these things that die in the autumns of our lives… are never really dead. They are within us. They are a part of us. They are us – for we are not the same people we were before their coming. 

These gifts given in love never really die. They lie dreaming in the fertile soil of our hearts to nourish and sustain us throughout the long night of our souls’ winter, and to come forth in new forms and with new life in the spring.

In autumn, do not mourn what has been taken from you. Rather rejoice in the gifts you have been given, and free them to return to their Source with your love.

For the autumn’s evening will fall. And the long night of the winter will pass. And the sun will rise again in the dawn of Spring.

 copyright 2006 Hillary Foxsong hillary@liopencircle.org  

HP and HPS invite Participants to release anything they would like or need to by writing it on paper and burning it in the Cauldron.


Cakes and Ale

HPS holds outstretched hands over the bread and wine; HP holds his hands over hers.

HPS: For I am the Full Moon among the Stars, and I am the Foundation Stone of Heaven, the Cornerstone of the Celestial Temple. And My Lord is the Sun and
the ripened grain, ground between the miller’s stones to sustain the life of the body.

HP: And when joined together they are Mind, the reflection of the Cosmos in the soul and body of Woman and Man, born of the living Gods of Heaven and Earth.

Eat and Drink



Circle Closing

Participants, extinguishing quarter candles:

(North)
Hail, Earth, Force of Nature! Guardian of the Watchtowers of the North! We thank you for attending our rite; and ere you depart to your fair and lovely realms, we bid thee Farewell. 

(West)
Hail, Water, Force of Devotion! Guardian of the Watchtowers of the West! We thank you for attending our rite; and ere you depart to your fair and lovely realms, we bid thee Farewell. 

(South)
Hail, Fire, Force of Will! Guardian of the Watchtowers of the South! We thank you for attending our rite; and ere you depart to your fair and lovely realms, we bid thee Farewell. 

(East)
Hail, Air, Force of Thought! Guardian of the Watchtowers of the East! We thank you for attending our rite; and ere you depart to your fair and lovely realms, we bid thee Farewell.


HP: Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains. For your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries; though with fire and sword it be burnt down and shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall stand.

HPS: Go therefore:
Walk in peace and strength and wisdom
And in the fullness of the love of the Gods.

HP: Lady and Lord, go if You must, and stay if You will.
The Circle is opened, but unbroken.
Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again!

Long Island Open Circle 
www.liopencircle.org