Posting Pics of the Ritual!

Now, this might screw up the blog, but I want to try to post pics here...







Yule Altar





Another Altar Shot





Azure Fixing the Light





Lining Up (only a portion of our line)





Post Rite





Post Rite 2





Yule Tree




Part of the Potluck

Last Night's Yule Ritual

Last night, we had our annual Friends and Family Yule ritual! It was great! We had a nice sized turnout. We started closer to on time than ever before, and we had a few new faces. We took pictures with Raynes digital camera, so hopefully she'll post them here soon.

We seated the spectators- we allow spectators at our rituals, so that those who don't want to particpate can get a feel for what happens. Ligeiya smudged me first so I could go in and cleanse the ritual room. Then, everyone lined up and Ligeiya smudged everyone. Everyone came in and formed a circle around the beautiful altar, and the quarters took their places. I don't want to go into detail about the ritual, but we sacrificed something about ourselves that we didnt like to the dark before we cast the circle. Then we learned the short chant, and I cast the circle. The ritual began. We had our usual enactment of the battle of the kings and we welcomed the sun by calling to him in song. I felt we raised a LOT of energy. I could really feel it on my fingers.

For this ritual, I was in the center of the circle, rather than a part of the circle like I usually am. It was very different, and I really liked the feeling of taking in the energy and helping send it up.

I hope other members will post about how they felt about the ritual....

Annoyance

I'm really getting annoyed. I keep trying to blog to my other blog, but it keeps coming to this one. Are any of the other coven members having this problem?

Preparing for Yule

Every year, we do two friends and family rituals. Last year it was Lughnasadh and Yule. This year we've done Beltane, and we'll be doing Yule this upcoming weekend. Our ritual will be followed by an ornament exchange and a potluck.

Last night, we gathered at the covenstead and did a thorough cleaning. Its amazing how much 5 (well, 6) people can get done. Frank came with Ann and regrouted the tile in the entryway, because people were tripping on the broken tile. We do a lot for the room that we borrow for our meetings and rituals. Our christmas lights have been up since last year (they look really pretty), so we didn't have to do that. Wow, to think, last year we were three people, and now we are seven.

Neat.

Getting Closer and Closer

I am really excited about Yule. It's almost here and it is going to be so awesome!!! Working on my ornament for the exchange this year is funstuffs.
Ooooohhhhh and nope it won't be the one that was chillin' on my coffee table either hahahahaha!!!
xo, Rayne

Yule!

Hi all! I finally got on the blog. I'm so excited about Yule. I can't wait to battle Willow as a King. It's nice to have a part in ritual other than my normal quarter call. I just hope I make you all proud.

Congratulations to D'Rchhaartt (and other randomness)

Last evening, we initiated D'Rchhaartt into the inner court of the coven. It was great! She's been such a trooper! I don't know anyone else who would have agreed to go camping with people she's only met twice. She's done a lot of hard work and totally deserves it.

Also, we went shopping yesterday, and even took our first step toward our friends and family Yule ritual. We bought the most beautiful material for our altar cloths. So pretty! We learned that grocery shopping when you are HUNGRY is not always the best idea. We bought so much soda and water.... may we never thirst, right? :)

Ist Annual Priestess Training...

went so wonderfully!! Thanks (and kudos) to Ivy for putting together SUCH a comprehensive program to train us. I learned SO much, especially about myself. It was great Ivy, thanks for being a great high priestess!!

Samhain was so great!

We had a beautiful candlelight spiral, and honored our ancestors, as the tradition of Samhain dictates. It was really really great. Hopefully we'll get some pictures to post. We all wore our witch hats, and robes... and it was FREEZING. And wet! The moisture in the air curled the paper on some of our shrines that we created.

Oh! The best part was that everytime we had silence, the animals on the block would make noises. From sheep... to horses... to dogs... to donkeys, I felt like I was on Old MacDonalds farm. It was great! I envy Ligeiyas yard.

I want to do luminaries EVERY time, now. Thank the Goddess for Pacific Circle this year... otherwise, I never would have known how cool luminaries were. Easy clean-up too. I'm all about the clean-up.

Shopping for Samhain

Well, I shopped for Samhain today... got some good deals on the makings of ancestor shrines. Bought some wooden boxes at Ms... finally invested in a coven glue gun. If any coven needed that in their box of stuff, its us. Bought a few rolls of harvesty ribbon that was on sale. Bought bags for our luminaries. I think its going to be beautiful. Now, if only I had a nice SLR camera with which to take pictures... Oh well... hopefully my disposable will do the job!

Lets get the Inner Court all up in here!

You should be able to post from your blogger account (just sign up for one if you need to). Then we can all post to this blog! This is great!

Evoking the Excrementals

Saturday was very interesting... Ligeiya lives in the BEST out-in-the-country area. We got there a little after 10am, and played with her dogs for a while before getting down to business. One of her puppies wanted to come home with me... I just KNOW it.

Anywho, we get outside and notice the poop. Now, I saw a few random donkeys on the corner and wondered why the owner hadn't tied them up. Turns out thats because there IS no owner! They have stray burros! So, I took the poop patrol, and started shoveling it into a big pile. Ligeiya and Dominique started hoeing and raking the area. I think it was Dominique who made the remark about evoking the excrementals. It was funny.

Ligeiya's hubby got the riding mower running a little bit so that totally helped- until it died. Then he got the plow hooked up to his truck. It was great. I wish I would have remembered my camera.

Anyway, we plotted out the general ritual space a little bit. Samhain is going to be great!

Blogtastic!

This is the first testing post for the Coven of the Twilight Moon blog.